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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MSI who wrote (15548)	11/7/2003 6:13:12 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793646

Glenn Reynolds.com CHINA GETS ROUGH One of my friends was a visiting professor in China last year. He emailed, “It is easy, in the capitalist mecca of Shanghai, to forget a key fact that the government here plainly wants you to forget but that is now quite clear: This is very much a police state.” It’s even easier to remember that now, as the Chinese government accelerates a crackdown on Internet dissidents. You can read a blog account here. You can also read this story from The Christian Science Monitor about the arrest of dissident Liu Di, known as “the Stainless Steel Mouse:” A third-year psychology student at Beijing Normal University, Ms. Liu formed an artists club, wrote absurdist essays in the style of dissident Eastern-bloc writers of the 1970s, and ran a popular web-posting site. Admirers cite her originality and humor: In one essay Liu ironically suggests all club members go to the streets to sell Marxist literature and preach Lenin’s theory, like “real Communists.” In another, she suggests everyone tell no lies for 24 hours. In a series of “confessions” she says that China’s repressive national-security laws are not good for the security of the nation. But since Nov. 7, 2002, when plain-clothes police made a secret arrest, Liu has not been heard from. No charges have been filed; her family and friends may not visit her, sources say; and, in a well-known silencing tactic, authorities warn that it will not go well for her if foreign media are informed of her case. Taken together with China’s growing nuclear ambitions, this is troubling indeed. Given the large number of Chinese products imported by American companies like WalMart and K-Mart, I think we’ll see this sort of concern spilling over into the U.S. political arena, with pressure being put on American companies to buy fewer Chinese products, and on politicians to make trade with China less expansive. Of course, it’s entirely possible — I’d even say likely — that China’s economic bubble will burst. That will reduce the volume of trade with the United States, but at the cost of serious political problems within China, the outcome of which could be good (a free, democratic China) or bad (a more nationalistic, fascistic China). Add to this concerns about a North Korean collapse — a welcome thing in itself (see below) but a likely cause of regional instability — and there’s plenty to worry about in that region however things go. msnbc.com