Great Leap Backward -- Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times
Since China is in the middle of its harshest crackdown on independent thought in two decades, I thought that on this visit I might write about a woman named Cheng Jianping who is imprisoned for tweeting.
Ms. Cheng was arrested on what was supposed to have been her wedding day last fall for sending a single sarcastic Twitter message that included the words “charge, angry youth.” The government, lacking a sense of humor, sentenced her to a year in labor camp.
Read more ....
My Comment: Being a person who has visited China regularly since the mid 1980s, this clampdown is disheartening .... but not surprising. The Chinese leadership and the 1,000 families who benefit from this system are not going to give up their reins of power so easily, and with unrest sweeping many authoritarian countries around the world today they are going to make evenly doubly sure that such protests do not enter China.
But what is even more disappointing and disheartening is that our leaders in the West remain silent .... as exemplified by our Nobel Peace Prize winner in the White House who continues to remain silent about another Nobel Peace Prize winner in China who is now rotting in one of their jails.
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