Olympic Critic Jailed
An online commentator, Wang Dejia aka Jing Chu who said next year’s Beijing Olympics would force ordinary Chinese to live “like pigs and dogs” has been detained for nearly a week on a charge of subversion.
Wang was taken from his home in Quanzhou County, part of southern China’s Guilin city, early Friday, December 14th, on a charge of “subverting state authority,” said his wife Wen Zhenyan. Officers confiscated his computer, memory cards, books and banking documents. Since then none of Wang’s family have been allowed to contact him.
While Beijing encourages Internet use for business and education, it tightly controls Web content, censoring anything it considers critical of — or a threat to — the Communist Party. Press freedom and human rights groups say China has jailed dozens of people for writings posted online. Wang Dejia has now been added to that growing list.
Wang Dejia blamed the PRC’s “autocratic nation” for destroying ordinary people’s homes in mass demolitions in order to build grandiose Olympic venues, and criticized China’s intensified crackdown on dissidents.
In July, Wang told the Epoch Times, a newspaper linked to the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, that China’s central government was ignoring the needs of common Chinese in the lead-up to the Olympics. Instead, he said, the Communist Party was most concerned about cracking down on dissidents and building new venues.
Let the people live like pigs and dogs, I think that’s how it will achieve its goal of a harmonious society
— Wang Dejia
Interview with Epoch Times
Well, chalk up yet another one for the Evil Old Men in Beijing. They’re going do whatever it takes to ram their 2008 Godless Genocide Cames down the world’s throat. It has proven unwise to complain about it either within China or outside of it. Why are we – the civilized world – allowing these monsters to host the games?
Tags: 2008 Olympics | China | Jing Chu | Politics | Wang Dejia
December 21st, 2007 at 12:05 am
[…] Source: blog.jonolan.net […]
December 21st, 2007 at 8:23 am
I agree that what the regime is doing in the PRC is absolutely abhorrent. However, wouldn’t denying them the opportunity to host the games cause a massive rift between “us” and China, which is unlikely to foster the relationship we need to be able to enforce human rights. Generally, trying to isolate a country, especially one so powerful as China, just doesn’t work as a strategy for reforming it (look at Iran, Burma etc.) If we integrate China politically and socially, we pave the way for long term reform. Whilst they have no moral right to host the games (quite the opposite, as you’ve shown), they might prove to be a useful tool for doing this.
December 21st, 2007 at 2:05 pm
There is already, and has always been, a rift between the world and China. Chinese culture has always been xenophobic and insular combined with an unhealthy level of arrogance and unwarranted feelings of superiority – think of thousands of years of the worst side of America. Without a drastic change to China’s basic culture, raproachment is unlikely. This I believe is true and very sad.
Letting their monstrous regime host the Olympics would be politically and ethically wrong. The Chinese are very prideful. Granting them this privilege would be granting them a victory in their eyes. Denying them the privilege of hosting the 2008 Games would deliver them a painful defeat.
Victors do not seek compromise, but the defeated do so. A harsh lesson to be sure, but one that seems necessary. Remember, while your idea for “kindly reform” would be both providential and useful in the West, China is a completely different and alien culture.
Thanks for the great thoughts.
December 21st, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Perhaps…the denial of the games could be just as useful a tool as allowing them to host. You can’t deny though that the games are bringing the situation in China into the international spotlight, which must be a good thing.
December 21st, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Yes! That I wholeheartedly agree with. Sadly, I firmly believe that if we let the PRC win this one, the world will quickly choose to forget the issues. It’s happened all too often.
December 21st, 2007 at 7:17 pm
Robin, the US does not have the power to reform China and China is not going to allow any other country to “integrate” it in any way. The US is not interested in the human rights situation there either. If they were, there would be some small evidence of it. There is not. China is not some 3rd world country that can be easily influenced with some economic sanctions. This is a huge world power that will probably be the most powerful country in the world in the near future. Especially if the US economy crumbles. China owns a big bunch of US debt and is a huge trading partner. We do not have the power no can we afford, to demand that they do anything.
Getting the right to host the Olympics was obviously a political move agreed upon by several governments. I think that, no matter what China does to dress up their act and make it look like they are a big friendly teddy bear during the games, people know the real story. More importantly, I think you will find very visible, well documented protests taking place throughout the world during the games.
December 21st, 2007 at 8:52 pm
Brian,
I think a lot of people in the US do care about the human rights situation in China as well as the environmental situation. Of course I cannot speak for our government who have a different sort of concerns.
I also believe that we do have the power to enforce our will upon China. They are very prideful and can be stung badly by insults. They are also dependent upon American consumerism. As a last resort, one nuke – or large conventional warhead – at Three Gorges Dam ends China as an independent nation.
After Iraq, Brian, how can you doubt that the US will enforce its will as needed? All we the people have to do is convince our government that this is our will.
December 22nd, 2007 at 4:17 am
Wow. Now I am doubly shocked at your response. Firstly, I agree that there are many American people who are concerned about human rights in China and elsewhere. I was referring to the government who are obviously not concerned about it. The evidence of that is what is going on in China, Sudan, Burma, Congo, Zimbabwe and elsewhere without an American troop in sight.
If you think you are going to affect China or its government by insulting them you are very much mistaken. They are a very patient, very cunning government with a plan. Insults are not going to thwart it. And they are not nearly as dependent upon US consumerism as the US is dependent upon theirs and their products. China is a major manufacturer for the entire world, not just the US. But if they suddenly stopped shipping their goods to the US our retail stores would appear empty.
Nuke indeed. Are you suggesting that the US, for any reason other than to avoid invasion, would nuke China? Only a maniac like Bush would ever even think of something like that and even he is not crazy enough to unleash that dog.
Iraq is a different animal completely. They have a resource we desperately need to control. We are not there to save the Iraqi people or anyone else…except ourselves and our lifestyles.
And your last sentence…..tell me Jon, when was the last time the American people were able to impose their will on their government. Indeed, when was the last time the people got out from in front of American Idol long enough to do anything politically productive. Hell, half of them don’t even get off their dead asses to vote! And you talk about the will of the people? Give me a break.
December 22nd, 2007 at 8:19 am
Brian,
If China couldn’t be stung by what they perceive as insults they would protest so much when anyone does anything anti-China. I’m using that as a basis for my hypothesis.
Out stores would not be empty without Chinese made goods and bulk products, they’d be a little barer than usual – mostly at the low-end of the spectrum. China only supplies approximately 13% of our goods. It’d be annoying but not devastating, and not even annoying if the US people no longer wanted those goods.
We dropped France’s GDP by 30% following 911 because the American people didn’t tolerate the French’s attitude. We can do a similar thing to China, and are already starting to do so.
Brian, what you’re forgetting is that a perceived threat will wake up the American people. The trick is to show that China’s admitted economic power combined with their bestial behaviors makes them an imminent threat.
December 22nd, 2007 at 5:48 pm
China doesn’t protest anti China activity any more than we protest anything we perceive as anti American. Thats global politics. Your argument is sound but not supported by the evidence. Fact is China is and has been an imminent threat for decades. I remember the strong anti Mao propoganda we used to see on TV during the cold war. Did the American people do anything about it? No.
Even when it became cliche to spout “buy American” it didn’t make any difference. People want cheap, Chinese goods and they will continue to buy them until they are outlawed.
Using 911 as an example is hardly appropriate here. It was an extraordinary case like pearl harbor.
Bottom line, no matter what you think we SHOULD do, the fact is, we have sat back and watched China become only more powerful, more dangerous, economically stronger, and more integrated into the global economy.
At the same time our dollar is crumbling, there is a new corruption in our government exposed to the world almost daily, our reputation in the world stinks, we are seen by much of the world as just a big bully who does whatever the hell it wants, including killing civilians by the thousands, we basically refuse to join the global community on green house gases, our president is widely regarded as the worst in history and the people appear impotent because, although the foreign press reports that the vast majority of the people in our DEMOCRACY want out of Iraq, our government is doing just the opposite, planning on long term occupation.
Trust me, we are not going to do anything against China. What we are going to do is continue to try to make them a viable partner. They are one of the few countries with the means to bail us out when we need it.
BTW, even tiny Singapore has stepped up to the plate to help the US. It has invested 5 billion in Morgan Stanley to help shore it up. And BTW again, China invested 5 billion to do the same thing. They now own nearly 10% of that US company. Thats power in the real world my friend.
December 22nd, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Much of what you say is true. I hold out hope that, since we’ve been hurt by China, our people may just do something. It’ll take propaganda, but that shouldn’t be that hard to do when we’re dealing with another race 😉 We’re good at vilifying people who don’t look like us – maybe this time that might be an advantage.
If it is going to happen though, it’s going to have to be people / market driven. I absolutely agree that neither government nor the major corporations are going to want to step up to the plate.
Asa twist on what I said to a lot of other people – I hope I’m right, but agree it’s more likely that you are.