China's Olympic Torch Tour, pt 2
This ended up being too long to be attached to the same post as the other news items.
Nepal has authorized its soldiers to shoot the protestors of the Chinese ascent of the Olympic flag on Mt. Everest. This development follows Pakistan's closure of the Olympic parade to the public and Australia going against its pledge to not allow the Chinese paramilitary officers to accompany the torch. The torch tour has been revelatory in two respects: 1) how resolute China's government is to silence criticism, and 2) the extent of China's influence in the governments of most of the world. Yesterday's stop in Bangkok featured the Prime Minister of Thailand absolving himself of the China issue, saying: "Whoever tries to destroy the flame is crazy and unreasonable. Why would anyone protest in Thailand? Why don't they protest in China?" The answer is clear: China doesn't allow any protests against its government.
The Daily Mail did a good article on China's rise to power. The article is a bit alarmist, but not about China taking its place as the world superpower. It quite calmly accepted China's supremacy throughout most of history, so the current ascent should come as no surprise. Instead, the article warned about the change in political standards that would bring. China's government does not respect free speech (especially any criticism of their policies) and has very little concern for tempering their growth in favor of "secondary" factors such as the environment, human costs, etc. Personally, I already feel that China has taken the superpower crown from the US (esp. economically) and just hasn't publicly exerted that power much yet. As long as the rest of the world still has a significant amount of sway left, we should try our best to get free speech in China. That's the lock to getting other changes to happen.
Nepal has authorized its soldiers to shoot the protestors of the Chinese ascent of the Olympic flag on Mt. Everest. This development follows Pakistan's closure of the Olympic parade to the public and Australia going against its pledge to not allow the Chinese paramilitary officers to accompany the torch. The torch tour has been revelatory in two respects: 1) how resolute China's government is to silence criticism, and 2) the extent of China's influence in the governments of most of the world. Yesterday's stop in Bangkok featured the Prime Minister of Thailand absolving himself of the China issue, saying: "Whoever tries to destroy the flame is crazy and unreasonable. Why would anyone protest in Thailand? Why don't they protest in China?" The answer is clear: China doesn't allow any protests against its government.
The Daily Mail did a good article on China's rise to power. The article is a bit alarmist, but not about China taking its place as the world superpower. It quite calmly accepted China's supremacy throughout most of history, so the current ascent should come as no surprise. Instead, the article warned about the change in political standards that would bring. China's government does not respect free speech (especially any criticism of their policies) and has very little concern for tempering their growth in favor of "secondary" factors such as the environment, human costs, etc. Personally, I already feel that China has taken the superpower crown from the US (esp. economically) and just hasn't publicly exerted that power much yet. As long as the rest of the world still has a significant amount of sway left, we should try our best to get free speech in China. That's the lock to getting other changes to happen.