# Demonstrations, dissent and unrest in China



## waltky

Dey's riotin' in China...

*Wave of Unrest Rocks China*
_JUNE 14, 2011 - Threats to Social Order Increasingly Hit Cities, Bringing Iron-Fist Response_


> A wave of violent unrest in urban areas of China over the past three weeks is testing the Communist Party's efforts to maintain control over an increasingly complex and fractious society, forcing it to repeatedly deploy its massive security forces to contain public anger over economic and political grievances.  The simultaneous challenge to social order in several cities from the industrial north to the export-oriented south represents a new threat for China's leaders in the politically sensitive run-up to a once-a-decade leadership change next year, even though for now the violence doesn't appear to be coordinated.
> 
> In the latest disturbance, armed police were struggling to restore order in a manufacturing town in southern China Monday after deploying tear gas and armored vehicles against hundreds of migrant workers who overturned police cars, smashed windows and torched government buildings there the night before.  The protests, which began Friday night in Zengcheng, in the southern province of Guangdong, followed serious rioting in another city in central China last week, plus bomb attacks on government facilities in two other cities in the past three weeks, and ethnic unrest in the northern region of Inner Mongolia last month.
> 
> Antigovernment protests have become increasingly common in China in recent years, according to the government's own figures, but they have been mainly confined to rural areas, often where farmers have been thrown off their land by property developers and local officials.  The latest unrest, by contrast, involves violent protests from individuals and large crowds in China's cities, where public anger is growing over issues including corruption and police abuses.
> 
> There is no evidence to suggest the recent violence is part of a coordinated movementthe party's greatest fearnor do the events threaten its grip on power given the strength of China's security apparatus, and its booming economy, analysts say. They are nonetheless troubling for China's government which, unnerved by unrest in the Arab world, has detained dozens of dissidents since appeals for a "Jasmine Revolution" in China began circulating online in February. The Mideast uprisings so far haven't inspired similar mass protests in China.
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> MORE


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## martybegan

waltky said:


> Dey's riotin' in China...
> 
> *Wave of Unrest Rocks China*
> _JUNE 14, 2011 - Threats to Social Order Increasingly Hit Cities, Bringing Iron-Fist Response_
> 
> 
> 
> A wave of violent unrest in urban areas of China over the past three weeks is testing the Communist Party's efforts to maintain control over an increasingly complex and fractious society, forcing it to repeatedly deploy its massive security forces to contain public anger over economic and political grievances.  The simultaneous challenge to social order in several cities from the industrial north to the export-oriented south represents a new threat for China's leaders in the politically sensitive run-up to a once-a-decade leadership change next year, even though for now the violence doesn't appear to be coordinated.
> 
> In the latest disturbance, armed police were struggling to restore order in a manufacturing town in southern China Monday after deploying tear gas and armored vehicles against hundreds of migrant workers who overturned police cars, smashed windows and torched government buildings there the night before.  The protests, which began Friday night in Zengcheng, in the southern province of Guangdong, followed serious rioting in another city in central China last week, plus bomb attacks on government facilities in two other cities in the past three weeks, and ethnic unrest in the northern region of Inner Mongolia last month.
> 
> Antigovernment protests have become increasingly common in China in recent years, according to the government's own figures, but they have been mainly confined to rural areas, often where farmers have been thrown off their land by property developers and local officials.  The latest unrest, by contrast, involves violent protests from individuals and large crowds in China's cities, where public anger is growing over issues including corruption and police abuses.
> 
> There is no evidence to suggest the recent violence is part of a coordinated movementthe party's greatest fearnor do the events threaten its grip on power given the strength of China's security apparatus, and its booming economy, analysts say. They are nonetheless troubling for China's government which, unnerved by unrest in the Arab world, has detained dozens of dissidents since appeals for a "Jasmine Revolution" in China began circulating online in February. The Mideast uprisings so far haven't inspired similar mass protests in China.
> 
> MORE
Click to expand...


We are starting to see china get to the point we reached at our civil war, except instead of north vs. south its the enfranchised minority (CPC members and people in the military) and the unenfranchised majority.  

I dont think china can continue to exist half communist and half captialist. One of them is going to have to go. I wouldnt call it facist quite yet due to the lack of general nationalistic support for the government.


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## waltky

More unrest in China, China messin' with Tibet too...

*East China sees new unrest*
_Fri, Jun 17, 2011 - Security forces have been mobilized to suppress protests in China&#8217;s east, a monitoring group and eyewitness said yesterday, in the latest bout of unrest roiling parts of the country._


> The unrest in Taizhou broke out on Tuesday after the head of a local village government got into a physical confrontation with a gas station employees during negotiations over land compensation fees the gas station&#8217;s owner was to pay villagers, the reports said.  Within hours, hundreds of fellow residents of Rishanfen Village had surrounded the gas station, blocked an adjacent airport expressway, and seized the man who had struck the village head, said the eyewitness owner of a nearby garment factory.
> 
> Riot police then deployed, leading to scuffles with villagers, said the factory owner, who declined to be identified by name for fear of repercussions. -Reinforcements arrived on Wednesday and officers detained about a dozen people, including the village chief, other village officials and anyone found with images of the protest on their mobile phones, the man said.  Calls to police and government offices in Taizhou rang unanswered or were answered by people who said they had no information about the protests and declined to give their names.  As with many of the protests across China, the Taizhou incident appears rooted in disagreements over compensation to villagers for land seized for development.
> 
> The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said villagers, hard pressed by soaring inflation, had been hoping for an increase in payments from businesses in the local industrial park, including the gas station. The factory owner, however, said many believed that compensation offered by the gas station had been embezzled by the former head of Rishanfen, who is now the local Communist Party secretary &#8212; a much more powerful position.  The incident was the third large-scale outburst of unrest in recent days.
> 
> Police arrested at least 25 people following weekend rioting in Xintang, Guangdong Province, where security forces clashed with migrant workers from Sichuan Province  Last week, residents of Lichuan in Hubei Province laid siege to government offices following the death in custody of a local city council member. A number of local government officials have been fired or placed under investigation over the death in an attempt to appease public anger.  Though the triggers are different, most such events are driven by resentments over social inequality, abuse of power and suppression of grievances.
> 
> East China sees new unrest - Taipei Times



See also:

*China closes Tibet to foreigners*
_Fri, Jun 17, 2011 - GLASS HALF FULL?  Pointing to 18 years of double-digit economic growth, the governor of Tibet recently said that China had rescued it from thousands of years of feudal serfdom_


> China has closed Tibet to foreigners ahead of the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party on July 1, travel agents said yesterday.  China, sensitive to instability or any other perceived threat to one-party rule, is wary of foreigners in its ethnic border areas, which it calls &#8220;autonomous regions,&#8221; especially ahead of politically charged anniversaries.  &#8220;It&#8217;s a new rule because of the 90th anniversary celebration,&#8221; a travel agent at a major Western hotel in Tibet&#8217;s capital, Lhasa, said, requesting anonymity. &#8220;Even with a tour group, foreigners cannot come.&#8221;
> 
> A Beijing-based travel agency said it was notified months ago that foreigners would not be allowed in Tibet next month, but hoped that the restriction would be eased in time for important Tibetan festivals in August.  &#8220;We had to make a lot of -cancellations, but we don&#8217;t know the reasons behind it. Perhaps it has to do with something political,&#8221; the Beijing-based travel agent said by telephone.  &#8220;We are disappointed because we lost a lot of money. We just have to tell clients we are sorry,&#8221; the agent said.
> 
> Last month, Beijing told foreigners not to sow unrest in its vast northern region of Inner Mongolia, after rare protests by ethnic Mongolians sparked by the hit-and-run death of a herder garnered international attention.  Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu has said people overseas had an &#8220;ulterior motive&#8221; and were trying to use the incident &#8220;to cause trouble.&#8221;  Foreigners always need permission to travel to Tibet, but the government periodically places Tibetan areas out of bounds.
> 
> In April, it banned foreigners from ethnically Tibetan parts of neighboring Sichuan Province, where exiled Tibetans and activists say authorities locked down a Tibetan Buddhist monastery after a young monk burned himself to death.  Many Tibetans chafe at Beijing rule amid fears of an influx of Han Chinese diluting the Tibetan population.
> 
> However, Tibet governor Padma Choling, pointing to 18 years of double-digit economic growth ahead of the 60th anniversary of Chinese rule over the region, last month said that Chinese rule had rescued Tibet from thousands of years of feudal serfdom.  Chinese troops marched into Tibet in 1950 and the Himalayan region&#8217;s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama fled to India nine years later after a failed uprising.
> 
> China closes Tibet to foreigners - Taipei Times


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## waltky

Corruption still a problem in China...

*Chinese Leader Says Corruption Threatens Rule*
_July 01, 2011 - China's leader, Hu Jintao, says corruption within the communist party could undermine public support for the party.  Hu issued the warning in a speech to party officials at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.  The party is celebrating the 90th anniversary of its founding.  The Chinese leader urged the party to continue fast-paced economic development and rigid public security to further the country's development._


> Select gathering
> 
> The main thrust of President Hu Jintaos 90-minute long speech was that the Communist Party must adapt to a changing nation and changing world if it is to continue its uncontested rule.  Speaking before a select gathering of the Partys ruling elite, Hu said without continued fast economic development and social stability, the achievements of the past two decades will be lost.  He warned that acts of corruption by party members who hold political office could cause the public to lose trust.  Hu urged the party to strive to eradicate corruption and to create what he described as a "clean government".
> 
> High security costs
> 
> Government figures released earlier this year indicate some $95 billion is spent on police, jails, state security and other internal security services. That figure exceeds the amount the government says it spends on the military.  Earlier this year, Internet postings in China for a Jasmine-style revolution similar to movements in the Middle East and North Africa were firmly put down by authorities. Chinese security forces have cracked down on dissenting voices, resulting in international condemnation for what is perceived as heavy-handed tactics.
> 
> Positive spin
> 
> In Beijing and other cities across the nation Friday, the Communist Party was celebrated in pageantry events in schools, offices and in shopping centers.  Like his predecessors, President Hu focused largely on the positive history of the Communist Party in China, ignoring those killed in the 1950s Great Leap Forward, the 1960s Cultural Revolution and the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre of pro-democracy protesters.
> 
> The president referenced these pivotal moments in the Partys history by saying that in the past, it has made mistakes and suffered setbacks. But he says the Party learned from them and today is leading the Chinese to what he says is a victorious future.  He did not mention specifics of any kind of substantive political reform.  Instead, Hu said that after 90 years, there was only one fundamental conclusion - that only the Communist Party can properly govern China.    President Hu is to stand down next year. His expected unelected successor, Vice President Xi Jiping, gave a short speech praising model Party members.
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> Source


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## waltky

China needs to quit oppressin' Tibet people...

*Obama Stresses Human Rights for Tibetans in Talks With Dalai Lama*
_ July 16, 2011 - U.S. President Barack Obama stressed the importance of protecting the human rights of Tibetans when he met Saturday at the White House with the Dalai Lama._


> In a statement following the closed-door talks, the White House said Mr. Obama talked of the need for direct dialogue between the Dalai Lama's representatives and the Chinese government to resolve differences.  It said the president also reiterated the U.S. policy that Tibet is a part of China.  China sharply criticized the United States following the talks, saying that the meeting interfered in China's internal affairs, hurt the feelings of the Chinese people, and damaged U.S.-China relations.
> 
> A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman demanded the United States seriously consider China's stance and stop supporting what he called "anti-China separatist forces."  China accuses the Dalai Lama of advocating Tibet's secession from China, a charge the Dalai Lama denies.  The White House announced the meeting between the two Nobel Peace Prize winners Friday at the end of the Dalai Lama's nearly two-week visit to the U.S. capital.
> 
> Mr. Obama last met the Dalai Lama in 2010 at the White House in a low-key meeting that also angered China.  Beijing has been warning the U.S. for more than a week not to hold official meetings with the Dalai Lama.  Earlier this week, the Dalai Lama told VOA he would be very happy to meet with President Obama if given the opportunity.  But he said his main reason for being in the United States is to give Buddhist teachings.
> 
> The Dalai Lama is in Washington for the 11-day Kalachakra ritual, the first time the ritual has been held in the U.S. capital.  The days of meditation and teachings aim to inspire inner peace as a means of reducing conflict around the world.  Although he formally retired from politics earlier this year, the Tibetan spiritual leader also met with officials at the State Department and with political leaders during his stay.  This is the Dalai Lama's first trip to the United States since he stepped down as the political leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
> 
> *Watch the Dalai Lama's recent interview with VOA*


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## waltky

China stickin' its nose in Tibet's business again...

*China Warns Dalai Lama About Choosing Successor*
_September 26, 2011 - China is warning the Dalai Lama he does not have the legal right to decide if he should be reincarnated.  The statement comes after the 76-year-old said Saturday he plans decide when he is about 90 whether he should be reincarnated and that China should have no say in the matter._


> The Chinese foreign ministry warned the Dalai Lama Monday that only Beijing can approve his successor.  Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei says any decision by the Dalai Lama to appoint a successor through traditional reincarnation would break Chinese law.  He insists that China endorses a policy of religious freedom including respecting and protecting succession in Tibetan Buddhism leadership.  But Hong stresses China's historical claim to its rule over Tibet and says the title of Dalai Lama is only conferred by the central government in Beijing and is illegal otherwise.  The Dalai Lama formally stepped down as the head of the Tibetan government-in-exile in July, when Harvard-trained scholar Lobsang Sangay was sworn in as the new political leader.
> 
> On Saturday, the Dalai Lama said he will decide when he is about 90 years of age if he will be reincarnated. Traditionally, Tibetan monks identify a boy who shows signs he is a reincarnation of a late leader.  The 14th Dalai Lama says he will set clear guidelines to recognize the next leader while he was still physically and mentally fit to do.  He says this will ensure there is no room for what he describes as deception.  The Dalai Lama set out his plan after a gathering of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism in the northern Indian town, Dharamsala. where the Tibetan government sits in exile following China's military invasion and occupation in 1950.
> 
> The former prime minister of the exiled Tibetan government, Samdhong Rinpioche, says the meeting is discussing even if the Dalai Lama, as an institution, should continue.  "During this congregation, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama had conferred with the heads of religious traditions regarding his interim declaration about whether it is necessary to continue the reincarnation of Dalai Lama institution after the 14th," explained the former prime minister. "As he had announced as early as 1969 whether the Dalai Lama institution should continue or not, will be decided by the Tibetan People and His Holiness' position still continued."
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## Unkotare

They're gonna try and pull the same thing they did with the Panchen Lama.


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## editec

The formerly communist elite have embraced predatory capitalism.

They are where we were (sort of) back around 1900.

The solution for China is UNIONISM, except the formerly predatory communist elite (now turned into predatory capitalist elite) will  -- much as our "captains of inudstry" did in the beginning of our period of industrial unionism -- set the troops upon the workers.


Tragically, the USA is headed to where China is, even as China is headed to where we used to be.


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## waltky

Old guard vs. the young crowd ...

*China coup rumors may be wild, but tension is real*
_March 22, 2012, The fates of prominent Communist Party officials Bo Xilai and Zhou Yongkang point up the clash between economic reformers and Maoist traditionalists._


> The aftershocksfrom the sacking last week of a powerful Communist Party secretary are still rattling China, injecting an element of turmoil into a transition the government had hoped would showcase the stability of its political system.  State media reported this week that 3,300 party cadres from the security apparatus would be sent to Beijing for ideological retraining. The order was unusual enough, but even more so was the fact that the report omitted mention of internal security czar Zhou Yongkang, who heads the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee that is recalling the cadres.
> 
> Zhou, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee and until now one of the most powerful men in China, had been the committee's strongest backer of Bo Xilai, the Communist Party secretary of Chongqing who was removed from his post last week. Some overseas Chinese-language Internet sites carried wild (and unsubstantiated) rumors that Zhou and Bo, a popular figure among Maoist traditionalists, had tried to stage a coup.  A level of edginess was apparent this week in the unusually large security presence in central Beijing, complete with armed SWAT teams in some subway stations.
> 
> Jin Zhong, a veteran political analyst based in Hong Kong, dismissed the more fantastic rumors, while acknowledging the underlying tension between economic reformers and Maoist traditionalists.  "It hasn't reached the point where you are going to hear gunshots. It is not like when China arrested the Gang of Four in 1976, but there is a very strong conflict going on," Jin said.
> 
> Zhou had been a strong supporter of Bo's law-and-order campaigns in Chongqing, where thousands were swept up in a gang-busting dragnet and retirees had been gathering in a public park for now-banned patriotic singing and dancing. According to Jin, Zhou made several visits to the Chongqing delegation at the recently concluded National People's Congress, fighting for Bo's political future until the very end.  Like most of China's senior leaders, the 70-year-old Zhou is due to retire at the 18th party congress in October. Until recently, Bo was thought to be a likely replacement. Jin said he doubted that Zhou would be removed from the Standing Committee because he is already set to leave.  "They won't touch anybody on the Standing Committee before the congress. It is too risky. They've put in a big effort trying to present a picture of stability," Jin said.
> 
> MORE


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## Katzndogz

China handles unionism by a quick execution of union leaders.  They aren't stupid.  They've seen how unionism ends up by watching us.


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## Unkotare

Are you going to start talking about Chinese universities and force me to correct you again?


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## Katzndogz

Unkotare said:


> Are you going to start talking about Chinese universities and force me to correct you again?



I rely on those Chinese nationals who lived all their lives in China, as Chinese people, not you.  Sorry.  I would very much like to find your views solidly formed but they digress too far from what I am told by the Chinese.

As far as unionization goes, the unions are welcome, until they encroach on what the government wants to do.  Then the union leaders disappear much like falun gong leaders disappeared.


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## Unkotare

Katzndogz said:


> Unkotare said:
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> 
> 
> Are you going to start talking about Chinese universities and force me to correct you again?
> 
> 
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> I rely on those Chinese nationals who lived all their lives in China, as Chinese people, not you.  Sorry.  I would very much like to find your views solidly formed but they digress too far from what I am told by the Chinese.
Click to expand...




You are wrong and don't care enough to inform yourself. Ignorance is not something to cling to proudly.



http://www.usmessageboard.com/education/214674-college-in-china.html


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## Katzndogz

Unkotare said:


> Katzndogz said:
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> Unkotare said:
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> Are you going to start talking about Chinese universities and force me to correct you again?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I rely on those Chinese nationals who lived all their lives in China, as Chinese people, not you.  Sorry.  I would very much like to find your views solidly formed but they digress too far from what I am told by the Chinese.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> You are wrong and don't care enough to inform yourself. Ignorance is not something to cling to proudly.
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> 
> http://www.usmessageboard.com/education/214674-college-in-china.html
Click to expand...


No.  What you are saying is that people born and raised in China are wrong, their parents are wrong and possibly their grandparents are wrong too.  Instead, I can rely on an article from someplace and what you say.  I have never been to China.  I expect that people who have lived there all their lives, for generations know more than I do or what you do for that matter.

As I said before, they great weight of evidence is toward the numerous Chinese nationals that I know and they don't agree with you.


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## Unkotare

Katzndogz said:


> Unkotare said:
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> Katzndogz said:
> 
> 
> 
> I rely on those Chinese nationals who lived all their lives in China, as Chinese people, not you.  Sorry.  I would very much like to find your views solidly formed but they digress too far from what I am told by the Chinese.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> You are wrong and don't care enough to inform yourself. Ignorance is not something to cling to proudly.
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> 
> 
> http://www.usmessageboard.com/education/214674-college-in-china.html
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> No.  What you are saying is that people born and raised in China are wrong, their parents are wrong and possibly their grandparents are wrong too.  Instead, I can rely on an article from someplace and what you say.  I have never been to China.  I expect that people who have lived there all their lives, for generations know more than I do or what you do for that matter.
> 
> As I said before, they great weight of evidence is toward the numerous Chinese nationals that I know and they don't agree with you.
Click to expand...



I provided you with a number of links on that other thread, and I know you read the thread if not the links. You are just wallowing in ignorance now.


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## uscitizen

This is serious it might disrupt our supply of iPhones and such!


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## waltky

Communist Party official Bo Xilai's firing was openly discussed online by citizens...

*Change in China steadily wrought by Internet*
_Saturday, March 31, 2012 - On the eve of Taiwan's presidential election in January, a Shanghai netizen recounted a conversation with a Taiwanese friend who told him that he intended to vote the following morning, "and we will know who will be the president by the evening." Responded the netizen: "You guys are too backward. If we had to vote tomorrow morning, tonight we would already know who would be elected."_


> His comment on Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site, was reposted 20,000 times and drew 3,000 comments, including this riposte: "We wouldn't just know the night before, we would know five years ahead of time."  Followed with equal avidity online were Hong Kong's recent, albeit restricted election for chief executive and the ouster of a powerful Communist Party official, Bo Xilai, the latter prompting tens of thousands of comments and reposts. That such high-level, behind-the-scenes political maneuvering made it into the media light of day, let alone be openly chewed over by the citizenry, would have been unthinkable a few years ago.
> 
> "The Internet has changed everything," said Hongkai Tan, chief commentator at the English-language China Daily, at a lunchtime gathering I attended at a Beijing restaurant 10 days ago. "There are attempts to control it" - like a government regulation imposed last month requiring microblog users to register with their real name - "but it can't be done," he said.  Proximity to Hong Kong has been another factor. The government's initial news blackout of December's protests in the fishing village of Wukan against corrupt land deals was overcome in part by Hong Kong television broadcasts that could be picked up on the mainland.
> 
> "This exposure to a free press gave the (insurgent) village representatives an extra edge in media relations, allowing villagers to neatly guide any debate back to the corruption of village officials," noted NewsChina, the English-language edition of China Newsweek, published in Beijing. It also led to an unprecedented changing of the guard, with the officials being ousted by the insurgents in a subsequent secret-ballot election, as even state-controlled media noted.  Hong Kong could have even more influence if the Chinese government follows through on an agreement that its next leadership election, in 2017, be of the one person-one vote variety, rather than by a committee of 1,100 members of Hong Kong's elite.
> 
> To speak of a "China spring" would be premature at best, however. Last month, a similar protest in another province was quickly squelched, as have numerous others in the recent past, many of which go unreported or are blacked out by government censors.  Limits: "The government still puts an incredible amount of money and resources into stopping the flow," said Sophie Beach, editor of China Digital Times, a bilingual website in Berkeley that provides links to news and views from China often not found in the country's mainstream media. Censorship remains rife - Sina Weibo is regularly ordered to take posts down. And self-censorship still occurs at newspapers and Internet sites, aware that the government is looking over their shoulders.  "The government is especially careful to prevent the Internet from being used as an organizing tool," said Beach.
> 
> Surveillance systems, ostensibly for crime prevention (though human rights activists suspect otherwise), are one of China's biggest businesses. Last year, San Jose's Cisco Systems was awarded the contract to provide networking equipment for 500,000 surveillance cameras being installed in Chongqing (population: 32 million), as part of the city's "Peaceful Chongqing" initiative. A Cisco spokesman said at the time the contract was part of broader deal "to provide a 'city cloud' infrastructure for a green and sustainable city platform."
> 
> Read more: Change in China steadily wrought by Internet


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## waltky

Dem Chinese need to be able to speak out more...

*US mayor lectures Chinese official on freedom of speech*
_Mon, Sep 10, 2012 - Beijing is fighting to have an artists mural promoting independence for Taiwan and Tibet removed from a brick wall in the small town of Corvallis, Oregon._


> Two officials from the Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco have written to the mayor of Corvallis about the mural and last week visited the town to lodge a formal complaint. As you are aware, the First Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees freedom of speech in this country and this includes freedom of artistic expression, Corvallis Mayor Julie Manning has told them. She has refused to do anything about the 3m by 30m mural, which was painted last month on the wall of an old building by Taiwanese-born artist Chao Tsung-song. The vividly colored mural was commissioned by the buildings owner, Taiwanese-born David Lin, who is determined to leave it there.
> 
> It depicts images of Taiwan as a bulwark of freedom, Chinese riot police beating Tibetan demonstrators and Buddhist monks setting themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule. The wall on which the mural has been painted is part of a building being redeveloped by Lin as a restaurant. There is only one China in the world and both Tibet and Taiwan are parts of China, the letter to Manning from the Chinese Consulate General said. To avoid our precious friendship from being tainted by so-called Tibet independence and Taiwan independence we sincerely hope you can understand our concerns and adopt effective measures to stop the activities advocating Tibet independence and Taiwan independence in Corvallis.
> 
> After Manning replied saying that she had no authority to regulate art and could do nothing about the mural, Vice Consul Zhang Hao and Deputy Consul General Song Ruan visited the town last week. The two officials met with Manning and City Manager Jim Patterson. Patterson later told the Corvallis Gazette-Times: They expressed their concern and the concern of the Chinese government about the mural on Mr Lins building. They viewed the message as political propaganda. After making it clear that the city could not  and would not  order the murals removal, Manning and Patterson agreed to pass on Beijings concern to Lin. We also had a conversation with them about the US Constitution, Patterson said. The Taipei Times was unable to reach officials for comment at the Chinese embassy in Washington or the consulate in San Francisco.
> 
> Lin told the Corvallis Gazette-Times that no representatives of the Chinese government had contacted him directly. However, he said that friends and family were concerned they might face some form of retaliation if they visited China. I am under a lot of pressure to take down the mural, but have no plans to do anything of the sort, he said. Ill just keep it the same, Ive got to live my life, thats all. Lin was born and raised in Taiwan and went to the US in the 1970s. He said that he was a strong supporter of a free Tibet and an independent Taiwan.
> 
> US mayor lectures Chinese official on freedom of speech - Taipei Times


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## waltky

China evictin' it's people outta their homes...

*China evictions increase, leading to more unrest*
_October 11. 2012 -&#8211; China says it has worked hard to overhaul its judicial system in ways that better protects human rights, but one of the country's most widespread abuses is increasing and is a leading cause of unrest._


> The forced eviction of residents from their homes and farmland has quickened over the past three years, human rights group Amnesty International said in a report issued Thursday.  Evictions make up the leading cause of protests here, especially in the countryside. Homeowners have been risking violence and jail to prevent their ouster and protest the often inadequate compensation offered by developers and officials.  "Millions of people" have been evicted "without appropriate legal protection and safeguards," and often with violence, Amnesty said.  "The problem of forced evictions represents the single most significant source of popular discontent in China and a serious threat to social and political stability," said the group, citing Chinese academic research.
> 
> An increasing number of those being evicted have turned to self-immolation as a desperate protest of last resort.  In a recent example, police in northeast China last month shot and killed a man who had set himself on fire while resisting a demolition crew. The official explanation from police was that the officer had acted in self-defense.  Forced eviction "has become a routine occurrence in China and represents a gross violation of China's international human rights obligations on an enormous scale," said the Amnesty report 'Standing Their Ground,' which looked at evictions from February 2010 to January 2012.  Violent forced evictions are increasing as local authorities, often highly indebted, seize land and sell it off to developers to meet bank repayments for funds borrowed to finance projects, Amnesty said.
> 
> Income from the sale of land rights to developers represents local governments' single largest source of revenue. And officials looking for promotion also rely on developing land to deliver the high growth rates their superiors demand, the group said.  Of 40 forced evictions Amnesty examined in detail, nine culminated in the deaths of people protesting or resisting eviction, including Wang Cuiyan, 70, who was buried alive in March 2010 when resisting a demolition crew at her house in Wuhan city, Hubei Province.  Amnesty said it found 41 cases from 2009-2011 of people lighting themselves on fire to protest evictions, compared with fewer than 10 cases reported in the previous decade.
> 
> Former homeowner Hu Cheng understands the level of desperation that provokes such extreme steps.  Since his apartment in the southwest city of Chongqing was demolished in December 2010, Hu has been detained by police several times and beaten twice he says for trying to sue local government for a higher rate of compensation.  "I think the central government is good, and so is their white paper on judicial reform, but they don't know what goes on in local areas" which are very corrupt, said Hu, 40.  Uniformed and plainclothes police now watch his rented apartment, he said.  "If there's really no way to continue, I will go to the city government and set myself on fire," Hu said.
> 
> More China evictions increase, leading to more unrest



See also:

*Fears of runaway pollution crisis in China as THIRD river mysteriously turns white*
_11 October 2012  -  Industrial dumping of chemicals thought to be major cause of bizarre colourings; Last month the city of Chongqing woke up to find their river had turned red; Locals complain they cannot use rivers for livestock drinking water or for washing and cleaning_


> Furious villagers in eastern China are demanding the closure of a new stone quarry after it turned their river completely white.  Residents in Aodi, Zhejiang province, say the river is now so heavily polluted that they can't use it for drinking water for their livestock, nor are they able to water their crops.  They say that since the quarry opened a few years ago, the water regularly turns white, as the quarry bosses use the river to drain away residue caused by blast-cleaning white stones, which are cut from pits beside the river.  One local resident told reporters:  'Our animals can't drink it, it poisons the fields and we can't even wash our clothes in it. We want this quarry closed now.'
> 
> It is just one of a number of rising concerns about water in China - it is not the first time rivers have taken on different hues - and there are regularly reports of everything from pollutants to dead bodies found in waters used for cleaning and drinking.  Last month a milky white river in Jiangsu city turned white, and included a bad smell. The reasons for the colour change is still not known - but researchers discovered that there are now no living animals reported to be found in the 10 meter wide body of water.   There were reports in July of how a natural latex polluted more than a mile of the Quxi River in China&#8217;s Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province.  The river also turned into a 'river of milk', which is blamed on a local latex company in the region.
> 
> Resident Xiao Wu said: 'Only yesterday, I was doing my laundry in the river, and yet this morning it&#8217;s turned completely white, as though somebody poured milk into it.'  This also follows a case of an orange river in Jiaxing city created by excessive iron ions in the water last March.  Last month, the residents of Chongqing woke up to find the Yangtze river, which runs through the city in south-western China, coloured a bright shade of orange-red.  While officials investigate the cause of the colouring, one fisherman went about his daily business as if nothing had happened.  Others were so amazed that they collected samples in water bottles.
> 
> Although the cause is yet to be determined, it is not the first time a river has turned red in China.  Last December, the Jian River in the city of Luoyang, in the north Henan province, turned red after becoming polluted by a powerful dye.  The dye was being dumped into the city's storm drain network by two illegal dye workshops.  Officials raided the factories to shut them down, and then disassembled their machinery.  According to chapter 16, verse 4 of the Bible's book of Revelations, one of the signs that Armageddon is near will be an angel pouring a bowl into the rivers, turning them into blood.
> 
> Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...r-mysteriously-turns-white.html#ixzz2912IVOTe


----------



## waltky

Granny says, "Dat's right - dey want dey's MTV...

*Survey: Half of Chinese like U.S. ideas on democracy*
_Oct 16,`12  -- People in China are increasingly worried about corruption, inequality and food safety, according to a survey that also found that about half of Chinese like American ideas about democracy._


> Chinese citizens have become far more concerned about domestic quality-of-life issues over the past four years, the Pew Global Attitudes Project report on attitudes in China found.  The new attitudes highlight the challenges China's new leadership will face when it assumes power in a once-in-a-decade transition next month. China's runaway growth in recent decades has led to a yawning gap between rich and poor and worsening pollution. The Communist Party has said repeatedly that pervasive corruption threatens its hold on power.
> 
> Most Chinese say they are better off financially, according to the Pew survey, but inflation remains their top concern, with 60 percent saying it's a "very big problem," though that figure was down from 72 percent in 2008.  Half of the respondents said corrupt officials are a major problem, up from 39 percent four years ago. The gap between rich and poor was the third biggest concern, with 48 percent of respondents citing it, up from 41 percent in 2008.  Concerns over the safety of food and medicine have increased the most. In 2008, 12 percent said food safety was a major problem; this time, after numerous food scandals involving products from baby powder to pork, the number more than tripled to 41 percent.
> 
> Quality of life issues are coming to the foreground in China as average incomes rise and leisure time increases, said Steve Tsang, a professor of contemporary Chinese studies at the University of Nottingham, who wasn't connected to the survey.  "People have to live with them on a daily basis," he said. "When one was too busy making a living to get bothered by them in the past, less attention was paid to them. Now that the overall standard of living has improved and individuals have more scope to slow down and reflect a bit, the poor quality of life becomes more of an issue."
> 
> The survey released Tuesday indicated a small increase in the embrace of U.S. democratic ideas - up to 52 percent, from 48 percent in 2007 - though it was unclear whether that reflected a real increase, because the difference was smaller than the poll's margin of error.  A decrease in the number of people rejecting American democratic thought was more dramatic, down to 29 percent from 36 percent in 2007.
> 
> MORE


----------



## waltky

Granny says China keepin' dem po' Tibetan folks down...

*UN Rights Official Faults China on Tibetan Suppression*
_November 2, 2012   The top human rights official of the United Nations took China to task on Friday over the suppression of Tibetans rights that she said had driven them to desperate forms of protest, referring to about 60 self-immolations by Tibetans protesting Chinese rule that have been reported since March 2011, including seven since mid-October._


> The official, Navi Pillay, the high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement that she was disturbed by reports of detentions, disappearances and the excessive use of force against peaceful demonstrators, as well as curbs on Tibetans cultural rights. Ms. Pillay said serious concerns had been raised over the claims of torture and ill-treatment of detainees and about the standards of their trials.  Ms. Pillay said she had had several exchanges with the Chinese government on the issue, and her rare public criticism of Chinas conduct on human rights appeared to reflect a measure of frustration.  We felt the time had come to talk publicly about that, a spokesman for Ms. Pillay, Rupert Colville, said Friday in Geneva. Self-immolations are evidence of how serious the situation in Tibet has become, Mr. Colville said, and we dont see any visible signs of progress.
> 
> In the statement, Ms. Pillay said, More needs to be done to protect human rights and prevent violations, urging China to release Tibetans who had been detained merely for exercising fundamental rights like freedom of expression, association and religion. Social stability in Tibet will never be achieved through heavy security measures and suppression of human rights, she said.  As examples of that suppression, Ms. Pillay cited the case of a 17-year-old girl who was reported to have been severely beaten and sentenced to three years in prison for distributing fliers that called for freedom for Tibet and the return of the Dalai Lama. She said others had been sentenced to jail terms of four to seven years for writing essays, making films or circulating outside China photographs of events in Tibet.
> 
> Ms. Pillay said she recognized the intense sense of frustration and despair that had driven Tibetans to such extreme actions, but she appealed to them to seek other ways of expressing their feelings and urged China to allow them to express their feelings without fear of retribution.  She said that China had pledged to step up cooperation with the United Nations on human rights, but she said there were 12 outstanding requests to visit China by United Nations special investigators on various human rights-related issues and called on China to facilitate access.
> 
> MORE


----------



## editec

The Chinese people are NOT thrilled with their COMMUNIST PARTY controlled government.


Those that have money are moving their money out of China as fast as they can find ways to get it out.

Capital outflows: The flight of the renminbi | The Economist


----------



## waltky

New Chinese leadership gonna have to offer up some reforms...

*Chinas New Leaders Facing Pressures to Reform*
_ November 05, 2012  China begins a once-in-decade leadership transition this week when officials meet Thursday for the 18th Communist Party Congress. The stakes are higher than previous transitions because of growing public concerns about corruption and the partys lack of transparency. Just how the new leaders will respond to the challenges remains a mystery._


> As China gears up for its biggest political party in 10 years, its leaders are trying to keep the public focus on the partys accomplishments and the countrys bright future.  The congress is the closest thing the communist country has to the excitement of political campaigns in democratic nations, where policies are discussed and debated ahead of time, said David Kelly of China Policy, a research group that monitors Chinese views on the economy, reform and other topics.   Even though we foresee at the moment without final confirmation that there will be a fairly conservative team, they are not facing routine questions, they are facing some momentous questions, said Kelly.
> 
> China has seen growing tensions with its neighbors in recent months, in particular Japan, about disputed islands in the East China Sea. Its massive economy - the second largest in the world - also is facing uncertainties. Kelly said that has helped strengthen the case for reform.  Reform in China is not a mild issue, it's going to hurt some people and benefit others. And the balance of these two is going to be decided by the people who now step up into politburo's standing committee and the other important parts of the party, he said.
> 
> How much Chinas leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping is willing to make a break with the past is unclear. Xis father was politically prominent and that makes him what the Chinese call a "princeling."  Many people in China tend to view princelings as elitist. Chinese economist Hu Xingdou said princelings tend to be more reform-minded, though, than other party factions, which are cautious and afraid of losing power.  The princelings are different, since they were kids they thought that this country was theirs, because it was their parents that laid the foundation for this world. For them the ownership is clear, this country is theirs, said Hu Xingdou.
> 
> But some princelings, such as Bo Xilai, have taken that sense of entitlement to an extreme, and because of his case and countless others, there is growing public discontent in China about wealth inequality and corruption.  Bo was once a rising political star in China, who now faces a wide range of accusations from corruption and other wrongdoing. On Sunday, he was formally expelled from the Communist Party and is expected to soon face criminal charges.  Although most analysts say they do not expect to see any dramatic reforms from Chinas new leaders right away, they do hope for more transparency.
> 
> MORE


----------



## waltky

Granny says dey's just a buncha godless commonists...

*China's Great Political Leap Backward*
_November 13, 2012, An increasingly out of touch Communist leadership vows to "resolutely not follow Western political models."_


> After years of parsing China's political jargon, I wasn't expecting anything dramatic from the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which opened in Beijing last week. It was foolish, I knew, to look for bold statements on the issue most critical to China's future: political reform.  Standing in the Great Hall of the People and delivering the political report that would set the tone for the country's next generation of leaders, President Hu Jintao wouldn't call for bold change with words like "constitutionalism" or "separation of powers."
> 
> But it was possible he might signal a renewed push for political reform by including some of the party's more liberal language. Phrases like "power is given by the people," used in 2010 by China's leader in waiting, Xi Jinping. Or "checking power and protecting rights," featured prominently this year in the party's mouthpiece, People's Daily.  Instead, this year's political report showed little or no momentum on this crucial issue. The course set by Mr. Hu's report suggests we can expect no real action on political reform. China now stands at a political crossroads, but the Communist Party isn't budging.
> 
> Twenty-five years ago at the 13th National Congress, discussion of political reform focused on the over-concentration of power, a phenomenon that was criticized by reformist leader Deng Xiaoping himself. How was reform to be accomplished? Ahead of the 1987 congress, General-Secretary Zhao Ziyang said political reform was fundamentally about "separating the party and the government." "If the problem of the substitution of the party for the government is not dealt with," he said, "there is no way to begin the process of political reform."
> 
> The 13th National Congress was the high-water mark for dealing with core issues of political reform, including reform of the party's leadership system. And it was only on that basis that related issues&#8212;such as restructuring government administration and turning the National People's Congress into a real legislature&#8212;were to be tackled. Unfortunately, the reforms that were to have started after 1987 came to an abrupt end with the events of June 4, 1989, in Tiananmen Square.
> 
> MORE



See also:

*China&#8217;s Next Leaders Inherit Economy at Critical Crossroad*
_ November 13, 2012 &#8212; China's leaders have renewed pledges to boost the economy over the next 10 years during meetings this week in Beijing. But the economic challenges China's incoming leaders face are much more difficult than the challenges their predecessors faced a decade ago._


> China&#8217;s aspirations for its economy over the next decade have come up repeatedly at the National Party Congress, in discussions on the sidelines of the meeting and in state media&#8217;s coverage of the event. It also figured prominently in the opening speech of outgoing President Hu Jintao.  In his address, Hu mentioned the economy 104 times in a wide range of contexts.  Economic development was mentioned more than a dozen times, as was former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping&#8217;s catchphrase "gaige kaifang," or, "reform and opening up."
> 
> And while the risks China&#8217;s economy is facing were not mentioned as much, they were not ignored. Hu&#8217;s most direct comment on the challenges the country faces came when he said the opportunities and risks China face are not like anything before.  This year China&#8217;s economy is slowing to its slowest growth rate in more than a decade. And although the projected year-on-year growth rate of around 7.5 percent remains enviable to many countries, that is nearly half of what it was just five years ago.
> 
> Zhang Ping, head of China&#8217;s National Development and Reform Commission voiced confidence that the economy was improving, despite the slowdown. But he acknowledged there are still contradictions that need to be addressed.  Zhang says that China still lacks a balanced, coordinated and sustainable development, and its growth model is very crude. He says that along with the weakening overseas demand, China still has excessive production capacity in several sectors.
> 
> "We still lack a balanced, coordinated and sustainable development, and our growth model is still very crude. And along with the weakening overseas market demand, we still have an excessive production capacity in several sectors," he said. "There are also structural problems that need to be adjusted. It will take some time to solve these problems. These contradictions are having some impact on the development of domestic economy."
> 
> MORE


----------



## American_Jihad

*Locked up by Mao, U.S. ex-revolutionary places hopes on Xi*​
By Sui-Lee Wee and Jane Lanhee Lee

BEIJING | Mon Nov 12, 2012 5:15am EST 

(Reuters) - Incoming Chinese president Xi Jinping has a "democratic style" that will allow him to lay the groundwork for much-needed political and economic reforms, one of only a handful of Americans to join the Chinese Communist Party said on Monday.

Sidney Rittenberg came to China in 1945 as an idealistic young U.S. soldier and got swept up in the Communist revolution, eventually becoming a translator for the founder of modern China, Mao Zedong.

As such, Rittenberg, 91, has had a uniquely close-up view of many of China's most dramatic events.

He told Reuters he believed Xi would find it hard to push through significant changes due to embedded vested interests.

Rittenberg, who now lives in the United States, tells of going into the Chinese countryside with Xi's father, Xi Zhongxun, to meet the rural poor when Rittenberg was a mid-level party cadre.

"His father back in the Yan'an days was one of my closest friends," Rittenberg said in an interview in a teahouse in Beijing, referring to the Communists' northern stronghold in Shaanxi province. "And in seeing him, I hope some of the father rubbed off on him.

"I think there's some reason that it did from some interviews he's given," he said, adding that Xi Zhongxun was the "most democratic-minded of the old party leadership".

Xi Jinping, 59, is expected to formally take over as party leader on Thursday, when President Hu Jintao transfers power at the end of a week-long congress in Beijing.

Xi will inherit a slowing economy and demands from inside and outside the party to tackle problems that reformists see as threats to both growth and social stability - such as a yawning wealth gap, limited political freedom and corruption.

---
Locked up by Mao, U.S. ex-revolutionary places hopes on Xi | Reuters


----------



## PoliticalChic

waltky said:


> Dey's riotin' in China...
> 
> *Wave of Unrest Rocks China*
> _JUNE 14, 2011 - Threats to Social Order Increasingly Hit Cities, Bringing Iron-Fist Response_
> 
> 
> 
> A wave of violent unrest in urban areas of China over the past three weeks is testing the Communist Party's efforts to maintain control over an increasingly complex and fractious society, forcing it to repeatedly deploy its massive security forces to contain public anger over economic and political grievances.  The simultaneous challenge to social order in several cities from the industrial north to the export-oriented south represents a new threat for China's leaders in the politically sensitive run-up to a once-a-decade leadership change next year, even though for now the violence doesn't appear to be coordinated.
> 
> In the latest disturbance, armed police were struggling to restore order in a manufacturing town in southern China Monday after deploying tear gas and armored vehicles against hundreds of migrant workers who overturned police cars, smashed windows and torched government buildings there the night before.  The protests, which began Friday night in Zengcheng, in the southern province of Guangdong, followed serious rioting in another city in central China last week, plus bomb attacks on government facilities in two other cities in the past three weeks, and ethnic unrest in the northern region of Inner Mongolia last month.
> 
> Antigovernment protests have become increasingly common in China in recent years, according to the government's own figures, but they have been mainly confined to rural areas, often where farmers have been thrown off their land by property developers and local officials.  The latest unrest, by contrast, involves violent protests from individuals and large crowds in China's cities, where public anger is growing over issues including corruption and police abuses.
> 
> There is no evidence to suggest the recent violence is part of a coordinated movementthe party's greatest fearnor do the events threaten its grip on power given the strength of China's security apparatus, and its booming economy, analysts say. They are nonetheless troubling for China's government which, unnerved by unrest in the Arab world, has detained dozens of dissidents since appeals for a "Jasmine Revolution" in China began circulating online in February. The Mideast uprisings so far haven't inspired similar mass protests in China.
> 
> MORE
Click to expand...




The unrest is due to those really hard bamboo mats....


----------



## waltky

Granny says dey better move it outta the way or some big ol' truck'll come along an' smash it to smithereens...

*Home in Middle of Chinese Highway a Symbol of Resistance*
_November 23, 2012 &#8212; In the middle of an eastern Chinese city's new main road, rising incongruously from a huge circle in the freshly laid pavement, is a five-story row house with ragged edges. This is the home of the duck farmer who said "no."_


> Luo Baogen and his wife are the lone holdouts from a neighborhood that was demolished to make way for the main thoroughfare heading to a newly built railway station on the outskirts of the city of Wenling in Zhejiang province.  Dramatic images of Luo's home have circulated widely online in China this week, becoming the latest symbol of resistance in the frequent standoffs between Chinese homeowners and local officials accused of offering too little compensation to vacate neighborhoods for major redevelopment projects.  There's even a name for the buildings that remain standing as their owners resist development. They are called "nail houses" because the homeowners refuse to be hammered down.
> 
> Nail house families occasionally have resorted to violence. Some homeowners have even set themselves on fire in protests. Often, they keep 24-hour vigils because developers will shy away from bulldozing homes when people are inside.  Xiayangzhang village chief Chen Xuecai said in a telephone interview Friday that city planners decided that Luo's village of 1,600 had to be moved for a new business district anchored by the train station. Chen said most families agreed to government-offered compensation in 2007.  Luo, 67, and a handful of neighbors in other parts of the new district are holding out for more.  "We want a new house on a two-unit lot with simple interior decoration," Luo told local reporters Thursday in video footage forwarded to The Associated Press.
> 
> Luo had just completed his house at a cost of about 600,000 yuan ($95,000) when the government first approached him with their standard offer of 220,000 ($35,000) to move out &#8212; which he refused, Chen said. The offer has since gone up to 260,000 yuan ($41,000).  "The Luo family is not rich," Chen said, acknowledging that they can ill afford such a big loss on their home. "But the policy is what it is."  The new road to the railroad station was completed in recent weeks, and has not yet been opened for traffic.
> 
> What is unusual in Luo's case is that his house has been allowed to stand for so long. It is common for local authorities in China to take extreme measures, such as cutting off utilities or moving in to demolish when residents are out for the day.  Luo told local reporters his electricity and water are still flowing, and that he and his wife sleep in separate parts of the home to deter any partial demolition.  Deputy village chief Luo Xuehua &#8212; a cousin to the duck farmer &#8212; said he didn't expect the dispute to go on much longer. He said he expects Luo Baogen to reach an agreement with the government soon, though he said the homeowner's demands are unrealistic.   "We cannot just give whatever he demands," Luo Xuehua said. "That's impossible."
> 
> Source



See also:

*New Chinese Passports Rile Asian Neighbors*
_ November 23, 2012 - Whenever a country issues new passports, someone almost always complains about the new design. But China's latest edition of travel logs is drawing formal criticism from countries across Asia._


> The passports feature a map of China that includes areas of the South China Sea claimed by other countries, as well as territory claimed by India.  Taiwan's government objected to the passports Friday, following similar protests by the Philippines and Vietnam. Officials at the Indian Embassy in Beijing are protesting in their own way, stamping Chinese visas with a map showing the disputed territory belonging to India, according to The Press Trust of India.  John Blaxland, with the Strategic and Defense Studies Center at Australian National University, called China's move "pretty clever."  "It basically forces everyone who's a claimant of South China Sea elements to acknowledge it by stamping it," he said.
> 
> As China's military and economic influence has grown throughout the world, Beijing has become more brazen in its claim to territories believed to be rich with oil and natural gas across the Asia-Pacific.  China&#8217;s Foreign Ministry said the &#8220;nine-dash&#8221; map of the sea printed in the new passports wasn&#8217;t targeted at any specific countries.  Blaxland described China&#8217;s move as part of a "long game" being played by a new generation of leaders who will steer the country for the next 10 years.  "We've just seen a major transition in China &#8230; They can act deliberately and slowly, and slowly get their way. There's really not very much anyone is seriously prepared to do about it," he said.
> 
> The Association of Southeast Asian Nations discussed the territorial disputes at a summit in Cambodia earlier this week but failed to achieve a united stand on how the 10 member countries should respond to China.  Carl Thayer, a professor emeritus at the University of New South Wales, said the map in China&#8217;s new passports may partly be in response to Vietnam&#8217;s passage earlier this year of a Law of the Sea. The law asserts Vietnam&#8217;s sovereignty over the Spratly and Paracel islands, which are claimed by both Hanoi and Beijing.  &#8220;It's just finding one more way of turning the screw that China has jurisdiction,&#8221; Thayer said.
> 
> Although Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines have been most vocal in their opposition to China&#8217;s moves, Brunei and Malaysia also have rival claims in the South China Sea, and Japan is embroiled in its own dispute over islands in the East China Sea. All the territorial spats have raised concerns about a potential maritime conflict, prompting the United States to wade into the controversy.  The Obama administration says it is not taking sides but is pushing for the countries to adopt a code of conduct, which China opposes.  Blaxley said the United States wants to secure its freedom of navigation in the region.
> 
> MORE


----------



## waltky

Granny says, "Dat's right - there's more n' one way to skin a Chinaman...

*Vietnam Avoids Stamping Controversial Chinese Passports*
_ November 26, 2012  A new passport design issued by China is causing a stir in Asia. The passport features a map that includes territory claimed by other countries. It includes the South China Sea, which is also claimed by Vietnam. Officials are finding their own way around the problem._


> China claims almost all of the South China Sea, but Vietnam and four other governments have claims in the region, including the Spratly Islands, which are believed to sit atop mineral deposits.  The passports have caused a stir in the region, prompting protests from several countries, including Vietnam.  Colonel Luong Van Son, deputy director of Lao Cai provincial border police says new passport holders are allowed to enter the country, but officials issue visas on separate pieces of paper.
> 
> Luong says this was a light approach to the problem agreed upon by government ministries and, so far, China had not reacted. He added the passport design is a serious violation of Vietnamese sovereignty and is not recognized by the international community.  Last week, a spokesman for Vietnams Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Luong Thanh Nghi, protested the new passport design.
> 
> He says the ministry had sent a diplomatic note to the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi objecting to the move and asked China to cancel the passport. The Philippines and Taiwan also objected.  In Manila Monday, Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez says authorities there are still accepting the passports for visa applications, for now.  "What we can say is we are considering different options as far as follow-up action. I don't know what are those options," he said.
> 
> The passport also includes territory claimed by India. In response, officials at the Indian Embassy in Beijing stamped Chinese visas with a map embossed with New Delhis own map.  Observers say the move is part of an ongoing trend of China asserting territorial claims in the area. Chinas Foreign Ministry says the map of the sea printed in the new passports is not targeted at any specific countries.
> 
> Source


----------



## gazpatmore

waltky said:


> Granny says China keepin' dem po' Tibetan folks down...
> 
> *UN Rights Official Faults China on Tibetan Suppression*
> _November 2, 2012   The top human rights official of the United Nations took China to task on Friday over the suppression of Tibetans rights that she said had driven them to desperate forms of protest, referring to about 60 self-immolations by Tibetans protesting Chinese rule that have been reported since March 2011, including seven since mid-October._



I think its more like 80 self-immolations now... gotta love the Chinese. But no use shouting about human rights to them. The Chinese really dont give a toss about that stuff, it doesnt feature in their vocabulary.

Ask your average Chinaman, and he will tell you the government is God, King and country... and they REALLY believe it. Last I was there and spoke to them, I was told that no matter how bad things look on a short-term basis, they believe ultimately the government is there to help them.

Thats why these news stories make it so big...because its one of a billion in China.


----------



## Unkotare

gazpatmore said:


> Ask your average Chinaman, and he will tell you the government is God, King and country... and they REALLY believe it...





You're an ignorant fool with a pretty obvious agenda.


"Chinaman," really? Update your attempts at offense.


----------



## waltky

Chinese tune into V for Vendetta...

*V for Vendetta airing stuns Chinese*
_Fri, Dec 21, 2012 - Television audiences across China watched an anarchist antihero rebel against a totalitarian government and persuade the people to rule themselves. Soon the Internet was crackling with quotes of V for Vendettas famous line: People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people._


> The airing of the movie on Friday night on China Central Television (CCTV) stunned viewers and raised hopes that China is loosening censorship.  V for Vendetta never appeared in Chinese theaters, but it is unclear whether it was ever banned. An article on the Chinese Communist Partys Peoples Daily Web site says it was previously prohibited from broadcast, but the spokesman for the agency that approves movies said he was not aware of any ban.  Some commentators and bloggers think the broadcast could be CCTV producers pushing the envelope of censorship, or another sign that the Chinese Communist Partys newly installed leader, Xi Jinping (&#32722;&#36817;&#24179, is serious about reform.
> 
> REACTION
> 
> Oh God, CCTV unexpectedly put out V for Vendetta. I had always believed that film was banned in China! media commentator Shen Chen wrote on the popular Sina Weibo service, where he has more than 350,000 followers.  Zhang Ming, a supervisor at a real-estate company, asked on Sina Weibo: For the first time CCTV-6 aired V for Vendetta, what to think, is the reform being deepened?  The 2005 movie, based on a comic book, is set in an imagined future Britain with a fascist government.
> 
> The protagonist wears a mask of Guy Fawkes, the 17th-century English rebel who tried to blow up parliament. The mask has become a revolutionary symbol for young protesters in mostly Western countries, and it also has a cult-like status in China as pirated DVDs are widely available. Some people have used the image of the mask as their profile pictures on Chinese social media sites.
> 
> Beijing-based rights activist Hu Jia wrote on Twitter, which is not accessible to most Chinese because of government Internet controls: This great film couldnt be any more appropriate for our current situation. Dictators, prisons, secret police, media control, riots, getting rid of heretics ... fear, evasion, challenging lies, overcoming fear, resistance, overthrowing tyranny ... Chinas dictators and its citizens also have this relationship.  Chinas government strictly controls print media, television and radio. Censors also monitor social media sites including Sina Weibo.
> 
> More ?V for Vendetta? airing stuns Chinese - Taipei Times


----------



## waltky

Academic call for democratic reform yanked from internet by Chinese censors...

*Academics warn of violent revolution without reform*
_Tue, Jan 01, 2013 - WAKE-UP CALL: A group of 73 Chinese academics began to circulate the letter last month on the Internet, but now all references to it in media reports have been removed_


> A prominent group of Chinese academics has warned in a bold open letter that the country risks violent revolution if the government does not respond to public pressure and allow long-stalled political reforms.  The 73 academics, including well-known current and retired legal experts at top universities and lawyers, said political reform had not matched the quick pace of economic expansion.  If reforms to the system urgently needed by Chinese society keep being frustrated and stagnate without progress, then official corruption and dissatisfaction in society will boil up to a crisis point and China will once again miss the opportunity for peaceful reform, and slip into the turbulence and chaos of violent revolution, they wrote.
> 
> The letter began being circulated on the Internet last month, but online references to it in Chinese media reports have now been removed.  The government needed to push democracy and independence of the judiciary as well as deepen market reforms, the letter said.  He Weifang, a law professor at Peking University and one of the signatories, said he believed the demands were rather moderate, but that now was the time to make them as Chinese President Hu Jintao  prepared to hand over the reins of state power to Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, who was made Chinese Communist Party chief in November.  We have come to that period again when the leadership is changing. People expect continuing advances when it comes to reform of the political system, he said.  The Chinese people, including intellectuals, have been talking about this for a while, but little has happened. So I think we have the opportunity now to push it again, he said.
> 
> Other signatories include Zhang Sizhi, defense lawyer for Mao Zedongs  widow, Jiang Qing, leader of the Gang of Four that wielded supreme power during the 1966 to 1976 Cultural Revolution. She was given a suspended death sentence in 1981 for the deaths of tens of thousands during that period of chaos.  About 65 Chinese academics, lawyers and human rights activists have signed a similar letter demanding top party members reveal their financial assets, saying it is the most fundamental way to end corruption.  Analysts have been searching for signs that Chinas new leaders might steer a path of political reform, whether by allowing freer expression on the Internet, greater experimentation with grassroots democracy or releasing jailed dissidents.  However, the party, which values stability above all else, has so far shown little sign of wanting to go down this path, despite Xi trying to project a softer and more open image than his predecessor.
> 
> However, Xi himself warned shortly after becoming party boss that if corruption were allowed to run wild, the party risked major unrest and the collapse of its rule.  The letter said democracy, rule of law and respect of human rights were a global trend that could not be stopped.  Chinas 100 years of bloody and violent history  especially the painful and tragic lesson of the decade-long Cultural Revolution  show that once we go against the tide of democracy, human rights, rule of law and constitutional government, the people will suffer disaster and social and political stability will be impossible, the letter said.
> 
> Academics warn of ?violent revolution? without reform - Taipei Times



See also:

*Most Chinese say country not world power yet: poll*
_Tue, Jan 01, 2013 - More than 80 percent of Chinese say they do not yet see their country as a world power, a newspaper poll published yesterday showed._


> The survey, in the Global Times daily, also said that more than half of respondents expressed a positive view of Beijings relations with Washington, though most were pessimistic about ties with Tokyo.  A total of 82.3 percent of people surveyed said that China had yet to obtain world power status.  The statistic made the front-page headline of the papers English-language edition  but in the Chinese-language version the story was relegated to a low mention on an inside page.
> 
> The Global Times, which has links to the Chinese Communist Party, said the poll was released by its Global Poll Center. The survey, carried out via telephone and the Internet, collected responses from 1,404 residents above the age of 15 in seven cities, including Beijing and Shanghai.  Public opinion polls are rare in China, where the government decries notions of what it calls Western-style democracy.  When asked what the most significant event that helped elevate Chinas international standing last year was, 44.6 percent of respondents cited the Chinese navy taking delivery of the countrys first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning.  A former Soviet vessel, it went into service in September in a symbolic milestone for Chinas growing military muscle.
> 
> However, the paper quoted Zhu Feng, a professor at Peking Universitys School of International Studies, as saying: Being a world power is not about how many aircraft carriers it has. Its more about demonstrating a humble, elegant, confident image on a global platform.  In the survey, 54 percent of respondents said China was on the verge of becoming a world power, while 53 percent felt positive about Sino-US relations.  About 57 percent named China as their favorite country, with the US coming in second place.  Its good to see a growing patriotism and recognition among Chinese for their motherland, but we cannot deny that the US does have an appeal to some, Zhu said. For example, it does a better job at democracy and law enforcement.
> 
> Most survey respondents had a dim view of the outlook for relations with Japan, with which China is embroiled in a territorial dispute.  Less than 24 percent felt that relations with Tokyo would improve, with 33 percent seeing them worsening and 38 percent thinking they would stay the same.  The survey found that nearly 70 percent cited Japans nationalization of three of the Diaoyutai Islands, which Tokyo calls the Senkakus and are also claimed by China and Taiwan, as the most significant global event in 2012.
> 
> Most Chinese say country not ?world power? yet: poll - Taipei Times


----------



## waltky

But wouldn't it be a conservative website if it asks leaders to follow the constitution...

*China closes liberal Web site after call for political change*
_Sat, Jan 05, 2013 - A liberal Chinese journal had its Web site shut down yesterday, it said, after it urged the countrys Communist leaders  who regularly promise reform  to follow the constitution._


> The Web site of Annals of the Yellow Emperor, a prominent Beijing-based publication, was closed days after it published an article arguing that Chinas constitution lays out a roadmap for political change.  Attempts to access the Web site yesterday led to a page with a cartoon policeman holding up a badge and the message: The Web site you are visiting has been closed because it has not been filed on record.  The move follows a similar call in a key liberal newspaper being censored by the authorities.
> 
> Chinese liberals argue that rights enshrined in the constitution, including freedom of speech, press and assembly, are not being respected by the Chinese Communist Party.  At around nine am today, the Web site was closed, said a post on the Annals of the Yellow Emperors official Web page on Sina Weibo, a microblogging site.  The journals editors received a message from Internet regulator the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology last month stating that the Web site had been canceled, the post said.  The ministry did not immediately respond to faxed questions sent by Agence France-Presse yesterday.
> 
> The Web site closure came a day after censors blocked an article from popular liberal newspaper Southern Weekly that called for the realization of a dream of constitutionalism in China so that citizens rights could be protected.  A propaganda official in Guangdong Province, where the newspaper is based, removed the article and replaced it with a weaker message, several current and former journalists at the newspaper said.
> 
> The official, Tuo Zhen, directed that many alterations and replacements be made to the New Years special edition. This resulted in numerous errors and accidents, a former Southern Weekly journalists said in an open letter posted online.  All Chinese media organizations are subject to orders from government propaganda departments, which often suppress news seen as negative by the Chinese Communist Party, although some publications take a more critical stance.
> 
> China closes liberal Web site after call for political change - Taipei Times


----------



## waltky

A step in the right direction?...

*China Says It Will Overhaul Sprawling System of Re-education Through Labor*
_January 7, 2013   China will start overhauling its draconian system of re-education through labor in the coming year, according to the state news media, signaling the incoming leaderships determination to alter one of the governments more widely despised cudgels for punishing petty criminals, religious dissidents, petitioners and other perceived social irritants._


> The brief announcement on Monday, by the official Xinhua news agency, lacked details, but legal advocates said they were hopeful that the five-decade-old system for locking up offenders without trial would be significantly modified, if not abolished altogether.  If true, this would be an important advance, said Zhang Qianfan, a law professor at Peking University who has long pushed for the systems demise. Its a tool that is widely abused.
> 
> Established by Mao Zedong in the 1950s to swiftly neutralize political opponents, re-education through labor has evolved into a sprawling extralegal system of 350 camps where more than 100,000 people toil in prison factories and on farms for up to four years. Sentences are meted out by local public security officials, and defendants have no access to lawyers and little chance for appeal.  Since the 1980s, legal scholars and human rights advocates have been urging an end to the system and urging that the prosecution of minor offenses be shifted to criminal courts. The campaign has been re-energized in recent months by several cases, widely promoted in the news media, in which people were consigned to the camps for criticizing or simply annoying local party officials.
> 
> Among the more notable cases was that of Ren Jianyu, a college graduate turned village official in southwestern China who was sent to a work camp for subversion after investigators found in his closet a T-shirt that declared Freedom or death. In November, local officials, apparently cowed by a welter of condemnation in newspapers and on the Internet, cut short his two-year sentence.  A similar backlash also persuaded officials in Hunan Province last summer to free a woman, Tang Hui, who was given an 18-month sentence after she repeatedly protested that the seven men who had raped and forced her 11-year-old daughter into prostitution had been treated too leniently.
> 
> But any jubilation that the system might be on its way out was tempered by the manner in which the news emerged. Details of a conference held by top judicial and legal officials were reported online on Monday by a number of news media outlets  including word that the party would stop using the system within a year. Those accounts, however, were later deleted, leaving only the brief Xinhua account.  Chen Dongsheng, a bureau chief for the official Legal Daily who listened to a closed-circuit telecast of the meeting, told The Associated Press that Meng Jianzhu, chief of the Communist Partys politics and law committee, had pledged to end the system, saying it had played a useful role in the past, but conditions had now changed.  But Mr. Chens microblog postings on the subject promptly disappeared, and he could not be reached for comment.
> 
> MORE


----------



## gazpatmore

Unkotare said:


> They're gonna try and pull the same thing they did with the Panchen Lama.



Agenda? Please enlighten me, you seem to know me better than I know myself. What else would you call someone from China? Oh well, perhaps I shouldve said "Chinese person", that wouldve been more proper but it didnt occur to me at the time.

And by the way, the Chinese already did pull the same thing with the Panchen Lama. They just went ahead and picked their own Karmapa...but then the Tibetans stepped in and muddled up the whole thing.

Yeah the Chinese need to stop oppressing the Tibetans and the Uighurs and the Mongolians, and the Africans they bribe with foreign aid to vote in their favour at the United Nations. No doubt about that.

But if the Tibetans get their freedom back, will they be able to run their own country? After 50 years in exile, their exiled government is still a mess. Even East Timor didnt take that long.


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## Unkotare

gazpatmore said:


> And by the way, the Chinese already did pull the same thing with the Panchen Lama.





That's what I said.


----------



## gazpatmore

Sorry mate, your right, you did say that. What I meant was, "And by the way, the Chinese already did pull the same thing with the Karmapas. They just went ahead and picked their own Karmapa...but then the Tibetans stepped in and muddled up the whole thing."

The Chinese exhibited a great deal of hypocrisy when they were Communist, and then stepped in to interfere in religious matters like the Panchen Lama. But people are people, and we live in a cycle. Today, the Chinese are doing a terrible job with their human rights. Tomorrow, itll be someone else.


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## waltky

Chinese hold woman in detention in mortuary for three years...

*China detains woman at disused mortuary for three years*
_25 January 2013 - A Chinese woman who petitioned the authorities over the treatment of her husband at a labour camp has been detained at a disused mortuary for the past three years, state media report._


> Chen Qingxia had already served 18 months at a re-education camp for her campaign, but continued to fight and so was confined to the mortuary.  Reports of her ordeal in the province of Heilongjiang have triggered an outcry on social media.  Ms Chen is said to be in poor health.
> 
> But correspondents say that it looks likely that restrictions on her will be relaxed soon - a committee has been formed in the city of Yichun to re-examine her case.  There has also been some speculation in recent weeks that the Chinese authorities might reform or rethink its system of re-education through labour.  Ms Chen's ordeal began in 2003 when her husband was imprisoned for attempting to breach a quarantine during a Sars epidemic, according to the Global Times newspaper.
> 
> After he was freed, media reports say, his body was bruised and his mental health had deteriorated so much that Ms Chen decided to travel to the capital, Beijing, to complain to the central authorities about the treatment he had received.  The move led to her being put through a re-education camp for 18 months. After finishing the sentence, she was kept in the mortuary because she was still determined to continue her campaign.
> 
> A China National Radio report says that Mrs Chen has been allowed minimal contact with relatives.  Her husband was eventually admitted to hospital for treatment for his mental-health problems, the Global Times said.  The Communist Party's district chief has been quoted by local television as saying local officials should bear responsibility for Mrs Chen's treatment.
> 
> BBC News - China detains woman at disused mortuary for three years


----------



## waltky

Water pollution protestors plead guilty to fomenting a riot...

*China says 14 guilty of pollution protest violence*
_Jan 31,`13  -- Fourteen people pleaded guilty to encouraging a riot in eastern China last year in which the local Communist Party chief was stripped half-naked in a mass protest that ultimately forced the local government to scrap a wastewater treatment project._


> The official Xinhua News Agency said the defendants were prosecuted Wednesday on charges of encouraging mass violence against government buildings and intentionally damaging property in the city of Qidong in Jiangsu province north of Shanghai. Scores of police were hurt in the melee.  The sentences will be announced later, Xinhua said.  The case has prompted accusations that authorities are retaliating against the protesters after initially conceding to their demands by canceling the project.  "We admit that radical acts were committed, but that was because mere protesting would not have forced the government to change," said Zhang Peihong, a Shanghai-based lawyer who represents defendant Zhu Baosheng.  Zhu is accused of smashing a clock in the lobby of the municipal government's office building, pouring looted liquor from the roof of a car and forcing a city official to wear a shirt emblazoned with pro-environmental slogans.
> 
> Zhang said he argued in court that the case failed to take into account negligence on the part of local officials.  "We see no sincerity on behalf of the state," the lawyer said.  Government actions leading up to such protests need to be examined and wrongdoing exposed, said Liu Shanying, a political scientist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.  "You must investigate both sides, but in this case, we haven't seen any scrutiny directed at the officials involved," Liu said.  Despite that, unlawful acts such as assault and destruction of property must be punished, he added. "You should defend your rights within the law."    Pollution has become a major cause of unrest in China, where the growing middle class have become more outspoken in their opposition to environmentally risky projects.
> 
> Last year, the Chinese also staged large-scale protests against a proposed copper plant in the southwestern province of Sichuan and a planned expansion of a petrochemical factory in the eastern province of Zhejiang. Like the Qidong project, the other two were eventually scrapped.  In Qidong, thousands of people upset with the wastewater treatment project stormed the Qidong municipal government compound and turned at least one police car on its side at the protest on July 28.  Citing court documents, the state-run Southern Metropolis Daily from southern China said the defendants forcibly broke through the police cordon to attack and to smash government buildings, injuring at least 90 police officers, damaging several cars and causing property loss of more than 230,000 yuan ($37,000).
> 
> It also said the city's party chief was stripped half-naked after he refused to wear a T-shirt boycotting the project while the mayor was forced to wear such a T-shirt.  The protesters were worried that the wastewater from the Japanese company Oji Paper in upstream Nantong city would not be cleaned enough before being discharged into the sea near Qidong, although Oji had assured the wastewater would be properly treated.  The grass-roots protests reflect the balancing act Chinese leaders are performing between maintaining public stability and pushing economic growth, and between local officials who want to attract industry and a public who do not want it in their neighborhoods.
> 
> Source


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## waltky

Mebbe dey could petition England to take `em back as a colony again?...

*Colonial flags fly again as anger grows in Hong Kong over erosion of freedom*
_Sun, Feb 03, 2013 - CONTROVERSIAL SYMBOL: Protesters said use of the UK flag did not indicate a desire to restore colonial rule, but is aimed at Chinas authoritarian rule of Hong Kong_


> Sixteen years after Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule, public discontent with Beijing is swelling and protesters have been rallying around an unexpected symbol  the British colonial flag.  Tens of thousands have taken to the streets in recent months in marches against Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (&#26753;&#25391;&#33521, who took over from Donald Tsang last July after being elected by a 1,200-strong pro-Beijing committee.  On several occasions the old blue flag, which incorporates the Union Jack, has been flown by protesters on the streets of what is becoming an increasingly divided Hong Kong, both embarrassing and infuriating Beijing.  While Leungs supporters say he is tackling social issues such as affordable housing and the strain on public services, his critics see him as a stooge for Beijing and are angry over a widening poverty gap.
> 
> In September last year, he backed down from a plan to introduce Chinese patriotism classes in schools, which had incited mass protests and was viewed as an attempt to brainwash children into accepting doctrines taught in mainland China.  The founder of a group mobilizing Hong Kongers to fly colonial flags said it did so because the city was worse off after 16 years of encroachment by Beijing, stressing it was not because of any desire to see Britain rule again.  Our freedom and everything else has gone downhill since [the handover] said 26-year-old Danny Chan from the Were Hong Kongese, not Chinese Facebook group, which has been liked by nearly 30,000 people.  Hong Kongs semi-autonomous status enshrines civil liberties not seen in mainland China, including the right to protest, until 2047 under the one country, two systems handover agreement.
> 
> Chan cited housing prices that stubbornly remained among the worlds highest and the widening income gap between the rich and the poor as factors driving the increasingly frequent protests in the city.  Many Hong Kongers blame increased immigration from mainland China for high house prices and overcrowding in local hospitals.  Chan said that the flags symbolized anger and the perceived erosion of the rule of law in Hong Kong since 1997.  Hong Kongs core values and the rule of law have been gradually destroyed until there is almost nothing left, argued the computer engineer, who waved the flag at a mass rally on Jan. 1 to demand that Leung step down.  Dixon Sing, a political analyst at Hong Kongs University of Science and Technology, said the protesters believe the Chinese Communist Party has been undermining those core values and reneging on the promise of giving Hong Kong two systems.
> 
> The increased visibility of the old emblem has sparked tensions at a time when China is ushering in a new batch of leaders who yearn for order and stability in the Asian financial hub.  The British Council, which promotes cultural and educational ties overseas, unwittingly became embroiled in the controversy recently when advertisements for an education fair bearing the Union Jack became the center of attention.  Comments such as Great Britain built Great Hong Kong! were posted on the British consulates Facebook page and linked to the posters.  The advertisements were hastily removed due to the possibility of misinterpretation, a British Council spokeswoman said.  The waving of the old flag has drawn criticism from Chen Zuoer, the former No. 2 mainland Chinese official in Hong Kong, who reportedly said last year that it should be sent to history museums.
> 
> More Colonial flags fly again as anger grows in Hong Kong over erosion of freedom - Taipei Times


----------



## waltky

Dissent & democracy in Taiwan could be a model for China...

*Repressing dissent kills democracy*
_Wed, Jul 31, 2013 - The right to dissent is an important fundamental value that is universally cherished by modern democratic states. In democratic culture and under constitutional rule, the need to respect dissenting views is seen as self-evident. Truly democratic societies do not just tolerate dissent, they encourage it._


> Democratic governments should use institutional means to ensure that dissidents can openly express opinions that differ from the mainstream without fear of reprisal. Authorities should also safeguard the right of dissidents to criticize the government, even provocatively.  Taiwans Constitution protects dissidents freedom of speech for good reason, namely to promote genuine competition in the marketplace of ideas so all kinds of opinions can compete openly. Offered a wide range of information and opinions available, people will then be able to seek out the truth, as well as deepen their knowledge and gain enlightenment from exposure to new ideas.
> 
> Freely competing ideas nurture autonomous citizenship and facilitate individuals quest for self-actualization, so when those who support societys majority opinions are willing to protect so-called minority dissidents it provides them with room to grow through the absorption of knowledge and ideas, even if they are only doing so in anticipation of the day when they find themselves in the minority.  The reason the Constitution guarantees dissidents freedom of expression is to ensure that ordinary people, having entrusted their rulers with the power to govern through regular elections, remain the masters of the nation. Therefore, no matter who is ruling the country at any particular time, constitutions protect peoples right to have and express views that oppose those of their rulers.
> 
> Constitutions safeguard the publics right to engage in unfettered criticism of the government, to keep an eye on the government in case it abuses its powers and even encourage the exposure of abuses by whistleblowers who are familiar with the inner workings of government.  Only when the right to dissent is guaranteed can citizens genuinely participate in a democracy. This participation is the source of a societys vitality, serves as a corrective balance for rulers biases and is the essential motivating force driving a society to engage in collective reflection and institutional reform.  Democracies need to provide multiple channels through which the public can express any dissenting views they have and to supervise the government to ensure that policymaking is legitimate and transparent.
> 
> Governments have a duty to provide concrete, detailed information about their governance and policymaking, engage in genuine dialogue with their citizens and allow themselves to be tested.  However, instead of fulfilling these duties, the Taiwanese government paternalistically trumpets the supposed benefits of controversial policies such as the cross-strait service trade agreement, while accusing anyone who disagrees with its opinion of drawing a distorted picture of the policies.  If there is no frank, open dialogue between the state and the public, how can anyone judge which side is doing the distorting? If ordinary people have no access to genuine dialogue and no way of supervising the government, it should hardly come as a surprise when guerrilla-like protests pop up everywhere.
> 
> More Repressing dissent kills democracy - Taipei Times


----------



## waltky

Granny hopin' dey don't nationalize dat rickshaw company she got stock in...

*Chinas reforms at a critical junction*
_Tue, Dec 31, 2013 - As China celebrated the 120th anniversary of former leader Mao Zedongs birth, there has been much discussion about his legacy in the early 21st century._


> In light of an economic slowdown, Chinas communist leaders are likely to confront many structural obstacles next year.  These problems are exacerbated by several explosive factors such as a lack of prosperity, high inflation and unemployment rates, rampant corruption and incompetent government that is devoid of democratic legitimacy.  Since its founding on Oct. 1, 1949, the Peoples Republic of China was neither a reproduction of the Soviet Union model nor an incarnation of the ancient Confucian empire.  The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) distinguished itself from previous regimes by extending its political power to control society, the economy and national culture.  The Maoist regime tightened control at all levels, dominating political, social, economic and cultural domains.
> 
> However, everything changed following a series of important political moments.  The most notorious movement was the Cultural Revolution (lasting from 1966 to 1976) that was launched to activate popular radicalism in support of Mao, but almost brought down the regime.
> The state only survived this movement by effectively suppressing the popular outpourings that Mao had encouraged.  Since then, communism as a unifying ideology collapsed and pragmatism prevailed under former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and his successors.
> 
> From the 1980s, economic growth has become the peoples common hope and desire, and thus the only collective value supporting the CCPs legitimacy.  Combining the transformative power of the market economy and stability of authoritarian rule, CCP leaders have adapted certain tenets of capitalism such as opening to foreign investment, deregulating the labor market and building infrastructure, while maintaining firm control over the government, military, public security and information.  However, accompanying Chinas economic miracle are authoritarianism and domestic conflict.
> 
> Because of explosive grievances caused by the states aggressive development strategies and reluctance to liberalize its authoritarian system, a rising China that denies its citizens what they desire  such as job security, healthcare, gender equality and freedom  drives discontented sections of society to mobilize for collective action in order to guarantee security, solace and justice.  Popular protest has become a prominent mode of political participation, and the dangers of ineffective governance will be reflected internally.  As many as 180,000 strikes, demonstrations and protests were reported in 2010. This is an average of 493 incidents per day.
> 
> This official figure indicates a dramatic increase from the 90,000 incidents documented in 2006 and fewer than 9,000 in the mid-1990s.  China is now confronting the negative aspects of economic liberalization.  Unprecedented growth gave China a temporary reprieve, but the national economy has slowed down and the state has yet to offer a sustainable social developmental strategy.  As China is trapped in a perceptual cycle of discontent, time seems to be running out for Chinese President Xi Jinping  to resolve these internal problems and place the country on the right track.
> 
> China?s reforms at a critical junction - Taipei Times


----------



## waltky

The more things change - the more they remain the same...

*25 Years After Tiananmen Massacre, China Still Won't Tolerate Dissent*
_May 22, 2014 --  The more things change in China, the more they stay the same," Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) said in his opening statement at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China hearing held on Capitol Hill Tuesday to mark the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre._


> In 1989, the Chinese government used guns and tanks to suppress the peoples demands for freedom and transparency. In 2014, they use arrests, discrimination, torture, and censorship to discourage those who seek basic freedoms and human rights,  Smith noted.  The human rights situation in China seems to be worse since the 1989 protests, agreed Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH)  in his opening remarks at Tuesdays hearing.  Eight hundred million people in China still dont enjoy the basic right to vote. Chinese citizens, including those who in recent weeks have bravely tried to commemorate those events of a quarter century ago, are imprisoned simply for peacefully exercising their right to free speech, to assembly, to religion, Brown said.
> 
> In the lead-up to the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre on June 4, 1989, the Chinese government continues to crack down on any signs of dissent.  On May 16, human rights lawyer Tang Jingling was arrested for picking quarrels and provoking trouble, according to his wife, Wang Yanfang. A number of personal items were also reportedly taken from his home by Chinese authorities.  Writers Liu Di and Hu Shigen, human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, retired scholar Xu Youyou, and professor Hao Jian were all criminally detained after they participated in a privately held seminar on May 3rd commemorating the events of 1989.
> 
> And Xu Guang, a student leader during the Tiananmen protests and a pro-democracy activist, was arrested April 2nd on charges of subversion.  Tiananmen did not end in 1989, Dr. Rowena He, writer and Harvard lecturer, reminded those attending the Tiananmen at 25 hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building. It is not just about then, it is about now.  The current crackdown is part of ongoing governmental action against lawyers, activists, and scholars as the anniversary of the protest draws near, according to the congressional commission.  The Tiananmen Square protests began peacefully in Beijing on April 18, 1989 after the death of former Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang, who had become a pro-democracy symbol.
> 
> However, on the night of June 3-4, an undetermined number of unarmed students and civilian protesters were fired upon by the Chinese Army. Although an official death toll has never been released, estimates of the fatalities range from several hundred to several thousand.  Eyewitness Liane Lee shared her experience of the massacre during Tuesdays hearing. Theres a big contrast there, she said. The people - they are so peaceful, they are so noble, and they do believe in the power of peace. And the government . . . used heavy weapons to kill the people.  Lee, a student from Hong Kong at the time, said she was rescued from the square by an ambulance driver. You must leave the square safely, you must go back to Hong Kong. We need you to tell the world what happened here, what our government did to us tonight, the driver reportedly told Lee.  Other witnesses at the hearing included former U.S. Ambassadors to China . Stapleton Roy and Winston Lord.
> 
> 25 Years After Tiananmen Massacre, China Still Won't Tolerate Dissent | CNS News



See also:

*Chinese President in Veiled Warning to the US: Dont Try to Monopolize Regional Affairs*
_May 22, 2014  Buoyed by the signing of a massive deal to buy Russian natural gas for the next 30 years, Chinese President Xi Jinping called Wednesday for a new security framework for Asia, in a speech which Chinese state media said contained veiled warnings to the United States._


> Someone who tries to blow out anothers oil lamp will set his beard on fire, Xi told a summit of regional leaders in Shanghai.  The state-run China Daily suggested that the expression, a Kazakh proverb, was directed at America: Beijing is urging Washington to get used to Chinas rise and take a proper role in the region, which is the worlds economic engine but is also prone to security threats.
> 
> That same expression  get used to Chinas rise  made an appearance in an editorial last week in the Communist Party-affiliated Global Times, referring to territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas, where China sees the U.S. as siding with Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines in their respective tussles with Beijing.  No country should seek the so-called absolute security of itself at the expense of the security of other countries, Xi told the gathering in Shanghai, speaking out against what he called outdated Cold War thinking and zero-sum games.  No country should attempt to monopolize regional affairs or infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of other countries, he added, calling for Asian problems to be solved by Asians themselves.
> 
> Xi was addressing a summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), a forum of 26 countries stretching from Turkey to the Far East.  China is assuming the rotating presidency of the grouping until 2016, and Xi used his keynote speech to propose an upgrading in its status. Describing it as the biggest and most representative regional security forum, he called for steps to further build CICAs institutional arrangements and set up mechanisms for defense consultations among members.  The call to enhance CICAs status may also be a message to outsiders to leave Asia to sort out Asian matters. An existing Asia-focused regional security grouping, the 27-member, 20 year-old ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), includes China, Russia and many of the other CICA members  but also the United States, Canada and European Union.
> 
> In an analysis of the new Asian security concept put forward by Xi, Beijings Xinhua news agency said the security situation in the region was being complicated by secret maneuvers by players from other parts of the world.  Asia is the home of Asians, and Asian security immediately concerns their vital interests, it said. Thus, it is an inherent and inescapable duty of Asians to keep their own courtyard in order.  Participating leaders at the two-day CICA summit included Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Hasan Rouhani and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.  On the sidelines, Xi and Putin oversaw the signing of a $400 billion gas deal, the biggest in the history of the Russian state-owned gas supplier Gazprom, the worlds largest gas company.
> 
> MORE


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## SayMyName

editec said:


> The formerly communist elite have embraced predatory capitalism.
> 
> They are where we were (sort of) back around 1900.
> 
> The solution for China is UNIONISM, except the formerly predatory communist elite (now turned into predatory capitalist elite) will  -- much as our "captains of inudstry" did in the beginning of our period of industrial unionism -- set the troops upon the workers.
> 
> 
> Tragically, the USA is headed to where China is, even as China is headed to where we used to be.



I don't know if they have embraced predatory capitalism, but I agree that in many ways they are where we were in the 1900's with the rise of the Robber Barons. After that, we had our birthing process of almost 50 years or more until that wealth was more equitably distributed, mostly after World War 2 with the rise of the Baby Boomers. China will need the same adjustment period, though judging by my business and academic roundtables here, it will not be as long a wait. Most business, academic, and political leaders are already acknowledging among themselves that something must be done to bring all of the nation into the prosperity circle that has come for some in recent years. They are addressing pollution, education, and scores of other issues, seemingly much sooner than we did at the same time in history after our own economic coming out. It will take some time, but this will mainly be accomplished, as most acknowledge, once China makes that tenuous shift from selling its goods abroad, to itself, the largest market in the world. That is when the real prosperity will begin, and the benefits to all to be enjoyed.

Exciting times here in China. I am glad to be here to see this all taking place on a day to day basis. For, it isn't just the history of China that is taking place, but that of the world. This could very well end up being their century, just as the last one was ours in America.


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## SillyWabbit

Well, it's too bad the end of the world is nigh--thanks to AGW. 

China: enjoy your prosperity, as short-lived as it will be. 

Good thing we got ours!


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## waltky

China gettin' ready to stifle dissent...

*Armored Chinese vehicles cause alarm in Hong Kong*
_Sat, Aug 30, 2014 - Hong Kong democracy advocates expressed alarm yesterday after Chinese army vehicles were photographed traveling down a major thoroughfare, in what they condemned as a show of “military might” ahead of expected protests._


> At least four People’s Liberation Army (PLA) armored personnel carriers were seen late Thursday night near the busy Jordan and Yau Ma Tei regions of the city, the Apple Daily newspaper reported.  The vehicles, with short guns mounted on turrets, were spotted at a time of heightened public discontent in the semi-autonomous territory over perceived interference by Beijing and a debate over how the next chief executive is to be chosen under planned reforms.  Beijing has promised that the former British colony will be able to vote for its own leader in 2017.
> 
> However, it has insisted on vetting candidates through a pro-Beijing nominating committee, a move activists fear would disqualify anyone critical of the mainland authorities.  A pro-democracy group, Occupy Central, has pledged to mobilize thousands of protesters to block the financial district if authorities refuse to allow the public to choose candidates.  Organizers plan to hold a rally tomorrow when the top committee of China’s rubber-stamp legislature is expected to announce what form the political changes will take.
> 
> Pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo said she believed the movement of the armored carriers was a deliberate attempt to frighten activists ahead of the protests.  “It’s a show of military might to scare off Hong Kong people who are about to stage some large-scale civil disobedience activity. The timing is very suspicious,” she said.  Occupy co-founder Chan Kin-man said the movement would not be cowed.  “The central government is intentionally creating fear in the community so that they can scare away our supporters,” he said.  The Hong Kong government declined to comment on the sightings while the PLA did not immediately respond to reporters’ inquiries.
> 
> The Chinese army and navy have bases in Hong Kong, but have generally kept a low profile since the former colony was handed over to China in 1997.  Tanks are often viewed by Hong Kongers as a symbol of Beijing’s autocratic tendencies.  During frequent pro-democracy protests in the city, activists often make homemade tanks in reference to the famous “Tank Man” photograph taken during the Tiananmen Square crackdown of June 4, 1989.  “Oh no, it’s really going to be a copy of June 4th,” Teresa Leung, an Apple Daily reader, commented on their report.  “If they use force to suppress Occupy Central, the result would be unimaginable,” Tina Ho added on the paper’s Web site.
> 
> http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2014/08/30/2003598630


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## waltky

Granny says, "Dat's right - dey want dey's MTV...

*Hong Kong democracy is China’s nightmare*
_Mon, Sep 01, 2014 - Hong Kong is now facing a series of governance crises: a stagnant economy, an incompetent government void of any legitimacy, its marginalization by the fast-growing cities of Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing, and persistent tensions with China over universal suffrage in elections for the territory’s chief executive and legislators._


> China introduced highly restrictive conditions on the nomination of candidates for the first direct election of the territory’s chief executive in 2017. Pledging allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party is to be taken as a precondition for becoming a chief executive, legislator or judge.  Hong Kongers have supported the Occupy Central with Love and Peace campaign. China has publicly condemned the pro-democracy activists as terrorists and traitors. It has deployed extreme nationalistic rhetoric and party-controlled propaganda in a smear campaign to justify the use of violence against the protesters.
> 
> Revealing the remnants of authoritarian thinking and China’s obsession with total control, this scare tactic is not what Hong Kong needs. It will polarize the division between pro-democracy and pro-Beijing supporters, undermine the fragile governing institutions and strengthen China’s conservative hardliners, seeking to maintain the “status quo” and put a brake on the territory’s democratization.
> 
> Beijing’s handpicked Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-Ying has done nothing to mediate tensions between China and the territory. His tenure has been marked by public outrages, rampant corruption and failure to fulfill campaign promises to promote social and economic equality. He has promoted cronies to senior posts in his Cabinet and undermined the freedom of press. In a rally on July 1, demonstrators called for his resignation.
> 
> Despite the odds, all is not lost for Hong Kong. The latest US pivot to Asia presents the territory an opportunity to position itself as a laboratory of democratic activism on Chinese soil and gives its civil society much international attention to pursue its own agenda.  To resolve conflicts and regain confidence, a smarter approach for China is to put in place universal suffrage for Hong Kong’s chief executive and legislators. This will require direct and equal negotiation between Hong Kongers and the Chinese leadership.
> 
> Hong Kong democracy is China s nightmare - Taipei Times


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## waltky

possum wonderin' if ever'body kung-fu fightin'?...

*Hong Kong Pro-democracy protestors in for long haul*
_Sun, Oct 12, 2014 - Hundreds of student activists camped at major protest sites in Hong Kong last night as the territory’s democracy movement sought to regather momentum after the government called off talks with its leaders aimed at defusing unrest in the global financial hub._


> Protests escalated late last month, after Beijing’s decision on Aug. 31 to impose conditions for nominations that would effectively stop pro-democracy candidates from contesting an election of Hong Kong’s chief executive set for 2017.  The “Occupy Central” movement has suffered a noticeable dip in support over the past week, but strong crowds of more than 10,000 returned on Friday evening for a series of rallies in the former British colony.  By yesterday afternoon, many protesters were coming back again to join the stalwarts who had camped overnight.  “Hong Kong is my home, we are fighting for Hong Kong’s future, our future,” said Lawrence Chan, a 23 year-old media studies student, who has participated in the protests from the outset.
> 
> Hong Kong Chief Secretary Carrie Lam on Thursday said the government had called off talks with the students because of their persistent calls to escalate action.  Since taking to the streets around two weeks ago, the activists have blockaded major roads around the government precinct in Admiralty district, as well as the shopping districts of Central and Causeway Bay.  At Friday’s rallies, protest leaders urged demonstrators to prepare for a protracted struggle instead of expanding the protests geographically. The protests have led to some resentment among the public due to the resulting traffic jams and loss of business.  It was unclear how long Hong Kong authorities will tolerate the occupation or how the standoff might be resolved. However, for now the police presence remains thin with authorities seemingly reluctant to risk fresh flare-ups.
> 
> Riot police had cracked down on protesters massing near the government headquarters on Sept. 28, but the authorities have taken a softer line since.  More than 100 colorful tents were sprinkled across the eight-lane Harcourt Road highway, among scores of red-and-blue portable marquees serving as supply and first aid stations stocked with water, biscuits, noodles and cereals.  “We have tents here to show our determination that we’re prepared for a long term occupation,” said Benny Tai, one of the leaders of the movement, emerging bleary-eyed yesterday morning from a tent pitched outside the Hong Kong government’s headquarters.  Scores of people ran a marathon in support of the students early yesterday and bridges remained festooned with umbrellas, protest art demanding full democracy and satirical images lampooning Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying.
> 
> The Occupy Central protests, an idea conceived more than a year ago referring to the Central business district, have presented Beijing with one of its biggest political challenges since it crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in and around Tiananmen Square in the Chinese capital in 1989.  In the first direct public comments by a senior Chinese leader in response to the protests, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Hong Kong authorities had the ability to protect the territory’s economic prosperity and social stability.  Since Britain handed back control in 1997, China has ruled Hong Kong through a “one country, two systems” formula which allows wide-ranging autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland and specifies universal suffrage as an eventual goal.
> 
> MORE



See also:

*World watches Beijing in Hong Kong*
_Tue, Oct 07, 2014 - BIG BROTHER: The means of surveillance have been turned on the CCP by the international media, and its reaction is being scrutinized in Lhasa, Urumqi and Taipei_


> As thousands of protesters continue to rally on the streets of Hong Kong, challenging Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders by calling for democratic reforms, much of the world anxiously awaits signs of how Beijing plans to react to their demands.  However, the anticipation is perhaps felt most keenly along China’s borders, both within the country and beyond, where the Chinese government’s authoritarian ways have been most apparent.  Among Tibetans and Uighurs, beleaguered ethnic minorities in China’s far west, there is hope that the protests draws international scrutiny to what these minorities say are Beijing’s broken promises for greater autonomy.
> 
> The CCP’s refusal to talk with pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong, exiled activists add, also highlights a longstanding complaint among many ethnic minority groups in China — that the party relies on force over dialogue when dealing with politically delicate matters.  “We’ve seen this movie before, but when people stand up to the Chinese government in places like Lhasa or Urumqi and meet brutal resistance, there is no foreign media to show the world what’s happening,” Uighur-American lawyer and activist Nury Turke said. “The difference here is what’s happening in Hong Kong is taking place in real time, for all the world to see.”
> 
> Few places are watching the protests as closely as Taiwan which Beijing claims is part of China. Beijing’s refusal to grant Hong Kong the free elections that it had promised when the former British colony was returned to China in 1997 — a move that prompted the protests — has sharpened opposition to President Ma Ying-jeou and his efforts to forge closer ties with China.  The “one country, two systems” framework, a political arrangement that has given Hong Kongers a raft of liberties unknown on the mainland, was first conceived of as a framework for reunification between Taiwan and China. Although relations have improved in recent years, the two sides have never signed a peace accord, and Beijing retains the option of taking Taiwan by force.  “As we closely follow events in Hong Kong, we have this feeling that in the not-so-distant future, we could very well end up like Hong Kong,” National Sun Yat-sen University professor Titus Chen said. “Today it’s Hong Kong; tomorrow it might be Taiwan.”
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A policeman speaks during demonstrations in Kowloon’s Mong Kok area in Hong Kong
> 
> No matter how the impasse is resolved, the struggle unfolding in Hong Kong is already a public-relations nightmare for Beijing. Outside China, scenes of peaceful student protesters sprayed with tear gas and bloodied by thugs have elicited unwelcome comparisons to the CCP’s response to 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square.  The protests in Hong Kong, playing out in real time on social media and beamed across the world by international media outlets, also threaten to complicate Beijing’s ambitious efforts to improve its image abroad. In recent days, rallies in Singapore, Seoul, Manila and elsewhere have drawn thousands of people expressing solidarity with demonstrators in Hong Kong.
> 
> South Korea’s Yonsei University professor of East Asian studies John Delury said his students, many of whom come from countries across Asia, have been paying close attention to the events in Hong Kong.  “I think the impact on young people across Asia could be much bigger than what Beijing anticipates,” he said, adding that Hong Kong’s role as regional purveyor of pop culture and a center for international finance was critical. “From a soft-power perspective, if anything remotely like what happened in 1989 occurs in Hong Kong, China can kiss its soft power goodbye for a couple of decades.”
> 
> MORE


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## Truman123

You'll be glad to know this site isn't blocked in China.


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## waltky

China crackin' down on free speech...

* China’s crackdown on free speech sparking growing dissent*
_Sunday, Mar. 20, 2016 - A member of China’s top political advisory body calling for free speech. An employee at the state-run Xinhua news service publicly decrying the “massive” suppression of online expression. The granddaughter of a famous Chinese military general openly calling for democracy. A Communist-controlled news site publishing a letter demanding the resignation of President Xi Jinping._


> Mr. Xi’s China, thrust into an ideological tightening with echoes of the Cultural Revolution, wasn’t supposed to look like this. But like a spring that recoils after it has been squeezed too tightly, some are fighting back, giving rare voice to internal dissent in an increasingly authoritarian state. It’s far from a revolution.  Yet the past few weeks have seen a remarkable succession of challenges to China’s authoritarian tack under Mr. Xi, which has included detaining hundreds of human-rights and labour advocates, proscribing religious freedoms, scrubbing homosexual and other “immoral” content from television, aggressively censoring social media and demanding that traditional media fall into line with Communist Party dictates.  “Enough is enough. It’s bound to trigger some kind of reaction,” said Bao Pu, a publisher in Hong Kong whose father is a high-ranking Communist official turned political prisoner and dissident after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. “What you see is just the tip of the iceberg of discontent.”
> 
> It has come from unexpected places. Jiang Hong, a professor at the Shanghai University of Finance, is a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which makes him political high society. But during meetings of China’s rubber-stamp Congress this month, Prof. Jiang struck a defiant tone.  “The rights to speak freely must be protected,” he told Caixin, a financial publication. The comments were deleted, as was a subsequent article documenting the censorship.  Prof. Jiang has refused to be cowed. “I think it’s necessary to talk about this topic,” he said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.  “A citizen’s right to free speech and right to speak out are very important to a healthy, harmonious and legal society. Without them, it will be hard for us to supervise the government, and manage government so that it can work for the people.”
> 
> 
> 
> 
> It’s not a new cause for Prof. Jiang. Two years ago, he proposed a bill to enshrine those rights entitled “Only Democracy Can Radically Cure Corruption.” At the time, party press covered the proposal. Over the previous decade, a loosening environment had made critical commentary more routine.  Now, however, “it has reached a kind of extreme state, which involves simply deleting comments and barring you from speaking,” Prof. Jiang said. “The degree of change is striking.”  He struggles to understand what he has done wrong, saying he has broken no rules or regulations. China’s own constitution says, “Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech.”  What is happening today is “a new phenomenon. In the past, only ordinary Netizens were censored like this,” said Qiao Mu, an associate professor of journalism at Beijing Foreign Studies University.
> 
> Prof. Qiao has himself been caught in the clampdown. An advocate of Western-style journalism, he has been barred from teaching and research, relegated instead to translation and book reviews in the university’s library. He stood before his last class in June, 2014. “They think you have dangerous thoughts,” he said. “It’s a minor Cultural Revolution. They control people’s minds, their speech, their writing and publications.  He referred to Document No. 9, an internal party document from 2013 that listed “seven no’s” for China, including Western-style democracy, the promotion of universal human-rights values, and Western philosophies on media and civil society.  The Chinese President is reinstating a “patriarchal, hierarchical, traditional autocratic culture where the emperor – the leader of the Communist Party – rules all,” Jasmine Bernstein Yin, a Columbia University student, wrote in The Australian in March, in another public call for change.  She was raised in China but educated mostly abroad since the age of 12, and her writing has attracted attention because of her lineage: She is the granddaughter of Ye Jianying, a Mao-era general and former Chinese head of state.
> 
> MORE


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