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Angry Chinese Blogger:
The news and views about China that the big media can't, or won't, tell you The is no single truth Menu: Home |
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You don't have to be mad to protest in China, but it helps.
To paraphrase the old wester adage, "You don't have to be crazy to protest in China, but it help". And if you don't happen to be crazy, there is apparently nothing to stop the state from saying that you are, and locking you up.
According a reports released by the New York based human rights group 中國人權 (Human Rights in China) , Liu Xinjuan, a prominent 上海 (Shanghai) land activist who is well known for her efforts in fighting forced evictions and illegal land-seizures, was detained earlier this week, and committed to a mental institution on state orders.
Although there has been little official word on the reasons for Liu's detention and subsequent committal, sources indicate that she was seized by Chinese security force in 静安 (Jiang'an) District Park, Shanghai, on 16 January.
After her seizure, Liu was taken to a secured compound, thought to be the Qibao Dispatch Station, in 上海 (Sanghai)'s 闵行区(Minhang District), where she was interrogated by security forces for several hours, before being transfered to the Beiqiao Mental Hospital. Where she was committed for 'treatment' on the grounds that she was 'mentally unsound'.
Reports indicate that Liu was 'bound and gagged' during the transfer, and that she had been badly beaten while in custody.
Prior to her detention, Lui had been attempting to meet with fellow activists in 静安 (Jiang'an) District Park, in preparation for a march to deliver a petition to state official meeting in the Sanghai Sino-Soviet Friendship Building.
"litigation mania"
Although not often spoken of, it is a well known for Chinese authorities to commit persistent protectors and activists, like Liu, to mental institutions, under the claim that they are suffering from persecution complexes that cause them to mount 'irrational campaigns of harassment' against state or corporate interests.
This condition has been colloquially dubbed "litigation mania" by Chinese Police psychiatrists, and authorities claim that, by detaining activists in mental institutes, they are 'serving the public good' and 'protecting stability.
However, "litigation mania" and the detention of activists in mental institutions has been categorically dismissed, by human rights interests, as being 'an excuse' to detain persistent protectors outside of the normal judicial system, and as a tool to discredit them as being 'mentally unsound' in a country where mental illness is still not publicly understood
Liu was previously committed to a mental institution in 2003 because of her protest activities.
Have you seen the commercials in the US for medicine to treat "Restless Leg
Syndrome"?!!
It's the people with money and the power that are the maniacs. They just want to make us the same way. This world is getting darker everyday. I think I am getting "P.C. mania". I go crazy everytime I come back home and see how the P.C. police on T.V. are making people with commonsense look like the mentally ill. If you don't say it just right you are either racist or whatever-phobe or sexually harrassing someone. The US might start doing the same to people who aren't P.C. enough. But first they will try to medicate us.
Fortunately for me, I haven't had cause to visit the US for quite some
time, so I haven't even heard of "Restless Leg Syndrome" (it's probably
called something different where I come from), so i can't comment on the
adverts.
Have you noticed that both American and Britain now routinely arrest
political dissidents under anti-terror laws, branding them 'terrorists',
unpatriotic, and unAmerica (or unBritish) if they dare to speak out against
the establishment.
No, it's true.
Last year, Washington used anti terror laws to detain dozens of
environmentalists, anti-globalization protectors and anti-war protesters,
and in Britain they even went so far as to use anti terror laws to detain
an senior citizen who was reading a list of names of dead soldiers outside
the British government building. They dragged her off the street for
'glorifying terror' or some other such rubbish.
This is just one small step away from what China is doing.
America is just going crazy, there are some serious fundamental problems
there. Here in Canada, we're painfully P.C, but in the way that it ties
into the (real) stereotypes of Canadians being polite and sensible. The
biggest issue here is around holidays, especially religious ones, where
people get twitchy when someone says, "God". But, we allow protest, even
when the G8 was in my city, there were huge protests, but there was neither
violence nor arrests. And I'm not too sure if we even have anti-terror laws
apart from "please don't kill our citizenry".
I must say that I REAL do not understand this North American thing about
church and state.
It is sad indeed. It seems that China (albiet slowly) is opening up and
America is becoming more tyranical:( One day there will no difference btwn
the two.
There used to be a day when the local police were just that, local. Training and "education" was more or less local. And they "protected" the society. Now they are sent to the capital of their state and "indoctrinated" and "educated" by the state. Then they come back and "enforce" the laws. They don't protect anyone except the state and themselves. Americans have been so beaten down with P.C. we can't speak the truth. I have more freedom of speech in my Chinese classroom than I would in an American class!
Has anyone noticed the road/picture signs in Beijing (mainly around the
embassy areas) that show/demand "no exploding vehicles"! I know it isn't
P.C. but it is just as stupid:)
I'm going to take the other side of the argument, just to see how it might
work: sanity is defined by what is socially acceptable, "normal" behavior
and speech. A person whose behavior and speech goes a certain distance
beyond the norm is considered to be not sane or crazy. Hence, fear of
being run over by a speeding vehicle so you look both ways before crossing
the street is sane, but fear of vehicles so intense that you cannot leave
the house or cross the street is insane and needs treatment.
I would say that crazy isn't so much what you do, but rather your state of
mind when you do it. If you are rational and controlled, then you are not
crazy