Brainwashing, the Chinese way

I was trying to book a flight to Hong Kong. For some reason, the options in Philippine Airlines’ website weren’t being especially helpful. I couldn't find Hong Kong among the destinations! Where the heck was Hong Kong? What happened? Were all the flights to dimsum-land suddenly cancelled?

Wait. There it was. First, the passenger has to select China from the country options, before Hong Kong becomes available as one of the possible cities in China to wander off to. How queer. When did the Special Administrative Region suddenly become a subset of mama China?

News reports later revealed why. It seems big bother, I mean, Big Brother, had demanded that airlines officially recognize all those pesky provinces as part of the territory of China, including not just what Britain handed over in 1997, but even that renegade island, Taiwan.

So these airlines, even if they're not Chinese nationals or subjects or slaves, but perhaps because they're so afraid of repercussions, just up and changed their websites. Airlines like British Airways and Lufthansa. Including our very own flag carrier (whose owner, by the way, aside from having very close economic ties with mainland China via significant business interests, is also by ethnicity a native of the dragon).

So that's where we suddenly find ourselves contemplating. A computer screen that definitively demonstrates (and refuses to acknowledge any other world view) to the booking passenger that if he wants to go to Hong Kong or Taiwan or Macau, he must tick the box that says he's going to China. (But I don't have a Chinese visa!)

What a brilliant way to brainwash unsuspecting world citizens. I mean, who thinks of these things? Give the guy a fat bonus.

I can imagine a not-so-educated hick encountering this step-by-step booking procedure, and insidiously, inescapably being taught along the way that an entire nation was now subsumed under Chinese territory. (Much like when we wake up to find our islands outfitted with airstrips and converted into military garrisons).

Perhaps, that passenger would just shrug and move on, impatient with booking that damn ticket. But that geography lesson has been implanted in his brain, working on his subconscious, and ready to be regurgitated for the proper occasion.

After all, what we read on the web is always true, right? So if enough websites agree that Taiwan is part of China, then by Jove, let's call pineapple cake and bubble tea the national desserts of China!

But other countries aren't as stupid or as pliant. The US government has called this tactic "Orwellian nonsense."

Which is probably why other airlines are refusing to heed China's directive. American Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, and Qantas Airways have (so far) reportedly rejected this subtle co-option, and continues to separately list Taiwan as its own destination. But how long will they be able to hold out? Economic sanctions or restrictions on making money are great incentives for compliance.

I hate being bullied.