And we're back
Sorry for the time without posts, but Winter Break at our university snuck up on us this year. Between finals and everything else, it was hard to find time to post.
I hope everyone else had happy holidays, and, starting tomorrow, regular commentary on Asian-related news will begin again.
I hope everyone else had happy holidays, and, starting tomorrow, regular commentary on Asian-related news will begin again.
posted by Anonymous at 2:06 PM
8 Comments:
Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, paid a three day visit to Beijing to discuss Iran's
nuclear program with current China's president Hu Jintao. According to recent events in Iran’s development of their nuclear program, United States and European Union imposed sanctions on Iran and so far they were backed by China. This Wednesday's visit by Mr. Olmert was part of Israel's expectations that China will stay firm if stronger sanctions were to be imposed upon Iran, and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, ensured him that Beijing will not approve of Iran's further nuclear progress. Israeli's PM ensured Mr. Jintao that they are willing to do "anything in its power” to stop the actions of Iran, and since China is a permanent member of Security Council, it is important that they get China's agreement on this. Although they approved off the sanctions so far, China indicated that they still prefer to continue talks with Tehran….
Would Democracy Work in China?
I realize this may be a rather touchy subject I will put a disclaimer here and now on what I am about to say. I realize that ultimately I have no authority to speak on this subject, being neither Chinese nor soundly grounded in the area of politics to offer any meaningful contribution to the discussion but I am curious to hear other opinions on this topic. I have mixed feelings as to whether democracy could ever work in China. All forms of government have their advantages and disadvantages. Democracy is not wholly good and communism is not wholly evil.
Growing up in the years following the Cold War, I was taught communism was evil but now I believe corruption and extremism is what should be feared. I was led to believe from my schoolteachers and American adults that the common Chinese person was subject to a tyrannical government that limited their freedoms and held the country back from achieving greatness.
First of all, the Chinese economy is achieving levels of greatness and making them a key world power, which disproves that communism is holding them back in that regard. In talking to several Chinese people firsthand I was presented with a China very different from the one I had imagined. The venerate CCP leaders such as Mao Zedong; believing his main goal was to help the common person of China.
In closing, communism is not wholly bad. What I have come to realize is that if communism works for China and the Chinese people want communism, then who am I as an American to look down on China or think of it as a lesser country for being simply being a communist nation? Ultimately it is for the Chinese people to decide their form of government.
POLS 365
Britney Broyles
POLS 365 #1
In my own opinion, I think that the China One Child Policy is a good thing for China, even though it has been criticised by many Western religious groups. They think that in general that the one-child policy is against human rights of reproduction. They criticised the China One Child Policy due to the fact that because of this policy that's why most families in China used the method called sex selective abortion, which highly destroyed male-female ratios population. This created the result that there are more male than female. But in the good side the China One Child Policy reduced the problems that come with overpopulation, like epidemics, slums, overwhelmed social services like health, education, law enforcement, the availability of land and more. Even though it has some criticisms, it still has helped China with all the problems that I have mentioned above. In conclusion, I think that with this policy, China's economy has increase tremedously due to the fact that if China doesn't have overpopulation, then there will be enough jobs for every citizens and unemployment rate will be low.
**** I need help with this blog thing****
Posted by Hoa Pham at 4:33 PM Saturday 1-13-2007 0 comments
Google Investment in China
I remember the controversy that surrounded Google's initial launch in China. The controversy surrounded Google.cn self-censuring searches on topics like the Tiananmen Square protests. Google's decision to censure information illustrates the balance that must be met in U.S.-China Relations.
Since Nixon, the policy seems to be that consumerism will topple communism and democracy will follow. This policy has had a great deal of success. Many Chinese enjoy a greater standard of living and enjoy more freedom, but the Communist Party also benefits from increased trade. The balance refers to which value is more important to U.S. policy, free trade or freedom. Capitalism has defeated communism in China, but this means little if Chinese citizens can't select their leaders, or speak their minds. If the Communist Party was renamed the Capitalist Party, would it make much of a difference if the leaders weren't freely elected, censured newspapers, and incarcerated journalist?
Google’s investment in China is a good thing, but the company violated the trust of their U.S. and Chinese consumers when they ceded to Communist Party’s influence. Hopefully, Google’s mistake will help other companies and the U.S. government better evaluate the costs and benefits of doing business with repressive regimes.
This maybe old news, but last year, the government of China's capital Beijing enacted a "one dog" policy that is to limit the number of pets owned to only one.
Similar to their infamous "one child" policy, the government is aiming to reduce Beijing's pet population.
Authorities are fearful of a growing pet population due to the rise in deaths caused by rabies nationwide (China). Owners are failing to properly vaccinate their pets, which have caused an increase of rise human rabies cases in China. In Semtember 2006 alone, there were 318 reported deaths due to rabies.
The "one dog" policy also prohibits owners from taking their pets to particular public areas such as hospitals, malls, theatres, etc.
At a glance, this may seem alarming, but in America we brand similar "no pets" zones. But in the U.S., it is usually implemented at an individual and/or group level rather than governmental.
However efficient this policy may seem, there are still many questions that target the new policy's practicality and reasonablness. For example, certainly dogs are not the only contributers to rabies, so why only limit the number of dogs one owns? What not limit the number of cats, birds, etc.? Another question to be asnwered is, how on earth are they going to enforce this at its initial stage? Surely, officials must go door to door of every house in Beijing. The population of the capital is nearly 15 million people! What are they going to do if half of the population owns more than one dog? Where are they going to put these dogs? What are they are going to do with them?
The questions are endless. And I think the policy is lame.
Just a few days ago, my MSN homepage displayed a story about China and the consequences of its one child policy. While on the surface this policy seems to be working for the country it has also been creating a long-term effect that will result in dire consequences.
The favoring of males over females is an ancient tradition in China. I am currently reading Wild Swans and it is illustrating just how powerful, longstanding and severe this tradition is. Since the 1980's China has been enforcing a demographic policy to limit families to one-child in the name of economic growth. According to the MSN article, The policy resulted in a slashed annual birth rate of 1.29 percent by 2002, or the prevention of some 300 million births, and the current population of close to 1.3 billion. With today's technology, it is extremely cheap and easy to abort babies who are found to be female. Too often, families wait until the baby is born to end its life.
Almost thirty years after the policy was put into effect, the downfalls has become evident. A whole generation of young men today are without wives because of the imbalance; human trafficking has become a profitable market; kidnapping rates are up; women are continuing to be treated as a possession-now an even more scarse one.
I do believe the policy had good intentions. Yet now China needs to reevaluate the country's future with it. It is clear the population strategy is creating more problems while solving only a few.
I am writing in response to the article "Chinese Court Upholds Conviction of Peasants Advocate." This article was posted in the New York Times on January 13th. Reading this article made me angry. China, or at least some cities within China have no impartial justice system regardless of what people may say. To think that a man can go to jail for simply fighting for the right thing. I have never agreed with China's One Child policy and am appalled that someone can be forced to have an abortion and even more appalled that someone can be forced to have an abortion in an unsterilized environment. What's sad to me is that it shouldn't have had to even come to a man going to jail for four years over a human rights issue. Rather than forcing people to have abortions, the Chinese government should implement some sort of sex education. I don't judge those who abort, but for those who don't believe in such things I can imagine it would be a horrible feeling going through life knowing your child was murdered and you could do nothing to stop it. The whole situation needs to be evaluated. There has got to be a better solution to the population problem then forced abortions. Facing four years in prison the "barefoot lawyer" as he is commonly called has succeeded some. The City of Linyi was ordered to stop using violent methods to reach population control targets. But, because of this Mr.Chen's family become a target for government officials within the city. Hopefully, Mr.Chen's case will be appealed and he will prevail and continue to be able to fight for the rights of those who are less fortunate than others.
Rights Groups Say Conditions in China Worsen as Olympics Near
As China put out its bid for being host of the 2008 Olympics, China promised to allow a free flow of information into the country. They also said that they would work on rights as part of the agreement to let China host the Olympics. Rights groups say that there has been no impartial legal system out put into place. Furthermore propaganda officials have been placed on restriction. China restricts what the media portrys, including the internet and television, from its citizens. However this article sheds new light onto how problems with the 2008 Olympics might arise. However I do think that it is acceptable for outsiders to exepct China to mend its rules for persons that may be visiting the country for the Olympics. However if an agreement was made, I feel that any respectable country would uphold that agreement. It will be interesting to see how the Olypmics plays out in China.
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