[12032] in APO News
[Boston Globe] China's 'socialist road' to misery
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (H. N.)
Thu Jun 4 21:42:32 2009
X-Barracuda-Envelope-From: humanright.news08@gmail.com
From: "H. N." <humanright.news08@gmail.com>
Reply-To: "H.N." <humanright.news08@gmail.com>
To: <apo-news@mit.edu>
X-Envelope-From: humanright.news08@gmail.com
X-MDaemon-Deliver-To: apo-news@mit.edu
Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 21:42:17 -0400 (EDT)
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv=3D"Content-Type" content=3D"text/html; charset=3Diso-8859-=
1" />
</head>
<body>
<h1>China's 'socialist road' to misery</h1>
<p>By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | June 3, 2009</p>
<p>IT IS 20 YEARS since the <a href=3D"http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/=
dates/stories/june/4/newsid_2496000/2496277.stm">Tiananmen Square massacre<=
/a>, and China's communist regime hasn't budged an inch.</p>
<p>The government has no reason to regret its murderous crackdown during &q=
uot;the political storm at the end of the 1980s," a foreign-ministry s=
pokesman in Beijing <a href=3D"http://www.chinapost.com.tw/china/national-n=
ews/2009/05/20/208808/China-defends.htm">told reporters last month</a>. &qu=
ot;China has scored remarkable success in its social and economic developme=
nt. Facts have proven that the socialist road with Chinese characteristics =
that we pursue is in the fundamental interests of our people."</p>
<p>As a euphemism for dictatorial savagery, "the socialist road with C=
hinese characteristics" may not rise to the level of, say, "<a hr=
ef=3D"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward">Great Leap Forward</=
a>" or "<a href=3D"http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761580637/=
cultural_revolution.html">Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution</a>." =
And certainly the material riches and capitalist bustle that characterize m=
uch of China in the 21st century are a far cry from the mass starvation and=
unspeakable chaos that devastated the country in the 20th. But make no mis=
take: The junta in Beijing is no kinder or gentler today than it was at Tia=
nanmen 20 years ago, and no less prepared to crush anyone who resists its g=
rip on power.</p>
<p>Perhaps nothing today so exemplifies the totalitarian implacability of C=
hina's rulers as their ruthless persecution of <a href=3D"http://www.falund=
afa.org/eng/intro.html">Falun Gong</a>, a quasi-religious discipline of med=
itation and breathing exercises, combined with moral teachings about truth,=
compassion, and forbearance. By civilized standards, it is incomprehensibl=
e that anything so innocuous and peaceable could provoke bloody repression.=
But China's uncivilized government fears any movement it does not control,=
and Falun Gong - with its uplifting values so different from the regime's =
Stalinist ethic - has attracted </p>
<p><a href=3D"http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/04/24/Falun-Gong-said-to-tot=
al-tens-of-millions/UPI-47081240585793">tens of millions of adherents</a>, =
independent of the Communist Party.</p>
<p>There is nothing subtle about Beijing's decade-long campaign to suppress=
Falun Gong. At <a href=3D"http://www.faluninfo.net/gallery/12">www.falunin=
fo.net/gallery/12</a>, the Falun Dafa Information Center describes several =
of the torture techniques the government uses to break Falun Gong practitio=
ners. <a href=3D"http://www.faluninfo.net/gallery/12/?page=3D1">Burning, fo=
r example</a>. In hundreds of reported cases, police or labor camp authorit=
ies have used cigarettes, car lighters, or red-hot irons to sear Falun Gong=
believers on their faces, torsos, and genitals .</p>
<p>Other victims have been forced into water dungeons - locked cages immer=
sed in filthy water. "Some <a href=3D"http://www.faluninfo.net/gallery=
/12/?page=3D8">water dungeons</a> . . . have sharp spikes protruding on the=
inside of cramped cages," the center reports. "Usually, the wate=
r dungeons are well-hidden rooms or cells where practitioners are forced to=
stay for days and nights on end in total darkness. The water is most often=
extremely filthy, containing garbage and sewage that leaves the victim wit=
h festering skin." Other torture methods include <a href=3D"http://www=
.faluninfo.net/gallery/12/?page=3D2">electric shock</a>, <a href=3D"http://=
www.faluninfo.net/gallery/12/?page=3D5">brutal forced "feeding</a>&quo=
t; with concentrated salt water or hot pepper oil, and injection of <a href=
=3D"http://www.faluninfo.net/gallery/12/?page=3D4">nerve-damaging psychotro=
pic drugs</a> capable of inducing "horrific states of physical pain an=
d mental anguish."</p>
<p>Independent and third parties have raised numerous alarms about China's =
inhumane war on Falun Gong.</p>
<p>The <a href=3D"http://faluninfo.net/article/791/">UN's Special Rapporteu=
r</a> on Extrajudicial Executions has cited reports of "harrowing scen=
es" of Falun Gong prisoners dying from their treatment in government c=
ustody, and noting that "the cruelty and brutality of these alleged ac=
ts of torture defy description." <a href=3D"http://www.amnestyusa.org/=
annualreport.php?id=3DA70B94BE54959DDE80256A16004BE816&c=3DCHN">Amnesty Int=
ernational</a> and <a href=3D"http://www.faluninfo.net/topic/83/">Human Rig=
hts Watch</a> have repeatedly highlighted the agonies inflicted on Falun Go=
ng practitioners. So have a handful of supremely courageous Chinese lawyers=
, among them <a href=3D"http://en.epochtimes.com/news/5-12-16/35876.html">G=
ao Zhisheng</a> and <a href=3D"http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA1=
7/046/2007/en/dom-ASA170462007en.html">Li Heping</a>. In 2007, Canadian att=
orney David Kilgour, a former prosecutor and member of Parliament, co-autho=
red a <a href=3D"http://www.organharvestinvestigation.net/report0701/report=
20070131.htm">detailed report</a> documenting the systematic harvesting of =
vital organs from imprisoned Falun Gong believers, in order to supply China=
's lucrative transplant industry.</p>
<p>All these atrocities, of course, account for only one narrow lane on tha=
t "socialist road with Chinese characteristics" that Beijing so a=
damantly defends. The government of China is no less vicious in its persecu=
tion of devout house Christians, of Tibetan Buddhists, of democratic dissid=
ents who seek greater liberty, of journalists who fail to toe the Communist=
Party line, of the countless inmates enslaved in "re-education throug=
h labor" camps, or of women who wish to decide for themselves how many=
children to have.</p>
<p>Twenty years after the screams and blood and slaughter at Tiananmen Squa=
re, the People's Republic of China is <a href=3D"http://www.hrichina.org/pu=
blic/">still a great dungeon</a>. "China is first and foremost a repre=
ssive regime," the noted China scholar Ross Terrill has written. "=
;The unchanging key to all Beijing's policies is that the nation is ruled b=
y a Leninist dictatorship that intends to remain such." That was the t=
ruth in 1989. It remains the truth today.</p>
<p><em>Jeff Jacoby can be reached at <a href=3D"mailto:jacoby@globe.com">ja=
coby@globe.com</a>. </em> </p>
<p>Article source: <a href=3D"http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_o=
pinion/oped/articles/2009/06/03/chinas_socialist_road_to_misery">boston.com=
</a> </p>
<p align=3D"right"><font face=3D"Times New Roman"><font size=3D"1">For unsu=
bscribing to this list, you may
reply with "unsub" as subject.</font></font></p>
<p>
</body>
</html>
<!--5m8XdFq9<h1 25<h2 23<h2 22<em style=3Dfont-size:26-->
