O que é este blog?

Este blog trata basicamente de ideias, se possível inteligentes, para pessoas inteligentes. Ele também se ocupa de ideias aplicadas à política, em especial à política econômica. Ele constitui uma tentativa de manter um pensamento crítico e independente sobre livros, sobre questões culturais em geral, focando numa discussão bem informada sobre temas de relações internacionais e de política externa do Brasil. Para meus livros e ensaios ver o website: www.pralmeida.org. Para a maior parte de meus textos, ver minha página na plataforma Academia.edu, link: https://itamaraty.academia.edu/PauloRobertodeAlmeida.

Mostrando postagens com marcador Liu Xiaobo. Mostrar todas as postagens
Mostrando postagens com marcador Liu Xiaobo. Mostrar todas as postagens

quarta-feira, 25 de junho de 2014

Liu Xiaobo Plaza nb. 1, the House of the Chinese Big Brother - Aljazeera America


China livid over US plan to rename embassy street after dissident

Beijing slams ‘really absurd’ move to rename street in front of its Washington embassy after imprisoned Chinese activist
Chinese diplomats on Wednesday said Congress’ decision to rename the street in front of Beijing’s embassy in the U.S. capital after a Chinese dissident is "really absurd" and motivated by concerns not entirely related to human rights.
On Tuesday the House Appropriations Committee voted to rename the street outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., to “Liu Xiaobo Plaza” — after a Chinese dissident who received the Nobel Peace Prize in absentia and is currently serving an 11-year prison term for subverting the government’s authority. Liu has called for an end to one-party rule in China.
The bipartisan move, led by Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., would effectively have all correspondence sent to the Chinese Embassy addressed to No. 1 Liu Xiaobo Plaza.
“This attempt driven by some personal interests runs counter to the joint efforts by and interests of the vast majority of peoples in both China and the United States to pursue a win-win cooperative partnership between our countries,” Chinese Embassy spokesman Geng Shuang said.
“This amendment is really absurd.”
Wolf had not responded to an interview request from Al Jazeera at time of publication.
U.S. trade union United Steelworkers (USW) was among the key proponents of the bid to remind Chinese diplomats of the jailed dissident, according to a statement released by Wolf’s office late Tuesday.
At the time of publication, USW had not answered questions regarding its support for the renaming effort. But according to a copy of a letter sent to Congress by USW President Leo W. Gerard, he said, “The fight for freedom, democracy and human rights depends on people like Dr. Liu and our willingness to stand by their sides.”
China has long been the world’s leading producer of crude steel and its top steel exporter, according to the World Steel Association, ahead of the European Union, Japan and the U.S. 
The USW said it has on numerous occasions mounted efforts to protect American industry and consumers from what it called subpar Chinese-produced steel and other products, ranging from green technology to tires
“What would be gained for [USW], I guess is the question,” said Elizabeth Economy, U.S.-China relations expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, adding that labor rights groups have a history of teaming up with proponents of human rights.
Regardless of intentions, Economy said that renaming a street will not do much to support political reform in China — an ongoing, albeit controversial, project of the Xi Jinping administration, which has mounted a massive crackdown on corruption in the public sector.
“By and large, what the U.S. says doesn’t really affect what the Chinese government does. The Chinese government does what it wants to do with reform in politics and human rights,” she said. “I just think you need to grant the Chinese government more autonomy in its decision-making than perhaps you are.”
Opponents of human rights advocates in China, including in Chinese state media, have often criticized homegrown reform movements for receiving support from the West. Analysts have said that Western administrations’ and activists’ criticisms of China’s human rights situation have set back the work of Chinese human rights advocates.
Gao Wenqian, New York–based senior policy adviser with the international advocacy group Human Rights in China, disagrees with the idea that gestures like Washington’s further the belief that the West has a monopoly on human rights.
“China’s human rights situation must first and foremost rely on people on the inside, but also depends on international support,” he said.
Like Economy, Gao believes that renaming the street in front of the embassy after a dissident is a major show of support for democracy advocates in China.
“This shows that [the U.S. Congress] cares about the popular movement in China,” Gao said.
Supporters of the planned renaming cited a move in the 1980s by the Washington, D.C., City Council to rename the street outside the Soviet Embassy as Andrei Sakharov Plaza, after the noted Soviet dissident and human rights advocate. The move was hailed as a major symbol of Washington’s support for human rights internationally.
But Economy believes that, as Chinese diplomats indicated, the move will not affect China’s domestic policy and will exacerbate perennial tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
“I don’t think, frankly, that this symbolic act — clearly irritating — will have any effect on Chinese policy,” she said.

terça-feira, 19 de novembro de 2013

Enquanto isso, num pais admirado pelos companheiros, e tido como aliado...

Chinese Nobel Winner Appeals Subversion Conviction



HONG KONG — Liu Xiaobo, the imprisoned Chinese dissident who won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, will seek to challenge in court the subversion verdict imposed on him almost four years ago, a lawyer for Mr. Liu said on Tuesday.
A court in Beijing sentenced Mr. Liu to 11 years in prison in December 2009 after he helped organize Charter ’08, a petition calling for wide-ranging political changes that amounted to replacing Communist Party rule with a multiparty democracy.
The following year, Mr. Liu won the Nobel Peace Prize, prompting fury from the Chinese government, which blamed the Norwegian government for the decision, although the prize is awarded by an independent committee. Since then, Mr. Liu’s wife, Liu Xia, has also lived in confinement, kept under informal house arrest by the police and guards around her apartment in Beijing.
Ms. Liu visited her husband in prison last month and passed on his written request to formally challenge his sentence, Mo Shaoping, a lawyer acting for Mr. Liu said in a telephone interview.
“This is requesting that a court retry the case,” Mr. Mo said. “The appeal here means he doesn’t accept the verdict already in effect that was reached by the court in the initial and second trials.”
Mr. Mo said he was preparing to submit papers to the Beijing Municipal High People’s Court contesting the verdict against Mr. Liu, who was convicted of “inciting subversion of state power.” Mr. Mo said he or a colleague also hoped to visit Mr. Liu, who is held in a prison in northeast China.
“The basis for the appeal is the same argument we raised earlier — writing essays, participating in drafting Charter ’08, are all part of a citizen’s right to freedom of expression,” said Mr. Mo. “When we appeal, they will have to accept our documents, assess the case, and decide whether to hold a retrial.”
Mr. Liu’s decision to appeal again was first reported by Radio Free Asia, a service based in Washington that receives funding from the United States government.
Mr. Mo would not comment on Mr. Liu’s chances of success. But China’s courts rarely overturn verdicts, and it would be unheard-of in a politically contentious case like this. In February 2010, a court rejected Mr. Liu’s first appeal.
A writer and literary critic, Mr. Liu, 57, won prominence as a critic of censorship and political restrictions in the 1980s, and was imprisoned for a first time for his role in the student-led protests of 1989.
On Friday, the Communist Party leadership published a program of economic, social and legal reforms, including plans to abolish re-education through labor — a form of imprisonment that does not need a trial — and vows to make China’s courts less susceptible to meddling by local officials.
But there are no signs that these measured changes will bring about a major political relaxation. The party leadership under President Xi Jinping has instead overseen a widespread clampdown on political dissident, criticism and rumors spread on the Internet, and ideological currents seen as threatening one-party rule.

domingo, 10 de outubro de 2010

Ultimas noticias do Big Brother: para quando uma nota?

Primeiro as notícias, não sem antes registrar, mais uma vez, o tremendo equívoco das agências de imprensa ao classificar o chinês como um "dissidente": não se trata de um dissidente, e sim de um ativista, absolutamente em conformidade com a Constituição chinesa (que proclama todas as liberdades fundamentais) e com os principais instrumentos internacionais de direitos humanos ratificados pela China. Se alguém é dissidente, nessa história, é o governo chinês.
Mas, vamos à matéria.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Las autoridades chinas no permiten a la esposa del flamante Nobel de la Paz abandonar su apartamento en Pekín
AGENCIAS - Pekín - 10/10/2010

Retenida la esposa del Nobel Liu Xiaobo tras verle en prisión
España se suma a última hora a la demanda de excarcelación del disidente Liu

Las autoridades chinas retienen a Liu Xia, la esposa del flamente Nobel de la Paz chino Liu Xiaobo, en el interior de su apartamento en Pekín, según han informado las organizaciones Freedom Now y Human Rights in China. Liu Xia, que ha acudido hoy a la cárcel donse permanece reo su esposo desde 11 años por pedir al régimen democracia, no puede recibir la visita ni de sus familiares y amigos ni de los medios de comunicación. Liu Xia viajó custodiada hasta el penal de la provincia de Liaoning para comunicar al líder disidente chino la concesión del premio, según informaron los familiares.

La ONG Freedom Now ha denunciado en una nota que Liu Xia no puede tampoco usar su teléfono móvil. Esta organización ha detallado además que el premiado ha recibido la noticia de su galardón entre lágrimas y se lo ha dedicado a "los mártires de Tiananmen". Human Rights in China, ONG que habla de "arresto domiciliario", ha detallado que tras abandonar la prisión, Liu Xia fue seguida hasta su domicilio por agentes de seguridad. Según la información que la propia Lui Xia ha hecho llegar a la organización, tanto su móvil como el de su hermano han sido interferidos. Liu Xia ha pedido a los medios de comunicación que den noticia sobre su arresto domiciliario.

El hermano pequeño del galardonado, Liu Xiaoxuan, ha confirmado a sus allegados que el matrimonio se reunió esta mañana, según el diario taiwanés Ziyou Shibao (The Liberty Times). La ONG Centro de Información de Derechos Humanos y Democracia de China, con sede en Hong Kong, ha dicho también citando a familiares de los Liu que éstos se han reunido en la mañana de hoy "en un lugar secreto", lo que confirma informaciones previas.

Cita "en un lugar secreto"
Según esta fuente, Liu Xia y su hermano acordaron con las autoridades un encuentro en la prisión de Jinzhou con el disidente en la tarde del viernes, cuando se supo que Liu Xiaobo era el nuevo receptor del premio Nobel de la Paz y la esposa abandonó Pekín custodiada por la policía china. Los familiares han informado de que, según el acuerdo, Liu Xiaobo fue escoltado fuera de la prisión ayer, sábado, por la noche, y el matrimonio se pudo reunir esta mañana "en un lugar secreto".

El acceso a la prisión de Jinzhou está cortado desde ayer por la mañana, y algunos de los periodistas que han intentado acercarse fueron detenidos y obligados a abandonar la localidad. El régimen chino recibió con un rechazo frontal la concesión del Nobel de la Paz a Liu Xiaobo, al que considera un "delincuente" por reunir hace dos años 300 firmas para pedir la aplicación de los derechos fundamentales recogidos en la Constitución china.

Pekín ha censurado casi toda la información concerniente al Nobel en la prensa china, ha detenido a decenas de disidentes y amigos del matrimonio, y llamado a consultas al embajador noruego en la capital para expresar su enfado por el premio.

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Agora um comentário: eu conheço um governo, desses bastante ativos, que, ao menor sinal de convulsão em qualquer canto do planeta, sempre emite uma daquelas notas vasadas na mais pura linguagem diplomática, nas quais pede, com toda seriedade requerida pelos dramáticos acontecimentos em curso, comedimento das partes, respeito aos direitos humanos, sentido de justiça, preocupação com a violação de direitos fundamentais, enfim, o bullshit habitual, em diplomatês costumeiro. Estamos aguardando essa nota...
PRA

sábado, 9 de outubro de 2010

Big Brother vs CNN: continua o jogo de gato e rato...

Bem: já é um hábito. Não sou necessariamente fã da CNN, e não me informo prioritariamente pela TV, mas tenho deixado a TV ligada na CNN para ver até onde vai o ridículo espetáculo censório atualmente em curso.
Assim que a CNN passa a mencionar o caso do laureado chinês, hóspede temporário das prisões chinesas por ter colaborado na redação e divulgação de um manifesto democrático, os funcionários do Big Brother apertam o botão e a tela fica preta.
No meio da escuridão, para não ficar muito ridículo -- como se já não fosse -- aparecem algumas propagandas genéricas, reproduzidas da própria CNN, ou informações meteorológicas interrompidas, visivelmente improvisadas rapidamente, ou então um ou dois avisos na tela:
"Poor Quality Signal", ou "No Signal".
Sei...
Mais um pouco, tudo volta ao normal.
Assim é, se lhes parecem.
Big Brother misturado com Franz Kafka...

sexta-feira, 8 de outubro de 2010

China censura noticias sobre o ativista Premio Nobel

Não só nos sites da China: todas as redes estrangeiras que começavam a falar do assunto eram ridiculamente tiradas do ar.
Os chineses, os governamentais, quero dizer, vão conseguir se desmoralizar...
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Nobel para Liu Xiaobo é censurado nos sites da China
Yahoo Notícias, Sex, 08 Out, 01h45

PEQUIM (AFP) - A notícia da entrega nesta sexta-feira do Prêmio Nobel da Paz ao dissidente chinês Liu Xiaobo rodou o mundo, mas, como era esperado, foi censurada nos principais sites da China, assim como nas redes de telefonia móvel.

Uma simples busca com as palavras-chave "prêmio Nobel, paz, Liu Xiaobo" não indicava resultado algum nos grandes portais de notícias e ferramentas de busca, como Sina, Sohu e Baidu.

A censura também estava ativada no Weibo, um site de relacionamento semelhante ao Twitter.

As mensagens de SMS contendo o nome de Liu Xiaobo estavam bloqueadas, e não chegavam ao seu destinatário.

O noticiário da noite da televisão estatal CCTV foi aberto com notícias sobre as inundações na ilha chinesa de Hainan.

O Prêmio Nobel da Paz 2010 foi atribuído nesta sexta-feira pelo Comitê Nobel norueguês ao dissidente chinês na prisão "por seus esforços duradouros e não violentos em favor dos Direitos Humanos na China".

A censura é forte na China a posições críticas em relação ao governo ou a questões referentes aos Direitos Humanos. As notícias sobre dissidentes são retiradas dos sites politicamente sensíveis e Pequim controla rigidamente a internet para evitar que os opositores se organizem.