Wow this letter is fascinating. It is really well written to educate people about policies around which they could rally. I wonder how many Chinese have read this. Probably not much will come of it but it is cool to see some people sacrificing themselves to educate the population. I think Chinese are, on balance, in a greater state of fear / hypochondria than even Americans. They can't even protest. Who knows though, maybe we will live to see free speech in China. That would be nuts.
Disney will threaten to stop filming in Georgia over an anti-LGBT law. But they will gladly enter a business partnership with the communist Chinese government to build a theme park.
Does anyone have a link to the letter itself, preferably in English translation? Making sense of this story depends a lot on the content of that letter and on whether any accusations in it are true.
Does anyone care to speculate on the odds that the Communist Party of China loses power/control in the next 5 years? 10 years? From the other side of the world I don't have any idea how likely this is, and I never see anyone discuss it.
Anything could happen but I don't see any indication. Other countries seem content with China as a cheap source of labor. The ruling party is obviously content to be in power. People aren't happy but are having trouble unifying. Protests are in pockets and always silenced thus far. I could see it happening with some technology that leveraged the internet in a manner that was unblockable and untraceable by the government. Not really sure what that'd look like though.
I'm in Taiwan and have been to China a couple times. Taiwan got lucky and a former leader installed democracy here in the late 1980s. I'm probably oversimplifying. Before that, for 80 years, the Taiwan government, which used to be in China before they fled after losing a civil war after WW II, touted democracy. But it wasn't until the late 1980s that they actually did what they said they believed in. It was a loooong process of releasing power.
pretty unlikely. even the governments harshest critics wouold honestly have to agree that the general prospects of the average chinese citizen has been steadily getting better in a very palpable way. the horrible oppression and control remains but day to day is clearly getting better for many years, in those type of situations there is almost never regime change.
Crappy rule of law sucks for activists but it's awesome for the construction industry. Anytime you're stuck in traffic next to highway construction in the west, just imagine the chinese coming in with a cement truck and finishing the project overnight.
We're going to see more of this behavior as their economy continues to tank. They're solving a real problem -- how do you explain to 500 million poor people why the gaokao is stacked to stop them moving up?
At least china has a solution. Every large & diverse country is going to be facing this problem within a decade. Rich people are going to have access to some really awesome stuff (VR video games, 10x adderall, stem cell plastic surgery -- you name it) and it won't be a meritocracy.
The chinese tolerate this because the economy is growing at an incredible pace. They wouldn't risk a revolution( and possibly disrupt the growth)for freedom of speech.
The govt legitimizes its actions by offering improved living standards for everyone.
"Mr Xi has come under fire for hosting the summit as several women's rights activists were held earlier this year for planning a demonstration against sexual harassment on public transport."
Are they scapegoating or is it very likely they have evidence he was the one to write the letter? He is quite adamant he did not write it but the Chinese Government seems quite competent at getting information and it seems counterintuitive to just blame some random schmuck.
You could certainly be forgiven for thinking that - the CCP still did most of the same stuff, it was just less blatant about it. Xi Jinping has been taking a slightly more 'robust' approach.
China had a period of greater international exposure leading up to and then after the olympics so they naturally took a less aggressive approach - think house arrest rather than re-education camp.
In addition, compared to Mao and the actions of the Politburo during and after the Tiananmen Square Massacre, almost everything looks 'better'.
The CCP is trying to walk a tightrope between a stronger role in a globalised world and running the sort of insular police state which is its bread and butter. This sort of thing does leak out from time to time, but for every report which meets the outside world, there are others which don't catch the media's attention.
I wonder what is the balance now between social dissent and power in China. At some point any dictatorship will crumble if people don't want to accept it anymore.
>because Guthrie continued to respond to Elliott's tweets, the judge said Elliott didn't know he was harassing her, even though he knew she had blocked his account.
> The Chinese government has consistently and strongly denied any complicity in human rights abuses, but says those who break the law must be punished.
The Chinese government wouldn't know what a human rights abuse was if one waterboarded it in the face.
Mikeb85|10 years ago
One of the lines, a veiled threat to his safety:
> We are worried that this type of inner-Party power struggle may also bring risks to the personal safety of you and your family.
studentrob|10 years ago
forrestthewoods|10 years ago
maratd|10 years ago
jimrandomh|10 years ago
Mikeb85|10 years ago
It does contain threats to Xi Jinping and his family for his anti-corruption campaign, so that may explain the state's reaction.
> We are worried that this type of inner-Party power struggle may also bring risks to the personal safety of you and your family.
elevensies|10 years ago
studentrob|10 years ago
I'm in Taiwan and have been to China a couple times. Taiwan got lucky and a former leader installed democracy here in the late 1980s. I'm probably oversimplifying. Before that, for 80 years, the Taiwan government, which used to be in China before they fled after losing a civil war after WW II, touted democracy. But it wasn't until the late 1980s that they actually did what they said they believed in. It was a loooong process of releasing power.
apalmer|10 years ago
joedavison|10 years ago
DougN7|10 years ago
awinter-py|10 years ago
We're going to see more of this behavior as their economy continues to tank. They're solving a real problem -- how do you explain to 500 million poor people why the gaokao is stacked to stop them moving up?
At least china has a solution. Every large & diverse country is going to be facing this problem within a decade. Rich people are going to have access to some really awesome stuff (VR video games, 10x adderall, stem cell plastic surgery -- you name it) and it won't be a meritocracy.
dominotw|10 years ago
The govt legitimizes its actions by offering improved living standards for everyone.
outside1234|10 years ago
sharetea|10 years ago
China angered by Hillary Clinton tweet on women's rights http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-34377406
"Mr Xi has come under fire for hosting the summit as several women's rights activists were held earlier this year for planning a demonstration against sexual harassment on public transport."
unknown|10 years ago
[deleted]
Negative1|10 years ago
sehr|10 years ago
johnzim|10 years ago
China had a period of greater international exposure leading up to and then after the olympics so they naturally took a less aggressive approach - think house arrest rather than re-education camp.
In addition, compared to Mao and the actions of the Politburo during and after the Tiananmen Square Massacre, almost everything looks 'better'.
The CCP is trying to walk a tightrope between a stronger role in a globalised world and running the sort of insular police state which is its bread and butter. This sort of thing does leak out from time to time, but for every report which meets the outside world, there are others which don't catch the media's attention.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/asia-and-the-pacific/ch...
shmerl|10 years ago
dominotw|10 years ago
Edit: why the downvotes?. This pertains to freedom of speech online in democratic west.
andromeduck|10 years ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_v_Elliott
>because Guthrie continued to respond to Elliott's tweets, the judge said Elliott didn't know he was harassing her, even though he knew she had blocked his account.
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/toronto/twitter-harassmen...
quonn|10 years ago
sharetea|10 years ago
as well as bookstores in Hong Kong airport being replaced by "Chinese friendly" ones http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/artic...
markdown|10 years ago
FTFY
radicalman|10 years ago
[deleted]
vinceguidry|10 years ago
The Chinese government wouldn't know what a human rights abuse was if one waterboarded it in the face.
dominotw|10 years ago
Yea its not like they are lifting millions out of poverty every year.