Quote of the Day: Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu on Liu Xiaobo

So if Liu is a kook, why bother arresting him for "subversion"? It's strange that any government would feel the need to put someone in jail for calling for something that the majority of Chinese would dismiss as bollocks anyway.

@guan, everyone in China knows you can talk pretty much freely, you only get into trouble when you organize and become too famous for your own good, you will get yourself into this predicament. Singapore is the same too, many of the opposition people enjoy very little support, but the government still sue them for defamation till they go broke. Somehow, Singapore is rated number 1 for Western expatriates. But why do the West harp on China's benign authoritarianism? Because China is a competitor and Singapore coochy coochy with Western interets.

"But why do the West harp on China's benign authoritarianism?"

Partly fear. Partly the memory of the horrors perpetrated by European authoritarian states in the 20th Century.

Criticizing someone else's abuse of power is not justificiation for your own.

yun, don't be foolish, China is not a Nazi State. LOL! China will adopt democracy on its own terms, not imposed on it. Of course, one wishes China to have a Swedish type democracy, but it ain't gonna work.

Beeb, I didn't say China is a Nazi state, rather that experience suggests that letting such abuses of power pass without comment does not lead to good things later on.

Also, you sidestepped the question, which is not one of "west bad/east good". Should Liu have been imprisoned?

You can LOL, but don't start ROFLing. It's dirty down there.

BBC1, yun is correct when he says, "Criticizing someone else's abuse of power is not justificiation for your own."

By China's becoming democratic "on it's own terms," I assume you mean undemocratic, or "authoritarian democracy" at best (aka "not-democracy").

China is already actively working to roll back personal freedoms and democracy around the world -- most substantially, by colluding with the world's most problematic nations, and less obviously, attempting to roll back personal freedoms in other places.

For example, look at attempts to prevent films from showing even in places like Australia and the US, harassing and monitoring on Chinese communities abroad, supporting authoritarianism in its client states like Cambodia, or helping to censor the internet in places like Sri Lanka.

North Korea, Myanmar, Iran. Show me your friends, and I will tell you who you are.

[ Insert snide counter-accusation below. Type "LOL" at full stop. ]

I think it was Liu who said China shud be colonized by a European power for 300 years, using Hong Kong as an example. Obviously, he wasn't aware that Sierra Leone was also under British rule for many years, but of course we knew how that country and many ex-British colonies ended up. The disappointing fact in China with dissidents are that many of them are naive and go against populist sentiments. Havel was very popular amongst the Czechs but Chinese dissidents enjoy no love from the majority of Chinese people. On the otherhand, Deng enjoyed support when he was purged by Mao and the Gang of 4.

If anybody wanted to match Liu Xaobo with Havel, he should first double check if that student is still alive whose rumored "death" triggered the "velvet revolution" in 1989.

Meanwhile funny Americans always like to show they protect the human right of Chinese more than Chinese government, by caring for the right of 0.0001% of the population.

If anybody wanted to match Liu Xaobo with Havel, he should first try to double check if that student is still alive whose "death" triggered the "velvet revolution" in 1989.

Meanwhile funny Americans always like to show they protect the human right of Chinese more than Chinese government, by caring for the right of 0.0001% of the population.

I'm glad you finally had the opportunity to get that off your chest, Sinick.

Americans who criticize these type of statements are outright hypocrites. Without a trial, our "government" abducts, jails and tortures dissidents (we call them "terrorists") in Guantanamo Bay and other secret prisons around the world and will not fully admit it. If other countries object, the media has been conditioned to put it on the back page. After all, we are America and we are always righteous!

I know that we have a attention span that coincides with the media cycle, but do any other Americans remember that just a few short days ago one of our leaders stepped up and said that they would not hesitate to ASSASSINATE any American citizen who is SUSPECTED of being a terrorist? How far will this go? Will the domestic assassination of suspected Timothy McVeigh types be next?

America as it stands is a disgrace. Our politicians and government are worse than those in most democratic and socialist countries (What's that sound? It is the sound of thousands of creaking American knees jerking at the use of the word "socialistic).

Because we don't/can't read, our plutocratic government has manipulated the mass media via TV and faux news to the extent where we can't see the forest for the trees. It's time for Americans to shut up and look in the mirror for a change.

By your comments, you appear to qualify as a dissident yourself. If you were a local, it would be time to start packing your bags.

I don't understand why you aren't more supportive of this guy.

Right out of Youth Daily.

Hell is too good for people like this...

Communists have no concept of Hell or Heaven. Remember?