China and totalitarianism

[Ian Murray]

Why Authoritarian Regimes Bother With Elections

Beijing rewrote the rules of Hong Kong’s recent elections, and the result among voters was apathy. ...

[Ian Murray]

China harvests masses of data on Western targets, documents show
China is turning a major part of its internal Internet data surveillance network outward, mining Western social media, including Facebook and Twitter, to equip its government agencies, military and police with information on foreign targets, according to a Washington Post review of hundreds of Chinese bidding documents, contracts and company filings. ...

[MichaelBaron]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIqrAprBqkU

No Country should lecture others on Democracy!

[Ian Murray]

No Country should lecture others on Democracy!

No country should believe it is exempt from criticism

[MichaelBaron]

No country should believe it is exempt from criticism

But they can ignore external criticism/opinions. Countries are built on self-interest. You can criticize USA all you like - will they care? May punish you- may not but won't care .

[Ian Murray]

But they can ignore external criticism/opinions.

As China does. But its human rights abuses are still wrong.

[Patrick Byrom]

But they can ignore external criticism/opinions. Countries are built on self-interest. You can criticize USA all you like - will they care? May punish you- may not but won't care .

But even if a country is motivated purely by self-interest, it can still be in their interest to make changes to avoid criticism - especially if the criticism is backed up by actions such as boycotts. China's response to criticism shows that it is clearly having an effect.

[Capablanca-Fan]

The Winter Olympics: A moral barometer for the civilized world
By Richard D. Land, Christian Post Executive Editor
28 Jan 2022

The International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.) should never have awarded the Winter Olympics to Beijing, given the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) scandalous and reprehensible human rights record. After having done so, the increasingly repressive and totalitarian actions of the CCP should have caused the Olympics to be moved to a more civilized venue that has at least some respect for basic human rights.

Now, however, it is too late (the Olympics begin Feb. 4) to move the Games. So, what should the civilized community of nations (which under any meaningful definition explicitly does not include Communist China) do now?

Unfortunately, we can count on the I.O.C. to do whatever craven things are necessary to protect the CCP since they appear hopelessly compromised by Chinese largess. The I.O.C. has turned itself into ethical pretzels defending the indefensible. As Yaqiu Wang, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, explains in The New York Times, “The I.O.C. keeps saying that it’s a politically neutral organization, and wants to stay out of politics. … But it entirely ignores the fact that it has always been used as a political tool by the Chinese government to legitimize its standing and its policies, including crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.”
…
The CCP has also targeted other disfavored groups for persecution, including Christians, Falun Gong, Muslims, Tibetans and all pro-democracy dissidents (such as residents of Hong Kong who vigorously protested the suppression of the rights to free speech and freedom of assembly they were guaranteed when the U.K. signed Hong Kong back to China in 1997). Nothing is more symbolic of this political suppression than the dismantling of the statue at the University of Hong Kong memorializing those victims of the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989.

Furthermore, there is a great deal of evidence that the CCP has a large-scale operation illicit business in harvesting and selling organs forcibly and lethally removed from the victims of their crimes against humanity. Members of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights have unearthed evidence that has convinced them that the communist government of China is practicing forced organ harvesting on an “industrial scale” with perhaps a billion-dollar profit annually.

Further evidence of this heinous practice is provided by the fact that China has become a prime source of transplant tourism. This has caused several state legislatures to pass resolutions urging residents not to go to China for organ transplants. In Texas, just this past June, the state legislature passed a resolution urging Texans not to avail themselves of Chinese transplanted organs lest they “unwittingly” involve themselves “in murder.” The mass media’s failure to shine a much brighter light on this ghoulish and grisly state crime by the Chinese government is a scandal verging on criminal malfeasance.

Perhaps the most macabre aspect of these crimes was reported last July by Reuters. They reported that BGI Group (a Chinese gene company) was marketing prenatal tests on a global scale and that these tests were being used “to collect genetic data from millions of women for sweeping research on the traits of populations.”
…

[Desmond]

^ Good article.

[MichaelBaron]

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/202..._139553583.htm

For those who talk about ''unhappiness and suffering '' of people of Tibet.
Harsh conditions (mountains) yet with subsidies from the centeral government economy is developing and living standards gradually improving.

A lot of similar improvements can be found to living conditions of Uigurs with Uigur Universities opening up. Very Uncomfortable stories for those in the West who claim that minorities are unhappy in China and want to separate.

[Desmond]

A lot of similar improvements can be found to living conditions of Uigurs with Uigur Universities opening up.

Universities? You mean re-education camps.

[MichaelBaron]

Universities? You mean re-education camps.

I mean Universities, schools, scholarships. As well as Ethnic Business support fund. Uigur community gets a lot of support. Or yes, temples built as well!

[Ian Murray]

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/202..._139553583.htm

For those who talk about ''unhappiness and suffering '' of people of Tibet.
Harsh conditions (mountains) yet with subsidies from the centeral government economy is developing and living standards gradually improving.

So that legitimises the annexation of Tibet by force?

[Ian Murray]

I mean Universities, schools, scholarships. As well as Ethnic Business support fund. Uigur community gets a lot of support. Or yes, temples built as well!

And re-education camps, of course

[MichaelBaron]

And re-education camps, of course

Last time I was ''zooming'' for China - it was for a Unversity. Should also mention that the Seminar Series that I got invited to be part of includes guess experts from around the Globe and covers Business/Technology matters rather than all the political stuff that you are so excited about. Should also mention that discussions that take place in the seminars are ''high level'' discussions where attendeeds demonstrate not only ability to discuss business matters in fluent English but also very good subject matter knowledge. The pay rate for invited experts is higher than in Australian Universities and in line with consulting fees that are usually payable to subject matter experts. At the same time, it is companies (including government departments and agencies) that pay for the attendees rather than people having to pay out of their own pocket.

Or yes, I should also mention extremely welcoming atmosphere for foreigners..nobody asked me about Australian government...and asked me to pass my recommendcations to Australian government what our goverment should be doing. Isn't it strange? Chinese are not telling Australian government/Australians what should be done with our internal affairs.