| 【Dialogue】 Autocratic Constitutionalism or Democratic Constitutionalism? |
Zhang Yu |
| When Kang and Liang and Sun and Zhang had to deal with "post-party" die-hards and handle rulers who were obstructing the implementation of their ideas for political reform, they didn't have to deal with the conflicting principles of "peaceful versus violent," but only had to choose between differing stands on peaceful or violent tactics based on different political ideals while comparing strength at different times. |
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| 【Commentary】 A Source of Injustice Appears |
Liu Hongbo |
| According to plan, this should not have been an assembly line, but rather a three mutually restrictive stand-alone procedures for avoiding injustice. Yet these three procedures became an unhindered production line of injustice, and with the exchange of official documents, the regulations dovetailed perfectly, the "chain of evidence" was established, and "iron-clad case" was formed, which then proceeded to court and to judgment. A free person became a prisoner without committing a crime, simply through a series of ceremonies. |
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| 【Chinese Landscape】 Nightfall |
Wang Jingmei |
| I don't know how I'll pass this winter. I have no idea what the impending spring will be like. I only know that Jiajia didn't get a chance to use the summer sleeping mat I rolled out for him last year, and that he won't use it this summer, either. Still, I will roll it out, waiting for Jiajia to return home, where I can pour my heart out to him. |
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| 【Special Report and Commentary】 Which Way Forward for Chief Justice? |
Wang Rongfen |
| Wang Shengjun, President of the Supreme People's Court for less than one year, has to demonstrate other abilities in order to hold onto his position. He should first of all dismiss the bureaucrats responsible for casually approving the death penalty, and once the situation is calm, address the many doubtful points in the judgment against Yang Jia. |
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| 【Special Report and Commentary】 Public Opinion Assessment of Zhou Tienong |
Zhang Yaojie |
| At just before 10:00 p.m. on December 30, 2008, Blogchina.com posted an article from People's Daily Online: "Zhou Tienong: If the Kuomintang Endorses Socialism, the Chinese Kuomintang Might Merge With It." A little before 10:00 a.m. on January 2, that posting had received 123 responses, and apart from duplicates and deletions, the responses reflected a general grass-roots popular assessment of the chairman of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, Zhou Tienong. |
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| 【The Cultural Revolution】 Tracking Down Liu Wanquan, the Killer of Yan Fengying |
Xie Bin |
| We Chinese have a long history of killing and abusing our own. We all hope that the Cultural Revolution represents the last major disaster in our history, but this may be no more than a dream unless we can be like the Jews hunting down Nazi war criminals, and pursue each and every person who committed a crime against humanity in the Cultural Revolution. |
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| 【Today's Focus】 Who is Sidetracked, and Who is Being Sidetracked? |
Xu Pen |
| The admonition against sidetracking is not only a wish, but is also a call for systemic safeguards against sidetracking, especially that occurring from above to below. Sidetracking that harms society is always a result of those in power doing whatever they want and in whichever way they want. |
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| 【West Meets East】 A Commemoration Not for Forgetting |
Yu Mao Chun |
| Hitler's slaughter of the Jews was heinous, not only because of the number of victims, but also because of the reasoning behind it: the theory of racial superiority. The Chinese Communist Party not only managed to kill more people than Hitler, but did so on the basis of an even more dangerous theory: class struggle and class status. The suppression of an "inferior race," like China's "five stinking categories," is a type of constitutionally protected national direction. |
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| 【CIC News Express】 Activist Quietly Imprisoned after Long Delay |
CHRD |
| Chen Qitang, a.k.a. Tianli, an activist from Guangdong Province, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for "impersonation and fraud" on December 31. CHRD believes that Chen has been incarcerated solely for his peaceful activities of posting articles on the internet and assisting villagers to resist forced land appropriation. |
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| 【Chinese Landscape】 Debased Professors Under Official Arrogance |
Zhang Ming |
| Professors can't stand up because schools have become virtual government offices. I've said before that universities currently resemble county seats, with university presidents acting like magistrates, and department heads reduced to government clerks, while professors are little more than yamen runners who sweep the floors and watch the doors -- base people engaged in humble tasks. The students are relegated to the lowest level of ordinary people awaiting their allotted hand-outs of grain. |
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| 【Today's Focus】 Why Are Israel and Hamas in Conflict Now? |
Cao Changqing |
| Israel's major political parties, from the left-wing Labor Party to the centrist Progressive party and the right-wing Likud Party, all support military action against Hamas, and Israel, as a democratic country, bases its policies on the popular will. Regardless of what resolution might be passed by the United Nations, if Hamas continues to carry out raids on Israel, the Israeli government, under whatever party leadership, will be obliged by public pressure to strike back. |
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| 【Special Report and Commentary】 Fortress Version of Ideals |
Ai Weiwei |
| The past 30 years of reform with special characteristics has simply been a fortress version of fake political ideals, which has ruthlessly shifted the crisis of national politics and ethics to society's disadvantaged. All we can do after playing games with universal values and righteous ideals is wait for the next disaster to strike. |
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| 【Book Review】 Zhou Bapi's Great-Grandson Publishes 'No Roosters Crow at Midnight' |
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 The book's author, the great-grandson of "Zhou Bapi," used an arduous authentication process and with unusual courage to become the first person inside China to reveal the background of the "midnight cock's crow" story. This book also airs the experience, eye-witness accounts and struggles of someone who lived through the 1970s. |
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