Point blank! As of this weekend, in China, you could get as much as three years in prison for disrespecting the anthem in China.
“China’s rubber-stamp legislature on Saturday made disrespecting the national anthem a criminal offense punishable by up to three years in prison amid rising nationalist appeals from the ruling Communist Party under the leadership of President Xi Jinping,” reports the Associated Press.
The amendment passed just over the weekend by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (those Chinese have a way with naming stuff, huh?) and its goal is to provide a real punishment for those who “seriously” disrespect their national anthem in public.
According to the AP, “penalties include detention, imprisonment of up to three years and the deprivation of political rights. Such punishments previously applied to the desecration of the national flag and emblem in public, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported.”
The National Anthem Law, which came into effect in October, stated that playing the anthem on occasions deemed improper, including funerals, or for changing its wording or presenting it in a disrespectful manner could be punished with 15 days in detention. China’s legislature adopted a decision to include the law in Hong Kong’s and Macau’s mini-constitutions, known in each territory as the Basic Law.
Zhang Rongshun, Deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Commission, believes this was “urgent and important” in light of recent “incidents.”
“In recent years, incidents of disrespecting the national anthem had occurred in Hong Kong, challenging the bottom line of the principle of ‘one country, two systems’ and social morality, and triggering rage among Chinese, including most Hong Kong residents,” he stated.
Can you imagine if the tables were turned on the NFL? H*ll basically the whole league would be locked up as we speak.
And if a country like freaking China wants a law like that then WE THE PEOPLE should demand the same!