Belligerence on the Field of Honor
By John Constantine

Currently, there's a teapot tempest brewing about showing films in Hong Kong.  Certain films are deemed by Hong Kong authorities to be a wee bit on the sensitive side.  Seems the censor boys think that some films this year would offend the mainland's political sensibilities.

Two films about the Doli Lama certainly would not do Beijing any good.   Seeing an enemy of the state with near-godlike reverence is bound to gain sympathizers.

But it's not like anyone in Tibet is going to see these movies.   Unless they have satellite TV, that is, when they finally show up on HBO.

Beijing chimes in and says that they are not preventing the film's release -- it's the Hong Kong, self governing, authorities that are preventing the films from being shown.

It doesn't matter.

The nub of the issue is that Hong Kong thinks they'll be offended, consequently, they censor themselves.

No action necessary by Beijing.

Well trained systems regulate themselves.  Question is, who's their master.

Obviously, Beijing is.

Same thing happens in economic systems composed of a couple of huge players and numerous very small players.

Schooling fish learn early to zig with the rest of them.