Interesting that ChinaOnline chinaonline.com won't be published on Martin Luther King's holiday. That shows a significant wish to be seen to be respectful of the USA cultural biases.
I suppose, in a way, it's also a way of pointing out that the great Human Rights-obsessed USA is a very recent convert to the concept and that the USA pushing of China to be respectful of human rights is not with a strong foundation.
Being keen on human rights myself, and a Libertarian supporter, there is nowhere, including the USA, which has more than a passing acquaintance with the concept of human rights.
Even the usually reasonable Carranza allowed himself to be caught up in the 'we will not compromise our principles' rhetoric. Hey, c'mon Carranza! I know it's easy to get swept up in sweeping, wild, unfounded generalisations with little substance; we all do that. The USA doesn't even know what those principles are. Witness Florida and US Supreme Courts trying to figure out what the principles are; witness the pushing and shoving between Republicans and Democrats who each think the other is disconnected from reality and should probably be incarcerated - they have conflicting policies and principles on most things. Principles, if known, are compromised every day in the USA.
Anyway, to Jiang Zemin. Here he is at the 50th communist celebrations, news.bbc.co.uk looking foolish in his black limo, shouting to the crowd something which sounded like 'Sieg' and the crowd called back 'Heil' or something similar. It was worth watching for the hilarity aspect. All it needed to make the spectacle totally absurd, was for the car, while driving up and down 'inspecting the troops', to get a flat tyre. I imagine Jiang standing resolutely in position, shouting 'Sieg' while they jacked the car up to change the wheel. Okay, I know I have a perverse sense of humour.
On Falun Gong; religions around the world are responsible for vast murder and mayhem. Israel's conflict with Palestine is just another murderous religious mania. We had here a few days ago an exorcism, which involved a person dying during an exorcism and being kept for a week with the mad adherents thinking God would bring her back to life. nzherald.co.nz
It is reasonable to ensure religious wackos do NOT disrupt public order. Self-defence is vital and they [religious wackos] will trample all over anyone who opposes the true word, which they just happen to be fortunate to have because they have a personal hotline to the Big Boy who has only their interests at heart and who has specifically ordained that they shall go forth and convert the heathen believers in other Gods to the one true word; on pain of death, of course. Bill Clinton purports to be a religous wacko [but his behaviour patterns don't seem specially 'Christian' to me] - so do Al Gore and George Bush. God save us from religion.
Okay, Jiang Zemin and co are worried about Falun Gong, or any other gang, or gong, taking over. That's understandable. Of course they'll be challenged for power and of course they'll oppose the challenge.
Authoritarian people think they are the defenders of civilisation, crushing any behaviour which doesn't fit their idea of civilized. Stopping opposition to their ideas is a necessary defence of civilisation. Heck, Condoleezza Rice and Colinisation Powell are about to explain to the world just what their idea of 'civilization' is and you can be sure they'll be somewhat forceful about requiring compliance with civilized behaviour. For example, it would NOT be civilized of China to repossess Taiwan from the wayward dissidents who currently control it. Jiang thinks he is civilized and of course must stop uncivilized behaviour, which includes unauthorized political activity, such as doing Falung Gong exercizes where not permitted. Try stepping out of line in the USA or New Zealand and see how long it is before the police move you along to maintain public order. Here are the NZ police apologizing for illegally arresting people and moving them on: nzherald.co.nz
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I'm sure the police in NZ thought they were civilized and maintaining public order and defending civilization.
In the normal sense of the word, Jiang Zemin is a civilized person. Authoritarian, true. Megalomaniac, true. But so are any political types who get to the top [that I can think of]. In democracies, they are better held in check than in one party states.
Is he highly intelligent? Okay, he might not be an Irwin Jacobs, but I dare say he is pretty bright and even highly intelligent. ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au Electrical engineering degrees require a pretty good IQ, but he also learned foreign languages and economics and conducted a highly successful political career [to succeed in getting to the top and staying there for 7 years in China takes some know-how]. Looking silly in a black limo and shouting Sieg suggests his intelligence is not the best in the world.
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