In today’s Impromptus, I have the usual variety, the usual mish-mash. This includes some comments about China — or “the People’s Republic of China,” as the Communists style the country. Their China is certainly not a republic, and the people have nothing to do with it.

You may remember the old joke about “the German Democratic Republic” (East Germany): The name was three lies in one. East Germany was certainly not a democracy or a republic — and it was barely German, given control by Moscow.

A group called the US-China Business Council — you know, one of those just-make-money groups — has a label for those who criticize Beijing: “anti-China.” I say in my column that the Chinese Communist Party does not equal China — though, of course, it pretends to. “Why should people in free countries pretend along with them?”

Recently, there was a story out of Hong Kong, which I’ve been intending to slip into Impromptus — let me lay it on you here:

Thousands including teachers and parents pushing strollers took to Hong Kong streets Sunday to protest the upcoming introduction of Chinese patriotism classes they fear will lead to brainwashing, the latest sign of growing discomfort over Beijing’s influence on the semiautonomous territory.

Officially, the people of Hong Kong have until 2047 to enjoy this “semi-autonomy.” Après ça, le something. And good for the demonstrators for asserting that the CCP’s line does not equal patriotism.

On the subject of country names: Remember “Democratic Kampuchea,” for the Cambodia of the Khmer Rouge? (The genocidal, totalitarian Khmer Rouge?) Also, people who say “Myanmar,” instead of “Burma,” are going along with the dictatorship’s desires, whether they know it or not (and almost certainly, they don’t).