SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.: CHINA IS NOW FREER THAN THE UK, political commentator Joey Mannarino said yesterday.

https://x.com/NuryVittachi/status/2052526330902937777

Nury Vittachi

CHINA IS NOW FREER THAN THE UK, political commentator Joey Mannarino said yesterday.

The UK government abruptly cancelled the US-based commentator’s Electronic Travel Authorization, which functions as a visa.

“I’ve talked a ton of sh*t about China over the years and was allowed to travel to China to celebrate New Year’s Eve this year. No problem at all,” he wrote on X yesterday.

“But the United Kingdom won’t allow me to travel to their country because I have criticisms of the way they run their borders,”.

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'NOT CONDUCIVE TO PUBLIC GOOD'
The UK government wrote to Mannarino to say that his access had been cancelled: “Your presence in the UK is not considered to be conducive to the public good.”

Mannarino wrote on X: “So, we’ve officially reached the point where the UK is banning US citizens for ‘speech’ violations but China isn’t. Truly and absolutely unbelievable stuff.”

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SCARY TO MANY

The US commentator takes a scary “hard right” political position to which many people will object, but that doesn’t change the fact that he is clearly correct with this point.

There are many people who have spent years harshly criticizing China in print (including the present writer) who have never been prevented from access—I once gave a speech at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

In contrast, many individuals who can tour China now fear trying to enter the UK or US. Even if they get access to those nations, they are warned to delete the contents of their phones and laptops before entering.

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NATIONAL SECURITY

Most ridiculously, in September last year, the British authorities used a national security law to arrest 890 people—including little old ladies and many people who were clearly non-violent “salt-of-the-earth” types—who object to the mass killing of women and children in a certain West Asian country.

And yet the exact same British government harshly criticizes Hong Kong every time it jails ACTUAL dangerous violent people—literally arsonists and bombmakers—who are ACTUALLY funded by hostile foreign powers to attack people and property.

The double standard is off the charts.