Will China's new law tackle terror?
A BBC commentary by Raffaello Pantucci, of RUSI and close observer of China's activity in the far west Xinjiang Province. He asks:
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China's long-discussed counter-terrorism legislation, passed this week, frames the way the country will counter terrorist threats at home and abroad. But it is capable of getting to the root of the problem?
(He concludes) If China wants to be able to properly and effectively tackle its terrorism problems at home and abroad, it needs to start to think in this way too. It needs to find a way to not only disrupt terror networks but to understand why people are drawn to terror in the first place and how it can address the issue.
Link:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-35199712
Trying to Keep Tiananment Alive
http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/a...iananmen-alive
Amid Crackdown, China’s Dissidents Fight to Keep the Spirit of Tiananmen Alive
In
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the years following the bloodshed in 1989, during which hundreds or even thousands died, a number of surviving political activists struggled to carry on the legacy of nonviolent resistance. Their endeavors were met with merciless government suppression, and a spate of arrests ensued.
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In the spring of 2008, dissidents including the prominent writer Liu Xiaobo drafted Charter 08, a petition calling for human rights, democracy and the end of one-party rule in China, which was initially signed by a coalition of 303 Chinese citizens and posted online in December 2008. The idea of Charter 08, free for anyone to sign, was that its signatories would form a loose group with the common cause of promoting human rights and democracy in China.
The article describes how this movement was rapidly suppressed. It further illustrates that non-violent resistance has little chance of success when the state maintains control of its security forces and is willing to use oppressive measures against its own people. The West remains relatively silent because of their economic interests.
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The collective suffering of China’s dissidents, known only to a tiny population of the country, is enormous, while the concrete results of their sacrifices are difficult to see.
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All these recent developments bode ill for the future of political opposition in China. As prominent dissident Mo Zhixu wrote, “Grassroots resistance is entering the toughest period. How to cope with the increasingly frozen ‘ice age’ will be a test to all activists.”
One can continue to hope the Chinese people will rise up and compel change, but I tend to think that is a long shot, not one we should bet on.
China Is Treating Islam Like a Mental Illness
https://www.theatlantic.com/internat...llness/568525/
China Is Treating Islam Like a Mental Illness
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Here’s an excerpt from an official Communist Party audio recording, which was transmitted last year to Uighurs via WeChat, a social-media platform, and which was transcribed and translated by Radio Free Asia:
Members of the public who have been chosen for reeducation have been infected by an ideological illness. They have been infected with religious extremism and violent terrorist ideology, and therefore they must seek treatment from a hospital as an inpatient. … The religious extremist ideology is a type of poisonous medicine, which confuses the mind of the people. … If we do not eradicate religious extremism at its roots, the violent terrorist incidents will grow and spread all over like an incurable malignant tumor.
China and Vatican Reach Breakthrough
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/22/w...version=latest
China and Vatican Reach Breakthrough on Appointment of Bishops
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Under the breakthrough, Pope Francis recognized the legitimacy of seven bishops appointed by the Chinese government. Because they had not been selected by the Vatican, they had previously been excommunicated.
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But for critics loath to share any of the church’s authority with an authoritarian government, the deal marked a shameful retreat and the setting of a dangerous precedent for future relations with other countries.
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Critics of the deal, including a prominent cardinal in Hong Kong, have argued that it would send a signal that the Vatican did not stand up for those who stood up for it.
The Pope made a deal with the devil in hopes of expanding the Churches' influence by compromising with the Communist Party of China, even when his own experts in China recommended against it. I suspect the Pope will be greatly disappointed when he finds this deal does more harm than good for the Church.
Why China fears Myanmar’s Christians
http://www.atimes.com/article/why-ch...rs-christians/
Why China fears Myanmar’s Christians
China-backed United Wa State Party is clamping down on Christian churches, priests and missionaries in a move likely aimed to ferret out suspected US CIA-backed plots and operatives
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The Chinese language statement, obtained and reviewed by Asia Times, pledges to punish any local administration cadres who support missionary activities, bans the construction of new Christian churches, and requires that priests and workers in existing churches must be local not foreign.
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Hardly coincidentally, the announcement comes after John Cao, an ethnic Chinese pastor and permanent US resident of the state of North Carolina, was arrested in China in March for illegally crossing the Sino-Myanmar border. In June, he was sentenced to seven years in prison on immigration-related charges.
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It is clear that China does not want a similar situation with US missionaries emerging in the neighboring Wa Hills. With Myanmar’s broad relations with the West deteriorating over the flight of some 800,000 Muslim Rohingyas into Bangladesh amid reports of abuse, China has turned the crisis into a diplomatic opportunity to regain earlier lost influence.
From that position of strength, Beijing seems keen to export its model of Christian repression into areas of Myanmar where it has sway and historical reasons to fear Western infiltration.
China also supports Burma in the UN when it veto's resolutions concerning the mistreatment of the Rohingya by Burmese security forces.