There is an important piece in The Washington Post today detailing how China is imprisoning and harassing political activists in the run up to the games:
As the Olympics draw near, Chinese security officials appear to be targeting people who could channel information about rights abuses and government corruption to foreigners by publishing, as Huang’s Web site does, in Chinese and English. The site, http://www.64tianwang.com, is hosted on a server in the United States and is blocked in China by government censors.
“The government has locked itself into a fictional account that the Chinese population has no interest in human rights and no criticism against the preparation of the Olympic Games,” said Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Human Rights Watch.
“Since that’s not the reality and thousands are involved in human rights activities, they have to silence quite a few people.”
Bequelin added, “They’ve been very systematic, very effective.”
I’d urge you to read the whole article. It is crucial that during the Olympics we never lose sight of the true, repressive nature of the Chinese regime.
Comments