China appears to be returning to the Cultural Revolution with public confessions of dissidents as a warning to all those who would challenge the ruling party. Chinese viewers were exposed to a truly sad and transparent confession of American businessman and leading Chinese blogger, Charles Xue. The Chinese recognize the Internet as the greatest threat to the totalitarian regime. Xue was therefore rolled out to degrade himself before the Chinese people — begging forgiveness for forgetting his place in objecting to such things as contaminated water. He admits to feeling like the “emperor of the Internet” and apologizes for spreading rumors against the ruling party leaders.
Xue was arrested three weeks ago as part of a sweep on bloggers and critics on the Internet. He was charged with hiring a prostitute.
Chinese state television showed Xue in handcuffs expressing shame and remorse. Xue said that his criticism of the government was the product of pure vanity and self-love: “It gratified my vanity greatly. I got used to my influence online and the power of my personal opinions . . . and I forgot who I am.”
Xue said that he effectively became drunk with power in exercising free speech: “All of a sudden you draw so much attention. How do you describe the feeling? Gorgeous. . . . I didn’t raise constructive suggestions to solve the problem. Instead, I just simply spread these ideas emotionally.”
In the most disgraceful part of the interview, Chinese officials had Xue praise new laws criminalizing Internet postings, saying “It is very necessary to release these laws and regulations today. Without regulation, there’s no punishment for spreading the rumors.”
Xue warns other Chinese not to fall victim to the appeal of the Internet’s free thought and speech: “If there is no moral standard or cost for slander, you can’t manage the Internet. And there are no limits. It becomes a big problem.”
It is a chilling interview and shows how desperate the Chinese are in trying to curtail the Internet. Unfortunately, our own government has shown the same hostility to Internet reporting and Sen. Dianne Feinstein this week got her way in denying journalistic protections to most bloggers and Internet critics.
19 thoughts on “American Businessman and Leading Blogger Shown On Chinese State Television in Mao-Like Confession”
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1. While I must agree we are not as bad as the Chinese in this regard we are moving quickly in this direction but not for the business or corporate class but rather for dissenters who dare to question or disclose government misconduct.
2. As to the influence of the Chinese in the West, I just recently found out that foreign nations can buy property in the UK and pay absolutely NO taxes. As a result certain areas of London are owned by foreign nationals including Arabs from Saudi Arabis, the United Arab Emirates and the Chinese. The English owners are left holding the bag for the taxes not paid by these guys. Obama and friends are moving toward just this kind of set up in the US. The first step is to allow “foreign pension funds” and perhaps soverign funds to buy property of all kinds including stock and pay not taxes on those sales while Americans will still have to pay those taxes.
While we are distracted with Syria bad things are happening here.
well hows about this article for a little more clarity on dianne lyingstein
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/08/19/319417/israels-secret-war-on-american-veterans/
it’s the american way.
Jeso Christo. I opened my toolbag and all were made in china. No wonder there are so many unemployed in Detroit and other cities. Mao suks.
@ Glenn the answer is nothing. dianne feinstein and her cronies are worried about the internet because they have no control over it and the truth can be found if you know where to look. they have searched for ways since the beginning of how to quell the information to be found on the internet
Anybody from the right that dares to say anything against Rush has to do the same thing don’t they?….Tell me again the difference between USA and China.
Seems if properly worded and intoned, such a confession could be posed as sarcasm.
Hmmm… What is slander to some is truth to others…..
Dredd, I like Wiig but hated that character.
With the economy becoming increasingly globalized, the Chinese ruling class has become a prominent member of the corptocratic oligarchy. Therefore, there’s a real danger of their practices and standards becoming the status quo for the rest of the world
For a number of alarming reasons, Dianne Feinstein’s motives can clearly no longer be trusted. Her endorsements should now be taken as a warning of who and what to potentially avoid.
Charles Xue’s rattling story could conceivably become commonplace here at home if our legislator’s steps to shackle the Internet aren’t quickly nipped in the bud. Once strong-arm tactics to micromanage access and expression are allowed to become further entrenched, our freedom to gather knowledge and speak freely will be what is methodically nipped. Great innovators like Aaron Swartz, God rest his soul, have already been deviously tormented and wrongly portrayed as criminals, instead of being rightfully heralded as American visionaries.
Reblogged this on Semi-Partisan Sam and commented:
Jonathan Turley writes an excellent expose and analysis of the terrible forced confession and public shaming of Charles Xue, an American businessman and influential blogger. These public shaming rituals are so difficult to watch, not only because of the tremendous pity one feels for the person involved, but because it makes ones blood boil to think of the abuse of state power taking place. Tea Partiers and others who see tyranny and despotism behind every move that President Obama makes would do well to look at this case and remind themselves what true tyranny and absence of the rule of law looks like. If our occasional polemics on blogs, radio and television were directed against the Chinese leadership rather than the American or British political class, many of us would also be sitting in a prison cell. Though it may not help Xue at all, we can at least take some small measure of comfort from the fact that China’s rising middle class, with their ever greater accustomisation to a high standard of living and their increasing exposure to other cultures, will not tolerate the government’s paranoid meddling in their lives indefinitely.
It is very sad. Makes me think of Jeremiah Denton.
I agree the last paragraph of this post is the most disconcerting. Our “leaders” are now as aggressively anti criticism as any member of an authoritarian regime. We were told that Murdock could buy as many papers and channels as he wanted because the Internet was free and open for all views to be expressed but that has always been pretty bogus and now the truth is staring us in the face. sad very sad.
Xue said that he effectively became drunk with power in exercising free speech: “All of a sudden you draw so much attention. How do you describe the feeling? Gorgeous. . . . I didn’t raise constructive suggestions to solve the problem. Instead, I just simply spread these ideas emotionally.”
Isn’t this the mission statement of FOX NEWS ?
Yes, rafflaw, but isnt the more salient issue our own issues as reported in the concluding paragraph?
If they were making progress, doesn’t that mean we are making regress?
If we keep this up it may be the case that the Chinese say we are making progress towards how they function in the world.
MEMO
From USAG
To all ASUSA
Take note of treatment by Chinese authorities of American businessman Charles Xue. Very careful notes. Prepare suggestions for implementation of such sanctions by your offices
Disgusting story. China seemed to be making progress, but it has taken a big step backwards with this arrest.