.A bloody revolt in a tiny village challenges the rulers of China
"Jonathan Watts reports from Huankantou where protesters angry at corruption and poverty repelled 1,000 riot police. But now fear is replacing euphoria"I found this at Let's Talk about democracy- by Bushmeiser0 the new link on the side bar. Take a look, he just might be on to something. But I have a question, you think the protest are something new, or has it become easier for information to move in and around China, and now we and the people in China just are able to see more of it?
Guardian
posted by madtom at 11:59 AM
4 Comments:
From what I've been able to gather from press reports, the Chinese government is keeping a tight media lid on these protests.
We're seeing it, but not a lot of Chinese are.
There have been many, many, protests all over China the past year or so, usually involving anger over the corruption of local officials. Not many ending up with the police being routed amd the use of machetes.
The Gov. has generally gone in, rounded up the ring leaders and paid off the rest with some concessions.
These latest protests are totally being controled by the central government in Beijing. They're trying to make a political point.
They are pissed off about Japan's plans to drill oil in disputed waters off both thier coasts and the U.N. security council thing.
The real question, or concern, is are they getting out of hand? Will this initial "rage" over Japan's history books, which is partly legitimate, snow ball into a larger uprising over the massive economic dislaocation caused by the rapid social change brought about by China turning into a global economic powerhousde and all the pain to the poor that brings. (No more Iron Ricebowl.)
Over a very short time, a couple of decades, all the money is in the urban areas, but most of the population is rural.
I would say in this case, the Chinese leadership is playing with fire.
Didn't they see what happened in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgistan?
What got me was the 30 million that signed a petition. In a country with an estimated 350 million connected people the 30 don't seam that high, and could be the tip of an opinion iceberg. Relations with China could go either way, from a new cold war to strategic partner. I think in many ways we have been building a relationship with the people through our ongoing economical and social exchange to avert a rapid slide towards cold or hot wars.
I think now that China is emerging as a space power we should invite them to participate in our space program.
I think the people will, with a little prodding from us slowly demand more participation in the decision making process.
I don't think the U.S. would ever want to cooperate with them on thier space program.
They've already got a missile that can hit New York.
The only reason we went to the moon in the first place was to show the Russians we could put an ICBM through the Kremlin's front door with pinpoint accuracy.
Taiwan is the key. Whichever way that goes will determine the future of our relations.
And Wal-Mart.
Too late, to not cooperate. We have already made it possible for them to do what they have done so far.
There is a lot out there to do, if we do it together, we will get there sooner. Just think about the station, if it was not for the Russians we would have had to either abandon it, or even worse abandon it to the Russians...
"Taiwan is the key."
You wont get any argument from me there. Taiwan I predict may just be the new capital of our one China policy, but maybe not.
Post a Comment
<< Home