It’s a possibility.
RSF has voiced outrage over the charge of “illegally exposing state secrets abroad” that was brought against journalist and poet Shi Tao on 28 January 2005 for posting an official document relating to the June 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre on a foreign website. Shi, who has been detained since November 2004, faces a sentence of between three years and life imprisonment if convicted.
The organisation said it was “absolutely scandalous” that China has imprisoned a journalist for trying to inform people around the world about Tiananmen at a moment when the European Union (EU) is considering lifting the arms embargo that was imposed after the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators. This shows the extent to which the Chinese Communist Party opposes any democratic opening, RSF said.
He shouldn’t worry. According to a recent commenter, the laogai isn’t so bad, although “the CCP need to add more check and balances into the system.” I hope Mr. Shi has a pleasant stay.
1
By bellevue
The Chinese official line, that ‘the EU arms embargo is a product of Cold War’, is a outright lie but seldom challenged in media.
EU embargo started in 1989 as a result of Tiananmen massacre (OK, it did not take place in Tiananmen Square but the road leading to it – satisfied?). The Cold War started to end in 1989 at the crumbling Berlin Wall.
February 5, 2005 @ 6:19 am | Comment
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By Cloud
bellevue, what’s worse is that EU pols stand alongside the Chinese leaders as they praise the EU’s wisdom in ending this “relic of the Cold War”; in so doing, the EU aids and abets the Party’s papering-over of history.
February 5, 2005 @ 6:52 am | Comment
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By Jing
Call me a cynic, but I think Europe is securing its own interests(and the livelihoods of its defense companies) in the process of this. The core issue is not human rights but rather the security arrangement in East Asia. To be blunt, China doesn’t need advanced airborne radars or electronics to crack down on dissidents or jail social malcontents, any of that can be manufactured domestically and in fact, I believe China is a global exporter of internal security related hardware(I know China exports stun batons). The military hardware being sought is required to modernize the PLA and to reduce reliance on Russian imports, not for crushing protestors.
February 5, 2005 @ 7:16 am | Comment
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By bellevue
Cloud: Thank you for the EU part. Yes, what they are doing now is being collaborators.
Jing: who cannot be cynic watching those Europeans? They want to trade weapon for cold cash, and China wants to get rid of haunting ‘relics’ of its murderous past. Deal.
February 5, 2005 @ 9:41 am | Comment
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By schtickyrice
Perhaps the EU’s willingness to lift the arms embargo to China has more to do with Bush’s policy of American unilateralism and global hegemony.
February 5, 2005 @ 12:47 pm | Comment