Deus Ex remastered (the computer game) has just been announced a few days ago. This game will be a graphical update of the original plus there will be Steam achievements and a few other improvements on the original game by Ion Storm.
I originally made a blog post about this game and I referenced the conversation in the original blog post between Isaac the bartender (who defends the Chinese system of government) and JC Denton (who defends the Western system). I will attach below the reference to the Youtube video where you can watch the conversation in the game.
As someone who has spent time both in the United Kingdom and in Singapore and China I feel I have a few points to make and am certainly very interested in this topic. Deus Ex is set in a fictional era of the year 2052 (you can see my original blog post for context about the game and the setting). The game itself came out in the year 2000.
I will put the dialogue below:
JC Denton: “Despite all I’ve read about the Triads, I wasn’t prepared to see them operating in the open, on the streets, and wearing uniforms. Doesn’t the Chinese government care?”
Isaac: “The Chinese leave Hong Kong alone. They barricade the roads to control trade to the mainland, but they know how business is done. Maybe the Luminous Path, but China knows that the Red Arrow are business owners, entrepreneurs, community leaders, and that they protect the city from outside influences. This is real freedom, freedom to own property, make a profit, make your life. The West, so afraid of strong government, now has no government. Only financial power.”
JC Denton: “I would think the secret smuggling operations of the Triads would disturb the Chinese government.”
Isaac: “Maybe the Luminous Path, but China knows that the Red Arrow are business owners, entrepreneurs, community leaders, and that they protect the city from outside influences.”
JC Denton: “You said “outside influences.” What does China fear?”
Isaac: “China is the last sovereign country in the world. Authoritarian but willing—unlike U.N.-governed countries—to give its people the freedom to do what they want. The West, so afraid of strong government, now has no government. Only financial power.”
JC Denton: “As long as they don’t break the law.”
Isaac: “Listen to me. This is real freedom, freedom to own property, make a profit, make your life. The West, so afraid of strong government, now has no government. Only financial power.”
JC Denton: “Our governments have limited power by design.”
Isaac: “Rhetoric… And you believe it! Don’t you know where those slogans come from?”
JC Denton: “I give up.”
Isaac: “Well-paid researchers—how do you say it?—’think tanks,’ funded by big businesses. What is that: a ‘think tank’?”
JC Denton: “Hardly as sinister as a dictator like China’s Premier.”
Isaac: “It’s privately-funded propaganda. The Trilateral Commission in the United States for instance.”
JC Denton: “The separation of powers acknowledges the petty ambitions of individuals: that’s its strength.”
Isaac: “A system organized around the weakest qualities of individuals will produce these same qualities in its leaders.”
JC Denton: “Perhaps certain qualities are an inseparable part of human nature.”
Isaac: “The mark of the educated man is the suppression of these qualities in favor of better ones. The same is true of civilization.”
I was having a conversation with a female friend who also worked in China (in a different province) and she described the West as a ‘capitalist hellscape.’ However I replied that in Scotland I receive disability benefits for my autism and schizophrenia. While in China I didn’t receive anything and I didn’t encounter anyone on benefits. Admittedly I wasn’t diagnosed at the time with either of these. But I think my point remains. In 2025 which is the capitalist system and which is the communist/socialist? Twenty Four million Britons receive some sort of benefit payment in the month of August 2024 [UK government official website February 2025]. China might have started out as a command control economy after the Chinese civil war but it is now the country that exports the most in the world [CIA world factbook 2024]. The UK is supposedly the ‘capitalist’ system however in my opinion it is actually the less capitalist of the two systems. By capitalism I mean people going out to work, making money, having a family, spending their money on consumer goods etc. Another friend pointed out that perhaps the Chinese culture is more money orientated, which is also a good point. Christianity specifically warns against greed and media outlets like the Guardian here in the UK are always criticizing ‘the rich.’ My dad used to say that if you had a sports car in the UK the locals would scratch it and if it was the same car in the USA the locals would polish it. There is an anti-capitalist ideology that makes it so that earning money is somehow morally questionable.
To bring the blog post back to Deus Ex, the Hong Kong level is probably my favourite in the game. And the JC Denton and Isaac conversation is probably one of my favourites in the whole game. As someone who has an interest in Chinese culture and likes an intelligent debate I was intrigued after I rewatched the Youtube video with the conversation this morning. You don’t often see someone critique the Western system of democracy and civil rights the way Isaac did in this dialogue and Youtube video.
References:
Vernon's Blog 
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