Chinese activist's family 'taken away' over letter calling President Xi to quit

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/26/chinese-activists-family-taken-away-over-letter-calling-for-xi-jinping-to-quit

by sharetea • 10 years ago

67 32 10 years ago

theguardian.com

sehr• 10 years ago

Wasnt China getting better about things like this for a while there? What happened?

johnzim• 10 years ago

You could certainly be forgiven for thinking that - the CCP still did most of the same stuff, it was just less blatant about it. Xi Jinping has been taking a slightly more 'robust' approach.

China had a period of greater international exposure leading up to and then after the olympics so they naturally took a less aggressive approach - think house arrest rather than re-education camp.

In addition, compared to Mao and the actions of the Politburo during and after the Tiananmen Square Massacre, almost everything looks 'better'.

The CCP is trying to walk a tightrope between a stronger role in a globalised world and running the sort of insular police state which is its bread and butter. This sort of thing does leak out from time to time, but for every report which meets the outside world, there are others which don't catch the media's attention.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/asia-and-the-pacific/ch...

dominotw4• 10 years ago

Didn't some guy go to jail in Canada for sending angry tweets to woman.

Edit: why the downvotes?. This pertains to freedom of speech online in democratic west.

andromeduck• 10 years ago

It's worse than that. They had an argument, she blocked him then felt harassed when she logged out and searched his tweets.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_v_Elliott

because Guthrie continued to respond to Elliott's tweets, the judge said Elliott didn't know he was harassing her, even though he knew she had blocked his account.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/toronto/twitter-harassmen...

dominotw4• 10 years ago

Elliott is believed to be the first Canadian prosecuted solely for tweets

Oh wow, thats horrific. I am not sure what is worse; being "taken away" for posting a letter to the president in a communist country or actually going to jail in a democracy for sending tweets.

quonn• 10 years ago

Someone gets sued by the government in Canada and wins the case. How is this comparable to someone criticising their president and disappearing?

jimrandomh• 10 years ago

Does anyone have a link to the letter itself, preferably in English translation? Making sense of this story depends a lot on the content of that letter and on whether any accusations in it are true.

Mikeb852• 10 years ago

Here you go: http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2016/03/open-letter-devoted-par...

It does contain threats to Xi Jinping and his family for his anti-corruption campaign, so that may explain the state's reaction.

We are worried that this type of inner-Party power struggle may also bring risks to the personal safety of you and your family.

vinceguidry• 10 years ago

The Chinese government has consistently and strongly denied any complicity in human rights abuses, but says those who break the law must be punished.

The Chinese government wouldn't know what a human rights abuse was if one waterboarded it in the face.

dominotw4• 10 years ago

The Chinese government wouldn't know what a human rights abuse

Yea its not like they are lifting millions out of poverty every year.

sharetea2• 10 years ago

There have been disappearance of Hong Kong booksellers by the Chinese government, as reported here: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-35480229

as well as bookstores in Hong Kong airport being replaced by "Chinese friendly" ones http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/artic...

markdown• 10 years ago

replaced by "party friendly" ones

FTFY

studentrob5• 10 years ago

Depends who defines Chinese, the party or other Chinese :). My impression is the party fears democracy and free speech not only because they could lose power to other Chinese, but also because they perceive that the US could install a President through media and PR campaigns.

I don't think it would happen that way, but it seems like a valid criticism given what the US government did to Latin American countries 40 years ago. I don't have any idea of how to convince China of that belief other than pointing out how weak that makes them seem.

I sometimes wonder if certain politicians and US businessmen are fine with China the way it is. As it is in its oppressed state, it is a cheap source of loyal labor. Despite growth, there are still plenty of poor people there filling manufacturing industries.

Mikeb852• 10 years ago

Here's the letter: http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2016/03/open-letter-devoted-par...

One of the lines, a veiled threat to his safety:

We are worried that this type of inner-Party power struggle may also bring risks to the personal safety of you and your family.

studentrob5• 10 years ago

Wow this letter is fascinating. It is really well written to educate people about policies around which they could rally. I wonder how many Chinese have read this. Probably not much will come of it but it is cool to see some people sacrificing themselves to educate the population. I think Chinese are, on balance, in a greater state of fear / hypochondria than even Americans. They can't even protest. Who knows though, maybe we will live to see free speech in China. That would be nuts.

outside1234• 10 years ago

We are still getting cheap manufacturing there - so don't expect any support from the US govt

sharetea2• 10 years ago

Not true.

China angered by Hillary Clinton tweet on women's rights http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-34377406

"Mr Xi has come under fire for hosting the summit as several women's rights activists were held earlier this year for planning a demonstration against sexual harassment on public transport."

studentrob5• 10 years ago

For sure our politicians make a lot of criticisms. Not sure what parent post meant by no support but if they meant military yeah let's hope the US stays out of another country's business for once! I couldn't see anything good coming from US involvement in a Chinese civil war. It'd spark a world war at worst.

awinter-py2• 10 years ago

Crappy rule of law sucks for activists but it's awesome for the construction industry. Anytime you're stuck in traffic next to highway construction in the west, just imagine the chinese coming in with a cement truck and finishing the project overnight.

We're going to see more of this behavior as their economy continues to tank. They're solving a real problem -- how do you explain to 500 million poor people why the gaokao is stacked to stop them moving up?

At least china has a solution. Every large & diverse country is going to be facing this problem within a decade. Rich people are going to have access to some really awesome stuff (VR video games, 10x adderall, stem cell plastic surgery -- you name it) and it won't be a meritocracy.

dominotw4• 10 years ago

The chinese tolerate this because the economy is growing at an incredible pace. They wouldn't risk a revolution( and possibly disrupt the growth)for freedom of speech.

The govt legitimizes its actions by offering improved living standards for everyone.

awinter-py2• 10 years ago

If by 'incredible' you mean 'unbelievable' I agree. Neutral metrics like electricty usage suggest growth is a few points under the official numbers.

I don't agree that suppression of speech is a strategy for increasing growth. It's 100% about suppressing dissent for the 'lifestyles of the rich and famous' that the top CPC officials are living.

The iranians tried suppressing political activity in the 70s and it went sideways -- the ultra-religious were the only people left with the ability to hold political meetings because they overlapped with their prayer sessions, and so the radical clerics took over.

In china, there's probably a group that is under less supervision but not fully sharing the wealth -- maybe the police, maybe the army, maybe the lower tiers of the party. Watch for revolution from this corner.

forrestthewoods• 10 years ago

Disney will threaten to stop filming in Georgia over an anti-LGBT law. But they will gladly enter a business partnership with the communist Chinese government to build a theme park.

maratd• 10 years ago

More context here: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/433238/disney-georgia-...

shmerl• 10 years ago

I wonder what is the balance now between social dissent and power in China. At some point any dictatorship will crumble if people don't want to accept it anymore.

elevensies• 10 years ago

Does anyone care to speculate on the odds that the Communist Party of China loses power/control in the next 5 years? 10 years? From the other side of the world I don't have any idea how likely this is, and I never see anyone discuss it.

joedavison• 10 years ago

Not very likely.

DougN7• 10 years ago

After the Arab Spring, I wouldn't be surprised.

studentrob5• 10 years ago

What connection do you see between Arabs and Han Chinese that would make them follow suit? Also China has tight controls over its internet. They watch it very closely, and anyone attempting to circumvent these controls to promote civil disobedience is dealt with severely. They're smart and not smart at the same time. They don't crack down on people who use VPN to read news, use Facebook etc. But they will throw you in prison, and threaten you with the safety of your loved ones, if you seem to be "causing trouble" among masses. Not smart because this keeps their country weak. But that's who's in power.

studentrob5• 10 years ago

Anything could happen but I don't see any indication. Other countries seem content with China as a cheap source of labor. The ruling party is obviously content to be in power. People aren't happy but are having trouble unifying. Protests are in pockets and always silenced thus far. I could see it happening with some technology that leveraged the internet in a manner that was unblockable and untraceable by the government. Not really sure what that'd look like though.

I'm in Taiwan and have been to China a couple times. Taiwan got lucky and a former leader installed democracy here in the late 1980s. I'm probably oversimplifying. Before that, for 80 years, the Taiwan government, which used to be in China before they fled after losing a civil war after WW II, touted democracy. But it wasn't until the late 1980s that they actually did what they said they believed in. It was a loooong process of releasing power.

apalmer• 10 years ago

pretty unlikely. even the governments harshest critics wouold honestly have to agree that the general prospects of the average chinese citizen has been steadily getting better in a very palpable way. the horrible oppression and control remains but day to day is clearly getting better for many years, in those type of situations there is almost never regime change.

Negative1• 10 years ago

Are they scapegoating or is it very likely they have evidence he was the one to write the letter? He is quite adamant he did not write it but the Chinese Government seems quite competent at getting information and it seems counterintuitive to just blame some random schmuck.

Chinese activist's family 'taken away' over letter calling President Xi to quit

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