The GDR may be gone, but we still have the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

From the Associated Press on Christmas day:

Authorities in Tibet have detained 59 people accused of disseminating rumors aimed at inciting ethnic tension and have cracked down on illegal downloads of “reactionary music” online, Chinese state media reported Thursday.Law enforcement officers have found 48 cases of “rumor spreading” since March, when anti-government riots rocked the Tibetan capital Lhasa, a report by the China Tibet News said, citing a local public security official.

Xin Yuanming, deputy chief of the Lhasa public security bureau, said those being investigated were instigated by the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, according to the report. It did not name those detained nor give other details.

The rumors posed a threat to public security by fanning ethnic hatred and damaging the image of China’s ruling Communist Party, the report said.

Arrested for spreading rumors that might damge the image of the communist regime…the old GDR and its Stasi would be proud.

So what does the thuggish, and sadly iconic, Guevara have to do with Mao,  Communist China’s ex-dictator?  From the description accompanying the video:

“We’re rightly horrified by fascist murderers like Adolph Hitler,” says reason.tv’s Nick Gillespie. “Why aren’t we also horrified by communist killers?” Certainly, Che’s body count isn’t anywhere near Hitler’s. But what about someone Che idolized, someone whom he might have liked to wear on his chest?

“Che, Castro, all the communist regimes idolized only one thing that Mao personifies—violence.” Kai Chen grew up in China under the reign of Mao Zedong. Although he won gold medals for China’s national basketball team, Chen’s was far from the celebrity life of an NBA star. Says Chen, “You have no right to talk, and you have no right to think.”

The punishment for questioning Mao’s authority was often death. The Black Book of Communism estimates that Mao is responsible for the deaths of 65 million people—a figure that dwarfs even Hitler’s body count. “Mao is a murderer,” says Chen. “The biggest mass murderer in human history.”

And yet, like Che, Mao’s image is becoming an increasingly popular way to move merchandise. You can buy Mao t-shirts, mugs, caps-you name it.

Really, why don’t the lear jet liberals reason.tv shows celebrating Che have similar contempt for communist mass-murderers as for fascist mass-murderers?

From the FIDH statement:

According to the information received, since November 3rd, 2008, the city of Taipei has been heavily occupied by more than 7,000 police officers. The authorities have taken many drastic measures, including: confiscating and damaging private property, harassing and assaulting people who came too close to undefined or vaguely defined areas, clearing communal highway lanes with force, conducting random searches and arrests, and restricting the freedom of movement of citizens. These actions have been taken during Mr. CHEN’s visit, in the name of protecting security.

However, we fear these aggressions in fact aim at suppressing the right to freedom of expression of citizens. To supplement this violence, there are also unprecedented restrictions which clearly overpass the limits of ensuring security. For example, citizens have been restricted from displaying or carrying the national flag of Taiwan, forbidden to declare that “Taiwan is not part of China”, forbidden from carrying filming devices, and restricted from playing any music the authorities consider inappropriate.

These measures seem to be aimed at silencing political opinions rather than protecting security, and thus they blatantly violate the Constitution of Taiwan, notably Articles 11 and 14 which protect freedom of expression and international human rights standards. Consequently, FIDH requests that the National Police Agency and National Security Bureau, bound by the Constitution and the national legislation, should be held responsible for violating their legal obligations. The Judicial Yuan and Control Yuan should immediately conduct independent and impartial investigations into all allegations of human rights violations and hold all personnel in office accountable for neglecting their civil and legal obligations, in line with the Judicial Yuan’s recent statement that “it is very important to form an objective and solid review standard, and make the constitutional reviews more predictable and trust-worthy to people”. Those who perpetrated these violations, particularly in the National Police Agency and National Security Bureau, must be held accountable, in accordance with Article 24 of the Constitution of Taiwan, which stipulates that “Any public employee who, in violation of law, infringes upon the freedom or right of any person shall, in addition to being subject to disciplinary punishment in accordance with law, be liable to criminal and civil action. The victim may, in accordance with law, claim damages from the State for any injury sustained therefrom.”

From a Nov. 20 Freedom House press release:

Hundreds of university students are currently staging a sit-in in Taipei’s Freedom Square and several other cities to protest the government’s handling of the incident. During Chen’s visit, police reportedly used heavy-handed tactics—including physical assault, arbitrary detention and destruction of property—to prevent Chen from seeing symbols of Taiwanese or Tibetan independence, as well as broader demonstrations against the Chinese regime. Demonstrators also employed violence against police, throwing rocks and petrol bombs outside Chen’s hotel on November 6.

The clashes reveal a need for police to undergo crowd control training that adheres to the standards used in other democracies. Likewise, demonstrators and political advocacy groups must recommit themselves to orderly protests that avoid violence under any circumstances.

The inquiry commission should examine controversial passages in Taiwan’s Assembly and Parade Law, such as restrictions on where people are allowed to demonstrate, and determine whether they need to be liberalized to protect citizens’ rights to freedom of expression and assembly. The commission should also investigate claims that police are selectively enforcing the law.

The visit by Chen, the most senior Chinese official to visit Taiwan since it split from China in 1949, and the recent arrests of several opposition party figures are raising concerns that that President Ma and his Kuomintang Party may rollback democratic freedoms.

On March 22, Taiwan held a presidential election. Ma Ying-Jeou of the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, or KMT) defeated the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate. It was Taiwan’s second peaceful transfer of party power through democratic elections, which can generally be viewed as an excellent sign of a healthy and maturing democracy.  Unfortunately, a recent (and rare) visit to Taiwan by an official from the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC)  has resulted in President Ma and the KMT run Taiwan government acting to appease Beijing at the expense of the democratic values of free and open expression, freedom of assembly and the rule of law.

This should be seen as a significant step backwards by the new Taiwanese government in cross-Straight relations, and a threat to Taiwan’s hard won democracy.

Earlier this month,  China’s head Taiwan negotiator, Chen Yunlin of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) traveled to Taiwan…the highest ranking Communist Chinese official to visit Taiwan in over a half-century.  The visit sparked large scale protests against Communist China by Taiwanese citizens.  In response the Ma administration sent in security forces to suppress the protests and ensure that the Communist official didn’t have to experience any uncomfortable pro-independence moments.

According to the China Post:

The most senior Communist Chinese official to visit Taiwan bid farewell to the island Friday, saying his historic trip was a success but that the rivals had a long road to travel toward better relations.

The official, Chen Yunlin, signed a landmark trade deal during his five-day trip, but his mission also sparked daily street protests that were often violent.

Before he left for the airport, Chen thanked the thousands of police who were deployed in the capital, Taipei, to protect him. In a possible dig at the protesters, Chen assured the Taiwanese that if they visit China, they will see “harmony everywhere.”

So just what did those thousands of police have to do to earn the gratitude of the representative from Beijing?  Here is a summary of a portion of the egregious behavior, from an e-mail from a member of the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA).

I. Incident regarding the Suppression of Freedom of Speech During Chen’s visit to Taiwan, the Ma administration commanded over ten thousand police officers to keep protesters away from the places that Chen planned to visit. Protestors were making nonviolent demonstrations, demanding reparation from the Chinese government for the export of melamine-tainted dairy products to Taiwan and expressing opposition against China’s intention to take possession of Taiwan.

The police unconstitutionally prohibited protesters from accessing the restricted areas and destroyed protesters’ banners, signs, balloons, and any other materials bearing political statements. In addition, police officers stormed into a record store near Chen’s reception site and forced the owners to turn off a radio that was playing Taiwanese human right songs that might disgruntle Chen.

These actions manifest the Ma administration’s deplorable suppression of freedom of speech. Furthermore, the Ma Government violated people’s freedoms by drawing security lines to restrict the protesters from certain government-controlled areas, without providing sufficient explanation for the restrictions. In response to the protests, Ma simply explained to the Taiwanese media that “freedom of speech only exists outside of the security lines.”

II. Incident regarding the Violation of Due Process of Law During Chen’s visit in Taiwan, the Ma Government searched pedestrians and their vehicles on the streets without any warrants or reasonable suspicion. The purpose of the search was not to find weapons or drugs but to remove banners, signs, balloons, and other forms of political expression. Furthermore, the police also used brutal violence to expel the protesters. Such acts and conducts represent a serious violation of due process of law.

Other instances of blatant human rights violations included clearing out the international airport and the highway of cars, including those of the media; prohibiting people from waving national flags and from saying that “Taiwan is not a part of China;” taking away people who held DVs shooting near Yuan Shan area; and destroying balloons with “lack of conscience” written on them. The police have also removed banners in support of Tibet independence from motorcycles based on the unfounded premise that they violate the Assembly and Parade Law.

On November 7, FAPA released a statement from some nineteen Taiwanese-American organizations blasting the Ma administration’s tactics.  The statement reads in part:

The undersigned are deeply saddened by, concerned with and outraged at the unjustified actions taken by the Ma Ying-jeou administration to suppress mass protests during the visit of China’s ARATS Chairman Chen Yunlin to Taiwan.

We are saddened because the Ma administration, in order to embrace this Chinese Communist representative, has violated and stripped the human rights (particularly the right of freedom of speech) of those who wished to demonstrate their love for Taiwan through waving flags, playing Taiwanese songs and other peaceful ways and means.

We are concerned because the Ma administration, in order to protect this Chinese Communist representative, ordered 7,000 police and rendered Taiwan a “police state”, a phenomenon only seen in an authoritarian country.

We are outraged because democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law that were earned with blood and tears by our Taiwanese forebears have been trampled upon in recent days. Taiwan has seemed to revert to the days of Martial Law when there was no freedom of speech, no personal liberties, no freedom of association but only the confrontation between the police force and public.

The Ma administration knows that the majority of the Taiwanese people do not support a rapid pro-China policy. Yet his administration decided to go ahead with hosting the meeting between Chen and Taiwan’s SEF chief Chiang Pin-kung. This decision is to deliberately provoke the Taiwanese people, divide the Taiwanese society and attack Taiwan’s fragile and hard-fought democracy. We strongly condemn the KMT government’s China policies and protest the government for denying Taiwan’s sovereignty and ignoring Taiwan’s human rights, freedom and democracy.

Whole statement available here.

Stay tuned.

Last November, government agencies published a report that put the number of gay men in China who are “of a sexually active age” at 5-10 million. Scientists say this is the low end of the estimate. They figure that there are around 30-40 million homosexual men and women in total.

In 1997, China’s Criminal Law decriminalized sodomy. In 2001, homosexuality was removed from the list of mental disorders by health authorities.

But the changing law does not necessarily change public perception. Most gay people interviewed for this story agree that the single biggest source of pressure and stigma comes from their own families. “My employer doesn’t care about my private life, and the neighbourhood grandma is not nosy any more. But there’s no way I can get past my own mum and dad,” said Lu Youni, a Guangzhou high school teacher.

While a sypathetic piece, it does not quite tell the whole story.  As Palmer notes on his blog, “It’s discreetly not mentioned, but the situation is infinitely preferable to the public executions to which gay people were sentenced in the old days. What’s missing from an otherwise interesting story is any explanation of why things have been changing in China.”  Palmer then recounts a story:

My friend Zhou Xiao (those of us who have difficulty pronouncing Chinese names call her “Kate”) told me in Shanghai in 1997 that she was convinced that “China will never go communist again.” I asked her why she was so sure and she announced that she (and her very patient husband) had already been in Shanghai for a week doing field research on on changing public attitudes in China and they had found that “Shanghai is just full of gay bars. And when the gay bars come in, they’re never going back to socialism!” In her discussions with customers, she said that she asked what had accounted for the change (that was before the laws were amended to eliminate criminal penalites for sexual contact among members of the same gender) and she said that the response was that the big step had been privatization of housing. Under socialism, housing was rationed and allocated by the state. Married couples were eligible to be allocated flats; unmarried people were not. So gay people (who had not been forced into phony marriages) had to live with their parents or in worker dormitories and couldn’t create households together. When housing was privatized, however, “landlords didn’t care if you were purple and had horns, if you were willing to pay.” A little bit of the profit motive swept away a great deal of irrationality, cruelty, and oppression.

A fairly cheery story of the property rights necessary for China to at least partially un-shackle its economy from the misery of communism leading in turn to more personal freedom.

Hat tip to Ilya Somin at The Volokh Conspiracy for pointing the way to Palmer’s ineresting post.