Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Executions in China
In China capital punishment is applied flexibly to a wide range of crimes, some of which are punishable by death in no other judicial system in the world. Economic crimes such as tax fraud have appeared routinely among the dockets of those receiving the death sentence, as have relatively small-scale drug offenses. Corruption, theft, and smuggling gold, silver or other precious metals, and the killing of pandas are also amongst the 68 crimes that are eligible for the death penalty in China.
Total # of executions in the US since 1976 (including 2010) is 1199. The officially confirmed numbers of executions in China were 5,000 people in 2007 and 6,000 people in 2008, down from 10,000 in 2005. The exact numbers of people executed in China is classified as a state secret and is certainly much larger than these figures. The rate of executions in China is much higher than the United States. Any questions?
Total # of executions in the US since 1976 (including 2010) is 1199. The officially confirmed numbers of executions in China were 5,000 people in 2007 and 6,000 people in 2008, down from 10,000 in 2005. The exact numbers of people executed in China is classified as a state secret and is certainly much larger than these figures. The rate of executions in China is much higher than the United States. Any questions?
Google closes Chinese search engine:
Google closes Chinese search engine:
On Monday, just over two months since Google announced it would stop censoring search results in China, the company made history by replacing Google.cn with Google.hk.com. By redirecting Internet users in mainland China (and Tibet) to its uncensored search engine in Hong Kong, Google has taken an important stand on the side of rights and freedom for all people.
This is a landmark victory for freedom. It also exposes the Chinese government as an insecure, authoritarian dictatorship afraid to allow its own citizens to access information freely and draw their own conclusions about the world.
As Xiao Qiang, Director of China Digital Times said it best: "The fact that Google cannot exist in China, clearly indicates that China's path as a rising power is going in a direction different from what the world expected and what many Chinese were hoping for."
This important development is a big step forward in fighting China's criminalization of information sharing. This is critical for Tibetans who continue to be jailed for sending information abroad.
On Monday, just over two months since Google announced it would stop censoring search results in China, the company made history by replacing Google.cn with Google.hk.com. By redirecting Internet users in mainland China (and Tibet) to its uncensored search engine in Hong Kong, Google has taken an important stand on the side of rights and freedom for all people.
This is a landmark victory for freedom. It also exposes the Chinese government as an insecure, authoritarian dictatorship afraid to allow its own citizens to access information freely and draw their own conclusions about the world.
As Xiao Qiang, Director of China Digital Times said it best: "The fact that Google cannot exist in China, clearly indicates that China's path as a rising power is going in a direction different from what the world expected and what many Chinese were hoping for."
This important development is a big step forward in fighting China's criminalization of information sharing. This is critical for Tibetans who continue to be jailed for sending information abroad.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Google pulls out of China due to censorship...
Google is pulling out of China due to issues of censorship and hacking. China is striking back with very harsh accusations. The White house is demanding that China give its people unfettered access to the internet. Watch my Vlog on the subject for more...[posted above].
Something to note is that YouTube, which is owned by Google, has been banned in China for ~1 year now [so is Facebook...]. What is China so afraid of?
Around the globe, YouTube has become a metaphor for the democratizing power of the Internet and information. Is it that China is desperately afraid of letting their people have access to the 'real' internet? ...like the rest of the world?
Is this a real danger for the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] ? Perhaps if the CCP loses CONTROL of the people of China, they will also lose control of the country...(?). This is a major issue worth thinking about. Please leave a comment and let's have an open and lively 'conversation' about this subject.
Is it right for China to censor the internet and control what their people have access to? Is it right for China to only allow one state run media?
Are we, in the West, as free as we think we are? Is it true that Google is working with US Intelligence agencies? Is the time of privacy gone in America and the West as we knew it? These are important questions...
unit45x
Something to note is that YouTube, which is owned by Google, has been banned in China for ~1 year now [so is Facebook...]. What is China so afraid of?
Around the globe, YouTube has become a metaphor for the democratizing power of the Internet and information. Is it that China is desperately afraid of letting their people have access to the 'real' internet? ...like the rest of the world?
Is this a real danger for the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] ? Perhaps if the CCP loses CONTROL of the people of China, they will also lose control of the country...(?). This is a major issue worth thinking about. Please leave a comment and let's have an open and lively 'conversation' about this subject.
Is it right for China to censor the internet and control what their people have access to? Is it right for China to only allow one state run media?
Are we, in the West, as free as we think we are? Is it true that Google is working with US Intelligence agencies? Is the time of privacy gone in America and the West as we knew it? These are important questions...
unit45x
Monday, March 15, 2010
China admits it runs illegal black jails
Until now, the Communist Party has strenuously denied running black jails, despite a growing number of testimonies and evidence from former inmates.
However, a report in Liaowang (Outlook), a magazine which is written for elite government officials and published by the official Xinhua news agency, laid the system bare.
The victims of the jails are usually ordinary Chinese who have travelled to Beijing to lodge a complaint, or petition, with the central government that their local officials have ignored.
Every day, hundreds of petitioners arrive in Beijing from across China, only to be hunted down by plain-clothes policemen or even private security firms sent by their home province to "retrieve" them.
Since local governments are judged on the number of grievances that arrive in Beijing, officials are often determined not to let the petitioners file their claims. The Liaowang report said that the number of people employed by local governments to abduct citizens "can reach over 10,000".
"In Beijing, a monstruous business network has emerged to feed, house, transport, man-hunt, detain and retrieve petitioners," said the magazine. It added that there are at least 73 black jails in the capital, often in unused homes or psychiatric wards. Private security firms demand fees of 100 yuan (Pounds9) to 200 yuan per person they abduct.
Liaowang said the system "seriously damaged the government's image".
Inside the black jails, all mobile phones and identification cards are confiscated, and many inmates are beaten, sexually-abused, intimidated and robbed, according to Human Rights Watch, which interviewed 38 former detainees for a report which it published just two weeks ago.
At the time, the Foreign ministry angrily rejected the accusations from the NGO. "There are no black jails in China," said Qin Gang, a spokesman.
In the report, one 46-year-old former detainee from Jiangsu province, who spent more than a month in a black jail, said: "They are inhuman...two people dragged me by the hair and put me into the car.
My two hands were tied up and I couldn't move. Then [after arriving back in Jiangsu] they put me inside a room where there were two women who stripped me of my clothes [and] beat my head [and] used their feet to stomp my body." At the beginning of November, a guard at a black jail pleaded guilty to raping a 20-year-old woman from Anhui province in front of a dozen witnesses. However, the court dismissed the charges against the "guesthouse" and two provincial liaison officials, according to the official China Daily newspaper.
For some activists, the state-sanctioned articles in Liaowang signalled a possible willingness by the Communist party to confront the problem.
"They have categorically denied there are even black jails. This is the first time an official, high-level magazine acknowledges that they exist. This is fairly significant," said Wang Songlian at Chinese Human Rights Defenders.
However, a report in Liaowang (Outlook), a magazine which is written for elite government officials and published by the official Xinhua news agency, laid the system bare.
The victims of the jails are usually ordinary Chinese who have travelled to Beijing to lodge a complaint, or petition, with the central government that their local officials have ignored.
Every day, hundreds of petitioners arrive in Beijing from across China, only to be hunted down by plain-clothes policemen or even private security firms sent by their home province to "retrieve" them.
Since local governments are judged on the number of grievances that arrive in Beijing, officials are often determined not to let the petitioners file their claims. The Liaowang report said that the number of people employed by local governments to abduct citizens "can reach over 10,000".
"In Beijing, a monstruous business network has emerged to feed, house, transport, man-hunt, detain and retrieve petitioners," said the magazine. It added that there are at least 73 black jails in the capital, often in unused homes or psychiatric wards. Private security firms demand fees of 100 yuan (Pounds9) to 200 yuan per person they abduct.
Liaowang said the system "seriously damaged the government's image".
Inside the black jails, all mobile phones and identification cards are confiscated, and many inmates are beaten, sexually-abused, intimidated and robbed, according to Human Rights Watch, which interviewed 38 former detainees for a report which it published just two weeks ago.
At the time, the Foreign ministry angrily rejected the accusations from the NGO. "There are no black jails in China," said Qin Gang, a spokesman.
In the report, one 46-year-old former detainee from Jiangsu province, who spent more than a month in a black jail, said: "They are inhuman...two people dragged me by the hair and put me into the car.
My two hands were tied up and I couldn't move. Then [after arriving back in Jiangsu] they put me inside a room where there were two women who stripped me of my clothes [and] beat my head [and] used their feet to stomp my body." At the beginning of November, a guard at a black jail pleaded guilty to raping a 20-year-old woman from Anhui province in front of a dozen witnesses. However, the court dismissed the charges against the "guesthouse" and two provincial liaison officials, according to the official China Daily newspaper.
For some activists, the state-sanctioned articles in Liaowang signalled a possible willingness by the Communist party to confront the problem.
"They have categorically denied there are even black jails. This is the first time an official, high-level magazine acknowledges that they exist. This is fairly significant," said Wang Songlian at Chinese Human Rights Defenders.
China's false 10% growth rate...
China's 10% growth rate is a (ongoing) lie. The Chinese currency (Yuan) is purposely kept low by the CCP in order to keep trade rates high; this is leading to mass inflation and false (although impressive) reporting of GNP and other things related to this growth rate.
Secondly the real estate market is increasingly putting the entire Chinese economy in great peril. It is an economic situation that will cripple the CCP. For more info on the real estate situation read the following article:
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/real-estate/why-china-cant-cool-its-overheated-real-estate-boom/19371786/
Read this article and then we can talk more. I am not just bashing China. I am well educated on the subject of China and the CCP. If anyone wants to talk about the situation in a realistic and intellectual manner, I welcome it.
Thanks,
unit45x; William Kai Stephanos
Secondly the real estate market is increasingly putting the entire Chinese economy in great peril. It is an economic situation that will cripple the CCP. For more info on the real estate situation read the following article:
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/real-estate/why-china-cant-cool-its-overheated-real-estate-boom/19371786/
Read this article and then we can talk more. I am not just bashing China. I am well educated on the subject of China and the CCP. If anyone wants to talk about the situation in a realistic and intellectual manner, I welcome it.
Thanks,
unit45x; William Kai Stephanos
Friday, March 12, 2010
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