[jimclegg]

>A democratic society can fix laws that don't live up to its ideals. A lawless, autocratic society cannot.

China has mechanisms to change laws but they have to be routed through the proper channels. From what I understand, individuals can complain all they want, as long as they don't organize outside of these designated channels.

This definitely pisses off the % of western governments that use "grassroots" movements as an attack vector to undermine unfavorable foreign governments.

[blaser-waffle]

To paraphrase Yakov Smirnoff: "USA and Soviet Union have same freedom. In USA I can I can drive to White House and complain about Reagan; in Soviet Russia I can also drive to Kremlin and complain about Reagan."

[SomeOldThrow]

Complaining about Reagan didn’t do much to protect us anyway, we gave our power away willingly.

[jdm2212]

The only effective way to change laws is to organize. "you can change laws, but you can't organize to do so" is in effect saying you cannot change the laws. And that's by design -- China is an autocracy.

[stickfigure]

"Individuals can complain all they want, as long as it is in their own homes, with no more than two individuals present, and they must be blood-related."