Human rights abuses, kangaroo courts, poor safety standards and a seeminingly callous disregard for human life in China means that this great nation is redefining the word “superpower.”
The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s religious leader, pointed this out in Europe early in December 2008, but few paid much attention.
China lacks the moral authority, including over the question of Tibet, to be a true superpower, the Dalai Lama said.
“Because of its very poor record on human rights and religious freedom and freedom of expression and freedom of the press — too much censorship — the image of China in the field of moral authority is very, very poor,” he said.
“The sensible Chinese realize China should now pay more attention in this field in order to get more respect from the rest of the world,” the Nobel peace laureate said.
Ever wonder why so many schoolchildren were killed in last year’s earthquakes in China? The schools were built poorly, so poorly that they collapsed upon the first quake. Many were poorly built because of goernment corruption: the builders paid communist officials to ignore poor building practices and shoddy materials.
Why does China have such a high number of deaths in mining? Because mine safety standard are very weak and regulation and inspection is worse — where they exist at all.
So how does China hope to gain this superpower status? By emulating the actions of a superpower, of course.
In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Hu Jintao, center, Premier Wen Jiabao, 4th left, and other Chinese top leaders attend a New Year tea party hosted by the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing on Thursday, Jan. 1, 2009. From left are, Zhou Yongkang, Li Keqiang, Li Changchun, Wen, Hu, , Wu Bangguo, Jia Qinglin, Xi Jinping and He Guoqiang.(AP Photo/Xinhua, Liu Weibing)
China is expanding its military and has grown to own much of the U.S. in terms of property and wealth and American debt.
China proving here it is a superpower and master of Taiwan. File photo shows Chinese amphibious tanks and marines storming a beachhead in an amphibious assault drill in China’s Shandong Peninsula. (AFP/Xinhua/File)But some of those “human rights” and “moral authority” issues discussed by the Dalai Lama are foreign and indecernable to the Chinese.
China’s recent poisoned milk scandal and the subsequent trial of Tian Wenhua, chairwoman of the now-bankrupt Sanlu Group, are good examples.
Melamine is poisonous. Sanlu put melamine into milk. For the Chinese government, case closed.
Except in China, workers put melamine into all kinds of food products for years.
Melamine, which is poisonous to humans in great enough concentrations, had been routinely mixed into food products in China for years — and other similar tainted substances for decades.
“Many companies buy melamine scrap to make animal feed, such as fish feed,” said Ji Denghui, general manager of the Fujian Sanming Dinghui Chemical Company, which sells melamine. “I don’t know if there’s a regulation on it. Probably not. No law or regulation says ‘don’t do it,’ so everyone’s doing it. The laws in China are like that, aren’t they? If there’s no accident, there won’t be any regulation.”
Ji Denghui made that statement in 2007 to New York Times reporters David Barboza and Alexei Barrionuevo.
China is able to get away with this kind of callous disregard for truth, honesty and its own citizens because the government controls the media, the legal system, and everything else. The people only “vote” for representatives selected by the communist government which works tirelessly to stay in power by keeping order — not by obeying the kinds of basic laws and rules for human dignity most Westerners would expect — and take for granted.
John E. Carey
Peace and Freedom
Soldiers of Chinese navy special force attend an anti-piracy drill on the deck of DDG-171 Haikou destroyer in Sanya, Hainan province December 25, 2008 in this photo released by China’s official Xinhua News Agency. The fleet – two destroyers and a supply ship – would have about 800 crew, including 70 special operations troops and will join in the multi-national patrolling of the Gulf of Aden and waters off the coast of Somalia, the official Xinhua news agency said. Picture taken December 25, 2008. REUTERS/Xinhua/Cha Chunming
Related:
http://www.hrichina.org/public/index
China Poisoned Food, Children Died; “Show Trials,” Punishment for Innocent Next?
Peace and Freedom Global Future 
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