Communist China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism just announced they will be banning any karaoke songs that contain “illegal content.”

According to the ministry, these illegal songs could potentially harm national unity, sovereignty, or territorial integrity. If you can’t read between the lines on that one, it means they plan to ban any music or artistic expression that insults the Chinese Communist Party, calls our the CCP, or even gives the people the courage to question the power of the regime.

Not only that but other reasons were provided for why songs should now be banned:

  1. Inciting ethnic hatred and ethnic discrimination (ironic coming from a regime that is committing genocide on the Uyghur Muslims by sending them to concentration camps and forcibly sterilizing them)
  2. Endanger national security or harm national honor and interests (again, read between the lines: this has nothing to do with protecting China’s honor and interests and everything to do with protecting the communist party’s honor and interests)
  3. Violate the state’s religious policies (not shocking considering this is the regime responsible for the Cultural Revolution that eliminated the Four Olds, including any “dangerous” religious thinking back in the 20th Century)
  4. Propagate obscenity, gambling, violence, and other criminal activities (AGAIN, read between the lines: protestors and activists trying to achieve freedom for the Chinese people are not considered protestors by the CCP, they are considered violent criminals breaking the law. Any music with rebellious tones that could inspire the Chinese people threatens the CCP).

That being said, I have a feeling there will be no “Redemption Song” by Bob Marley playing at Chinese Karaoke bars. The song sings of freedom and encourages listeners to think for themselves: “emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds.”

And I think it’s fair to say there will be no “Beer For My Horses” by Toby Keith, a personal favorite of mine when I need the inspiration to deal with the bad guys. It literally says, “we’ll raise up our glasses against evil forces.” I doubt Commie China would allow that!

And as someone who specifically loves the history of socialist and communist countries, I’d be silly to not mention the Castro regime in Cuba also banned music, specifically The Beatles and Rock n Roll, because they worried it brought too much American and imperialist energy into their country.

So how does the CCP plan to implement this? Right now, China has over 50,000 entertainment venues, and apparently, these venues can have up to 100,000 songs in their music libraries.

They have now asked every supplier of karaoke content to carefully review their song lists and flag any potentially harmful content before sending it to karaoke venues. Sounds a lot like those lovely fact checkers and flaggers of “harmful content” we have here in America but on Facebook and the rest of the Big Tech platforms.

This is a great reminder of why we should be so thankful for the capitalism, and classical liberalism embraced and protected by America’s founding documents, especially the First Amendment in our Bill of Rights.

  1. We often take the freedoms protected in these documents for granted, but to be able to see a regime on the other side of the world restricting what songs its people can even listen to, out of fear of them becoming political opposition, really shines a light on how special we have it here in America.
  2. In America, there is massive freedom of speech and expression. You can shout your opposition to our political leaders and candidates from the rooftops. You can paint murals, write music, make movies expressing your political thoughts. And heck, you can even make money from it thanks to capitalism providing every American person the economic and financial power to do so.

If only we could show our generation just how great it is to be an artist in America versus a communist country like China.