You’re right. One banner read:

“We want food not Covid testing; we want freedom not lockdowns; we want dignity not lies. We want reform not the Cultural Revolution; we want to vote not a leader; we are citizens not slaves.”

And another read:

“Go on strike, depose the traitorous dictator Xi Jinping.” The police immediately took him away and he has not been seen since.

You could write such banners in the U.S. and any Western democracy, and nothing would happen. In China, you disapear.

Peng Lifa didn’t call for insurrection, he held a white paper.

Sure, and the central government has no influence on the media. No censorship, right?

An ‘indie newspaper’ in China. Yah, that makes sense. (/s, just to be safe)

I don’t know what you want to say or what it has to do with the linked report, but there is a lot of propaganda on Chinese state-controlled media (e.g., [reports on a ‘civil war in Texas’](Misinformation spreads in China on ‘civil war’ in Texas), things like that).

What ‘these people’ report is on a person who forcibly disappeared after a peaceful protest, for holding a white paper. Every human being with a sane mind must condemn that.

These people are heroes if something like that exists. China must not only be called out more on that, Beijings ignorance of universal human rights must also have direct real-world consequences. Trade and investment agreements (such as WTO rules and China’s infamous Belt and Road Initiative) make only sense if and when rights issues are part of these international rule sets. China’s policies are manifestly unjust as its government permanently makes decisions in complete disregard of anyone else - its own people, its Asian neighbours, and the wider global community. There appears to be a slight, timid change in this respect, but much more must be done to adequately address the crimes against humanity committed by China.

This is just another blatant propaganda campaign by China. The government in Beijing obscures its domestic supply chains, and there is much evidence for grave human rights violations and crimes against humanity in China, particularly in Xinjiang and Tibet.

[Edit typo.]

They have now, if and when they coordinate and cooperate between themselves, according to the researcher:

Africa’s voice is minimal in the agenda-setting, due mostly to the multiplicity of African states, African Union weakness and competing needs among African countries.

Japan lodged a protest with China after one of its naval survey vessels entered Japanese waters on Aug 31, the second incursion into its territory by the Chinese military in less than a week - (Archived)

An uptick in Chinese military activity near Japan and around Taiwan in recent years has stoked concerns in Tokyo.

Japan has responded with a defence buildup that it says aims to deter Beijing from using military force to push its territorial claims in the region.

If we want to know whether or not digital devices should be allowed in schools, why don’t we ask the folks in the Silicon Valley. They must know it, and have been telling us for years:

Parents working in Silicon Valley are sending their children to a school where there’s not a computer in sight – (2015)

In the heart of Silicon Valley is a nine-classroom school where employees of tech giants Google, Apple and Yahoo send their children. But despite its location in America’s digital centre, there is not an iPad, smartphone or screen in sight.

‘The Insider’ is an independent media outlet originally from Russia. It is banned there, though, labelled by the Kremlin as ‘foreign agent’, which is why it’s headquatered in Latvia now.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Insider_(website)

(Edit typo.)

@[email protected] @[email protected]

It seems it doesn’t work without whataboutism here.

I thought it’s a typo :-)

There is a lot wrong with Amazon, and I don’t buy there, but as far as I know they never sold toxic stuff (although I wouldn’t be surprised whatever happens in the future, but that’s a different story). One thing this tells us is that China is not the way to go. It’s the worst outcome of so-called neo-liberal capitalism within an authoriatarian political system.

Ukrainian troops now up to 30km inside Russia, Moscow says

Yes, I am surprised too. Let’s see how this develops :-)

Maybe I’m mistaken, but very often when a terrible incident like this one in Iraq or in any other non-Western country is posted, then anyone comments about the U.S., Europe, or anywhere in ‘the West’, and then a thread develops about how bad things are in Michigan, Illinois, and other Western areas. And this always goes in one direction.

So don’t get me wrong, I don’t say that Western democracies are a perfect world (their democracies are indeed under threat), but this is a weird observation. But maybe I’m mistaken.

True. I’d have just one edit to whole story:

“The fact is, that if you make a good climate story, people will want to read it.”

China’s Belt and Road creates an attractive system for -and is likely aimed at- autocratic regimes, especially since it does not impose conditions of loosening state controls on the corporate sector and reducing clientelism. There is evidence that between 2014 and 2019, almost 80% of total Chinese infrastructure investing worldwide went to autocracies (or to countries with ‘semi-competitive’ elections). Beijing has no interest in democratic reforms in its partner countries, and this might be one major reason why the CCP supports Maduro.

Tankies do like to pretend that they don’t support fascism, but they really just ignore it and enjoy their brunches. Forced labour and other human rights violations in autocracies don’t effect them personally, therefore it doesn’t exist at all.