Do you slow down when you see a crash on the Superinformation Highway?
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Chinese call for a Middle East style Jasmine revolution
THE RECENT uprisings in the Middle East seem to have infected China with popular discontent, with anonymous protestors reportedly having called for a "Jasmine Revolution".
An open letter on the Chinese blog site Boxun called for gatherings to take place every weekend at 13 spots across the country. It said that there needs to be popular pressure against the Chinese ruling party to fix problems such as corruption and the inequality between rich and poor, a rather ironic note for what is supposedly an egalitarian Communist country.
The letter said that the Jasmine Revolution doesn't necessarily want to overthrow the government or even create a democratic political system. Its fundamental demand is for an independent judiciary that makes sure Chinese officials listen to the people.
It has already made Chinese leaders jittery, with Jasmine Revolution related websites having been banned and people suspected of being involved in the protests having been rounded up for questioning.
The letter warned that if the government doesn't work on solving the problems and instead suppresses the protests by blocking technology, the protests will only get stronger.
It doesn't seem possible that Chinese protestors can gain government concessions like we've seen in the Middle East. The Chinese government earned a reputation at the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 for stamping down hard on any open dissent, with no qualms about using deadly violence.
But as we've seen in the last few weeks, anything is possible. µ
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http://middleeastprotest.blogspot.com/
Governments need both political will and the physical means to crush revolts, and the CCP have both. While the population at large might not totally content, there's a sufficient fraction who have too much to lose in a insurrection, and not enough who feel they have nothing to lose. The ones in the middle just want their chance at the apple of prosperity, so unless economic conditions become catastrophic, I wouldn't expect too much to happen in the Middle Kingdom.
Yeah right, in a country where the secret police currently has at the top of their shit list 70 million people who practice tai chi. That's right Tai Chi. These "rebels" usually got tortured and when they died from this "questioning" their organs got sold, you know for the greater good. Good luck with your Jasmine revolution future "dissidents".