Strange new spin, almost a

artappraiser — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:16:30 +0000

In reply to Chinese police detain artist Ai Weiwei

Strange new spin, almost a whine.

China Baffled by Support for Imprisoned Activist Ai Weiwei
By Peter Simpson in Beijing, Voice of America News, April 12
The Chinese government says it is unhappy with international support for detained artist and activist Ai Weiwei.

The latest rebuke of international criticism about China's crackdown on dissidents comes on the same day European Commission Vice President Catherine Ashton called on Beijing to release all those Chinese detained for exercising what she says is their universally recognized right to freedom of expression.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei says Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is a suspected criminal and foreign support for him has confused and angered the Chinese people.
Hong said the Chinese people are baffled by the outcry from Washington and other Western governments after Ai's arrest nine days ago. And he questioned why some people in some countries treat a crime suspect as a hero, adding that the Chinese people are unhappy about international support for the outspoken government critic....

Related, worth a read, suggests Security there are apparently in a hyper paranoid state:

Freed China dissident tells of interrogation by police
Reuters, Beijing, April 12

Hunt for conspirators scheming to topple communists behind 45-day detention, says petitioners' rights activist Liu Anjun

State department report slams

artappraiser — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 05:04:14 +0000

In reply to Chinese police detain artist Ai Weiwei

State department report slams China on human rights
By Josh Rogin, The Cable @ Foreignpolicy.com, April 8, 2011 - 7:47 PM

The Obama administration has occasionally been accused of being soft on the issue of human rights in China. But the State Department pulled no punches in criticizing China's ever-worsening behavior on human rights in a new report issued on Friday.....

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton singled out China in her remarks unveiling the report. "In China, we've seen negative trends that are appearing to worsen in the first part of 2011," she said.

Clinton criticized the arrest of artist and activist Ai Weiwei, who disappeared Apr. 3 after being picked up by authorities at the Beijing airport. Clinton also called on China to allow peaceful protests and end its jailing of political critics.

"Such detention is contrary to the rule of law," she said referring to Ai. "And we urge China to release all of those who have been detained for exercising their internationally recognized right to free expression and to respect the fundamental freedoms and human rights of all of the citizens of China."

Clinton also announced the launch of a new website to consolidate information about human rights, called humanrights.gov

Assistant secretary of State for Democracy Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner said that the administration will continue to raise Ai's case with Chinese authorities, as well as the cases of Gao Zhisheng, the Chinese human rights lawyer who disappeared last April, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.....

The Obama administration had avoided criticism of the Chinese government's human rights practices in order to focus on advancing the broader strategic agenda. But in mid-2010, the administration changed tactics....

Cowering before a sunflower seed: Why China is not a great power
By David Rothkopf, Foreignpolicy.com, April 7, 2011

...But one unfailingly good indicator of a nation's real strength is the nature of the enemies or adversaries it fears. Truly great powers do not fear small threats or, if they come to, they diminish themselves and lift up the small. The United States has illustrated this phenomenon well as it reorganized its entire national security apparatus to respond to the threat of hundreds or perhaps a few thousands of largely disorganized terrorists of limited capabilities, extreme views, and little geopolitical traction.

But however egregious America's over-reaction to the terrorist threat was and however grotesquely it led to the perversion of our values and the undermining of our international standing, it seems positively rational and even ennobling compared to the degree to which China cowers in the presence of old men, artists, religious sects, and even words. In this, China joins the ranks of other seemingly "great" powers from Nazi Germany to Soviet Russia that signaled their fundamental weakness even as they bulked up their armies and posed and postured on the world stage. Great states and great men do not fear the little guy so much that they demonize him, outlaw the expression of his views, or throw him in prison.

Yet that is just what is happening again in China as the whiff of jasmine from the Middle East wafts through its society. The Chinese were so afraid of words like "demonstration" and "protest" and even "jasmine" that they monitored and censored them on the web. They turned out police at the first signs of unrest. And they have rounded up dissidents....

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Strange new spin, almost a

State department report slams