Before Olympic Games, China quells dissent (more human rights travesties)

Before Olympic Games, China quells dissent (more human rights travesties)

www.iht.com

When state security agents burst into his apartment on Dec. 27, Hu Jia was chatting on Skype. Hu's computer was his most potent tool. He disseminated information about human rights cases, peasant protests and other politically touchy topics even though he often lived under de facto house arrest.
Hu, 34, and wife, Zeng Jinyan, are human rights advocates who spent much of 2006 restricted to their apartment in a complex with the unlikely name of Bo Bo Freedom City.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Ironic isn't it?

He was arrested in 'Freedom' City.

The Chinese have been forcibly removing people from their homes in Beijing so they can build the colossal super-structures needed for the Olympics.

These people were doing their best to make the world at large aware of the Chinese government's abuses, but just like the US they were silenced.

[Zeng] blogged about life under detention, while [Hu] videotaped a documentary titled "Prisoner in Freedom City."

Like Anne Frank, the only thing these people could do was write down the atrocities being committed right outside their door. Nothing could be done by the civilians. The government is a monster big brother in that country.

[The protesting] ended on Dec. 27. Hu was dragged away on charges of subverting state power while Zeng was bathing their newborn daughter, Qianci. Telephone and Internet connections to the apartment were severed. Mother and daughter are now under house arrest. Qianci, barely 2 months old, is probably the youngest political prisoner in China.

A two month old baby is the youngest political prisoner in China, if not the world.

I have been trying to bring awareness to ATSers about human rights abuses and war crimes from our own country, but we are not alone.

The US and UK are not the sole manufacturers of terror and death.

The Chinese seem to have their own niche as well.

Let's see if anybody cares about them....No one seemed to give a # about the Africans.

www.iht.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 1/29/2008 by biggie smalls]

Thanks for the posting, and bringing it to the attention of ATS users.

China still seems to be playing catch-up in the PR wars. Arresting people for promoting free speech in the run-up to the Olympics can only redirect the world media's attention back to China's human rights violations.

As the article stated, some 20,000 members of the world's press will descend upon Beijing in August. China will be in the global spotlight and every action in takes will be intensified by waves of public scrutiny.

Whether or not Western governments will use the Olympics as an opportunity to pressure China into adopting more liberal policies remains to be seen. The US boycotted the Moscow Olympics of 1980 in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan a year earlier.

I suspect U.S. economic ties to China will result in a far friendlier response this time around, which disappoints me.

Check out my blog: Esoterica in America

China disgusts me. I blame all this on the fact Asia has never had a civil rights movement, like we have in Europe and in the Americas.

We could put trade sanctions on China as we do to other countries with human rights abuses. Hit 'em where it hurts!

Is anybody really surprsed here?

Human Rights Watch has been beating this drum for a few years now. The communist government is taking any and everystep to make Bejing as spotless as possible and that included wholesale forced evictions of people from homes to make way for venues etc.

I for one will nto be doing much watching of the games as its really become this giant commercial enterprise anyway.

reply to post by FredT


I was not surprised, however these kinds of abuses need media attention.

I seem to forget about more tragedies than the average person (American anyway) learns in a lifetime...

Then again, I am a cynic at times so that probably doesn't help.

I just want to see life taken as what it is: beauty, truth, and love incarnated. We seem to be acting like 'devils' as a race these days...

reply to post by biggie smalls


Here is an update to this story I posted a few months ago.

Chinese activist Hu Jia jailed ahead of Olympics: lawyer

This man's trial has ended and he is going to jail...

Activist Hu Jia was on Thursday jailed for three years and six months for subversion, his lawyer said, amid what rights groups charge is a campaign by China to silence dissent before the Olympics.

The United States and the European Union immediately spoke out in defence of Hu, who became the second Chinese dissident in less than two weeks to be jailed after using the Beijing Olympics to highlight human rights problems in China.

This man is intentionally being jailed so the other human rights groups in China will think twice before making a scene when the Olympics roll by.

This is intimidation at its finest, and no amount of Chinese propaganda, whether on ATS or the Chinese media, can quell this uprising.

The Chinese Communist Government is corrupt and shall fail soon thanks to its own people!

Hu, for many years one of China's highest-profile human rights campaigners, was found guilty at a Beijing court of "incitement to subvert state power" following a one-day trial last month, lawyer Li Fangping said.

Li said the subversion charge had related to the 34-year-old Hu posting articles on the Internet about human rights issues and speaking with foreign reporters.

"The evidence was publishing articles on websites outside of China and accepting interviews with the foreign press," Li said outside the court, adding he believed the verdict was unjust and he would advise his client to appeal.

Subversion is pretty much treason in this case. He did nothing wrong. He acted as any sane human being should, expose a government as the bag of snakes it is.

He is in jail right now for speaking out against his government. In the US we still have the freedom to speak, but that too is being taken away.

The next step with our surveillance in this country would be to end the people who speak out against the government.

Well, I see China as our "big brother" in surveillance and travesties. They are one step ahead of us. If we go down their road, we surely will become statist. The corporations will own the government, or the government will own the corporations. Its really a matter of whether we want to be commies or fascists.

You pick.

China's official Xinhua news agency carried a small article saying that Hu had confessed to his crime.

"Hu spread malicious rumours and committed libel in an attempt to subvert the state's political power and socialist system," Xinhua said, citing the court verdict.

Obviously this man alone could not subvert the state's power or system. He is simply not that important.

He has been made a scape goat by the establishment to make others cringe at the thought of dissent.

If anyone should have been invaded, China seems to be a potential target (although it will pretty much never happen). Our economy may collapse, but maybe people in the East will be free. We invaded Iraq under less pretenses by the way...

Hu's wife, Zeng Jinyan, 24, who recently gave birth to their first child and is also a prominent rights activist, said the verdict was the culmination of four years of harassment by authorities.

"He's been put under surveillance, been kidnapped. He's been put under house arrest and now they have sentenced him to three and a half years," Zeng told reporters outside the courthouse as she broke down in tears.

"This is irrational and unfair."

His family is suffering because of the Chinese government's punitive and criminal tactics. If anyone should be jailed, it should be President Hu (same name yes, but completely different viewpoint on life). He has a newborn child for chrissakes.

In one article he wrote with fellow activist and lawyer Teng Biao last year that was recently published by Human Rights Watch, Hu called on visitors coming to Beijing for the Olympics not to be fooled by the trappings of development.

"You will see skyscrapers, spacious streets, modern stadiums and enthusiastic people. You will see the truth, but not the whole truth, just as you see only the tip of an iceberg," the pair wrote.

"You may not know that the flowers, smiles, harmony and prosperity are built on a base of grievances, tears, imprisonment, torture and blood."

Hu's truth will get out, in China and the world. We will not let you suffer in vain.

Hu's verdict followed a jail sentence handed down on March 24 to Yang Chunlin, a former factory worker, on similar subversion charges.

Yang, 52, was detained after he collected more than 10,000 signatures for a petition entitled: "We want human rights, not the Olympics".

WE WANT HUMAN RIGHTS, NOT THE OLYMPICS. I wonder how the Chinese propagandists are going to spin this one.

I think I just found a new slogan Hu, thanks buddy.

WE WANT HUMAN RIGHTS, NOT THE OLYMPICS

WE WANT HUMAN RIGHTS, NOT THE OLYMPICS

WE WANT HUMAN RIGHTS, NOT THE OLYMPICS