I wonder what is the balance now between social dissent and power in China. At some point any dictatorship will crumble if people don't want to accept it anymore.
Chinese activist's family 'taken away' over letter calling President Xi to quit
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Re: Chinese activist's family 'taken away' over letter calling President Xi to quit
#22There have been disappearance of Hong Kong booksellers by the Chinese government, as reported here: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-35480229 as well as bookstores in Hong Kong airport being replaced by "Chinese friendly" ones http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/artic...
> replaced by "party friendly" ones
FTFY
Re: Chinese activist's family 'taken away' over letter calling President Xi to quit
#23Does anyone care to speculate on the odds that the Communist Party of China loses power/control in the next 5 years? 10 years? From the other side of the world I don't have any idea how likely this is, and I never see anyone discuss it.
Re: Chinese activist's family 'taken away' over letter calling President Xi to quit
#24Didn't some guy go to jail in Canada for sending angry tweets to woman. Edit: why the downvotes?. This pertains to freedom of speech online in democratic west.
Someone gets sued by the government in Canada and wins the case. How is this comparable to someone criticising their president and disappearing?
Re: Chinese activist's family 'taken away' over letter calling President Xi to quit
#25Are they scapegoating or is it very likely they have evidence he was the one to write the letter? He is quite adamant he did not write it but the Chinese Government seems quite competent at getting information and it seems counterintuitive to just blame some random schmuck.
Re: Chinese activist's family 'taken away' over letter calling President Xi to quit
#26Does anyone care to speculate on the odds that the Communist Party of China loses power/control in the next 5 years? 10 years? From the other side of the world I don't have any idea how likely this is, and I never see anyone discuss it.
Not very likely.
Re: Chinese activist's family 'taken away' over letter calling President Xi to quit
#27Crappy rule of law sucks for activists but it's awesome for the construction industry. Anytime you're stuck in traffic next to highway construction in the west, just imagine the chinese coming in with a cement truck and finishing the project overnight. We're going to see more of this behavior as their economy continues to tank. They're solving a real problem -- how do you explain to 500 million poor people why the ga…
The chinese tolerate this because the economy is growing at an incredible pace. They wouldn't risk a revolution( and possibly disrupt the growth)for freedom of speech. The govt legitimizes its actions by offering improved living standards for everyone.
If by 'incredible' you mean 'unbelievable' I agree. Neutral metrics like electricty usage suggest growth is a few points under the official numbers.
I don't agree that suppression of speech is a strategy for increasing growth. It's 100% about suppressing dissent for the 'lifestyles of the rich and famous' that the top CPC officials are living.
The iranians tried suppressing political activity in the 70s and it went sideways -- the ultra-religious were the only people left with the ability to hold political meetings because they overlapped with their prayer sessions, and so the radical clerics took over.
In china, there's probably a group that is under less supervision but not fully sharing the wealth -- maybe the police, maybe the army, maybe the lower tiers of the party. Watch for revolution from this corner.
Re: Chinese activist's family 'taken away' over letter calling President Xi to quit
#28so allegedly this is part of a long covert war to undermine and subvert Xi, mainly people loyal to ex-president Jiang Zemin. Zemin's camp has been uprooted completely by Xi and basically in an effort to consolidate power for an oncoming wave of social unrest amid a dwindling economy, Xi created a lot of enemies.
This makes sense that Xi's enemies are supplying lot of juicy and salacious private life that will make him look bad.
The fact that the letter more or less threatened President Xi's family is noteworthy. Previously unseen level of dissent and what is different is the open nature.
Lots more "intentional" spelling mistakes that make Xi look bad. Xi seems to be panicking and taking a much more brutal action which further fuels the fear that China will experience another cultural revolution, and Xi is the biggest admirer of Mao
Re: Chinese activist's family 'taken away' over letter calling President Xi to quit
#29There have been disappearance of Hong Kong booksellers by the Chinese government, as reported here: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-35480229 as well as bookstores in Hong Kong airport being replaced by "Chinese friendly" ones http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/artic...
> replaced by "party friendly" ones FTFY
Depends who defines Chinese, the party or other Chinese :). My impression is the party fears democracy and free speech not only because they could lose power to other Chinese, but also because they perceive that the US could install a President through media and PR campaigns.
I don't think it would happen that way, but it seems like a valid criticism given what the US government did to Latin American countries 40 years ago. I don't have any idea of how to convince China of that belief other than pointing out how weak that makes them seem.
I sometimes wonder if certain politicians and US businessmen are fine with China the way it is. As it is in its oppressed state, it is a cheap source of loyal labor. Despite growth, there are still plenty of poor people there filling manufacturing industries.
Re: Chinese activist's family 'taken away' over letter calling President Xi to quit
#30Does anyone care to speculate on the odds that the Communist Party of China loses power/control in the next 5 years? 10 years? From the other side of the world I don't have any idea how likely this is, and I never see anyone discuss it.
After the Arab Spring, I wouldn't be surprised.