Mark’s Soap Box

Well it’s starting. The Chinese government is cracking down on “dissidents” — that means mostly freedom lovers — who make their views known online. This is exactly what we knew would happen.

Let’s see you protest from prison

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police have arrested a prominent Internet dissident for violating his probation terms, a rights group said, as the country steps up a pre-Olympic crackdown on dissent to ensure the Games go smoothly.

Du Daobin, from the central province of Hebei, was given a suspended sentence for subversion in 2004 having been detained by police in Wuhan for posting online essays in support of fellow dissident, Liu Di.

What was his nefarious crime?

Du was then released into house arrest, Reporters Without Borders said in an emailed statement, but was arrested this week having been accused of posting articles on overseas websites and receiving guests without permission.

Yep, he posted on the Internet — allegedly — and oh no! received guests without permission.

He is not the only one who has been arrested.

Chinese police arrested Huang in the country’s southwest for “possession of state secrets” after he offered help to parents of children killed in the Sichuan earthquake in May.

Hu, a prominent AIDS activist, was jailed for 3- years earlier this year for inciting subversion and criticizing the ruling Communist Party.

A fourth dissident, Ye Guozhu, jailed in 2004 for organizing protests against forced evictions, was due for release on Saturday but he was taken from the prison where he was being held and his whereabouts were unknown, Chinese Human Rights Defenders said.

“We believe that the police took him away to silence him during the Games, and that he will not be released until after the Olympics when most foreign journalists will have left Beijing,” the group quoted his brother, Ye Guoqiang, as saying.

Ye Guoqiang said police told him they had taken Ye Guozhu from the prison, but did not say where he was being held or for how long.

Yes, this is the type of place that should be rewarded with the Olympics.

Freedom, we love it

The Chinese have even created “zones for protest”. Gee thanks, you are such a Freedom lover. Oh did we mention the permits?

BEIJING — Beijing will permit public protests inside three designated city parks during next month’s Olympic Games, but demonstrators must first obtain permits from local police and also abide by Chinese laws that usually make it nearly impossible to legally picket over politically charged issues, the authorities announced Wednesday.

Some say it’s a start, and we should be happy about it. Yea right.

“The police will safeguard the right to demonstrate as long as protesters have obtained prior approval and are in accordance with the law,” Mr. Liu [director of security for Beijing’s Olympics organizing committee] said during a news conference.

Typical PR by a regime that controls the media, and knows that liberals in the US will fall in line and congratulate them for being so “open”.

Under Chinese law, citizens must apply to the local public security bureau five days in advance of a scheduled protest. Applicants must appear in person and offer detailed information about their topic, any possible slogans and the expected number of demonstrators. The law prohibits protests that are deemed harmful to national unity and social stability or that agitate for ethnic separatism. These prohibitions can be interpreted so broadly that most legal protests are not approved.

“We never get it no matter how many times we try,” said Jiang Tianyong, a lawyer and legal rights advocate who has been rejected numerous times. “This is only a show for foreigners. Otherwise, I’d love to see these three places be kept after the Olympics, so we can let our voices be heard, too.”

Sadly they will buy it.

Xu Zhiyong, another legal rights advocate, agreed that obtaining approval for legal protests is usually very difficult but also applauded the Olympic protest zones as an improvement that should be acknowledged.

How sad. The NYT regurgitates the comments from someone who clearly is trying to appease the Chinese.

Somewhat similar protest zones were used at the 2004 Athens Olympics, while cities hosting other international events have sought to isolate demonstrators in designated areas.

Unreal, the NYT justifies the abuses by the Chinese government by comparing it to legitimate security precautions at other events. Note that they only referred to Athens and “other international events” which they don’t disclose as it would show their bias.

But it remained unclear whether international advocacy groups on issues like Tibet, Darfur and broader human rights would be able to secure the bureaucratic approvals needed to use the protest zones and whether they would be arrested if they held demonstrations elsewhere in Beijing.

With only 16 days until the Olympic opening ceremony, China’s ruling Communist Party is tightening security across the country and has shown little appetite for domestic political dissent. Several dissidents have been jailed, monitored or placed under house arrest in recent months.

They generally don’t tolerate dissent much, OK who am I kidding … not at all.

Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher for the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, criticized the broader trend in creating protest zones during international events. He described Beijing’s protest zones as inadequate and said Chinese citizens would be very reluctant to use them, given the political priority that the party has placed on the Olympics. He said the police might use video cameras and collect names of demonstrators.

“Chinese people know better than to go demonstrate in a protest zone during the Olympics, except maybe a few people with nothing to lose,” he said. “They know the risk of retribution is very high.”

After the Olympics are over, the media will trumpet the lack of protests. It’s easy to do that when you don’t allow them to even happen.

Trust us we are your betters

It’s sad that the IOC hates America so much, and lives in the fantasy world of Kumbayah thinking; that they gave the Olympics to China. The people of China are bearing the brunt of the Olympics coming to town. From people losing their homes, and businesses to being forced to not use their cars. Now we have the requisite round up of all those people who are “dissidents”.

It’s disgusting. The IOC doesn’t care, as long as they can stick it to the US. The ass-kissing by the IOC is disgusting: IOC “surprised” at air improvement — idiot. China shut down their industries and took half the cars off the road.

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