Midday Open Thread: Eye on China

[SeminalBlog]

China has been in the news a lot recently…
From the BBC today, as part of its excellent coverage of China:

A prominent activist who publicized human rights abuses across China has gone on trial in the capital, Beijing. Hu Jia, 34, is accused of “inciting subversion of state power and the socialist system”. The charges relate to interviews he gave to foreign media and political articles that he wrote for the internet, his lawyer Li Fangping said.

Human Rights Watch say’s Hu Jia’s trial “has become emblematic of Beijing’s broad attempt to suppress dissent ahead of the Olympic Games:”

Human Rights Watch is concerned that Hu is being prosecuted simply for exercising his rights to freedom of opinion and expression as guaranteed by the Chinese constitution and international human rights law. The crime of “incitement to subvert state power” as defined under Chinese law criminalizes criticism of the government and the Communist Party of China in violation of human rights law.

In related news, from the NY Times this morning:

The Dalai Lama threatened Tuesday to step down as leader of Tibet’s government-in-exile if violence committed by Tibetans in his homeland spirals out of control. The rioting prompted Premier Wen Jiabao to denounce the Dalai Lama’s supporters as separatists and accuse them of instigating the violence in Tibet’s capital of Lhasa. It was China’s highest-level response to date to the unrest.
…
”If the Tibetans were to choose the path of violence he would have to resign because he is completely committed to nonviolence,” Tenzin Taklha said. ”He would resign as the political leader and head of state, but not as the Dalai Lama. He will always be the Dalai Lama.”
The recent protests in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, led by monks, began peacefully March 10 on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. But they grew increasingly violent, culminating Friday with widespread street violence. Chinese officials say 16 people were killed, but the Tibetan government-in-exile put the toll at 80.

From this week’s Economist:

China’s hunger for natural resources has set off a global commodity boom….The Chinese authorities, it seems, are so anxious to obtain enough minerals to sustain their country’s remarkable economic growth that they are willing to invest billions in a dirt-poor and war-torn place like Congo—billions more, in fact, than Western governments and investors combined are putting in….Some non-governmental organisations worry that Chinese firms will ignore basic legal, environmental and labour standards in their rush to secure resources, leaving a trail of corruption, pollution and exploitation in their wake.

From this Saturday’s Weekend Edition on NPR:

China’s carbon dioxide emissions are growing much faster than anticipated and are on pace to double during this decade. Forecasts of global warming don’t take this growth into account, so scientists may be underestimating how fast the planet will heat up.
When scientists last tried to project China’s contribution to global warming, it was the late 1990s. Asia was in a recession and China’s emissions weren’t growing particularly fast.

Collectively, these stories, and others documented by the Seminal, paint an alarming picture. The world does not need another superpower that sees itself as unaccountable to the rest of the world. China is the only country poised to challenge US influence on the global stage, but what, if anything, should the rest of the world be doing to truly check this influence?
As always, the Seminal welcomes your thoughts…
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