Why I Write about China or a Series of Unfortunate Events

First they raped the woman who washes feet, but I am not a woman, so I did not say anything; they fished for more registration fees, but I have no car, so I did not say anything; they killed the prisoners Hurry & Scurry, I am not a prisoner, so I did not say anything; they beat the journalists who expose the truth, but I am not a journalist, so I did not say anything; they arrested the people who petition the government, but I did not petition, so I did not say anything; they demolished houses to make way for the Olympics, but I do not own a house, so I did not say anything; They arrested human rights activists, but I’m not willing to sacrifice myself to help someone else, so I did not say anything; they arrested scholars who criticize the government, but I am not a scholar, so I did not say anything; they gang raped a female high school student, and then let her transfer, but I have no daughters, so I did not say anything; they took away the cooking utensils of the man who sells baked potatoes, and beat this poor lame old man, but I do not sell potatoes, so I did not say anything; they caused housing prices to skyrocket, I do not buy houses, so I did not say anything; they suppressed the Uighurs and the Tibetans, I am neither Uighur, not Tibetan, so I said nothing; they arrested those young people who dared go to Tiananmen to bring flowers, I didn’t think of going, nor would I dare go, so I said nothing; they arrested Zhao Lianhai who had the baby who drank contaminated milk and got kidney stones, but my family didn’t have a baby with kidney stones, so I said nothing; they arrested the house church members, but I don’t believe in religion, so I said nothing; they arrested those political folk who talk online, but I’m not interested in politics, so I said nothing; they arrested Huang Qi and Tan Zuoren who spoke out for the victims of the earthquake, but there wasn’t any earthquake here, so I said nothing; They arrested the eldest son of the Liu family, the stutterer, who was just playing around, but I neither play those games, nor am I a stutterer, so I said nothing.
Then for no reason that I can explain they arrested me, and I discovered that there was no one left beside me who would say anything. (Credit for this post goes to the German Pastor Martin Niemoller, who first wrote, "First they came for ..." and to one of my friends in China who posted this series of events, but shall remain anonymous. The translation is my own.)

Open Letter to US President Obama

A student living in Western China has written an Open Letter to President Obama. In it, he expresses the frustrations of justice denied. It expresses several clear instances where civil rights have been ignored. It is in English, so I have included it here. Open letter to US president Barack Obama

Sydney Morning Herald Reports: HK Reporters 'Detained' in China

The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that Now TV and the Hong Kong Journalists' Association have filed protests with China's HK-Macau Affairs Office over the restriction of journalist freedom in reporting on the Tan Zuoren Case discussed below. Here is that article. Chinese left no stone unturned in their attempt to hijack justice.

Chinese Artist Reports Being Barred From Trial

The New York Times has finally posted an article about the story I followed on twitter and wrote about in this blog yesterday. Here it is.

Here is a link to the Guardian's article on the trial.

Chinese police detain 11 who planned to attend activist's trial

A Daring Photo Taken While in Police Custody

Ai Weiwei taking a picture of himself and the police escort in the mirror image of the elevator. Ai was prevented from being a witness at a trial of his colleague. See article below.

Ai Weiwei Beaten and Restricted from Testifying at This Morning's Court Hearing for Tan Zuoren

This just in: Late into the night, by the cover of darkness, Ai Weiwei (one of the designers of the Bird's Nest Stadium famous as the Olympic Stadium) was roughed up by police. He was medically checked out, and is okay, but he has been restricted from attending the court hearing of Tan Zuoren, which is happening this morning. Ai had traveled to the Sichuan to be a witness at the hearing. With Chen Yunfei, the other witness already held by security, the Chinese state has free rein to get a conviction on Tan Zuoren. It appears that the Chinese government has successfully silenced the witnesses. Tan Zuoren, is an environmental activist on trial for investigating the deaths of school children in the earthquake last year. The following comes from the NY Times via China Digital Times. Tan Zuoren, a writer and also a prominent rights advocate, faces a potential five-year sentence for subversion and is to go on trial Aug. 12. The charges are broad ones the Chinese government often uses to silence people who publicly challenge the government.

“These trials are not about a reasonable application of the law, but about silencing government critics whose work has considerable public benefit and sympathy,” Sophie Richardson, the Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, an advocacy group based in New York, said in a written statement released Tuesday. “The government is likely seeking to squelch those who cause it embarrassment, but in the process it is undermining domestic and international confidence in its ability to cope in a transparent way with natural disasters.”

The situation continues to develop: Professor Ran Yunfei, and others who intended to attend the trial have now been taken into custody or prevented from attending the trial.

WHERE IS XU ZHIYONG? 许志永在哪里？

A link to The New Yorker article on China's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -Dr. Xu Zhiyong, which I helped translate back into Chinese:

WHERE IS XU ZHIYONG? 许志永在哪里？

Is China's People's Armed Police Crying Wolf to Terrorize its Citizens?

Big Brother China is either jittery,

or has some explaining to do.

• First a hijacking is reported by the People's Armed Police in Xinjiang.

• Next it is reported that the hijackers have been subdued.

• Now it is reported that it is a bomb on the plane, and earlier hijack versions deleted. The plane is reported to be inbound from Afghanistan.

• Then a report that the plane will not be allowed to land in Urumqi.

• Pictures followed showing the Peoples Armed Police going to the Airport.

• Next, the English version of these pictures were labeled as if they were leaving the Airport.

• At which point the plane was said to have landed in Afghanistan.

• NATO reports that no plane with a bomb on board has landed, and if one had, they would know.

• NATO reports that a plane was turned back from China, but it was due to a paperwork problem, and that the reason it landed in Kandahar and not Kabul where it originated is due to bad weather in Kabul.

This really has the appearance of a Chinese news report that scares people about terror, ends up being followed up on by social and mainstream media... and paints China into a corner as the boy who cried wolf. So far, I haven't seen a decent explanation.

The unexplained Plane