Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Pot to Kettle

A string of incidents, including abductions from Thailand and Hong Kong, forced repatriations and the televised “confessions” of two Swedish citizens, has crossed a new red line, according to diplomats in Beijing. Yet many foreign governments seem unwilling or unable to intervene, their public response limited to mild protests.

The European Union is divided and appears uncertain about what to do.

  WaPo
It might help to have a look at your own support of US policies doing pretty much the same thing.
Hong Kong is in an uproar, with free speech under attack, activists looking over their shoulders and many people saying they feel betrayed by a lack of support from Britain.
Britain isn't all that crazy about free speech these days.
The U.S. State Department expressed “concern” about the confessions and the use of “extra-legal means” to bring foreign nationals to China. And the German Foreign Ministry voiced “really serious” concern that Britain and Sweden had either not been granted access to their citizens or were granted access only after an “unacceptable delay.”

“This is clearly and undoubtedly not in accordance with the international obligations of the People’s Republic of China with regard to the Vienna Conventions.”

[...]

“China seems bent upon broadcasting to the world its disdain for the rule of law,” said Jerome A. Cohen, a China legal scholar and professor at New York University.
Worked for us.
With Secretary of State John F. Kerry in Beijing, where he landed late Tuesday, the leaders of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, an independent U.S. government agency, have voiced alarm. The body’s chairman, Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), said Friday that President Xi Jinping’s push toward “hard authoritarianism” threatens U.S.-China ties, a view echoed by his co-chairman, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
They prefer soft authoritarianism.
When the European Union issued a statement calling on Chinese authorities to “review their decision” to expel a French journalist at the end of last year, many European embassies in Beijing declined to even publish the comment on their websites.
Considered either a waste of space or so hypocritical as to be laughable, perhaps.
“The international reaction, from the E.U. in particular, should be a lot stronger than this — otherwise they will get more cases,” said Nicholas Bequelin, East Asia director for Amnesty International.
Funny how that works.
“China has seen through the hypocrisy of Western countries with respect to human rights.”
Wasn't very hard to do.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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