The man who exposed a real estate scandal in Shanghai should be rewarded, no? Here’s how the government rewarded him:
A lawyer who helped expose a real estate scandal that tarnished the reputation of Shanghai, China’s showcase commercial city, has been sentenced to three years in prison on charges that he disclosed state secrets, his defense lawyer said today.
Western human rights group say the case against the lawyer, Zheng Enchong, amounts to an attempt to intimidate lawyers who aggressively defend their clients. The sentence appears to undermine China’s recent efforts to counter diplomatic pressure on its rights record by releasing prominent dissidents.
I know, I know — what’s the big deal? The Chinese always do stuff like this. Always have, always will. It’s their culture. We can’t apply Western standards to them. Things are different there and we need to respect that. And besides, they’re reforming!
Bullshit across the board. If they want to be our partners and if they want our investment money and the priviliges of being a global player, we need to hold them to the same standards as we do our other partners. Look at all the sanctions and punishments we dole out to Cuba for its human rights abuses. Is China any better? No, I don’t think so.
1
By richard
There are blogs that are dedicated to a single industry/topic, though mine isn’t one of them. Personally, I find these blogs get kind of dull — I mean, how much can you put down each and every day about real estate that is going to keep it fast-paced and interesting enough for people to return daily?
February 17, 2004 @ 5:59 pm | Comment