The U.S. ‘doesn’t hide from our shortcomings.’ But we shouldn’t further authoritarian propaganda.
The “Spring Festival Gala” is a nationwide television event in China, broadcast annually the eve of the lunar new year. The Economist magazine describes the show as “the most-watched television programme on Earth” and “one of the most vetted by the authorities.” The Communist Party reviews and approves everything in it.
In 2018, according to the Economist, the gala included a skit featuring a Chinese actress “in blackface and African dress, with exaggerated fake buttocks and a bowl of fruit on her head. For no clear reason, she had in tow a blackfaced Chinese man dressed as a monkey.”
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Jason L. Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and a Fox News commentator. Follow him on Twitter here.
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