POLITICS: China detains high-profile political dissidents

China appears to be cracking down yet again on political dissidents and intellectuals. Writer Yu Jie and dissident social critic Liu Xiaobo were abruptly taken from their homes following critical reviews of the Communist government on websites and foreign papers. Yu�s wife said the police arrested him on the charge of endangering security. Yu had just returned from France following a trip sponsored by the French Foreign Affairs Ministry. Liu is a leading social critic who has been jailed off and on since the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests.




So much for having a free voice in China. And to see Chirac sucking up to the Communist government and proclaiming that the arms embargo was wrong is sickening. These events should have been given serious consideration before the Olympic committee awarded this brutal repressive government the 2008 games. But given the IOC�s penchant for bribes its only too obvious how they got them. I would like to the see the U.S. and the E.U. condemn this latest act in the strongest terms.

Agreed.

Chirac's questionable dealings will be his undoing I think.

Fred said:
I would like to the see the U.S. and the E.U. condemn this latest act in the strongest terms.

Other than degree, not much difference here than in American jails being filled during political party conventions.

Americans are a tad more subtle, but not much. IRS, DEA raids on dissidents, sudden suicides and death from health problems. Governments world wide engage in oppression.

Wasn't it Thomas Jefferson that said 'Americans have only their own government to fear' (or something similar)

The guy (Liu Xiaobo ) should have posted under a pseudonym.

yes, THe Chinese goverment should be condemned.
However , is what The U.S goverment do more humane?

quote:
But given the IOC�s penchant for bribes its only too obvious how they got them.

I don't think there's a clean place exist in IOC and each time's voting.

I am surprised that they have used such restraint... 25 yrs ago...he would have been shot, and the family billed for the bullet...
It is not so much different in america...
where for being a member of an online message board that researches conspiracys... you can have your trash searched thru, perhaps even have bugs planted in your house, and have numberous phone problems that the phone company cannot explain or understand.
China is actually becoming much more open to the world at large, and as such, will be much more susceptable to world opinion...
They are being forced to evolve past these kind of persecutions... hopefully sooner than later...