Report reveals how Chinese citizens with grievances are being silenced in prison

[dead0man]

..but the PRC says they don't exist.  link

They travel thousands of miles to Beijing to bring their problems – land-grabbing, bullying, eviction or abuse by local officials – to the government's attention. But instead of obtaining justice, a shocking new report reveals that many are thrown into sordid and illegal "black jails" where they may be abused, beaten, tortured, raped, robbed, and deprived of food, sleep and medical care.


The Chinese government says such jails are a myth. "Things like this do not exist in China," a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said in April. In June the government reiterated this stance when an official declared: "There are no black jails in the country." But the publication on the eve of Barack Obama's visit to China of such overwhelming evidence of secret abuse at the heart of the governing system will be a grave embarrassment to his hosts.

Survivors of the black jails have given detailed accounts of the horrors they experienced there. Li Ruirui was 20 years old when she came from Anhui province to petition the government about what she said was mistreatment by her classmates and schoolteachers. But instead of presenting her petition she was locked in a filthy store-room with other petitioners where they were watched over by a gang of thugs, one of whom raped her, she claims.

"The main reason I came to Beijing to petition was that I was mocked in school by my teachers and classmates," she said. "I was forced to go to the Juyuan Hotel ... [where] I was living with more than 10 people in a dining room. Men and women, we all lived together. We slept in bunk beds ... The beds and the room were very dirty and messy. The guards forbade us to go out."

<snip>

I know I know, shocking!

[Scam of God]

So what are we supposed to do there, dead0man? Restrict free trade? Intervene militarily?

[dead0man]

Restrict trade would be enough.  There are lots of poor places less funked up than mainland China that would be more than happy to make our crap for us.

{Prepares for an insult and to have the discussion go off in a crazy...likely irrelevant direction}

[Scam of God]

Restrict trade would be enough.  There are lots of poor places less funked up than mainland China that would be more than happy to make our crap for us.

All you would do by that would be to make poorer the citizens of China who craft goods for the American market, the citizens of America who sell them, and encourage the nativist protectionists in our nation, while doing nothing to harm China's massive and largely self-sufficient economy.

[Grumps]

Restrict trade would be enough.  There are lots of poor places less funked up than mainland China that would be more than happy to make our crap for us.

All you would do by that would be to make poorer the citizens of China who craft goods for the American market, the citizens of America who sell them, and encourage the nativist protectionists in our nation, while doing nothing to harm China's massive and largely self-sufficient economy.

Agreed......we spew the standard rhetoric about human rights, blah blah blah, but we kiss China's ass at every turn and that's not going to stop anytime soon.

[dead0man]

Restrict trade would be enough.  There are lots of poor places less funked up than mainland China that would be more than happy to make our crap for us.

All you would do by that would be to make poorer the citizens of China who craft goods for the American market,

Dont care

the citizens of America who sell them

You clearly missed the part about making our cheap sh**t in a different poor country....not that you missing something surprises anybody

, and encourage the nativist protectionists in our nation,

dont care

while doing nothing to harm China's massive and largely self-sufficient economy.

Again, don't care.  As long as we aren't supporting their funkedupedness.

[Ghyl Tarvoke]

You know while I agree in principle from an economic point of view (and why is it that economic POVs and Principles are usually held as opposites?) it probably isn't a good idea for the United States to get all pissy on China right now.

Totally unshocking otherwise.

[Grumps]

You know while I agree in principle from an economic point of view (and why is it that economic POVs and Principles are usually held as opposites?) it probably isn't a good idea for the United States to get all pissy on China right now.
Totally unshocking otherwise.

We never get pissy with China....and they know it.

[Ghyl Tarvoke]

You know while I agree in principle from an economic point of view (and why is it that economic POVs and Principles are usually held as opposites?) it probably isn't a good idea for the United States to get all pissy on China right now.
Totally unshocking otherwise.

We never get pissy with China....and they know it.

Exactly. Why would you start now?

[dialectical fetishist]

Sanctions are one of the worst methods of punishing nations ever attempted.

[Judäischen Volksfront]

It's not like the US does not have intelligence agents who seize people off the street - in foreign countries, to boot - and send them to third-world dictatorships to be tortured. Nope, Uncle Sam has never done that...

[Χahar]

Sanctions are one of the worst methods of punishing nations ever attempted.

The alternative being war?

[GMantis]

Restrict trade would be enough.  There are lots of poor places less funked up than mainland China that would be more than happy to make our crap for us.

All you would do by that would be to make poorer the citizens of China who craft goods for the American market,

Dont care

You want sanctions imposed on China because of what their government is doing to it's citizens and yet you don't care about them?

[dead0man]

I care enough to code my posts properly

I "care" about everybody and don't think anybody should have to live as unfree as poor people under the PRC do.  I don't care if a random dude has a job or not. 

(of course I'd prefer a random dude has a job, but I'd rather he be free....and I understand he may have different wishes and desires...and that's cool too)