Online justice in China

January 16, 2004 12:04 AM

People in China are searching for justiceon sites like Sina.com, as in this recent case of a poor woman who was run over by a BMW. At the same time, the authorities continue to try to tighten their grip on the web and on dissidents. Meanwhile, the official People's Daily temporarily admitted on its website the "violent crackdown" on pro-democracy students in Tiananmen Square 15 years ago, but this appears to have been a case of careless internet plagiarism.
posted by homunculus (3 comments total)

Here's a recent thread on China's internet dissidents.
posted by homunculus at 12:14 AM on January 16, 2004

Don't worry, once enough of them get their SUVs and 'Chinese Idol', there will be no more dissent. Just like the USA..
posted by eas98 at 8:09 AM on January 16, 2004

China is a governmental nightmare scenario. For *any* government. Set aside political philosophy and just look at China from an administrative point of view: what *has* to be done?

Almost any regime will have to be brutalitarian, or severely authoritarian at best. Only someone of astounding naivete could envision a government less so, that *doesn't* turn into a chaos resulting in the deaths of tens or hundreds of millions.

And they are stuck at that level. That is, how do they improve their nation without Cultural Revolution-class murder?

Communism couldn't deal with it. Capitalism is entering the situation like a bull on meth in a china shop. Economic, logistical, environmental and demographic problems of biblical proportion await at every turn. Yeech!

In truth, I now understand that Tianamen Square happened precisely because the government misinterpreted the "democracy" movement as the return of the vicious Red Guard--who had previously tortured and murdered the families of those who had since been "rehabilitated" and ascended in power. They were shaking in their boots for fear of another Cultural Revolution.

Even stranger, the crackdown on Falun Gong. Could it be possible that they saw it as another potential Taipeng Rebellion? One of the bloodiest wars in human history, despite its seemingly harmless philosophy.

The bottom line is that everybody hopes that China can keep itself together, reasonably peacefully, until gradual change can drag them out of this unblameable morass. I cannot truly condemn them for overreacting on those who think that "the revolution", in whatever form, can help right now.
posted by kablam at 8:24 AM on January 16, 2004