Washington Post (July 1)
July 1 “used to be a day of celebration in the city. Now, it has morphed into a morbid reminder of Hong Kong’s tragic decline under the ever-worsening repression brought on by Beijing.” Hong Kong’s tragedy has great bearing for Taiwan. It “proves that Beijing’s proposal of ‘one country, two systems’ is a delusion — and that any promises Xi makes regarding Taiwan’s continued autonomy under reunification are worthless.”
Tags: Autonomy, Beijing, Celebration, Decline, Delusion, Hong Kong, July 1, Morbid reminder, Promises, Repression, Reunification, Taiwan, Tragedy, Worsening, Xi
Washington Post (April 11)
“As the world’s largest democracy, India ought to be setting a standard for how the emergency can be met without resort to repression or censorship. So far, it has not done so.”
Tags: Censorship, Democracy, Emergency, India, Repression, Standard, World. Largest
LA Times (September 6)
Carrie Lam’s tone-deaf withdrawal of the extradition bill may mark “the beginning, rather than the end, of more turbulence in Hong Kong.” It further fueled the groundswell of support. “This movement is the endgame for many in Hong Kong. People would rather sacrifice their own future than submit to authoritarian rule…. Beijing and the government must come to terms with the inconvenient truth that autocracy and repression have radicalized a single-issue movement into a people’s uprising for freedom and democracy.”
Tags: Authoritarian rule, Autocracy, Beijing, Endgame, Extradition bill, Freedom, Government, Hong Kong, Lam, Repression, Sacrifice, Submit, Tone-deaf, Turbulence
Council on Foreign Relations (September 7)
“Congress, again, should take the lead” in Asia. “Not only has the White House paid relatively little attention to growing crises in mainland Southeast Asia but those crises are quickly spiraling out of control.” There is an opportunity “for Congress, rather than the White House, to develop a tough approach to the growing climate of repression in Cambodia” and solve other issues like the crisis affecting the persecuted Rohingya fleeing Myanmar for Bangladesh.
Tags: Asia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Congress, Crises, Lead, Myanmar, Opportunity, Repression, Rohingya, Trump, U.S.
Washington Post (June 10)
“Beijing is increasingly exporting its ‘internal matters’ — the repression of critical or even independent voices — to other countries.” This ranges from its so called great cannon “to take down Web sites outside China to which it objects” to current persecution of a U.S. journalist’s family members. “We think the United States should declare, loudly and publicly, that such brazen intimidation is reprehensible…. When China persecutes a journalist living in the United States, it is no longer an ‘internal matter.’”
Tags: China, Great cannon, Internal matters, Intimidation, Journalist, Repression, U.S.
Washington Post (February 20, 2014)
“North Korea’s camps and methods of political repression rival the worst of the 20th century’s totalitarian crimes: Hitler’s concentration camps and Stalin’s prison system. This is happening not in the 1940s or 1950s but in our own time…. North Korea’s leaders must be held accountable.”
Tags: Accountable, Concentration camps, Crimes, Hitler, Leaders, North Korea, Prison, Repression, Stalin, Totalitarian
Washington Post (August 15)
The “refusal to take a firm stand against massive violations of human rights is as self-defeating for the United States as it is unconscionable. Continued U.S. support for the Egyptian military is helping to push the country toward a new dictatorship rather than a restored democracy.” The U.S. should suspend all aid until “the generals end their campaign of repression and take tangible steps to restore democracy.”
Tags: Aid, Democracy, Dictatorship, Egypt, Human rights, Military, Repression, U.S., Violations
