Greetings again from Shanghai, recently the most polluted city in the history of mankind. In case you haven't heard, the Chinese Communist Party's propaganda department announced that heavy smog is actually a good thing, since it makes China invisible to its enemies. It also unites the Chinese people and makes them more equal.
This week marked the fifth anniversary of Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo's detention and current stay in prison for the crime of thinking and talking about things while being Chinese in China. On this auspicious occasion, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry issued a statement urging China to release him from prison and to release his wife, Liu Xia, from house arrest.
The Chinese foreign ministry promptly responded with a statement of its own saying that Kerry had no right to express an opinion about what should happen to Prisoner Liu or his wife. Yes, that's right: The Chinese government now presumes to tell the U.S. Secretary of State what he has the right and doesn't have the right to talk about.
In its statement the foreign ministry said that "China’s 1.3 billion people have the best right to talk about the country's human rights." Presumably the 1.3 billion Chinese people the statement referred to doesn't include dissidents like Mr. and Ms. Liu.
(Another benefit of heavy smog: The extremely low visibility prevents Liu Xiaobo from writing things critical of the Chinese government or finding his way out of prison.)
Somewhere in Beijing right now, I'm certain, Secretary Kerry is being accused of "interfering in China's internal affairs" and of "hurting the feelings of the Chinese people," because why not? These lines have always been so effective in the past at silencing Beijing's overseas critics. "The Chinese people," as I've noted, doesn't include Mr. and Ms. Liu.
Of course, ultra-left purveyors of false equivalencies will say: "But America spies on its own citizens and persecutes whistleblowers like Ed Snowden. Doesn't that make America the same as China?" Well, no, it doesn't. I disagree with the government's spying activities and persecution of whistleblowers as much as anyone. These things, however, are not equivalent to being thrown into prison and having family members subjected to collective punishment for simply expressing an opinion about something. I also don't recall Secretaries of State Clinton or Kerry telling other foreign ministers what they're allowed or not allowed to have an opinion about.
(In some parts of China, as in Alaska according to its former governor, we can also see Russia where Ed Snowden is. Except when there's heavy smog, which also means that Ed Snowden and the Russians can't see us. Thank goodness for that!)
White House Petition: Demand Fair Media Access and an End to Harassment and Expulsion of American Journalists in China
On the topic of China telling all of us what we're allowed to talk about: As I wrote previously here at Daily Kos and at my new China blog with the Foreign Policy Association, China is seeking to censor international news coverage of China by harassing and expelling U.S. and other Western journalists working here. So I'll mention again the above White House petition to take action in defense of US journalists working in China. It has collected pitifully few signatures so far, and any kind souls who would sign and circulate it would be deeply appreciated.
In other weird China news: China this week censored its news coverage of Nelson Mandela's funeral to exclude any reference to human rights or democracy. Yes, this is Nelson Mandela's funeral we're talking about, and Chinese news media have been instructed not to mention anything about human rights or democracy. They probably didn't say much about Mandela's time in prison, either, since that might remind people about another Nobel Peace Prize laureate who happens to be sitting in prison right now. I suppose Chinese media must have focused instead on what a handsome, well-dressed man Nelson Mandela was, in addition to maybe co-opting him as some kind of Maoist.
(Yet another benefit of heavy smog: It stops people from ever being able to see the truth about anything.)
Next time: The Chinese government once again does something both horribly vicious and hilariously stupid all at once. This happens in five, four, three, two, one....