In an article last week about Hong Kong‘s electoral reform, the British magazine The Economist concluded, “On March 3, Tian Feilong, a hawkish Chinese academic, wrote that the central government needs Hong Kong’s pro-establishment ‘not as rubber stamps or loyal wastes’ but as ‘virtuous patriots’. This, I fear, is even more difficult than reforming the system.”
There was no difficulty with the electoral reform, which was passed by the NPC with 2,895 votes in favor and 0 votes against. Hong Kong’s electoral reform is heading towards the NPC, a system of “people’s democratic dictatorship”, and the future voting in the Legislative Council will probably be similar to the NPC.
The “loyalty waste” theory blows a pond of spring water, the pro-establishment camp, represented by Yip Kwok-kim, expressed “great disgust” and called Tin Fei-lung a “waste of scholarship”; Tin said that Yip was “emotional” and said that he was a “waste of scholarship”. “The “loyal waste” is not directed at anyone in the pro-establishment camp, but “is a phenomenon”; Ye responded again by saying that Tian was impolite and even ” The words are meaner, but the reasoning is right. In the two factions of the “loyalty” theory, he returned to the side of the mainland scholars, determined that Beijing wants to rectify the original establishment.
But the proponents and opponents of the “loyalty waste” theory have failed to explain the true meaning of “loyalty”.
Loyalty and sincerity are not connected concepts. Sincerity means truthfulness and sincerity. Sincerity is connected with reality, which means honesty. The Sermon on the Mount says, “Sincerity means faith. It means to be honest, that is, to believe. The Zhongyong says: “Sincerity is the beginning of the end of things, without which there is nothing. The meaning is: sincerity is the end of all things, without which there is nothing. Therefore, the gentleman regards “sincerity” as particularly valuable.
The original meaning of “faithfulness” is to do one’s duty to the best of one’s ability. Later on, it also has the meaning of loyalty to others, to the country and to the sovereign; “the minister serves the sovereign with loyalty”, “loyalty” has developed to become a one-sided moral obligation for the subjects to obey the sovereign absolutely.
According to the Chinese dictionary, loyalty, which is used in conjunction with sincerity, means “sincerity and devotion to the country, to the people, to the cause, to superiors, to friends, etc., with no second thoughts”. But the country and the people are vague, specifically, the “loyalty” to superiors, leaders and monarchs should be reflected in “sincerity”, that is, sincerity and sincerity, to say directly what you see in reality and different opinions. Fan Zhongyan’s saying, “I would rather die than live in silence” is the highest expression of loyalty. But in realpolitik, all those who are on top don’t like to hear criticism, don’t like to be told the reality that is contrary to his vision, or even just different opinions; rather, they like to hear the voices that cater to him and praise him. In order to be “loyal” to his superiors, he is often unable to be “sincere” in speaking straight from the heart and according to the truth.
The Chinese Writer Liu Binyan published a report in 1985, “The Second Kind of Loyalty”. It describes how two ordinary people, loyal to the Party and patriotic to Mao Zedong for more than 20 years, risked their lives to make a statement to him, and when the fate of the Party and the country was developing in a direction they feared, they still tried to save the Party’s wheel, which was sliding down a dangerous slope, with the power of a praying mantis. What they encountered was a series of bad luck. Liu Binyan concludes his piece by saying that under the disciplinary requirement of the CPC Central Committee, which emphasizes that Party members should “maintain political consistency with the Central Committee,” there are different varieties of “loyalty,” the first of which is “diligent, hard-working, and honest. The first is “diligent, hard-working, honest and obedient, never dissenting” loyalty; the second is like the two main characters, “from freedom, happiness and Life to pay such a high price”, “in the arid and barren soil, they can survive and not extinct, is close to a miracle “. But there is a third kind of loyalty, which is “delicate, charming and attractive, and the loveliness is better than the first kind of loyalty. But the fruit it produces is often bitter and, under certain climatic conditions, poisonous.”
In fact, the first loyalty only loyalty but not sincerity, the third loyalty is neither sincere nor loyal, there is only for the personal benefit of the “flattery”. But under authoritarian politics, the most splendid and prosperous is the third kind of loyalty. If you look at the performances of the current top officials, the establishment, and even university presidents and medical experts in Hong Kong, you will know that what The Economist said is not false. In fact, being a waste is not the worst, the worst is to rush to be the poison of the third loyalty.
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