WSJ: China Hasn't Changed

From a piece by Ellen Bork in today's Wall Street Journal:

Pollution, skyscrapers and development reflect China's rapid economic growth, not political change. There have been no significant political reforms in China since the 1980s. Meanwhile, economic growth has enabled more intense but sophisticated approach to political repression.

Since the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, anything that suggests a degree of organization, or coordination across provinces, is stamped out as quickly as possible and as ruthlessly as necessary. Examples include the religious organization Falun Gong and the China Democracy Party, whose members experienced the most brutal treatment a communist-party system has to dole out, including rape, beatings, shackling and electric shocks, according to Amnesty International and other human rights organizations. While China touts its commitment to the rule of law, lawyers who dare to defend victims of political or religious persecution are increasingly the targets of repression themselves.

The Olympics and their preparations are not leading to a liberalized China. In fact, the opposite is true. Dissidents have been sequestered, detained or sent out of town for the duration of the games. The construction of Olympic venues has led to the eviction of more than one million people. Activists who persist in pointing out the connection between the Olympics and the increase in human rights abuses -- such as Hu Jia, Ye Guozhu and Yang Chunlin -- have been jailed.

Read on . . .

The Beijing Olympics: Rewarding Totalitarianism

Several online sources are tracking the behavior of the oppressive Chinese government in preparation for the Olympics:

• Chuck Colson's Break Point has assembled a helpful array of information and resources spotlighting China's human rights abuses, persecution of Christians, and tight media controls.

• Voice of the Martyrs is documenting the Chinese regime's antics at the Persecution Blog. VoM is also offering free Olympic prayer bands here.
  

• Open Doors USA sent out this press release last week documenting some positive and negative steps taken by the Chinese regime in the run-up to the Olympics.

• Human Rights Watch has published an interesting Reporters' Guide to Covering the Beijing Olympics (pdf), aimed at helping foreign reporters evade the Chinese government's cenorship rules.
  

• freedomhouse.org lists Ten Things You Shold Know about China and Five Things You Should Know about the Beijing Olympics.