You final sentence sums it up perfectly.

April 15, 2004 @ 9:09 pm | Comment

China is stupid. They should file a motion to censure American’s killing of thousands of peopel, esp. woman and children in Iraq. That will put US in the spotlight and even their European friends will enjoy the show.

China seems to be too timid to offend US.

April 15, 2004 @ 9:36 pm | Comment

Do you believe the US meant to harm women and children in Iraq? I am deeply conflicted on the topic of Iraq, and we’ve fucked up big time. But the human rights record of the US is infinitely superior to that of China. Many Chinese want to flee and come to the US, not the other way around. The “vote by foot” is the best barometer there is.

April 15, 2004 @ 9:58 pm | Comment

I am shame to china government.The tyrant government actually list a lengthy chronology highlignting how the “the US and several Western countries” failed time and again over the past 14 years to get the UN to censure them. The government who lost face to the world.

April 15, 2004 @ 10:49 pm | Comment

Chinese contempt for Human Rights

Thanks to China observer and blogger Richard (aka Peking Duck) who has pointed out a teeth-gnashingly despicable article on Xinhua.Net. The People’s Republic actually takes the time to list, since 1990, 11 instances “by a few Western countries, which have

April 15, 2004 @ 10:56 pm | Comment

The UN vote, I’m afraid, says nothing about China, but a hell of a lot about the United Nations.

Well, it says a hell of a lot about the UN Commission on Human Rights, which is an assemblage of countries, elected by the UN member states, most of which show scant respect for human rights. Therefore, they are engaged in mutual ass-covering, back-scratching and horse-trading to protect themselves and their friends from scrutiny and criticism.

I’m sure the people at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights have rather different views on the human right situation in China.

April 16, 2004 @ 5:37 am | Comment

“Do you believe the US meant to harm women and children in Iraq?”

The answer will depend on where the person is brainwashed. If in USA, he will think US troops have done everything to avoid civilian casualty. If in arab countries, he will probably say yes.

Even if the answer is no, it is still worth discussing the issue at UN. Anyway, thousands of people have died and more will die. Is it worth talking about?

April 16, 2004 @ 6:44 pm | Comment

I completely agree that it’s a question worthy of discussion. And there has been carelessness and cruelty — it is, after all, a war. Critical as I am of America, I personally don’t believe we meant to go in and kill innocent women and children. It happens, and there are examples of depravity among our soldiers as there are among any who are fighting a war. But to say China should censure the US for our cruelty in Iraq — how absurd, considering the butchery of the tyrant we threw out, the one who murdered hundreds of thousands of his own people.

April 16, 2004 @ 6:50 pm | Comment

How many times has the US vetoed Security Council resolutions on Israel? Summary executions tend to be a lot flashier in Gaza than in China. *the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air*

And I’m conflicted about why people are voting with their feet from China. Aren’t most of the folks paying snakeheads to get the US and Britain doing it in the hope of getting to “gold mountain”?

Isn’t the US immigration policy of the US opposed to giving tourist visas to people from certain countries (like the PRC) based upon their history of overstaying their visas for economic reasons? How many people have applied for political asylum from the PRC recently, even among the women who’ve been arrested repeatedly?

April 16, 2004 @ 11:27 pm | Comment

Tom, valid qestions, and I don’t know the answers.

I don’t know if money is the main reason Chinese who come to America stay in America and am curious why you feel that’s so. Most of the Chinese university students I’ve met in the US were well off, at least relatively, but wanted to stay in the US because they found it to be fun. (That was back in the mid-90s, when China was still alot more uptight than it is today.) I also suspect some find the freedom of expression and respect for individual liberties to be appealing, but I can’t prove it. I’ve known many Chinese in the US who stayed because of sexual freedom, not money.

And I definitely know of many more Chinese fleeing to the US to escape the CCP — from students at Tiananmen Square to Harry Wu to falun gong members — than I do of Americans fleeing to China to escape repression from the US government. Come to think of it, I don’t know any examples of the latter at all (and as you probably know, I am no big fan of the US government, especially not at the moment).

As to your question of how many PRC citizens have requested political asylum to enter the US, again I don’t know. But I’d be surprised if it’s not a higher number than that of Americans knocking at the door of the Chinese embassy in the US seeking political asylum.

April 17, 2004 @ 12:01 am | Comment

I’d agree that few US citizens will seek political refugee status in China.

I’d think the rationale might be less economic for those that can make it to the US for school. I was thinking more of the less educated that end up in places like NY’s Chinatown, especially from Fujian province. Though I don’t have any numbers or guesstimates on the relative numbers between students and working class.

Just out of curiosity, do the students you know end up sending remittances back to the PRC if they start working in the US?

April 17, 2004 @ 9:09 am | Comment

Just out of curiosity, do the students you know end up sending remittances back to the PRC if they start working in the US?

I don’t think I ever asked them this question. Some that I knew seemed quite comfortable and I would have been surprised if they were sending money to their families, but I cannot say for sure.

April 17, 2004 @ 9:13 am | Comment