> While handling the legal defense of Pastor Cai Zhuohua, who was charged with “illegal business practices” in 2004...
I can't help but call to mind the concept of "illegal enemy combatants" who could be sent to Guantanamo Bay back in the War on Terror days [0]. It always struck me as a uniquely American concept that one could travel half a world away, attack someone's homeland, declare them to be fighting back in an illegal manner and get a pat on the back for upholding justice.
Obviously it'd be better for China - and the rest of us - if their internal dialog was more coherent. However it seems less useful to ruminate on one particular example. The country is so large that without estimates of magnitude and broad statistics all that can really be said is that everything happens somewhere in China. Any one example is ultimately an internal matter for them. Authoritarianism isn't much fun but the problem isn't the one-off miscarriages of justice but rather the seeping pervasiveness of forcing people to make stupid decisions instead of letting them better themselves in the manner that they see most fit.
> In today’s China,... judicial independence [is] labeled as erroneous ideological trends of the West. In fact, justice is justice, and doesn’t distinguish between East and West.
And I will say that if this part is what people wanted to focus on, the dry distinction between dependent and independent judiciary is actually one of the major advantages that the West maintains over China. But in the article it is more of a one-line thing and part of a longer, vaguer list
I have a strong feeling "freedom" for this guy is technical term that means something else than you think. After all he says disbelief in the supernatural is "degenerate", the "spirit" flows through him etc, I have a very good idea of what exactly counts as freedom for this type.
"Missing for seven years, Gao is currently subjected to enforced disappearance. No information about his whereabouts has been available since he was taken on 13 August 2017, and as of January 2025, his family has not heard from him or about his whereabouts."
>Denial of the supernatural is a major reason why so many of my countrymen have become moral degenerates
And posted on a website about "promoting freedom of religion"
I have a strong feeling "freedom" for this guy is technical term that means something else. After all he says disbelief in the supernatural is "degenerate", the "spirit" flows through him etc, I have a very good idea of what exactly counts as freedom for this type.
I hate communism and its a stupid system, I have no idea what the contents of the books supplied to him were, but I find it hilarious this guy talks of them as the books with the biggest waste of pages while he himself peddles a much bigger waste of ink: the Bible.
At least communism as stupid as it is does not posit eternal and infite powers and can be tested and has been shown to fail. It is at least a sensible proposition in theory. Bible thumpers posit beleif in the omnipotent and omnipresent aka the infitine powers that are utterly absurd and unproven. In the face of the infinitely stupid, mere communism is not even in the territory of wrong.
I hate China but I won't find it surprising if they find this "human rights activist" less than beleivable.
> While handling the legal defense of Pastor Cai Zhuohua, who was charged with “illegal business practices” in 2004...
I can't help but call to mind the concept of "illegal enemy combatants" who could be sent to Guantanamo Bay back in the War on Terror days [0]. It always struck me as a uniquely American concept that one could travel half a world away, attack someone's homeland, declare them to be fighting back in an illegal manner and get a pat on the back for upholding justice.
Obviously it'd be better for China - and the rest of us - if their internal dialog was more coherent. However it seems less useful to ruminate on one particular example. The country is so large that without estimates of magnitude and broad statistics all that can really be said is that everything happens somewhere in China. Any one example is ultimately an internal matter for them. Authoritarianism isn't much fun but the problem isn't the one-off miscarriages of justice but rather the seeping pervasiveness of forcing people to make stupid decisions instead of letting them better themselves in the manner that they see most fit.
> In today’s China,... judicial independence [is] labeled as erroneous ideological trends of the West. In fact, justice is justice, and doesn’t distinguish between East and West.
And I will say that if this part is what people wanted to focus on, the dry distinction between dependent and independent judiciary is actually one of the major advantages that the West maintains over China. But in the article it is more of a one-line thing and part of a longer, vaguer list
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_enemy_combatants#2001_...
oh my... and in Brazil this country is praised af. Thank you so much for sharing
I have a strong feeling "freedom" for this guy is technical term that means something else than you think. After all he says disbelief in the supernatural is "degenerate", the "spirit" flows through him etc, I have a very good idea of what exactly counts as freedom for this type.
He is probably dead right now, or being held in a torture chamber. He's been captured by the communist party and "disappeared" since 2017.
I don't think you have the capacity of maturing spiritually enough to ever understand freedom or what a man like him would consider to be freedom.
I like freedom, real freedom for all, not just "freedom" for christians to christian at the expense of others freedoms.
Note that this was published in 2017.
From Wikipedia:
"Missing for seven years, Gao is currently subjected to enforced disappearance. No information about his whereabouts has been available since he was taken on 13 August 2017, and as of January 2025, his family has not heard from him or about his whereabouts."
>Denial of the supernatural is a major reason why so many of my countrymen have become moral degenerates
And posted on a website about "promoting freedom of religion"
I have a strong feeling "freedom" for this guy is technical term that means something else. After all he says disbelief in the supernatural is "degenerate", the "spirit" flows through him etc, I have a very good idea of what exactly counts as freedom for this type.
I hate communism and its a stupid system, I have no idea what the contents of the books supplied to him were, but I find it hilarious this guy talks of them as the books with the biggest waste of pages while he himself peddles a much bigger waste of ink: the Bible.
At least communism as stupid as it is does not posit eternal and infite powers and can be tested and has been shown to fail. It is at least a sensible proposition in theory. Bible thumpers posit beleif in the omnipotent and omnipresent aka the infitine powers that are utterly absurd and unproven. In the face of the infinitely stupid, mere communism is not even in the territory of wrong.
I hate China but I won't find it surprising if they find this "human rights activist" less than beleivable.