It’s not that I’m picking on China. Really, I’m not.
Can I help it if China’s powers that be provide a constant stream of evidence of suckiness in all areas of human rights, personal and political freedoms and general respect for others?
The latest example of suckiness is China’s reaction to the Nobel Peace Prize for Liu Xiaobo.
Liu is a Chinese literary critic, writer, professor, and human rights activist who called for political reforms and the end of communist one-party rule in China. He is currently incarcerated as a political prisoner in the People’s Republic of China.
In December 2008, Liu was detained in response to his participation with Charter 08.
According to Wikipedia:
Charter 08 is a manifesto initially signed by over 350 Chinese intellectuals and human rights activists. It was published on 10 December 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopting name and style from the anti-Soviet Charter 77 issued by dissidents in Czechoslovakia. Since its release, more than 10,000 people inside and outside of China have signed the charter.
Liu was formally arrested in June 2009, on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power” and after a trial was sentenced to 11 years in jail and two years of deprivation of political rights.
Really. Deprivation of political rights? I would have thought you’d actually had to HAVE some political rights first before anyone could deprive you of them.
Maybe the Chinese authorities do have a sense of humour after all.
Anyway, Liu’s still imprisoned despite calls for his release from the United States Department of State and more recently the European Union, the US and the United Nations.
China, however, has thumbed its nose at the world, saying “respect China’s judicial sovereignty and to not do things that will interfere in China’s internal affairs”.
Have you ever watched South Park? Can you hear Cartman’s “respect my authoritah” ringing in your ears? That about sums it up I guess.
The Nobel committee went ahead with the ceremony to make the award, even though the guest of honour couldn’t be there.
And funnily enough, CNN and the BBC suddenly disappeared from China’s televisions around the same time the ceremony was taking place.
Can’t have the people getting wind of news from the free world now, can we?
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