Thursday, March 8, 2012

China increases powers of authorities to detain dissidents and others.

While China is introducing some legislation that will help the majority of people economically such as increasing pensions,and extending the social safety net it shows no signs of increasing political freedoms such as the right of dissent.
The legislation is to some degree simply a codification of what the government has already been doing, holding in secret dissidents and others suspected of security crimes. Last year a number of these detentions drew strong international and internal criticism.
Dissidents such as artist Ai Weivei criticized the new legislation. Weivei himself was subject to secret detention last year. However, the ruling Communist Party did retreat from some of the more draconian features of the new laws. Even so Ai Weivei said:"This is a massive threat to the judicial system and to citizens' security,"
Critics claim that the amendments are meant to create an appearance of legitimacy to what remain basically arbitrary powers of arrest. For much more see this article.

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