A girlfriend of a friend of ours, a lovely Italian-French girl who was getting her masters, traveled to China a year or two ago to shoot a film about life there. I don't know the details of what she was doing, but she never returned. She was killed there, perhaps by the Chinese government.
After watching a documentary some time ago about the Tibet Freedom concert which took place a few years ago, I was reminded of the atrocities that the Chinese government continue to carry out to this present day.
Here is a government (not the people - the government) which is not democratic, which has nuclear weapons, which limits freedoms of speech, which tortures minorities with physical and sexual abuse in prisions, which forces sterilization of poor women, which censors the internet, which favors indentured labor practices in its factories, and which is deliberately destroying the environment.
When I think of terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and rape rooms, I think of the Chinese government, not Iraq.
Please choose to not buy products that are Made in China, especially when you have a choice. Not only are the products of poor quality, and soon end up in landfills when they break, but it inadvertently supports the growing economy of a reckless government and unemployment in our own economy. Even made in Indonesia or India is better, since those are democracies.
I have also decided to not watch the 2008 Olympic Games on television or the internet, in protest of the Chinese government and their increased development in anticipation of the games.
Only when we are brave enough to stand and speak, will anyone listen.
Student Protesters Article - Reuters
