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China trumpets 'human rights action plan'

More democracy, sometime soon

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China has declared that it will instigate a "human rights action plan" over the next two years designed in part to "expand democracy and strengthen rule of law".

According to Xinhua, the document will be formulated with contributions from the courts, parliament and non-government groups. Wang Chen of the government's PR department, the State Council Information Office, said the plan "showed the ruling Communist Party was committed to improving citizens' rights".

He insisted: "Respecting and protecting human rights ... is an important objective and principle of the Chinese Communist Party and the government."

Wang didn't give a release date for the document, and didn't mention any input from "the powerful ministries of public security and state security, which oversee the government's sweeping powers to detain citizens", as Reuters puts it. ®

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Latest Comments

laughable

I thought I saw the words respect, human rights and chinese communist party in a paragraph. I'm sure I was dreaming.

I'm not confusing these friendly, smiling cuddly rulers with the same people who believe most ferevently in capital punishment am I? The same administration who imposed such draconian control and ethnic displacement of Tibet ? The same folk who have ignored vast swathes of their own people to let them slide into terrible hardship? The one party state which has profited in the shameful treatment of workers and holds a horrific track record in human rights? The same rulers who were not averse to indulging in a spot of 'management' of the Olympic Games for those of short memories. And as we all know, a country where the citizen is denied access to information as to do so would give them the two things their rulers fear the most; Knowledge and Power.

How dare I even think such things. I'd be called racist, moronic and ignorant by the clever people on here. Oh.....

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@ John Savard

"it's a great pity that dictatorial regimes like China's have their hands on military capabilities that permit their countries to remain independent"

Great pity indeed. These dictatorial regimes are certainly a threat to the world. Unlike some great democratic nations (or a certain specific great democratic nation), that have so far in history actually used nuclear weapons against another nation, to make a democratic point, that can basically invade or bomb the hell out of just about any nation they please, because it is, of course, in defense of democracy, that can, democratically by all means, decide which nations in this world will be allowed independence and which will be kept under occupation for whatever reason and that can basically democratically do anything they want to anyone else, while noone else is democratically allowed to do the same back

"There should be only two kinds of countries in the world: liberal democracies, and their colonies"

My dear man, why complicate? There should be only one democratic empire, with everyone else being either a province or colony of it. Because you know how fickle these liberal democracies can get and all the crazy ideas of civil liberties and equality they come up with.

"Then, there would be no wars or the other kinds of unpleasantness we keep seeing in the newspapers."

Indeed. How our great minds think alike, eh? Conquer everyone, I say, and supress any opposition. Democratically, of course. Peace guaranteed. Oh, and control the newspapers, while you at it, and make sure no unpleasantness appears. People don't like unpleasantness, I digress, and democracy, being the will of the people, must ensure no unpleasantness should bother the people anymore.

P.S.

Heart, cause you gotta love democracy. Whatever it means.

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Designed to do WHAT?

Am I the only one who finds it odd that this plan is designed, in part, to "expand democracy and strengthen rule of law"? So the Chinese ruling party wants to "expand democracy" in a country where the word "democracy" is banned and saying or writing it can get you thrown in jail (or executed if you're really lucky)? That's even funnier than them saying they care about the people (funny in a sad way, not in a ha-ha way).

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