Comparing legal issues

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

My class discussed these news articles that ran in the LA times and on Yahoo news. It was during a discussion on our Constitution and how we are afforded certain rights. Wondering if the Olympics going to China will bring about any changes in their policies? Has anyone else discussed this topic with their classes?

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20050928/ts_latimes/concernsgrowoverexecutionsinchina">Here is the first story
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20050928/ts_latimes/concernsgrowoverexecutionsinchina

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050927/3/27z2w.html">Story 2
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050927/3/27z2w.html
[Edit by="Arthur on Oct 1, 3:36:43 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

this seems to be a dead thread, so hopefully i will infuse some new life!

This is going back a few years, but in light of Fishman's China, Inc.China, Inc. i wonder about the intellectual property hanky panky that much of China engages in at the present. I spoke with Jeff Winters at CSULB, and he indicated that when he was in China recently, if he needed a book or document at the school library, they just ripped it for him no questions asked. Cool!, but what if you wrote the article?

Here's a link...

http://www.china.org.cn/english/2003/Oct/76561.htm

What do you think of this topic?

[Anonymous]

I ran across this story a few days ago on a online news story, and finally found it in print. Seems the US isn't the only place using imminent domain laws in order to get what the gov't wants. Whether it is a school district needing land to build a new school or a developer wanting to build a shopping mall, hotel and luxury housing (as happened back east earlier this year). The citizen has no recourse but to go along.
Now in China, it went a few steps further than it does here.
Forcing people off their land

Maybe our 2 governments aren't too different after all.

[Anonymous]

To continue the last story, in today's LA Times (pg. A3), it said the Chinese Gov't had detained a police commander because the commander's ' "wrong actions' " were responsibe for the deaths."
What isn't known is it the gov't trying to please the world since many people are watching this event, with the WTO holding meetings in Hong Kong. Or is the central gov't actually becoming more people friendly?
The gov't is saying three people were killed and eight wounded. Villagers are saying 10 - 20 were killed and several dozen are either hurt or missing.

Here is the article...not sure how long it will last before it goes to the area where you have to pay to read it.

Police detain chief over killings

[clay dube]

Arthur and Kokoro have made reference to legal disputes and battles to protect economic and human rights in China. We were fortunate earlier this year to have well-known Chinese labor activist Han Dongfang speak at UCLA. His talk was broadcast on UCTV and is now available via streaming video. Please see it at:

http://www.asia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=35613

Han speaks at length about the challenges ordinary villagers and workers confront in asserting their rights and in collecting money owed to them.

[Anonymous]

I've heard many stories on NPR discussing how China has hired Google and other search engines to service their population. Of course, many Americans are outraged that Google would agree to this deal even though the Chinese government will censor many websites. It's tough for me to make a decision on this one. I think it's great that the Chinese will receive more access to news and information by using these search engines, but it's disappointing that Google didn't hold out for less censorship. It seems to me, the bottom line is always money.

I found this related article interesting.

http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=24609

The Chinese government has hired over a hundred spies to post pro-China propaganda. These same "police" are trained to shut down and block websites that posts any information that the Chinese government doesn't like.

I feel very naive because I don't understand why the Chinese government is so afraid. What do they think will happen if their citizens have differing opinions?

[Anonymous]

It seems to me the Chinese leaders/policy makers are being naïve in their thinking if they believe that by simply placing limits on mainstream search engines provided by companies like Google people in China won’t be able to access all the information that is available on the Internet.

My thinking is unless you monitor every single server providing internet service to every Chinese computer user that has access to the web I don’t see how you can effectively censor content.

In other words, trying to hold back/censor the information that is available online is like trying to close Pandora’s box, can’t be done.

And as products that allow transmission of data across the web become more pervasive everyday, eg, cell phones, the opportunities for people to come across information that China’s government finds objectionable will increase too.

It will be interesting to see how China continues to "adapt" to this new threat.

[Author]

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