[Channel 4 News] China cracks down on dissidents 2008.01.12

The Chinese authorities are rounding up dissidents and human rights campaigners ahead of the 2008 Olympics.

This year's Olympic Games in Beijing will give China an unprecedented opportunity to showcase itself to the world. And it has started with a display of the hostesses who will present the medals and escort the athletes.

But what the authorities are not quite as keen to publicise is how they are also rounding up internet dissidents and other human rights campaigners who they fear will give China a bad name.

Channel 4 News has managed to meet one campaigner being held under house arrest with her eight-week-old baby.

Report by Lindsey Hilsum.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Channel4
• News
• English
• Anglais
• China
• Beijing
• dissident
• arrest
• crackdown
• Olympic
• games
• Olympics
• freedom
• speech
• censorship

[deedee1067]

Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights for China !

[Gogfreak1984]

What's this about Hitler? I thought kindly old Mao topped him by several million bodies, but hey, I can understand, the temptation to use the real-world parallel of Emannuel Goldstein is obviously hard to resist. I'd like to know how a sovereign government managing ITS territory and population as it sees fit is worse than an infectious proxy empire, that for some reason still thinks itself a "nation," blowing up wedding parties on someone else's turf.

[Gogfreak1984]

This is bad (and concerns us) how? Take a long, hard look at what "Democracy," the political weapon of money, has wrought throughout the rest of the world, and then get back to me. They don't appear to bow to the likes of that criminal bastard Soros, so that automatically puts them up several notches from pretty much any current Western government.

[66flamer]

its so intensely sad that our country even deals with the chinese state at all. dear gov of china, YOU HAVE LOST ALL FACE by trying to shut down all voices against you.

your olympics is a sad sad thing. may the athletes decide that being human matters and leave your hideous country. i send much love to the people of china and hope they can withstand the repression.

signed a guy on earth.

[arafel1964]

I think these are going to be a fantastic Olympic games! The flame is going to be run through Tibet, where in case it goes out it can be reignited easily enough at one of the Chinese shops on fire. Then the Chinese are going to showcase their atheletes and set a record for most gold medals won. They'll be on a hell of a lot of Wheeties boxes! And every Chinese athelete that doesn't win gold gets sent to political re-education and then they'll get shot.

The only thing missing is Hitler.

[hungary1956]

june 4 1989