Free Republic

China: Two Incidents Open Pandora’s Box – Analysis May 22, 2012 By Bhaskar Roy Two incidents, one regarding Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai, and the other involving a blind human rights activist and self-taught lawyer Chen Guangchen, destroyed the myth that the Chinese system is a well oiled machine. Policy, individual, and bitter factional rivalries are kept sealed from the public to ensure the Party’s inviolability. This is the biggest political quake the country has experienced since the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident. The new age of social communication, the internet, has also damaged the Party’s secrecy. Even people inside the...

Beijing - A top Chinese general on Wednesday called the United States "a whore" for suggesting that Taiwan try to destroy the Three Gorges Dam, while maintaining that it could never be hit by Taipei's conventional arms. Lieutenant General Liu Yuan, the son of China's formerly deposed president Liu Shaoqi, slammed the Pentagon for suggesting that Taiwan was preparing an attack on the massive hydro-electric project as a counter measure to growing mainland forces aimed at retaking the island democracy. "Some people who say they support democracy, wave the flag of human rights and shout about fighting terrorism, are actually...