I like China. I have travelled around there several times, I speak a little Chinese and my girlfriend is Chinese. I think they have made some great progress and I look forward to more reform and a strong China in the future as a good thing for the world.
But that doesn’t mean we need to pretend that China is perfect. It isn’t. And it’s worthwhile remembering the outstanding problems and make sure that we’re standing up for human rights. To this end it is worth noting the Human Rights Torch Relay which is attempting to raise the issue of Chinese human right’s abuse in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics. The torch will reach Sydney on Saturdy 27 October 2007.
One of the problems with Chinese human rights is their persecution of Falun Gong. Personally, I think Falun Gong is wacky… like a Chinese version of Scientology. But that doesn’t justify government repression, and I think we should defend the rights of people to believe in whatever wacky religion they like.
I plan to be in Beijing on 08/08/08 (8 is a lucky number in China) to see the Olympics and enjoy the celebration of a rising super-power. Hopefully I will be in a country that is listening to the concerns of the world and moving towards a more progressive political and legal system.
October 27, 2007 at 8:42 am |
You got a new girlfriend?
October 27, 2007 at 8:59 am |
Yobbo – that was the main point of the article.
Falun Gong are apparently not very sympathetic towards homosexuals. I don’t know much about them in practice but them look to be just a big club for talking and meditating. I suppose looks don’t tell the full story.
In any case the allegations that the Chinese government has harvested Falun Gong prisoners for human organs is outrageous (if true).
The great firewall of China that blocks access to external websites such as Wikipedia is also a serious concern. Although we see pressure now for similar measures in Australia.
October 27, 2007 at 9:05 am |
The great firewall of China isn’t that great. It doesn’t do a lot except make the internet a lot slower than it should be.
You can still access any website in the world from China.
October 27, 2007 at 9:08 am |
And Gong help you if you get caught, right, Yobbo?
I don’t know much about their situation, to be honest, but the mere fact that the government even has a great firewall is worrying to me.
October 27, 2007 at 3:49 pm |
Hi there terje, yep those victims of capital punishment do cut down the donor wait time – but wish to say not necessarily falun gong meditators, but general prisoners (political and otherwise, doesn’t take much to become one either). And yeah Yobbo, you can access any site – providing ‘cannot display page’ satisfies
October 28, 2007 at 4:47 am |
I’ve been to China and they still haven’t succeeeded in eradicating anonymous proxy sites, so it is possible to access any site like I said.
As a porn consuming, politically acvtive professional gambler I can safely assume it’s people like me that the Great Firewall of China is trying to thwart, and they failed.
October 28, 2007 at 6:42 am |
If you can get past it with anonymous proxies then perhaps it sound be called the Great Frustration Wall of China. If thats the case it would act to significantly slow the flow of ideas even if it didn’t stop them entirely. You can’t email a link to your friends and expect them to read the related website if you also need to email instructions regarding changing their proxy. That will work only for the tech heads and even then they need to be extra motivated to see the link you offer.
October 28, 2007 at 10:38 am |
Last time I was in China (6 months ago) it was very frustrating.
The few places without the firewall had been shut down and all of the anon proxy sites had also been shut down. I eventually found another proxy site… but a few weeks later that was shut down too. I’m sure there were other proxy sites, but I got sick of searching for them and gave up.
They banned my travel blog (along with all wordpress & blogspot blogs), so I started using http://www.facebook.com instead.
October 29, 2007 at 2:49 pm |
Falun Gong believe homosexuality is evil. They also believe that children of inter-racial couples can’t get into heaven! (Unless they get permission from Falun Gong.) Of course that doesn’t make it right to use them as transplant organ storage systems.
November 3, 2007 at 6:59 pm |
In my view China is an authoritarian bully, and a gross vilolator of human rights and political freedoms. I think it is wrong to glorify their domination of the region and their atrocities by visiting the olympics.
Awarding the olympics to this oppressive regime is a shame. It is a rising superpower? It is a very worrying development.
November 22, 2007 at 12:16 pm |
[...] have said before that we should be honest about raising human rights issues with China. But there are some countries [...]