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“Re-education” for Tibetan Protesters

By see-dubya  •  April 8, 2008 05:28 AM

{Guest post by See-Dubya}

Worldwide protests of China’s human rights record are all well and good, but they’ll probably have no lasting effect on China’s politics. I never had much hope that protests against the recent violence in Burma would have any effect, either, although it’s possible that China actually cares about international opinion more than Burma did.

However, as occurred with Burma, the protests are making the Chinese government show its true colors. The censorship of public media has gotten egregious, and ridiculous:

Chinese censors obstructed foreign TV broadcasts on the Paris protests, blacking out BBC reports. Meanwhile, China’s domestic media trumpeted the success of the torch relay.

“French passion greets torch in Paris,” declared a front-page headline in Tuesday’s China Daily.

Things were pretty passionate, all right:

So much chaos ensued that Chinese officials accompanying the torch snuffed out its flame numerous times and torchbearers were bundled onto buses midway through the 18-mile route.

Meanwhile, China has gone old-school Commie on Tibet. They’re ordering them to re-education camps:

Buddhist monks, civil servants and public school students have been instructed to attend special classes in the virtues of Chinese rule and the evils of their exiled leader, the Dalai Lama. In these classes, the Tibetans read and recite from texts that denounce the Dalai Lama as a “political reactionary” and a “betrayer of the motherland.”

Tibet experts say the rhetoric harks back to the reeducation and self-criticism campaigns of the 1960s and 1970s, but is unlikely to be successful today.

I always thought the criticism-and-self-criticism sessions were one of the creepiest elements of the Cultural Revolution. But Mao says they’re necessary for washing the germ of freedom out of good little worker brains:

Conscientious practice of self-criticism is still another hallmark distinguishing our Party from all other political parties. As we say, dust will accumulate if a room is not cleaned regularly, our faces will get dirty if they are not washed regularly. Our comrades’ minds and our Party’s work may also collect dust, and also need sweeping and washing. The proverb “Running water is never stale and a door-hinge is never worm-eaten” means that constant motion prevents the inroads of germs and other organisms. … - this is the only effective way to prevent all kinds of political dust and germs from contaminating the minds of our comrades and the body of our Party.

It’s all part of keeping the Orwell Machine running smoothly.

___________

Front page photo from a rabidly anti-ChiCom Bay Area newspaper called the Epoch Times. They captioned it “This poster, displayed in late 1966 in Beijing, shows how to deal with a so-called “enemy of the people” during the Cultural Revolution.”

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Comments

  1. #1
    On April 8th, 2008 at 5:49 am, graysonret said:

    We have our own “re-education” here too. They’re called “anger management” and “sensitivity” classes. That’s to make people more politically correct in our liberal society. Though we don’t have to attend camps, there is usually some other penalty that goes with the classes. I fear, once the Olympics are over, life will go on to some new subject for the protesters. Protesting is the only way for them to get their minute of fame, feel important, and have an excuse to party. Tibet will be out, maybe Sri Lanka will be in.

  2. #2
    On April 8th, 2008 at 6:54 am, Chief RZ said:

    graysonret. We are getting close. “diversity” training is the first step that everyone must go through. The others you mentioned are prescribed later if a person merely mentions defending themselves or uses a word from a dictionary that certain groups have banned-PC.
    Communists are famous for perverting words. The Truth is that they will torture these free thinkers.

  3. #3
    On April 8th, 2008 at 6:57 am, zorro said:

    Mao was a pig.

    Free Tibet!

  4. #4
    On April 8th, 2008 at 7:01 am, txvet2 said:

    On April 8th, 2008 at 5:49 am, graysonret said:

    We have our own “re-education” here too. They’re called “anger management” and “sensitivity” classes.

    They’re also called elementary school, high school, and college.

  5. #5
    On April 8th, 2008 at 7:02 am, Tennessee Dave said:

    I would agree that “diversity” and “sensitivity” training are re-education efforts, but some people really do need “anger management” classes. Of course, back in the old days of the military this was often called “attitute adjustment” and was accomplished with a “blanket party” or “wall-to-wall councilling.”

  6. #6
    On April 8th, 2008 at 7:15 am, Armigerous said:

    Yea,I’m sure old Mousy Dung did a lot of that ’self criticism’ while he was diddling teenage girls and starving peasants to death….a real working class hero he was

  7. #7
    On April 8th, 2008 at 8:05 am, rooster said:

    Why don’t the protestors around the world wait and protest in China. My guess is they are too cowardly to actually protest in China.

  8. #8
    On April 8th, 2008 at 8:47 am, Rip Ford said:

    Oh, there are protesters brave enough to protest in China. Its just that they tend to “disappear” and never be heard from again after their first protest.

  9. #9
    On April 8th, 2008 at 9:23 am, MissMarciLyn said:

    I read that Epoch article, and I can’t begin to describe my horror at the situation in China. I really and truly had no idea it was still so bad — why is NO ONE talking about this?? Why do people think the USA is the most horrible place on the planet, especially US citizens??? We’ve got some seriously high-class worries on our side of the globe — I am ashamed that we are wasting our time worrying about how much of our abundance of grains will be turned into designer fuels while wholesale murder and Nazi-style terror campaigns are being allowed to continue so that we can still buy shoes for $9.99 at Wal-Mart.

  10. #10
    On April 8th, 2008 at 10:01 am, Boomer said:

    Meanwhile, China has gone old-school Commie on Tibet. They’re ordering them to re-education camps:

    I wonder how many of the monks will survive the re-education process while under the loving supervision of the Chinese Communist System. I believe a bullet to the back of the head is their way of telling you that you failed the program. Then they send a bill for the cost of the bullet to the family of the victim. I would really like to see us quit doing business with this horrible oppressive regime, but the low cost of the crap they are slowly poisoning with is too good for corporate America and our lying crapweasel politicians to pass up.

  11. #11
    On April 8th, 2008 at 1:32 pm, emjem24 said:

    Isn’t it interesting that Dems idolize these Commie scumbags? It’s ironic that the likes of Pelosi and Shrillary are demanding “boycotts” and commenting that China should have never received the Olympics but think that the federal government should tax the crap out of successful people and those who engage in “private enterprise.”

    It’s also interesting that when there appears to be a threat to their iron grip of control over public education in the form of homeschooling, their first reaction is squash it, just like they’ve squashed vouchers. Unfortunately, Americans are already being “reeducated,” it’s called revisionist history that they’re teaching impressionable youngsters right now.

  12. #12
    On April 8th, 2008 at 3:27 pm, StrangeLove said:

    Meanwhile, we stupidly continue to transfer our wealth to China one big screen TV at a time. History is going to laugh at our national suicide.

  13. #13
    On April 8th, 2008 at 4:05 pm, Leatherneck said:

    CAIR gives understaaanding training about Muslims to the FBI. That is worse than Commie re-education, because the ROP is here arming themselves.

    Thanks Condi for allowing so many fine ROP individuals into this country, and give yourself a bonus on the tax payer dime for the open southern border.

    Do not buy China products. they might kill your dog, or child.

  14. #14
    On April 8th, 2008 at 6:13 pm, cf said:

    The thing that got me was a comment in the Wall Street Journal that most of the people of China oppose the demonstrators and are happy with their lives. How would anyone know? They can’t vote, they can’t speak freely, they don’t have free access to the internet, babies are killed if they are the wrong sex, masses of people are relocated, just goes to show that the MSM distorts just like the press in totalitarian countries like China. Fortunately there is still internet access, talk radio & a couple of good newspapers.

  15. #15
    On April 8th, 2008 at 11:01 pm, Jiobaobubai said:

    My sister in law, her husband, and their daughter were there and left just five days before it all started. I am just glad they all got out safe. My wife’s family members (including my wife as a child) have already had their fill of the “re-education” camps.

  16. #16
    On April 9th, 2008 at 4:14 am, graysonret said:

    This is why I call PRC just China. I refuse to call it the “peoples’ democratic republic of china”. Just a joke in their own country’s name; it isn’t democratic and it certainly isn’t a republic…just as I call N. Korea, just that.

  17. #17
    On April 9th, 2008 at 10:47 am, Dimsdale said:

    On April 8th, 2008 at 7:01 am, txvet2 said:

    On April 8th, 2008 at 5:49 am, graysonret said:

    We have our own “re-education” here too. They’re called “anger management” and “sensitivity” classes.

    They’re also called elementary school, high school, and college.

    Heh, heh. I was required to go to one one of those once. I just tore it up completely, asking what was once commonsense questions, remarking on why a salad bowl is not a melting pot, and if I can still use the word “niggardly.”

    I don’t think they “reeducated” me, LOL!

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