[Reader-list] China Shuts Out 2 Lawyers Over Tibetans' Cases... (Washington Post)

[Tapas Ray]

Proof, if any was needed, that China has "opened up". This "openness" is 
an embarrassment even to some people in "the party"/government. Shortly 
after the earthquake, I was watching an interview of its young Deputy 
Information Minister or something like that, on PBS, which - for those 
who may not be familiar with it - is the US Public Broadcasting Service 
very much unlike the commercial networks in style and content. The 
gentleman's job title reminded me of 1984, because "information" in the 
hands of the Chinese government seems to be all about censorship, just 
as it has sometimes been about disinformation and even censorship in the 
West. But there is nothing new about this. What I found interesting, 
instead, was that the Minister momentarily lost his voice in 
embarrassment and had to clear his throat to speak when an inconvenient 
question about China's "openness" was thrown at him.

Now, if "the truth" is that he had an infection of the upper respiratory 
tract and that made things difficult for him at that very moment, we 
must give the germs their due, and I must stand rebuked for distorting 
"the truth".


TaraPrakash wrote:
> China Shuts Out 2 Lawyers Over Tibetans' Cases; Activists Had Offered to Defend Those Arrested After Crackdown.