Nobody would deny this. On the other hand, it's the same argument as "not all Russians support Putin" or even—dare I say—"not all Germans were Nazis." It's true that when you live under a despotic regime there's not much you can do about it, individually. And most people would not willingly be complicit in the regime's crimes except to the extent that they have no choice.
But it's true that these regimes do have lots of internal support. They wouldn't exist without that support. And to the extent that this support is manufactured by internal propaganda, people within that message-space will not be able to resist having their own perceptions shaped by it.
So while it's undeniably true that the CCP is not the Chinese people, and that the Chinese people are the principle victims of the CCP, they also are complicit in a collective sense.
I’m being generous. I tend to think that the Chinese people (or people of any country, really) are victims of propaganda. We’d all be less supportive of our various governments if we weren’t constantly told that we’re the GOOD guys, and our enemies are BAD and EVIL.
Nobody would deny this. On the other hand, it's the same argument as "not all Russians support Putin" or even—dare I say—"not all Germans were Nazis." It's true that when you live under a despotic regime there's not much you can do about it, individually. And most people would not willingly be complicit in the regime's crimes except to the extent that they have no choice.
But it's true that these regimes do have lots of internal support. They wouldn't exist without that support. And to the extent that this support is manufactured by internal propaganda, people within that message-space will not be able to resist having their own perceptions shaped by it.
So while it's undeniably true that the CCP is not the Chinese people, and that the Chinese people are the principle victims of the CCP, they also are complicit in a collective sense.
I’m being generous. I tend to think that the Chinese people (or people of any country, really) are victims of propaganda. We’d all be less supportive of our various governments if we weren’t constantly told that we’re the GOOD guys, and our enemies are BAD and EVIL.