One of the lines, a veiled threat to his safety:
> We are worried that this type of inner-Party power struggle may also bring risks to the personal safety of you and your family.
It does contain threats to Xi Jinping and his family for his anti-corruption campaign, so that may explain the state's reaction.
> We are worried that this type of inner-Party power struggle may also bring risks to the personal safety of you and your family.
I'm in Taiwan and have been to China a couple times. Taiwan got lucky and a former leader installed democracy here in the late 1980s. I'm probably oversimplifying. Before that, for 80 years, the Taiwan government, which used to be in China before they fled after losing a civil war after WW II, touted democracy. But it wasn't until the late 1980s that they actually did what they said they believed in. It was a loooong process of releasing power.
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 gaokao is stacked to stop them moving up?
At least china has a solution. Every large & diverse country is going to be facing this problem within a decade. Rich people are going to have access to some really awesome stuff (VR video games, 10x adderall, stem cell plastic surgery -- you name it) and it won't be a meritocracy.
The govt legitimizes its actions by offering improved living standards for everyone.
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.
China angered by Hillary Clinton tweet on women's rights http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-34377406
"Mr Xi has come under fire for hosting the summit as several women's rights activists were held earlier this year for planning a demonstration against sexual harassment on public transport."
China had a period of greater international exposure leading up to and then after the olympics so they naturally took a less aggressive approach - think house arrest rather than re-education camp.
In addition, compared to Mao and the actions of the Politburo during and after the Tiananmen Square Massacre, almost everything looks 'better'.
The CCP is trying to walk a tightrope between a stronger role in a globalised world and running the sort of insular police state which is its bread and butter. This sort of thing does leak out from time to time, but for every report which meets the outside world, there are others which don't catch the media's attention.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/asia-and-the-pacific/ch...
Edit: why the downvotes?. This pertains to freedom of speech online in democratic west.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_v_Elliott
>because Guthrie continued to respond to Elliott's tweets, the judge said Elliott didn't know he was harassing her, even though he knew she had blocked his account.
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/toronto/twitter-harassmen...
Oh wow, thats horrific. I am not sure what is worse; being "taken away" for posting a letter to the president in a communist country or actually going to jail in a democracy for sending tweets.
as well as bookstores in Hong Kong airport being replaced by "Chinese friendly" ones http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/artic...
FTFY
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.
The Chinese government wouldn't know what a human rights abuse was if one waterboarded it in the face.
Yea its not like they are lifting millions out of poverty every year.