The past twenty-four hours have been busy for Chinese authorities! They prevented Green MEP Helga Trüpel from visiting cyberdissident Zeng Jinyan (video), currently under house arrest. Her husband, environment and AIDS actitivist Hu Jia is in prison. Authorities also prevented blogger Shuguang Zhou (aka Zuola) from travelling to Germany to participate in Deutsche Welle’s international weblog awards, The BOBs, in Berlin. No need to worry about other prominent bloggers like Zeng Jinyan (under house arrest) or Huang Qi (already in prison).
This afternoon, China announced it was postponing the EU-China Summit, planned on 1 December in France, on the grounds that the Dalai Lama would be in Europe at the same time and will meet Nicolas Sarkozy in Poland on 6 December. What a turn of events! President Sarkozy went to the opening ceremony of the Olympics, he cheered and he clapped. A lot of contracts had been signed. Now, China is boycotting him!? Ironic, isn’t it? I guess there’s a limit to how far you should bow to the Chinese before you’re flat on the ground. Well… Look at the bright side. President Sarkozy will actually meet with the Dalai Lama and he can bring his Political Courage Prize along with him…
It seems that for authorities in Beijing, anti-Chinese sentiment can come from anywhere. They banned the release of the new Guns N’ Roses album, entitled Chinese Democracy. It was deemed a “venomous attack” on the nation that “turns its spear point on China.” One of the tracks refers to the Falun Gong movement. The albums website is also blocked, but according to web comments, it can be heard on some websites.
It’s never a good sign when even artistic expression gets censored…
3 responses so far ↓
olympic games | NBA.COM // Nov 27, 2008 at 8:43 am
[...] When in doubt, just ban it all! The past twenty-four hours have been busy for Chinese authorities! They prevented Green MEP Helga Trüpel from visiting cyberdissident Zeng Jinyan (video), currently under house arrest. Her husband, environment and AIDS actitivist Hu Jia … [...]
yourtruth // Jan 28, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Please read this blog to better understand the human rights advocacy skills of Shuguang Zhou, who is said to “build fame internaitnally first and then pressurize the government dometically.” You think of him a grassroots hero, an online activist, but some Chinese people who ask him for help realize that he is a cheater and a careerist.
strongly suggest you to make investigation and try not make generalizations or simplifications in other blogs too.
JB // Jan 29, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Reply to yourtruth post of 28/01/09:
If you read the article above, you’ll see that i’m saying Shuguang Zhou’s was prevented from leaving China to receive an award. And I don’t find that normal. On what evidence do you base your allegations that he is a “cheater and a careerist”?
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