links for 2007-09-21

• Harold Meyerson - China's Hot Stock: Orwell Inc. - washingtonpost.com
  "If it comes down to a choice in the Bush White House between capitalism and democracy, or even capitalism and our national interest, the smart money's on capitalism."
  (tags: china privacy surveillance technology security humanrights freespeech business u.s.policy)

Comments

[Charles Liu]

Since when is this not true? Indulge me in a quick retrospective:

- Iraq. Rumsfeld once hugged Saddam and gave him chemical weapons and satintel, so he can gas the Iranians and Kurds.

- Osama bin Ladin. We once gave OBL millions and trained all his mujiahadem "freedom fighters" to kill Russians in Afghanistan, after Hamid Karzai (then Unocal exec) failed to win the Afghan oil concession.

(huge jump, leaving out stuff like Iran/Contra, Cuba, etc.)

- Native Americans. The British crown have long respected Native Sovereignty. But we colonists went ahead and claimed "manifest destiny", pushed westward anways, and genocidally eliminated the Native Americans along the way.

[mahathir_fan]

China is ALREADY a DEMOCRACY!

Again, I don't understand why it is so hard to see this for Americans.

The constitution of China states:
Article 2. All power in the People's Republic of China belongs to the PEOPLE.

Article 34. All citizens of the People's Republic of China who have reached the age of 18 have the right to vote and stand for election, regardless of nationality, race, sex, occupation, family background, religious belief, education, property status, or length of residence, except persons deprived of political rights according to law.

------------------------------
What more do these people who refuse to confer "Democracy" to China want to see?

Let's examine the constitution or compare what is happening in China in the real world to OBJECTIVELY state why China is not a democracy. Discard all the propaganda about how Communism is against democracy and study it from a fresh page, open mind and critic it. I can see how the democracy in China is not perfect, but I do not see how China is AGAINST or is not a democracy. Everything that is in print, in the laws, all suggest that China is built on the foundations of DEMOCRACY. And its been democratic for a very long time!

http://english.people.com.cn/constitution/constitution.html

[Charles Liu]

MF, I don't think many Westerners know about China's District People's Congress elections, nor the reality such election gave people a one-level indirect election for National People's Congress:

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/editor/article.asp?id=280

[mahathir_fan]

Charles,

I believe many Westerners have been brainwashed by their propaganda machine to believe that Communism is the anti-thesis of Democracy.