We reference the term "Orwellian" a lot around these parts, but there's a reason for that...
The guy was trying to warn us about what would actually happen if communism took over:
Yeah, you read that right.
Overnight, the Chinese Communist Party literally scrubbed uber-famous billionaire actress Zhao Wei from history. All references to her were deleted from the nation's internet. Her name was erased from the credits of her films. She has, quite literally, been "unpersoned."
Zhao Wei shot to fame in the late 1990s in China's most successful television series ever, My Fair Princess. Since then, she's progressed from being an A-list actress to director, pop singer and businesswoman.
Such success under Chairman Deng Xiaoping's policy of "opening up" China and embracing the incentives of private enterprise made Zhao very wealthy.
But her business empire struck trouble under Xi Jinping. Zhao was accused of being unpatriotic for hiring a Taiwanese actor to play a leading actor in a 2016 film. Beijing had that choice overturned.
Yeah, she had the GALL to hire an actor from Taiwan, and so the government literally stepped in to cancel that decision.
Remember, you don't get to make your own business or artistic decisions under communism, comrades!
Shortly after, Zhao's business acquisitions began to attract close regulatory and taxation scrutiny. Last month a public relations agency she owns became embroiled in a nationalistic scandal after one of its clients – actor Zhang Zhehan – took a selfie while visiting Japan's Yasukuni war dead shrine.
Yep, one of her business's clients took a picture at a Japanese war memorial for soldiers who served in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Are you starting to understand how this works?
You hire someone they don't like? CANCELLED.
One of your clients takes a picture they don't like? CANCELLED.
Beijing is worried about personality cults. At least any not centred on Xi Jinping.
"Xi Jinping thought" is now compulsory teaching at schools. "Xi Jinping urges" features in almost every state-controlled news report.
But the lives and acts of entertainment celebrities remain much more popular on social media chat rooms. Little wonder celebrity fan culture is not something Xi considers to be a Chinese characteristic.
Unlike Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, who was disappeared by the government, Zhao had the sense to apparently flee for her life.
Or maybe not:
I can tell you right now: If this lady hasn't gotten out of China, she is toast. Her fame and reputation have already been erased by the communists. Her life is next.
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