Arrested Lawyer's "Chinese Dream"
The lawyer Xu Zhiyong disappeared in Beijing one week ago, but now his image is popping up all over town. Xu, who was taken from his house by police, is featured in the latest edition of Shishang Xiansheng, the Chinese version of Esquire. He is one of 60 people interviewed by the magazine in recent months about their idea of the Chinese dream. The police haven't explained the charges against Xu, but his brother told the Associated Press that officials at the university where Xu taught said he was being held for tax evasion. The Open Constitution Initiative (or Gongmeng in Chinese), a legal advocacy group that Xu founded, was shuttered by tax authorities last month over allegations it owes $208,000 in taxes. Many observers think the closure is more likely related to Gongmeng's pioneering work on sensitive legal cases.
In the Esquire piece Xu is pictured with a white light behind his head and wearing a French-cuffed shirt and tie--not, by any means, his usual attire. He is featured with six other activists. Here, via China Digital Times, is a translation of his Chinese dream:
I wish our country could be a free and happy one. Every citizen does not need go against their conscience and can find their own place by their virtue and talents; a simple and happy society, where the goodness of humanity is expanded to the maximum, and the evilness of humanity is constrained to the maximum; honesty, trust, kindness, and helping each other are everyday occurences in life; there is not so much anger and anxiety, a pure smile on everyone's face.
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His wish is actually very noble. I hope his wish is shared by everyone on this planet.
I had typed up bunch of nonsense, but decided we all need to sit down and meditate - just chill out.
Btw, this slideshow/video had a real calming effect on me. You don't need to know Chinese probably to "get" it.
http://china.lightroomgalleria.com/?p=165
I wondered if Xu thought about whether the Iraqi's had wished the same or how the world is going to atone for the damage done there - just an example.
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Good for China, huge improvement on arresting people without charges, at least the government had indeed learned something from Singapore - tax evasion and the rule by laws.
Another suggestion for the government is to create a finacial police deparment like Russia's, making it less obvious to arrest people at will with military police.
Singapore government should grab this opportunity to sell China the techniques of how to silence and making "eyesores" bankrupt. This is sure to be a money making venture among countless business failures of China investment dreams.
Besides, I suggest the government to add charges against Xu for pagiarizing Party Secretariat Hu's political directive for a "harmonized" China dream:
"I wish our country could be a free and happy one. Every citizen does not need go against their conscience and can find their own place by their virtue and talents; a simple and happy society, where the goodness of humanity is expanded to the maximum, and the evilness of humanity is constrained to the maximum; honesty, trust, kindness, and helping each other are everyday occurences in life; there is not so much anger and anxiety, a pure smile on everyone's face."
Sounds familiar? Didn't the Party Boss said this few years ago?
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He can achieve his dream very easily: Harmony. If all Chinese agree with whatever the Chinese government wants them to agree to, they will want to do only the things the Chinese government wants them to do. That's how you can achieve freedom: do what you want to do== what the government want you to do.
See, just obey the Party, and you will get freedom. And we can all define evil as what the government don't want you to do. Evil of humanity can also be totally eliminated.
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3.1
Wow... Dude,
I happened to be here and see you as the most active commentator in this China Blog. As a Chinese, I want to say, thanks for your attention, and your contribution to this blog. You like us, you hate us, just tell us.I would respond to some of your comments here, and some of my responses are not necessarily related to this particular article. They may relate to your comments in other blog articles.
First, I would not argue, if I were you, like standing on a moral land without solutions. We might need more solutions than opinions.
Second, I would not argue that what I experienced/read/heard/saw are facts and yours not, as you often so argued, because all of these are just interpretation of facts, from different perspectives, and I doubt you ever experienced or saw what a real China is like.
It is sad that China contribute to over 80% of world death penalty(but did you notice a longitudinal trend over the past few years that the number of death penalty in China declined sharply), and it is as sad as this one that when innocent people were murdered this July, and you seems, and many others, blame China, Chinese government/Han people for this tragedy. Man, they are innocent people. Whatever ethnic policy labelled as wrong in the western world that Chinese governments are implementing in that region, these innocent people do not deserve to die.
Talking about the history and Han people killing other ethnic people. I think it is stupid to argue that just one side killed the other side. What I know, the universal FACT here, is that China spend thousands of years building a defense system call GREAT WALL. If killing was intentional, building such a great wall would make these killings more difficult. And I do PERSONALLY think the Great Wall was a stupid idea. It never worked out defensively.
Whether Xin Jiang was a part of China or not in the past really has limited relevance to whether it is today.
To prove Xin Jiang was a part of China does not prove China's legitimate occupation today; similarly, to prove it was not a part of China does not prove China's illegitimate occupation today. Occupation is occupation, and it is just a fact. How you interpret the legitimacy is your matter.
Lastly, I want to thank you again for your opinions, but more solutions is what people there needed.
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3.2
Your governments also want you to stop at the red light and stop sign. I wish you listen to them, so that you and others can enjoy freedom.
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He and his "Gongmeng" have a blog in Chinese on sina.com.cn
http://blog.sina.com.cn/xuzhiyong
There are a lot open discussions on the blog, which is not shut down or blocked. I can see this matter/case has been very open.
I don't know a lot about him. If he is innocent with his tax charges, good luck to him.
Let's hope most Chinese achieve their dreams in their life time. I bet people like chiatsunami and johnsmith will suffer from the achieved dreams...
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4.1
Thx for the link. Haha, TIME's blog can only dream to be as popular even compared to such a narrow topic.
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Lets hope hes innocent until proven guilty.
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Stevenmk, you must come from the other side of the world!
He is definitely guilty, and at the pleasure of the CCP says he is innocent.
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asiasi8,
I can see you are fairly new...I'd like to offer some uninvited suggestions. When I first came here, I sort of reasoned with him/her/them (johnsmith alike), but then I found out these people are not those "uninformed" westerners who does not know the real situation in China.
They simply were screwed one way or another and could not do anything about it but coming here to vent their anger toward China. I believe that they usually belong to either Fa Lun gong (Da ji Yuan etc.) or corrupted CCP officials who escaped to the West and lose their status in China and live on the money they sent overseas before they were suspected.
They don't present facts or figures during argument. When they lose an argument, they resort to their only tactic: you are paid by Chinese government. Conscienceinchina even calculated how many posts one has to write to get a house. I wonder who is paid, because he/she seemed so eager…
the dont discuss the topic of the blog, they write their "news" here or link to some strange website.
The best way to deal with them is to ignore them. I tried to tease and made fun of them after reasoning with them for a while. I had great fun, but in the end, their faces are so thick than you cannot do anything about it. They are like skunks… Do you know skunk? If you ever experienced the odor of a skunk, you will never forget that for your lifetime…
By the way, Simon Elegant, one of the authors of this blog, is not so “elegant”. Any tragedy or bad thing in China will massage his Grafenberg spot, and send him to ecstasy.
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7.1
Wow, you are not so "looking" bylooker. I'm always amused by your posts. Irony must have been something they didn't teach you at school. "Arguing with facts", "supporting conclusions with evidence" and "reasoning" is exactly what everyone else has been doing, except you. Do you not see news links? They look strange because they have to bypass your beloved Green Dam, which isn't so "green" anymore. Maybe your reasoning isn't so "reasoned" too. I wonder why your last name is - that you are more "fen" now as a "Mr. Fen Qing"?
The only one who is consistenly insulted by any criticism of the Communist party of China is you. You, who does not live in China. You, who visits this blog to see alleged China-bashing material. You, who probably likes to see other fenqing behaving in such barbarious ways to make you feel like a superior yellow person. You, who I believe is really actually a hanjian.
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Your governments also want you to stop at the red light and stop sign. I wish you listen to them, so that you and others can enjoy freedom.
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請用法理來說服我 ──為許志永老師給溫家寶總理的公開信
——香港中七學生 鄭詠欣"Persuade Me With Nomology"---Open letter from a middle school suddent of HK to the puppet premier Wen for Xu Zhiyong.
http://hk.news.yahoo.com/article/090805/4/dk41.html
In this case, we can see how powerful the CCP's efforts on ideological infiltration into HK and others are. They are still paying their illusion on such so-called "civilian premier" who is only the mouthpiece of the interest group. At the moment, we really see the lying and propaganda works.
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A Chinese PSB leader with a kind heart. He took care of the daughter of a women whose house was taken away.
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asiasi8: "We might need more solutions than opinions."
No. You don't need more solution. You have the best solution ever. You have CCP, wihich will cure all that ills you. Corruption, economy, health, pollution, everything. The rest of the world must envy you for what you have.
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"It is sad that China contribute to over 80% of world death penalty(but did you notice a longitudinal trend over the past few years that the number of death penalty in China declined sharply),"
After it "declined shartply" and it is still 80% of the world death penalty ? I wonder what it was before the decline. 99.9%.
Good for you, and for the Chinese government which has the will and might to get rid of people they don't like. All governments in the world would love to be able to do that.
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"Whether Xin Jiang was a part of China or not in the past really has limited relevance to whether it is today. "
And I hope the Hans stop lying about their history to justify the occupation and colonization of Xinjiang and Tibet, and just call it Han aggression.
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Since all Chinese are peaceful, harmonized and non-violent, whoever on the receiving end of this must deserve it. So, don't pick any flowers, even if you are a three year old kid.
http://tinyurl.com/kraaec -
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johnsmith9876
Again, Thanks for your attention to my beloved China and Chinese. and your attention to my comments. I hope you hate us less after you expressed your opinion here. Calm down, it is not good for your health.
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Agreed with bylooker. People like js write and post their own "news” 达到以假乱真境地。
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asiasi8,
Excuse my poor English reading skill, I don't actually understand what you mean. Just because these innocent people do not deserve to die, the government should not be blamed?-
17.1
" Just because these innocent people do not deserve to die, the government should not be blamed?"
I did not pose this causal statement, did I?
I said even though Chinese governments and their policies should be blamed, but these innocent people do not deserve to die.
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Communism And Chinese Dreams.
By: Jordan C. Fan, Prophet of Environment.
With the opening of the year 2008 Olympic in Beijing, the “Cold War” had ended. China & its Communism political ideology has successfully emerge as the winner of this highly destructive war. Tens of millions of lives have been lost & trillions of dollars of property damages all due to American aggression. Historically, East Asia has always been the habitats for Asian survival and development. Americans ivolvements in hese area during the Cold War are obviously aggression. To fully understand the history of the 20th century or beyond, we must understand the political system in China.
There were little or no “politic” before the American Revolution for their independence from England in 1776. Monarchies as “political” leaders or alternatives were without political ideologies but the personalities of those monarchs which would dictate their government policies. We should all agree that politics or ideological difference of governments are really myths or deceptions. Its sole purpose is to overthrow or replace an existing government or political party. After such political transformations were completed, politic in those nations should become obsolete. As its replacements, there should only be constant but gradual improvements of the existing “political” framework to fit the need of their citizens. Frequent elections at all levels will be extremely wasteful, time consuming & inefficient.
The United States used its own politic ideology as a deception during the Cold War to diverge attentions from its internal unrest since its Civil War. The process of mandatory & scheduled political changes even through elections are unnecessary because they always create instabilities. Currently, China is totally surrounded enemies from all direction and all over the world. They will attack China immediately if a weakness is found. I as Prophet of Environment can certainly help and defend China to win but all Chinese every where should also help and cooperate with the Chinese government. The first thing they need to do is stop all complains, forget the unpleasant past experience, and embrace Chinese Communism 100%. There should be no rooms left for foreigners to criticize the Chinese government. In short, all Chinese must reject all foreign criticisms of Chinese government or Communism.
Since the Cold War had ended in 2008 with China's victory, this world should follow the path of a careful & gradual transformation into Communism. In fact U. S. is currently embracing their own version socialism. There should not be any more blood sheds, destruction of property & waste to initiate anymore political changes. Communism indoctrination will be especially useful in integrating regions such as Macao, Hong Kong, & Tiwan back into Mainland. Learning process will go both ways. Mainland will also learn about the life styles of Chinese in those regions.
In a given planet, there can only be one nation who can truly be democratic & independent at the same time. All other nations can either be undemocratically independent or seemingly democratic but were controlled by another stronger nation which in most cases is the U. S. The leaders of those small nations are nothing but puppets with no choices but to follow American orders. This is the reason why the U. S. is so anxious in converting other nations into “democracy”
For Communismt to work perfectly, citizen must be relatively well educated, unselfish & well trained. My own interpretation of “revisionism” as being a political system which can be easily refined & improved. More importantly, we need an extremely long foresight to be able to look into the very distant future and not restrict short term gains. China had survived the latter therefore should be posed to become successful. People of a communist nation must be able to take sacrifice & not operate totally on profit. The failure of PRC's communism at its early stage were simply due to U. S. embargo & boycott in areas such as commerce & technology transfer.
Chinese still refuse to accept the fact that their leaders are also one of them. (In reality their leader's belongings can also be shared &) Whatever that leader do is not only for their own good but are for other citizens also. This is the exact opposite to U. S. chief executives who functions exclusively for their own personal gain. They work only for the sake of being reelected & remembered in history. The minute their terms are over, they will be long gone & left behind mountains of unresolvable problems. In fact, it is their duty to be gone & to be relieved after their terms are over.
To put it very simply, Chinese must begin to treat their leaders as their parents. They are harsh, domineering & prone to making mistakes but somewhat responsive, naturally caring & they are permanent. We should remember that any social improvements toward perfection today will be limited by depleting resource & damaging Environment. Communication within the world's biggest Chinese bureaucracy is difficult. If a better system can be established for leaders to give more attentions to their subordinates. With renew respect & trust from its citizens, China could be the ideal government in history.
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[...] establishment people in Beijing seemed to agree with this view that he was even featured on the cover of the Chinese version of Esquire Magazine this month. (See picture on left.) Magazines like that – always concerned about potential trouble with [...]
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"I said even though Chinese governments and their policies should be blamed, but these innocent people do not deserve to die."
I am quite sure that the Uighurs don't deserve to die. But people who invaded other peoples' homeland, occupied it, colonized it, and take out natural resources from the land and not giving the land owners their fair share deserves anything they get. And since all of these people do not want any human rights, and won't do anything to get human rights, what they received is not violatiny right they have - NONE!
The Uighurs, on the other hand, are fighting for their human rights and therefore deserves all the rights as a human right fighter.
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"I hope you hate us less "
Why ? Hans don't want human rights, and therefore have none. Anyone can hate Hans as much as he/she likes. It's like kicking a rock, or walking on the lawn. Do it if you feel like it.
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[...] more evidence that dreams hold appeal in China as they do in the U.S., we’ve got some. First, this piece from Time, about lawyer Xu Zhiyong, who was arrested under false-seeming pretenses, and has just recently been [...]
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