Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Do I have any plans to watch this summer’s Olympics?


Absolutely not.

They’re being held in Beijing, China. Yes, that same China that has an atrocious human rights record. The same China that uses its infamous bamboo gulags to torture dissidents and others who fall out of favor with the state. (For more information about the gulags, visit the site of well-known dissident Wei Jingsheng). That same China that persecutes Christians and other faiths. If you want to attend church in China, it must be a state-registered church.

And, yes, that same China that has oppressed Tibet.

I studied Chinese at Defense Language Institute in Presidio of Monterey, Calif. One of my teachers, whom I won’t identify since he may still be around, told me that while China is still officially a communist nation, they have long since abandoned a communist economy for one that’s capitalist based. Why? Because Red China has found out the hard way that communist-run economies do not work.

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