Chinese dissident receives 11-year sentence

Liu Xiaobo helped draft Charter 08, a petition that called for free speech and open elections. It garnered 10,000 signatures before it was removed from the Net by government censors.
(From The New York Times)

The story "Chinese dissident receives 11-year sentence" published December 25, 2009 at 3:47 PM is no longer available on CNET News.

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[Lerianis4]

China is fighting a losing battle here. For every 'dissident' they imprison, 100 more are created by the Chinese governments actions. They are just going to have to realize that most people have realized that China is NOT a communistic system, it is an elitist system where you get more if you belong to the 'party'.

[sanenazok]

No, the one fighting a loosing battle was the assistant to the assistant to the assistant ambassador. Who cares what he thinks, certainly not the Chinese. If the US actually tried to impact Chinese internal issues, the Chinese would just not show up to the next US Treasury bond auction and then just about everything ends. Hence the US will do NOTHING for this guy. It's really a shame, but it's not like China has any history of democracy. Single party rule there has brought stability and unprecedented prosperity. Nobody's going to challenge it, especially not the US or Western Europe which is in the same boat.

[Lerianis4]

Sorry, but I have to disagree... with President Bush, that might have been true... however, with President Obama, he might get tougher on the Chinese.
Oh, and China DOES have a history of democracy..... in fact, they were one of the first countries to create a centralized government, with everyone but the top leader elected.
People forget that fact.
As to single party rule bringing 'stability' and 'prosperity'..... NOT REALLY! (sing this with me!) The 'single party rule' has not brought stability and prosperity, the moving away from elitism and communism in their economy is what did that.

[sanenazok]

@Lerianis4: Check out the BBC video of the American attache's speech. 2 minutes of rhetoric followed up by stringing up of some yellow ribbons, which were taken down by Chinese authorities right afterward. Sounds like a tremendous change. If anyone, Obama is more dependent on Chinese being stable buyers of US debt.

[Der_Amerikaner]

What a shameful action ! let's hope they exile this poor yet brave man!

[Xenite227]

What a ******** of a country, virtually no rights and you can have an exciting carrer making $5 a week farming gold for lazy Americans.

[Lerianis4]

Yep, they do have virtually no rights in that country... and for some reason, the ignorant Chinese people are fine with that. Why? I don't know..... maybe China is 'breeding out' the dissenters or something.

[disco-legend-zeke]

Interesting that the people wanting communism in China are branded Conservative...

...While the liberals in the United States are branded Communist.

[sanenazok]

Whoa how could they ever be branded as communists? Let's think this through, the stated goal of communism had been worldwide revolution to its system. Conservatives want to keep the status quo, liberals want a drastic change or revolution where the government is involved in more and more decision-making.

[lilsim89]

Why doesn't the U.S. do to China what always happens to me when someone owes me money? :

What the hell! I owe you what? No no no, that wasn't me, that was Joseph. Besides, I'm broke..... Hey, I know! Alex owes me LIKE twenty dollars. Get it from him, just tell him I said to.

The U.S. could say:

We borrowed how much!? No, no, no. But here's what we can do. Israel and Iraq owes us a boat load. Just get the money from them. They'll be cool with it.

[therealgeeves]

Sounds like Liu Xiaobo is a bit like Nelson Mandela, locked up for being a freedom fighter.