THE PARTY WILL DECIDE VALUES

There’s an old Chinese maxim, as if there is anything new about Chinese maxims: Guan men da gou. It means close the door to beat the dog.

That proverb came in useful for the Chinese communist government during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Even today, somebody on the mainland might utter the Chinese equivalent of “Huh?” if an impolite (and impolitic) Westerner brings it up. Because the Chinese in Beijing don’t allow those protests from 1989 to exist — not in their history books, not on the internet. Students, historians and anybody else under Beijing’s thumb get nothing when they look up “Tiananmen Square protests” on Google. Oh, they might get a visit, but they’ll get no information.

That’s how things are done in the People’s Republic of China, which is neither the people’s, a republic or representative of all Chinese. The thugs in Beijing don’t run a republic and never have. The free Chinese are on an island called Taiwan. And the regime knows what people are for, and if you don’t believe that, look at how it used soldiers during the Korean War.

You might remember China’s latest movie star, featured in one of those X-Men movies the kids bring home. The young woman’s name is Fan Bingbing. Or maybe her name was Fan Bingbing. The people who know of her whereabouts and her well-being aren’t talking.

For three months, Fan has become a disappeared, which is what they call them these days. Imagine if Jennifer Lawrence not only vanished from the movies but from TV interviews, magazine covers, the works. And her people weren’t talking, all of their offices were locked, lights out, and the neighbors hush-hush.

Perhaps Fan got too famous. One of the rumors going around is that Beijing needed an example to scare those Chinese subjects who’d been avoiding taxes.

There is no Fourth, Fifth or Sixth Amendment on mainland China. If the government wants you gone, all it has to do is find you. The papers note that the Chinese government, ahem, “wields broad powers to detain people — out of the public eye.” That’s one way to put it.

Or maybe Fan Bingbing has been disappeared because of her low Social Responsibility Rating.

Never heard of a Social Responsibility Rating? Neither had we, until The Washington Post reported on it a couple of weeks ago:

Back in June, the Party in Beijing, through its propaganda department, chastised the film industry there for “distorting social values” and “fostering money worship tendencies.” On the heels of that came a report by some government apparatchik called the Social Responsibility Report, which gauges “social impact” by celebrities. Ms. Fan rated a zero out of 100 on that list.

How is the list put together? Imagine all your Facebook postings, your Google searches, your Instagram followings being graded and ranked by the government — and a number given to you, like a credit card score.

Of course, the Chinese say this is only a matter of improving “trust” nationwide and building the public’s “sincerity.” Yes, Big Brother loves you. And you love Big Brother.

As if to make its point with a bit more force, such as the force of a People’s Liberation Army tank, the government in Beijing shut down thousands of websites this week. For the crime of having “improper values, vulgarity or obscenity.” There’s also no First Amendment in communist China.

What government agency is going to decide what values are improper?

Answer: A Chinese government agency under Xi Jinping, president for life.

And his people will come up with a system to rate those values, and you, one way or the other. Just don’t expect them to share it until you get a knock on the door — maybe not then. After all, a closed society is a polite society. And when you beat the dog, or anybody else, please, do shut the door. Good and tight.