A Single Re-Tweet Lands Chinese Woman in Labor Camp 273
lee1 writes "A woman in China has been sentenced to a year of 're-education' in a labor camp for the crime of 'disrupting social order' after retweeting a joke on Twitter (which is entirely banned in China, but popular nonetheless). Cheng Jianping had repeated a Twitter comment suggesting that nationalist protesters smash Japan's pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, adding the words 'Charge, angry youth.' At the time, China and Japan were feuding over a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, and groups of young Chinese had been demonstrating against Japan, smashing Japanese products; the tweet amounted to gentle chiding of the protesters. Ms. Cheng may also have been targeted because she is a human rights activist: she had signed petitions calling for the release of China's jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. She has been detained in the past for several other 'crimes,' including criticizing China's Communist Party."
Such repression is a sign of weakness (Score:3, Interesting)
Paradoxically, the Chinese leadership's need to quell
even the slightest expression of dissent, or the slightest expression of
free-thinkng, simply telegraphs the inherent weakness and illegitimacy
of their system of government. If the government is truly legitimate, is
truly based on the consent of the people, then it does not require such
measures. The most legitimate form of government is that which requires
the least repression of individual expression and will while still being able
to function in a stable manner.
Re:Such repression is a sign of weakness (Score:3, Interesting)
You mean... like the TSA here in America?
But (Score:5, Interesting)
This is actually a popular view in China and the party actively promotes it. Our increasingly frustrating politics make it more and more believable.
Re:awaiting the equivalency idiots (Score:2, Interesting)
Someone really pissed at the TSA for their current screening techniques sends a satirical letter, thank-you card or email to Pistole saying:
"Thank you so much for doing exactly what I want. You have been a great help for my cause in showing the American people what it's like to live in a Police state when they are in an airport and what my Muslim brothers have to deal with everyday.
Yours,
Osama Bin Laden."
Just what do you think would happen?
Re:hate speech is NOT protected anywhere. (Score:3, Interesting)
If I tell someone how much I love them while beating them do I get less time then just beating them? How about if I'm apathetic towards them?
Re:awaiting the equivalency idiots (Score:3, Interesting)
EXACTLY!!! How is that American citizens can be treated with less regard than a captured member of the Taliban? How is it that a sexual assault is now necessary and endorsed in order to board a plane? And just try boarding a plane without the sexual assault and you're likely to be shot at, imprisoned, put on a no-fly list, and your life will be essentially ruined by the government, forever, all because you're trying to retain your rights and dignity.
It Soviet Russia and communist China, there isn't this kind of board-gate sexual-assault.
Wow, a freedom that they have that we don't.
Re:Kudos for unbiased reporting (Score:3, Interesting)
Those douchebags still praise Mao
I'm "left", and I don't praise Mao. Or Stalin. Or Pol Pot.
I do know a lot of folk on the "right" who praise Pinochet, though. Better dead than red and all that.
Re:Public service annoucement (Score:3, Interesting)
But what seems ironic here is that this woman actually represented a success of the Chinese government's attempt to use "controlled nationalism" to redirect peoples' passions anytime they seem to be leaning against the government (or other powerful interests the government tacitly protects).
I guess they [the government] get scared anytime people get too passionate, even if government themselves stoked the fires in the first place...
Re:Kudos for unbiased reporting (Score:3, Interesting)
In a free market, someone can end up better off than someone else, but nobody gets screwed.
In a planned economy everyone can end up better off, and only the multinationals get screwed in their turn.