Well whenever anything related to China is being discussed the "but they imprison dissidents/disappear people/etc" almost always comes up right away but since China (and for that sake Russia as well) are "bad" it is Ok to distract.
I do not like what China is doing to their people. But I also do not like our western self righteous hypocrisy. Do we really need to feel good about us doing bad things if somebody else is worse? By that logic let's take some African country and call China a saint.
Can you define the characteristics of a communist dictatorship that are relevant here? Not the economic ones per se, but the ones that make you nervous about spying and media control.
So like, the way America did with the Japanese? And I support enforcement of borders, but the conditions for detention of illegal immigrants has drawn recent comparisons. Not as bad as communist countries, of course, but not much of a moral high ground either.
Ya, Japanese internment is _exactly_ why other countries are sceptical of this supposed American commitment to liberty.
The important thing to note is that America interned _American Citizens_ merely because they had Japanese ancestry. Just like America's habit of executing its own citizens (including juveniles) and torturing its own citizens, we can't have any faith in your country treating our own people well when it sees fit to teat its own people worse than dirt.
Britain interned German citizens in WW2 (but only a relatively small proportion of them). But Britain never even considered interning its own citizens for having German ancestors. What sort of message would that send?
There's a pretty big difference between internment camps and literally keeping prisoners so you can harvest organs from them (without anaesthetic, often fatally) on demand, my dude. Not that America hasn't done a lot of bad stuff, but they definately do have a significant moral high ground over China.
I would mostly be worried about the kgb (the secret police). The disappearing in the middle of the night never to be seen again would make me nervous. The beatings or listening to phone calls or bugging of rooms were common.
I wouldn't want to challenge the government if I owned a media company because it will be taken away. Same with any business.
Ever have a business (store) be taken from you/your family and given to others who are more friendly with those in power? It happened to my grandfather in Hungry.
We'll I don't know about the US, but I imagine it would be pretty hard to make somebody "disappear" here in Australia. I imagine out independent media would help get the word out.
Although we do have the "Witness K" indecent here in Australia. The media can't tell us much of that, but we do know about it. Sort of.
An American tells a Russian that the United States is so free that he can stand in front of the White House and yell, “To hell with Ronald Reagan.” The Russian replies: “This is nothing. I can stand in front of the Kremlin and yell, ‘To hell with Ronald Reagan,’ too.
