FREE TIBET ! !

[ally]

It's a tricky one this...

Because the Chinese economy is booming and living standards are getting higher and higher, generally revolts and protests don't usually happen when things are looking good economically. That's how the dictatorships in Singapore and Malaysia have been able to stay in power, because of the economic growth.

People can usualy bite their tongue if their pay packets are starting to look good. Obviously this economic boom is not benefitting the Tibetans ,and they're tired of being ruled by Beijing, so this is their opportunity to do something.

So whether or not this will have an impact on the rest of China I guess remains to be seen. The thing I've learned over the years is that Asians are very pragmatic and are very business/trade focused, and don't like politics and ideology to get in the way of business, so if things are looking good economically in China, then perhaps we won't be seeing the demise of the Communist party any time soon.

[ally]

To the above post. I don't think you'll ever see the demise of the Communist Party in China. They'll just be called something different. Too much power to give away and, too much money to walk away from

[ally]

Pelosi: President Should Consider Boycotting Olympics' Opening

"I think boycotting the opening ceremony, which really gives respect to the Chinese government, is something that should be kept on the table," Pelosi, D-Calif., told "Good Morning America" co-anchor Robin Roberts in an interview airing Tuesday. "I think the president might want to rethink this later, depending on what other heads of state do."

Pelosi Considers Boycott of Games' Opening

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced she will not attend the Olympic Games, set to begin on August 8, 2008. Pelosi, meanwhile, has been outspoken in support of Tibet, the site of recent crackdowns on human rights demonstrators by the Chinese government.

In a recent trip to Dharmasala, India, home of the Dalai Lama's displaced Tibetan government, Pelosi said, "If freedom-loving people don't speak out against China's oppression of people in Tibet, we have lost all moral authority to speak out against any oppressed people."

In her interview with GMA, the speaker continued to denounce China's rule over Tibet and expressed regret that the communist nation would play host to the summer games.

"I don't think China should have gotten the Olympic Games to begin with," Pelosi told GMA." I had a resolution in the Congress which was very popular, and bipartisan support on it. But they did get them with the promise that they would open up more and have better respect for human rights and freedom of expression. They have not honored that."

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Vote2008/sto...0253&page=1

Thanks Rover.

Well more political retoric from Pelosi .... Let's not go to the party and show them that we think they're really bad and we're not going to take it anymore... Come on everyone look at my resolution. That'll teach them.

This idea is a joke. Quit pretending Nancy.

[zepyep]

Hi all,

BEIJING — China has branded the Dalai Lama a "wolf in monk's robes" and his followers the "scum of Buddhism." It stepped up the rhetoric Tuesday, accusing the Nobel Peace laureate and his supporters of planning suicide attacks.

The Tibetan government-in-exile swiftly denied the charge, and the Bush administration rushed to the Tibetan Buddhist leader's defense, calling him "a man of peace."

"There is absolutely no indication that he wants to do anything other than have a dialogue with China on how to discuss the serious issues there," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.

Wu Heping, spokesman for China's Ministry of Public Security, claimed searches of monasteries in the Tibetan capital had turned up a large cache of weapons. They included 176 guns, 13,013 bullets, 7,725 pounds of explosives, 19,000 sticks of dynamite and 350 knives, he said.

"To our knowledge, the next plan of the Tibetan independence forces is to organize suicide squads to launch violent attacks," Wu told a news conference. "They claimed that they fear neither bloodshed nor sacrifice."

Wu provided no details or evidence. He used the term "gan si dui," a rarely used phrase directly translated as "dare-to-die corps." The official English version of his remarks translated the term as "suicide squads."

RelatedStories

Tibetan Government Denies Chinese Claim of Planning Homicide Attack Squads Photo Essays

Tibet Protests in Nepal Wu said police had arrested an individual who he claimed was an operative of the "Dalai Lama clique," responsible for gathering intelligence and distributing pamphlets calling for an uprising.

The suspect admitted to using code words to communicate with his contacts, including "uncle" for the Dalai Lama and "skirts" for the banned Tibetan snow lion flag, Wu said.

Beijing has repeatedly accused the Dalai Lama and his supporters of orchestrating violence in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. Protests which began peacefully there on the March 10 anniversary of a 1959 uprising against Chinese rule spiraled out of control four days later.

Chinese officials have put the death toll at 22, most of them Han Chinese; the government-in-exile says 140 Tibetans were killed.

China also says sympathy protests that spread to surrounding provinces are part of a campaign by the Dalai Lama to sabotage the Beijing Olympics and promote Tibetan independence.

The 72-year-old Dalai Lama has condemned the violence and denied any links to it, urging an independent international inquiry into the unrest.

"Tibetan exiles are 100 percent committed to nonviolence. There is no question of suicide attacks," Samdhong Rinpoche, prime minister of the government-in-exile in Dharmsala, India, said Tuesday. "But we fear that Chinese might masquerade as Tibetans and plan such attacks to give bad publicity to Tibetans."

Experts on terrorism and security risks facing Beijing and the Olympics have not cited any Tibet group as a threat.

Scholars said the claim of suicide squads was a calculated move by China allowing it to step up its crackdown in Tibetan areas.

"There is no evidence of support for any kind of violence against China or Chinese," said Dibyesh Anand, a Tibet expert at Westminster University in London.

Instead, Beijing is "portraying to the rest of China and the rest of the world: these people are basically irrational" and that there was no room for compromise, he said.

Tuesday's accusations could also further divide the Tibetan government-in-exile and other groups like the Tibetan Youth Congress, which has challenged the Dalai Lama's policy of nonviolence, Anand said.

"This is a way of pressuring the Dalai Lama to renounce Tibetans who have created violence," he said.

Andrew Fischer, a fellow at the London School of Economics who researches Chinese development policies in Tibetan areas of China, dismissed Wu's warnings as "completely ridiculous."

What China is trying to do "is justify this massive troop deployment, a massive crackdown on Tibetan areas and they're trying to justify intensification of hard-line policies," Fischer said.

Drawing from a deep historical reserve of angry rhetoric, Tibet's tough-talking Chinese Communist Party boss, Zhang Qingli, recently called the Dalai Lama a "wolf in monk's robes, a devil with a human face, but the heart of a beast" and deemed the current conflict a "life-and-death battle." State media has denounced protesting monks as the "scum of Buddhism."

The campaign against the Dalai Lama has been underscored in recent days with showings of decades-old propaganda films on state television portraying Tibetan society as cruel and primitive before the 1950 invasion by communist troops.

The escalation of the rhetoric to include claims of possible suicide attacks may also touch upon another sensitive issue for China's communist leadership — unrest in Xinjiang, a predominantly Muslim region to Tibet's north, and Beijing's tight security measures in the area.

On Tuesday, a local government Web site in Xinjiang reported that a protest has broken out in a market in the region on March 23. One official linked the incident to the unrest in Tibet.

But U.S.-government funded Radio Free Asia, which first reported the demonstration, said the protesters were demanding authorities not ban headscarves, and that they stop torturing Uighurs and release all political prisoners. It said several hundred Uighurs staged the protests in Hotan and a nearby county and were taken into custody.

Fu Chao, an official with the Hotan Regional Administrative Office, disputed that characterization. "The riot was nothing to do with the ban on headscarves, but about responding to the riots in Tibet," Fu said.

Last month, Chinese state media reported that a woman had confessed to attempting to hijack and crash a Chinese passenger plane from Xinjiang in what officials say was part of a terror campaign by a radical Islamic independence group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. The reports said the woman was from China's Turkic Muslim Uighur minority.

While the United States has labeled the East Turkestan Islamic Movement a terrorist organization, the State Department alleges widespread abuses of the legal and educational systems by the communist authorities to suppress Uighur culture and religion.

Fischer said China has tried to change the "nonviolent, compassionate" image of Tibetans into one of violence and brutality to draw parallels to the pro-independence stance in Xinjiang.

"If they succeed in portraying them that way, then they can treat them the same way they treat Muslims in Xinjiang," he said.

KB

[Gainsbarre]

Hey, it's you who seem to have a problem with American support for Israel, wether it comes from Jewish-Americans or any other Americans.

Del, instead of trying to read between the lines, why don't you just READ THE LINES. You skim through people's posts and, like people do when they lack intelligence but are full of emotional problems, they jump to conclusions and they re-write the thread in their head so they can get angry

And that's what you do, you don't actually read what I say, you like to get all flustered about what you think I said... But it's okay, I know you haven't got much to rub together upstairs, and you can't expect much from someone who isn't the sharpest tool in the box...

So consider this your remedial class Del: (and I'll even put it in bold for you so it's easier to read)

I never said I had a problem with America's support for Israel. I didn't even criticise American support for Israel. All I did was explain why America supports Israel. Now if you think there is something critical in my explanation, then it is you who has the guilty conscience, it is you who brought anything negative into it

The USA plays geo-political games and does things in the world out of strategic needs. I understand that and frankly I don't care that they do it.

But what I can't stand is chest-beating, flag-waving Americans who boast that their country and their government is as pure as the driven snow, that their country is somehow the only true democractic and free and liberal country in the world, and that American Ideals and Culture are the best for the whole world.

Cut the bullshit. That's all. Don't carry on like your country is as pure and as noble as some of your political propagandists would like the rest of the world to believe. That's my only complaint.

I'm glad you're patriotic and love your country, that's fine, but I'm not American, so I don't feel the need to be as patriotic about the USA as you do, or join in the stars and stripes flag waving ceremony. If you feel I should, then that could look a little like you believe the USA is an empire, and that everyone should honour its supremacy...

[dragster]

Hahahahhahahaahhahaah, there are still peeps who think China is still Communist.......wake up to yourselves.....get out and get a life and/or DO NO watch anymore TV...it's brainwashing you!! Communism died in China the day Mao died!!

[The Rover]

Beijing Olympic Torch will be flown to San Francisco for it's only US appearance on April 9th. Protests encouraged and expected.

Link to Comments on This

The Beijing Olympic torch will travel about 6 miles along San Francisco's waterfront, according to long-awaited route details released on the same day city supervisors approved a sharply worded resolution blasting China's human rights record.

People who plan to protest the torch's presence in the city had demanded for weeks to know its route so they could begin organizing the thousands of demonstrators expected when the Olympic symbol is carried through the streets on April 9.

Protesters are expected to gather in large public squares and along the route, which will start at McCovey Cove, run both ways along the Embarcadero and make a short turnaround in the Marina district. The torch lighting ceremony in Greece was disrupted by demonstrators last week, and protests are expected in cities the torch visits around the world.

At City Hall, Supervisor Chris Daly, who introduced the resolution critical of China, encouraged the audience that packed into the Board of Supervisors' chambers Tuesday to be on the streets and show disdain for the Chinese government during the torch relay.

His resolution, which passed 8-3, calls for an international investigation of China's recent crackdown on dissenters in Tibet and encourages the city's official representative at the torch festivities to accept the flame with "alarm and protest."

"The eyes of the world will be on San Francisco, and, let's be honest, if there is not alarm and there is not protest in San Francisco when the torch arrives here, that too would be news, and that would be San Francisco complicit in the human rights violations that are happening in China and around the world," Daly said.

Rally before vote

People opposed to China's presence in Tibet and its policies toward Burma and the Darfur region of Sudan held a rally on the City Hall steps before the vote and packed the board chambers. They cheered loudly when the resolution passed.

Supervisors Michela Alioto-Pier, Carmen Chu and Sean Elsbernd voted against the resolution. Chu had written a separate resolution that welcomed both the Olympic torch and the Human Rights Torch and Tibetan Freedom Torch - two alternative events organized by activists and scheduled to happen in the days before the Olympic torch's visit. Her measure, which did not criticize China, was voted down 7-4.

Representatives of the Chinese government, including some officials who have met with supervisors and Mayor Gavin Newsom about the torch event, have condemned both resolutions, saying that such a statement from the city would hurt San Francisco-China relations.

City leaders, including Newsom, have expressed concerns over the past few weeks that releasing details of the torch route would jeopardize security of the event by encouraging people who want to disrupt or stop the relay.

In discussing the details of the route Tuesday, Newsom pleaded with activist groups to remember that the Olympics are not about politics but about the performance of athletes and "the spirit of unity and the things that unite us."

"Don't protest the torch bearers," Newsom said. "Please separate your condemnation from the person who's running (with the torch) or in a wheelchair carrying the torch."

The torch relay will start with a ceremony at McCovey Cove, travel along the Embarcadero past Fisherman's Wharf and briefly through the Marina District, and head back along the Embarcadero to Justin Herman Plaza. A closing ceremony is scheduled to take place at the plaza.

The event will start at 1 p.m., and it will take the torch about an hour and a half to traverse the approximately 6-mile route. More than 80 people from across North America have been selected to carry the flame. Their names have not been made known.

No permit needed to protest

Newsom said an area in front of the Ferry Building - the route's end - will be designated for protesters. No groups will need a permit to protest, he said, adding that more protesters are expected along the route. It is unclear what has happened to city plans for so-called free-speech zones, originally described as areas for protesters without official city permits.

About 15 groups applied for permits after the city last week removed holds on permits for most of the city's large public areas, according to the Recreation and Park Department, which issues the permits. None have been issued.

An attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union who pressured the city to release route details and any plans to restrict protesters praised Tuesday's release.

"It's still not clear to me why it has been delayed until this late date, but I'm absolutely pleased the city has released details of the route," said Michael Risher, a staff attorney for the ACLU.

He said some groups had gone ahead with planning for a demonstration without knowing where the torch would be. Those groups are likely to be disappointed that they are far from it, he said.

Newsom has said that early plans for the route included a ride on a cable car, a trip to Alcatraz and even a crossing of the Golden Gate Bridge. Plans to run the torch through Chinatown also were scrapped because of concerns that large crowds would overwhelm the neighborhood's narrow streets.

Mayor's signature unlikely

After Tuesday's vote, Newsom's spokesman Nathan Ballard hinted that the mayor would not sign the measure. He said the mayor has in the past discussed the Tibet situation with both Chinese President Jiang Zemin and the Dalai Lama, the leader of the Tibetan government in exile.

"It is highly unlikely the mayor is going to let Chris Daly put words in his mouth," Ballard said.

The spokesman for the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco has strongly condemned Daly's resolution as well as Chu's alternative resolution, saying that approving either measure would be "an insult to good, friendly relations" between the city and China. Chinese officials did not return calls for comment after Tuesday's vote.

Criticism of Daly

Some in the Chinese community also have criticized Daly's resolution. A letter from the Chinese American Association of Commerce, sent to city offices over the weekend, was signed by 105 Chinese community organizations based in San Francisco.

The letter accuses "demonstrators of anti-China sentiment" of trying to sabotage the torch event.

"While we tried to continue to maintain our peaceful silence among all the noise in the past few weeks, we also need to stand up and speak loud and clear!" the letter reads.

It goes on to say, "We strongly condemn Chris Daly for his breach of duty as supervisor by not listening to the peaceful majority, especially undermining the unified stand and position of the local Chinese community." The letter warns the other supervisors to "prevent the city from being kidnapped by a few political extremists who want to make use of the Olympic Games to advance their own political gain."

The alternative torch events will stop in San Francisco in the days leading up to April 9. The Human Rights Torch will stop in the city Saturday with an event at 11 a.m. at Union Square. The Tibetan Freedom Torch will arrive on April 8 with an event at 11 a.m. at United Nations Plaza and a candlelight vigil at 8 p.m. Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu and actor Richard Gere are expected to attend and speak at the vigil.

Torch relay

Day: April 9

Time: Event begins at 1 p.m.

Distance: About 6 miles

Arriving from: Paris

Leaving S.F. for: Buenos Aires

Torch runners: An estimated 80

Duration of event: About 90 minutes

[dragster]

Don't see the 'magic word' in that article...thanx!! :)

[Gainsbarre]

Communism died in China the day Mao died!!

Technically it died when Jiang Qing and the rest of the Gang of Four were arrested

[ally]

Technically it died when Jiang Qing and the rest of the Gang of Four were arrested

Communism may have died but the Party and it's power brokers are sadly still alive and kicking. Horse of a different colour IMO

[The Rover]

Communism may have died but the Party and it's power brokers are sadly still alive and kicking. Horse of a different colour IMO

Power, wherever it resdies... Always ... finds a way.

[dragster]

Technically it died when Jiang Qing and the rest of the Gang of Four were arrested

Exactly.....now that we've got that figured out STRAIGHT (FINALLY. may I add).....

1) that was quite a while ago;

2) what has taken the place of Communism?.....yeah, you win 1st prize...good 'ol Capitalism with all it's pros and cons..................or if someone likes it better......"MEET THE NEW BO$$, SAME AS THE OLD BO$$"!! :)

[wanna be drummer]

Exactly.....now that we've got that figured out STRAIGHT (FINALLY. may I add).....

1) that was quite a while ago;

2) what has taken the place of Communism?.....yeah, you win 1st prize...good 'ol Capitalism with all it's pros and cons..................or if someone likes it better......"MEET THE NEW BO$$, SAME AS THE OLD BO$$"!! :)

Capitalism is a type of economy, not political style.

Capitalism has brought millions upon millions of Chinese out of poverty. Capitalism is saving China.

How is that bad, or anything like Communist China?

And why all the periods?

[dragster]

Capitalism is a type of economy, not political style.

Capitalism has brought millions upon millions of Chinese out of poverty. Capitalism is saving China.

How is that bad, or anything like Communist China?

And why all the periods?

Ahhh, what took you so long to write this??! Go tell the monks and the Tibetans that!!.....or maybe all of a sudden Capitalist China is GOOD now that we have finally established it's TRUE political-economic status and many of the people here who have been protesting against the crackdown on Tibet will NOW change their minds ONLY because China is Capitalist......hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm??!

[wanna be drummer]

Ahhh, what took you so long to write this??! Go tell the monks and the Tibetans that!!.....or maybe all of a sudden Capitalist China is GOOD now that we have finally established it's TRUE political-economic status and many of the people here who have been protesting against the crackdown on Tibet will NOW change their minds ONLY because China is Capitalist......hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm??!

What the hell are you talking about? All I'm saying is that capitalism has uplifted many millions from extreme poverty. Thats a good thing. I did not, nor have I ever, said that China now has a good government. Their economy is becoming better, and the standard of life for the average Chinese citizen is improving, but their government is still horrible and needs to be overthrown. Where did you get this idea that I said China is becoming a better government??

[Gainsbarre]

What the hell are you talking about? All I'm saying is that capitalism has uplifted many millions from extreme poverty. Thats a good thing. I did not, nor have I ever, said that China now has a good government. Their economy is becoming better, and the standard of life for the average Chinese citizen is improving, but their government is still horrible and needs to be overthrown. Where did you get this idea that I said China is becoming a better government??

Woah...slow down a bit...the conversion to Capitalism doesn't necessarily mean everyone's going to benefit...It might be benefitting people in Urban areas, but in rural it's another story, you will see the poverty levels increasing.

And because of this difference, you're also likely to see mass rural to urban migration, to cities like Shanghai and Beijing, and that means slums and ghettos and terrible poverty.

Capitalism benefits some, but it also leaves others in destitution, especialy in countries with large populations. Look at cities like Jakarta and Mumbai...

[Del Zeppnile]

The USA plays geo-political games and does things in the world out of strategic needs. I understand that and frankly I don't care that they do it.

And we don't care what you think about it. It's not like we wake up in the morning and wonder how you are going to feel about our national policy.

But that's what really gets to you doesn't it?

But what I can't stand is chest-beating, flag-waving Americans who boast that their country and their government is as pure as the driven snow, that their country is somehow the only true democractic and free and liberal country in the world, and that American Ideals and Culture are the best for the whole world.

I actually think it's funny that you seem to worry about what we think. Why is that? Take for example the gun debate; why do you care, you don't live here?

Cut the bullshit. That's all. Don't carry on like your country is as pure and as noble as some of your political propagandists would like the rest of the world to believe. That's my only complaint.

Are you sure that's your only complaint. You seem to have a hissy fit over just about everything.

What's the matter.... need a hug?

I'm glad you're patriotic and love your country, that's fine, but I'm not American, so I don't feel the need to be as patriotic about the USA as you do, or join in the stars and stripes flag waving ceremony. If you feel I should, then that could look a little like you believe the USA is an empire, and that everyone should honour its supremacy...

You know, I'm almost embarrassed to ask this question at this point, but where are you from again?

Well anyway, I suppose you can celebrate whatever it is you do where you are from.

You may go now.

[zepyep]

Hi all,

A CHINESE court has sentenced dissident Hu Jia to 3½ years in prison for subversion, his lawyer says.

The decision is likely to draw international criticism of the country's political controls before the Beijing Olympics.

The Beijing Number One Intermediate People's Court found the 34-year old human rights activist guilty of "inciting subversion of state power" for criticising the ruling Communist Party.

Hu had argued he was not guilty.

Starting with advocacy for rural AIDS sufferers, Hu emerged as one of the nation's most vocal advocates of democratic rights, religious freedom and self-determination for Tibet, which has recently been shaken by protests and a security crackdown.

His conviction is likely to become a focus for critics of the Communist Party's strict controls on dissent and protest ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games in August.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice raised Hu's case when in Beijing in February, and the European Union and other Western governments have also pressed China on the case.

Today the US said it was dismayed at Hu's jailing.

"In this Olympic year, we urge China to seize the opportunity to put its best face forward and take steps to improve its record on human rights and religious freedom," US embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson said.

The European Union called for Hu's immediate release.

"We said very clearly before the trial that he should not have been detained in the first place and that he should be released and this remains our position,'' said a European Union spokesman in Beijing.

Hu was detained by police in late December after spending more than 200 days under house arrest in a Beijing apartment complex called Bobo Freedom City.

His wife, Zeng Jinyan, who has also often criticised the Chinese Government, and their infant daughter remain under house arrest there, and their telephone is cut off.

Amnesty International said this week the Beijing Olympics had so far failed to bring the improvement in Chinese citizens' rights that the Government said the event would foster.

Hu kept internet and telephone contact with dissidents, disgruntled citizens and foreign journalists, and his dispatches on an overseas Chinese-language website formed the heart of the prosecution's accusations, one his lawyer's earlier said.

Chinese officials have shown growing impatience with critics of the Olympics, arguing that they and Western media dwell on and exaggerate the country's problems and ignore its remarkable economic and social progress.

Chinese dissident Yang Chunlin, who called for human rights to take precedence over the Olympic Games, was sentenced to five years in jail on charges of inciting subversion in late March.

KB

[dragster]

but their government is still horrible and needs to be overthrown. Where did you get this idea that I said China is becoming a better government??

fINALLY!!!!!! Someone actually saying that perhaps a neo_Capitalist country's govt. should be overthrown!! :)

[GioBrasil]

Hahahahhahahaahhahaah, there are still peeps who think China is still Communist.......wake up to yourselves.....get out and get a life and/or DO NO watch anymore TV...it's brainwashing you!! Communism died in China the day Mao died!!

I use to say China is a "State Capitalism", as well as those right dictatorship in latin america at 70's (all those suported by USA...)

[wanna be drummer]

fINALLY!!!!!! Someone actually saying that perhaps a neo_Capitalist country's govt. should be overthrown!! :)

A government can't be capitalist. Capitalism is a type of economy, not government. Their government cannot be capitalistic, unless their economy is the government. I do not advocate overthrowing the economy, but the government. The economy should continue driving fro capitalism

[wanna be drummer]

Woah...slow down a bit...the conversion to Capitalism doesn't necessarily mean everyone's going to benefit...It might be benefitting people in Urban areas, but in rural it's another story, you will see the poverty levels increasing.

And because of this difference, you're also likely to see mass rural to urban migration, to cities like Shanghai and Beijing, and that means slums and ghettos and terrible poverty.

Capitalism benefits some, but it also leaves others in destitution, especialy in countries with large populations. Look at cities like Jakarta and Mumbai...

My point is, that capitalism is certainly helping China as a whole, whereas the old Communistic style was destroying it.

I'd write more, but in class right now

[GioBrasil]

A government can't be capitalist. Capitalism is a type of economy, not government. Their government cannot be capitalistic, unless their economy is the government. I do not advocate overthrowing the economy, but the government. The economy should continue driving fro capitalism

Socialism and Communism are also economic/social models, but there is not economy without politics, and there is not politics without economy, it's like chicken and egg, there is no one without the other...

[dragster]

A government can't be capitalist. Capitalism is a type of economy, not government. Their government cannot be capitalistic, unless their economy is the government. I do not advocate overthrowing the economy, but the government. The economy should continue driving fro capitalism

Ok I see the distinction you're making.....but all I'm saying is that China is far from being politically Communist. It was once under Mao!

[ally]

Ok I see the distinction you're making.....but all I'm saying is that China is far from being politically Communist. It was once under Mao!

It's still a dictatorship though. IMHO all that has changed with the party is , they've realized that there is a whole lot more money to be made in a so called, free market system. Hell, they can even alow a little bit of the extra cash to filtre into general population. I hope I'm wrong, but personally I think we're being led down the garden path on this one. I can't see how you can have a true free market system without a true democracy It still boils down to absolute power with these guy's and we all know that absolute power corrupts , absolutely. Hopefully they are on the correct path but I just don't trust they're intentions or they're patience at this point in time