| From my office, I am not restricted by the great firewall and can see the laogai website. Some of it looks like pure propaganda, but some things are not. I think a major problem with Chinese media is that there is never debate. Whenever news items that are critical of China are published, they are never in turn critiqued by chinese media. The US Report on Human Rights abuses is a perfect example. Chinese media did not go through the report and refute the data that was presented but rather criticized the US for trying once again to interfere in Chinese domestics issues. In my opinion, every chinese person should know exactly what is in the report and Chinese media should be investigating to determine what is true. The biggest item in the report is that 2000 people are still jailed from the tianamen square event and none of them have ever had any sort of trial. Chinese State media won't touch that one because it is true. I would estimate (purely based on personal knowledge and general feelings) that about half of the information on that website (laogai) is pure BS. The issue for the Chinese government is that they cannot debate the detail of what is shown on the website because some of it is true, just as Tom explained above. The Chinese response is to hide it from the Chinese public. Lujiaxi, I think if you want to publish information like that you should at least provide us a source (a weblink or at least the media source). Maybe I am wrong, but I think you just posted an unsubstantiated rumor. In this situation of panic and fear, you should be extremely careful about do such a thing. |
Protect China - Not Only Against SARS