China cracks down on instant messengers: Users must hand over real names China has tightened rules regulating the use of instant messengers, forcing users to reveal their real names when registering so their identities can be linked to their content. In much the same way as with social networks – although clearly for different reasons – the State Internet Information Office (SIIO) is requiring …
Two decades ago now (still a travesty). Go back two more decades you can read how the CIA helped Pinochet kill and torture more than died in Tienanmen Square. Of course us Merkins live in the only "free" country in the world. As long as something is done "over there" then its ok.
Not to say anything good about the Pinochet mess. Or the Central American death squads which are more recent. Or whatever the US has been up with the war on terror in addition to Guantanamo.
But isn't that comparing apple and oranges? violence against your own citizens is considerably more blatant than against faceless people in another country, most of which your propaganda can dismiss as not-quite-innocent.
A better USA comparison to Tianamen, where the police of a state shot its own citizens in a largely peaceful demonstration, would be the Kent State shootings in 67, with 4 deaths. Not quite the same intent, the same fatalities or the same results.
Tianamen is quite in its own league, even in a nation as populous as China. It makes more sense against their background of forced labor camps in the 60s and 70s.
As much as anti-Americanism, somewhat deserved as a result of Bush Jr, is rampant in these here parts, Russian and China have never even really pretended to be places where human rights are very important. Russia is reminding us of that these days, but remains an impotent backwater with dreams of geopolitical relevance.
China... can go both ways. They certainly will become the dominant superpower in our lifetime. They can develop and be kind to their own citizens and to the world. That's in many ways their best interest. But their government also lacks legitimacy and is very prickly about criticism, as this shows. Tibet, and more importantly, the western Chinese Muslim regions? Not exactly cuddly/huggy behavior.
A good way to retain public goodwill is to engage into easy adventures against foreign enemies or perceived slights. Spratleys, Taiwan, all sorts of potential powderkegs.
It's dicey. Designed-for-China-wars kit like the F35 family sends a signal that they should not trust us. But, can we trust them? Their government is a huge part of the problem, but face it, most of the world abused China in the 19th and 20th century. Will Joe Average there be willing to forgive and forget? Will China be content to merely bully its backyard?
Interesting times indeed, but this is not a good sign, no sirree. I still think the West should go out of its way to de-escalate military competition with China, but we may yet rue the advent of a potentially even less restrained superpower.
If you are going to make willy nilly statements back it up with figures.
Better still go watch the history of the Deli Lama fan club responsible for the raping of Tibet, stripping of assets and their final escape to India via a mountain pass.
The commies may not be blameless, but then again neither are the tibetan monks with their forced slave labour over the general population
>Designed-for-China-wars kit like the F35 family sends a signal that they should not fear us due to our financial and technological incompetence. (FIFY).
Hard to go to war with China when you need them to lend you the money to do so as well as make much of your war materials. China scares me because they haven't had a deep recession in decades (what happens internally when they finally do?) and they have way too many young males vs females (due to one child policy). Few things are more dangerous than raged up males who can't get laid.
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