China's Crackdown Grows

Noted contemporary artist Ai Weiwei hasn't been heard from since being detained on April 3. His detention is but the most prominent in Beijing's widening crackdown on civil unrest.

APRIL 4, 2011

Ai Weiwei, China's most famous artist and co-designer of the iconic "Bird's Nest" Olympic stadium, was detained at Beijing Capital Airport on April 3 as he attempted to board a flight to Hong Kong. (Last fall, he was briefly detained to prevent him from attending a scheduled "demolition party" to mark the government-ordered destruction of his Shanghai studio.) He has not been heard from since being detained, a highly unusual and worrying sign.

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 SUBJECTS: CHINA
 

MARTY MARTEL

2:10 PM ET

April 5, 2011

U. S. embrace strengthened Communist Party's hold

Chinese people have to thank none other than this beacon of democracy, freedom and human rights called U. S. of A. for their plight under the Communist rule for foreseeable future.

That Nixon-Kissinger embrace in 1972 and subsequent U. S. actions have strengthened Communist Party’s hold on Chinese society by allowing it to adopt a capitalist model under party and state authority. All the Western and East Asian democracies stayed away from China following the U. S. lead until 1972 and rushed to embrace China after Nixon visit. Opening of Western and East Asian markets has afforded Chinese Communist dictatorship to employ millions of Chinese, thereby preventing any popular outburst due to economic hardships that is causing lot of current Middle East unrest.

Had it not been for that Nixon embrace in 1972, China’s economic progress would have been far more slower with all the US, West European and East Asian markets closed to cheap Chinese products. Had it not been for that Nixon embrace, China’s technological progress would have been far slower in the absence of West’s technology transfers. Had it not been for that Nixon embrace, China’s military progress would have been far slower in the absence of huge forex reserves that China accumulated from the massive exports of cheap Chinese products and China used those forex reserves to acquire latest military technology.

China’s rise to super power status to challenge US is a fitting monument to the much-celebrated foresight of Nixon-Kissinger to embrace China to counter Soviet Union in 1972 just as 9/11 attacks is a fitting monument to the Reagan embrace of Islamic fundamentalists to counter Soviet Union in 1980s Afghanistan.

 

BILL888

2:59 PM ET

April 27, 2011

Past and Post

Are you still blaming Nixon to keep the world to be saved. I blame the Soviet not to deploy nuclear war on Cuba. I don't believe the USA will have a third world war because of that. I blame ZhengHe with his 200 fleets ships did not raid any one and occupied their land. China will be much wealthier if they did what the European did.

 

PUBLICUS

2:34 PM ET

April 5, 2011

The fascists in Beijing

The fascist reactionary and censoring dictators of the CCP in Beijing long ago threw the (already flawed) "Mandate of Heaven" down the crapper. Now begins the real headlock on dissidents and against even the mildest of free speech and some independent thought. Since the CCP in Beijing imprisoned the 2010 Nobel Peace Laureate Dr Liu Xiaobo Beijing has been emboldened by the weak reaction of democracies to disappear everyone else they don't like. Meanwhile Western multinational corporations continue to make a fat buck in the PRC. At least Google has decided to take a stand against reactionary fascist censorship and the CCP's gestapo henchmen and criminality. Let's see Western democracies take some meaningful action against the cut throat tyrants of Bejing.

 

FRIENDLY STRANGER

7:53 PM ET

April 19, 2011

Let's see you do some

Let's see you do some research before making such outlandish accusations?

First of all, if it weren't for Western colonialism, China would not even BE in such a state. Ever since the British introducing Opium into Chinese during the early 19th century, China has been in a constant struggle. The Kuomintang Party (currently in Taiwan) that had governed China since the fall of imperialism in 1911 was bloated with corruption and unsurprisingly, supported by Western factions. The people made the CHOICE to shift to communism and if it wasn't for that, China would be no better than most other developing nations; exactly where other nations want it to be.

True, accusations against human rights etc., can be attributed to the Communist Regime but is there any other nation you know of with over 1 billion people that DON'T have problems whether they be economic, political, or social? Your argument is completely one-sided and banal. Once again, another person with no working knowledge of China decides to post a comment on information that can be found in anywhere in the biased media. The author of this article simply drags up a few cases and attempts to make unsupported triangulations. What about Guantanamo Bay? Is that not considered an infraction on basic human rights? What about the attack and burning of the imperial palace by the eight-nation's alliance in the 1900s? Of course selling boatloads of Opium to a country and suppressing attempts by the GOVERNMENT to counteract such actions are acceptable in your opinion? Obviously no one mentions these examples when accusations against China come up because they do not benefit the argumenters

I would hope that the media in general would be less hypocritical and make more situational attributions to the events going on the fastest growing economy. Of course, that would be detrimental to foreign policy so I guess I can't expect much.

Ohh and don't pretend that you even care about those people, you don't. If it didn't suit political agendas, no one would even care about these issues.

 

BILL888

2:52 PM ET

April 27, 2011

Publicus: a pretender to be East Indian

Do you know India also put an restriction on freedom of travel in their own citizens: the Inner Line Permit and Foreign Permit. How do you defend that?

 

PUBLICUS

12:38 PM ET

May 4, 2011

@BILL888

It is just impossible for you to get it through your skull that my common ground with India is that India is, as with my native country of citizenship, the United States, a democracy and a democracy which has great diversity and thus strengths.

Otherwise, my view is that India and China are unlike any other countries of the world. India and China, each with more than 1 billion population, are the two countries of the world of nations which are in their own exclusive category, i.e., freak of nature countries.

The United States, number 3 in population, is working towards a population of 350 million by 2050 and Indonesia, #4, is working towards 300 million population.

Between them, India and China have 1/3 of the world's population. As I've pointed out, that's more than bizarre.

 

MIKEYBOI7

3:53 PM ET

April 23, 2011

China

China has always been a closed country. It has been like that since the warring period back in 250AD and it will stay like that. The government is very protective of how it is portrayed to the world and if it even smells a hint of criticism from anyone, even it's own people then they will clamp down, whether it be man or women, China is ruthless hence there are few who would speak out. There was a story a few years back about a equities trader who talked about the lack of western trading companies being able to operate in china because of it's closed door policy, 1 week later he was missing and never heard of again.

 

REJJA

3:21 AM ET

April 24, 2011

About China

China is the most difficult to deal with on the Human Rights issue as we have known all along that they hold a strict dictictorial government with great power and will kill all dissenters without mercy. The UN should intervene by presenting them with some sort of sanctions in not allowing opposition suggestions from their people. This subject was a big discussion on ingyenes aprohirdetesek but in Hungarian language.

 

RICK1987

7:20 AM ET

April 24, 2011

China Politics

Indeed Chinese government has one of the strictest governance in the world. China has a lot of people, and with a slight wrong movement, the entire cake can be effected. It was necessary to eliminate spread of diseases such as mesothelioma prognosis and so forth. Human rights issue is a major concern however the Chinese people are used to it. They respect and love their government.

 

JAMES143

9:01 AM ET

April 24, 2011

China

More population country in the world. Which has the cultural things followed by the people.
The country has huge Military power, which is effective.
Kindle conversion service

 

JASONSANDERS

5:15 AM ET

April 25, 2011

Chinas Problems

I have resided in China for nearly 2 yrs and I can just partly go along with that. I actually do feel fairly secure in some of the bigger metropolitan areas during the night, yet I cannot state the very same for 2nd and 3rd rate cities. Criminal offenses will go unreporte­d in most cases. And even though criminal activity (robbery and so forth.) never was much of an issue whenever Individuals were poor, these days with the increasing disparity in income and not enough women to marry you will find huge complications with it. Jealousy and insecurity­, simple recipes for tragedy IMHO.

I personally do not see the social unrest improving anytime soon. Nor does the CCP should you adhere to their methods. For the talk about their military services spending they are spending double the amount on interior security steps as well as their more recognized control of the web. There isn't any quick fixes for inflation, aging community, disproportion of females etc. Even if the one child policy was completely removed right away, it could be a generation or two before things began to balance out.

 

MIKEYBOI7

8:16 PM ET

April 26, 2011

China

what people don't realise is that what we may perceive as a brutal government in the western society, people in the east, namely china are used to what they would call a normal life. Though having said that, I couldn't live there, I am chinese myself and the suppression on freedom of speech is a joke, take for example google, which in the western world is the world's top search engine,you would think that it would be number in china, but it isn't....that spot belongs to Baidu. But even with all this suppression and a 1 party government, china is flourishing and fast becoming a world superpower, with US million dollar traders advising there clients to heavily pile cash into this rising superpower, it won't be long before china will overtake US as the dominant "THE WORLD POWER"

 

PUBLICUS

12:25 PM ET

May 4, 2011

THE world power

Who in his right mind would accept a reactionary censoring fascist dicatatorship of corrupt oligarch elites as "THE WORLD POWER"? What model is that to the societies and peoples of the world?

Only the Chinese sheeple with and among whom I have lived on the mainland the past 3 years are pleased to accept their "rightful" place as dictators of the world.

Google "fenqing" to see where the CCP-PRC is heading. The news to the world is not good.

 

JASONLE

8:45 PM ET

April 26, 2011

China

Totally agree, China's government these days can be seen as somewhat suppressive, un-engaging and totally stuck in a medieval time bubble, but the truth of the matter is, it has always been like this. China didn't become the most advance nation on earth back in 200BC because it had a fancy attitude, I love you kind of government, it did so because it was brutal, with an ever growing thirst for supremacy but at the mercy of absolute power which in China's case is taking away even the most basic of human rights.....freedom of speech. And like Mikeyboi said with a plethora of US multi million dollar traders urging there investors to invest more cash into China, the chance of it ever being a democracy in the near future is bleak. However, having said that, China is changing, not giant steps but slow baby steps. Take for example mobile companies, with China Mobile being the biggest in China and having a complete mobile monopoly for years, it has in recent years open up to competition allowing western companies a slice of the billion dollar pie. The point I'm making is, China is not there yet.....but in time, it will be.

 

JASONLE

8:45 PM ET

April 26, 2011

China

Totally agree, China's government these days can be seen as somewhat suppressive, un-engaging and totally stuck in a medieval time bubble, but the truth of the matter is, it has always been like this. China didn't become the most advance nation on earth back in 200BC because it had a fancy attitude, I love you kind of government, it did so because it was brutal, with an ever growing thirst for supremacy but at the mercy of absolute power which in China's case is taking away even the most basic of human rights.....freedom of speech. And like Mikeyboi said with a plethora of US multi million dollar traders urging there investors to invest more cash into China, the chance of it ever being a democracy in the near future is bleak. However, having said that, China is changing, not giant steps but slow baby steps. Take for example mobile companies, with China Mobile being the biggest in China and having a complete mobile monopoly for years, it has in recent years open up to competition allowing western companies a slice of the billion dollar pie. The point I'm making is, China is not there yet.....but in time, it will be.

 

JASONLE

8:49 PM ET

April 26, 2011

China

Totally agree, China's government these days can be seen as somewhat suppressive, un-engaging and totally stuck in a medieval time bubble, but the truth of the matter is, it has always been like this. China didn't become the most advance nation on earth back in 200BC because it had a fancy attitude, I love you kind of government, it did so because it was brutal, with an ever growing thirst for supremacy but at the mercy of absolute power which in China's case is taking away even the most basic of human rights.....freedom of speech. And like Mikeyboi said with a plethora of US multi million dollar traders urging there investors to invest more cash into China, the chance of it ever being a democracy in the near future is bleak. However, having said that, China is changing, not giant steps but slow baby steps. Take for example mobile companies, with China Mobile being the biggest in China and having a complete mobile monopoly for years, it has in recent years open up to competition allowing western companies a slice of the billion dollar pie. The point I'm making is, China is not there yet.....but in time, it will be.

 

PUBLICUS

12:55 PM ET

May 4, 2011

PR China

The PR China is controlled by the Beijing CCP-PRC-State-Corporate-Military complex. Monopoly is the rule, and in China monopoly concessions always have been the rule. In China there is only the absolute. There is no compromise. Look at the people being locked up. Just this week the PR China Council of State added a new ministry to coordinate and extend control of the internet and other electronic communications, which is another reactionary action by the PR China. No one should raise his hopes at all regarding the CCP-PRC and its inherited 5000 year-old Middle Kingdom tradition of absolutism in government, society, culture, economy and in relation to the world. The unchanging nature of the Chinese over 5 milennia makes absolutism appear to be in the DNA.

 

JASONLE

8:49 PM ET

April 26, 2011

china

sorry guys, for some reason, my post has gone up 3 times!

 

ONLINEJON

9:05 AM ET

April 27, 2011

remove ED

Do you agree to the statement -- Are you a perfect couple??

If yes, I would say great and if not then how would you plan to improve, have to ever think about to improve, no – then please read and try to understand…

If you need to give a thought and rethink about things which you can sometime or somehow work on than you must, and I think, what the harm in think about the best improvement which can happen yes, actually happen. I would rather recommend you to --- stop and think?

You must try to give yourself a point each and every fresh day to say ‘no’ to problems and to say 'yes' to developments in life that means a total development.

So according to you who are -- Star Couples??

 

RICOJAKE

8:22 AM ET

April 28, 2011

Difficult to Deal With

China is the most difficult to deal with on the Human Rights issue as we have known all along that they hold a strict dictatorial government with great power and will kill all dissenters without mercy.

I personally do not see the social unrest improving anytime soon. Nor does the CCP should you adhere to their methods. For the talk about their military services spending they are spending double the amount on interior security steps as well as their more recognized control of the web. There isn't any quick fixes for inflation, aging community, disproportion of females etc.

I would hope that the media in general would be less hypocritical and make more situational attributions to the events going on the fastest growing economy. Of course, that would be detrimental to foreign policy so I guess I can't expect much.

Grants for Single Mothers

 

JASONLE

7:25 AM ET

April 29, 2011

China

China have always had a somewhat condescending attitude to human rights, and the chance of that changing any time soon is highly unlikely, however as I said in my previous post, they are changing, even if it's baby steps. But granted, China isn't the place to be if you wanted the freedom to write a story or start up a human rights lawyer practice cos let's face it China is still stuck in it's imperial past and it's ancient ways. But going back to a point in my previous post where I mentioned the USmillion dollar traders pushing for their investors money to pour into China, it is this money which has fuelled China's growth and which will I believe will drive China forward and out of it's medieval way of thinking. If it can open up competition in it's mobile industry where it's held a sole mobile monopoly 2 long, then I'm sure China will change. But again, it takes time......

Nothing happens overnight, plant a seed and grow a tree!

 

MIKEYBOI7

7:46 AM ET

April 29, 2011

China aint changing

Jason, let's hope your right mate, The abuse of human rights in China has long been ignored by the western superpowers, the only reason they would get involved is if there business was directly affected in one way or another. Take the mobile industry that you keep pointing out for example, if China have really open there highly prized mobile monopoly for outside investment, don't you think they would have done it to either 1.get something out of it or 2. deflect attention from the bad stuff i.e. abuse of human rights? I bet if a mobile monopoly review was done by an outside western company it would show things China wouldn't be proud of such as back handers etc. Anyway, this is all speculation, China is a emerging superpower, Yes but only cos it has investment from the so called US million dollar traders pushing there clients for huge investments. China needs to get its treatment on it's citizen right before thinking about becoming a emerging superpower as opening up a little competition to there so called mobile monopoly don't mean jack all!

The disappearance of it's own citizen who dared express his thoughts goes to show it yet has a long way to go!PERIOD!