Thursday, August 13, 2009

Impact of Arrest of Xu Zhiyong

Sharon Hom of Human Rights in China warns: “By suppressing Xu Zhiyong, who is a moderate voice for social change and has dedicated his career to helping forge a society with genuine rule of law, the authorities are running the risk of radicalizing the forces for reform and change in China.” (http://rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/2009/08/dark-days-for-chinas-liberals.html).

The human rights defenders movement simply attempts to ensure that Chinese citizens enjoy the rights extended to them by China's National Constitution. The suppression of the high-minded lawyers involved in this low paying and risky work is a function of the sort of venal hypocrisy that one hopes will cease to be a feature of Chinese politics in the near future.

2 comments:

Callum said...

Is it likely that this "venal hypocrisy" as you put it will cease to be a feature of Chinese politics in the near future? Not so near future?

Charles Burton said...

I have been predicting the imminent phasing out of "venal hypocrisy" in Chinese politics for over 30 years now. But I continue to be confident as in the words of the late Sam Cooke:
"It's been a long, been a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will."