"We must make efforts to create a harmonious society and a good social environment for successfully holding the 17th Communist Party Congress and the Beijing Olympic Games[...]We must strike hard at hostile forces at home and abroad, such as ethnic separatists, religious extremists, violent terrorists and 'heretical organizations' like the Falun Gong who carry out destabilizing activities."-- Zhou Yongkang, Minister of Public Security --
hmmmmmmmmmm...equating "harmony' and "stability" with kicking the ass of your own citizens seems a little hard-lined doncha think??? and yet that appears to be the posture of the chinese government as the countdown towards its hosting of the 2008 summer olympics...
there is every reason for you and i to be deeply concerned that such 'strike hard' policies continue to be used to constrain the legitimate activities of a range of peaceful activists in china, including journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders...
you're gonna want to watch the competition and i don't begrudge any of us that...but just as we needed to know about the treachery of hitler's third reich even as we watched news reels of jesse owens defeating the the pride (sic) of the aryan nation we need to be aware of the heinous human rights issues and records in chine as we prepare for 2008...
just as these games offer a strategy to force beijing to pressure the sudanese government to respond to the genocide in darfur there may be other opportunities to leverage china on their own abysmal human rights record...
but to do that you gotta know some of the background...to get a thorough overview of internal chinese repression grab a cup of coffee or tea and read this amnesty international overview...
peace out <3
No comments:
Post a Comment