The Chinese Communists have rounded up political dissidents estimated to be in the thousands prior to this year's Olympic games. These persons have either been jailed or harassed into silence by the government.
In addition, foreign journalists who have traveled to the country to cover the Olympics have found that they are being denied access to hundreds of websites on the Internet.
This is life in modern Red China.
It is not much different than in the days prior to the Tienanmen Square incident where hundreds of brave Chinese students faced down the massive Red Army in an attempt to get the government to ease restrictions on human liberty.
But the Chi-Coms crushed the protests, resulting in the slaughter of innocent civilians and the imprisonment of others.
The Communist government to this day still persecutes and imprisons political dissidents, which prompted a popular CNN reporter recently to refer to the Chi-Coms as 'the same old gang of goons and thugs they've always been.'
Chinese government officials reportedly state that the reason for their purge of dissidents prior to the Olympics is to avoid the 'embarrassment' of having protests during the games.
It should be even more of an embarrassment for the Chi-Coms to know that the whole world has watched as they have proved once again that they are still totalitarians who hate human liberty.
Frankly, the Olympics this year are a joke. No one who values human life and liberty should feel compelled in the least to watch the display simply because 'they are the Olympics.'
I sure won't be watching.
Contrary to the words of President Bush, who stated that the games were 'nothing more than a sporting event,' meaning of course that politics should not play a role, the Chi-Coms have made sure that the event is all about politics...and their mode of operation to squelch free speech, free expression, political dissent, and Internet access for reporters.
What would the President do, for example, if in four years the Olympic Committee decided to go to Poland and hold the 'Auschwitz Skeleton Olympics?'
A massive swell of human rights protests would ensue all over the world, and rightly so.
And thus, how is going to Communist China to hold the Olympic games any different?
For more on this human rights fiasco, click HERE for a Washington Post special report. And click HERE for the complete Breitbart story on Internet restrictions for foreign journalists in China.
Sunday, August 03, 2008
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5 comments:
Damn, sounds just like here where dissidents and protesters must remove themselves from public view or be arrested and jailed. Especially around election time, or WTO meetings, etc.
Without taking a position for or against the dissenters or protesters, how is what we do different on a principles level?
Simply put, we don't round up and jail those who are merely critical of the government, nor do we restrict access to websites.
Plus, the last I heard, radical protest groups such as Code Pink still operate pretty much unfettered, unless they become distruptive, like, preventing someone else from their right to free speech.
Sorry, I just don't see how we are anywhere near being in the same league with the Chi-Coms.
Simply put, we don't round up and jail those who are merely critical of the government, nor do we restrict access to websites"
Wrong, we do. If they are visible at a well-viewed event, we most certainly do.
So far access to websites hasn't been restricted, but maybe we should be suspicious of all the bills that keep floating to top to "regulate" the internet?
You are correct that we are not in the same league as China, we're in the minors, they're major league. That is why I was careful to phrase my question based on principle, not degree.
Just in case you're wondering. No, I am not a liberal. I don't share much with them in philosophy, but I do have an almost religious fervor about government obeying the restrictions placed upon it by our constitution. Even if it means I have to see and hear some goofy liberal making an ass of himself and bothering my sense of propriety and perspective.
I knew you were no liberal. And I agree, even liberals have the right to speak their blather.
I also agree that government should be restricted, not the citizens. The Constitution is actually about government restriction and limitations.
And I am concerned about our modern tendency to ignore it.
Martyn
Human rights defenders in China pay dearly for their courage.
Think Shi Tao, Ye Guozhu, Bu Dongwei, Hu Jia, Huang Jinqiu, Yang Tongyan, Chen Guangcheng .... and there are many more.
Liu Jingmin, vice-president of the Beijing Olympic Bid Committee said, in April 2001: “By allowing Beijing to host the Games you will help in the development of human rights.”
What happened to the promises China made in its bid for the Olympic Games? Who will hold them to account?
http://uncensor.com.au/uncensor/
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