Over the past month, Chinese activists have been served a grim reminder that Beijing has yet to understand the value of civil society.
A series of police sweeps has targeted civic groups and dozens have been arrested. Last week police detained Shanghai author Li Jianhong (
The irony of the situation is that civic groups hold the key to resolving many of Beijing's biggest headaches. Where Chinese authorities are dragging their feet, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are pressing for real progress. Their work on everything from caring for AIDS orphans to demanding factory clean-ups promises a better living standard for the lowest social strata.
Many of these groups work to resolve key causes of social unrest, yet Beijing persists with a crackdown on civil society that has strengthened in the past two years and will only contribute to instability, rather than forging Beijing's vision of a "harmonious society."
China's fear of civic groups is no doubt fueled in part by the memory of a Falun Gong sit-in in 1999 in Beijing. The terror of not having foreseen the mobilization of thousands of citizens was a rude awakening for the top political echelon and sparked the policy to eradicate the Falun Gong -- even though the demonstration was apolitical.
But another factor fuels China's fears. Beijing has spent the past two years fretting over tales of Eastern European and Central Asian "color" revolutions. Russia believes these revolutions were Washington-backed moves to contain the extent of Moscow's power, and Chinese President Hu Jintao (
During his term, Hu has backtracked on years of looser reins on civic groups, which have been key to movements such as Ukraine's Orange Revolution.
And as far as Hu is concerned, any civic group is game. This month, 70 people were detained in a raid on a Bible study circle that met outside of the state-controlled religious framework. Beijing targets any organized platform for discussion -- political or apolitical -- that does not fall under its oversight.
But if there's anything more anathema to Beijing than civic groups, it is those with an international connection. So for the same reason Beijing does not recognize the pope or the Dalai Lama, and it largely blocks NGOs with international secretariats from setting up shop.
For that reason, it is surprising and a cause for hope that Beijing has, to some extent, tolerated the existence of Chinese PEN. Its members are no stranger to police harassment, but this latest incident was the first time its year-end meeting was blocked.
For PEN members -- who were given no reason for Beijing's wrath -- it is a clear sign that they will have to fight to keep their foot in the door. Another PEN center, Tibetan PEN, exists only in exile.
Beijing has lost sight of the goal. A flourishing civil society will be key to engaging the government on issues where it has made feeble progress because of corruption.
But the Chinese Communist Party is busy countering NGOs -- or, as Hu allegedly called them in an internal report, the "smokeless guns" of a US-backed plot. Regardless of what Washington is or isn't plotting, Beijing is sabotaging a wealth of resources.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017