Zhang Zhan, 37, is a citizen journalist who reported on the early evidence of a pandemic in Wuhan. In its latest abuse of basic human rights, the Chinese regime has sentenced Zhang to four years in prison for her courageous reporting. She was reportedly convicted under the absurd criminal allegation that she was “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”
According to a The New York Times report, the sentence is meant to silence any others who would share information on the failures and responsibilities of the Chinese government for spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Chinese government has denied any such failures despite overwhelming evidence of a cover-up that denied the world critical time to contain and fight the spread of the virus.
Notably, the Chinese continue to scrub any discussion of its role in social media. It is a chilling example of the censorship that is now being embraced by many in the United States. The Atlantic published an article by Harvard Law School professor Jack Goldsmith and University of Arizona law professor Andrew Keane Woods calling for Chinese style censorship of the internet. They declared that “in the great debate of the past two decades about freedom versus control of the network, China was largely right and the United States was largely wrong” and “significant monitoring and speech control are inevitable components of a mature and flourishing internet, and governments must play a large role in these practices to ensure that the internet is compatible with society norms and values.”
At the same time, Democrats have embraced censorship and speech controls. We have have been discussing how writers, editors, commentators, and academics have embraced rising calls for censorship and speech controls, including President-elect Joe Biden and his key advisers. The erosion of free speech has been radically accelerated by the Big Tech and social media companies. The level of censorship and viewpoint regulation has raised questions of a new type of state media where companies advance an ideological agenda with political allies.
See: The ‘Mighty Wurlitzer’ – How U.S. Financed ‘Human Rights’ Organizations Create Anti-Chinese Headlines for an alternative view
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/12/the-mighty-wurlitzer-us-financed-human-rights-organizations-create-anti-chinese-headlines.html#more
The world owes a debt of gratitude to the courageous Chinese who disobeyed their abusive CCP government and told the world of the danger from SARS-CoV-2.
We need to remember that debt. If there is ever a way to rescue any of these whistleblowers from China, we should get them out and offer them citizenship and protection. Imagine how many more would have died, how much farther behind we would have been in research, without the whistleblowers. The only reason why we got the DNA of the virus is because scientists released it open source. Those scientists disappeared, and then later the CCP released it themselves, to save face.
The arm of China is long, and many defectors have been killed or kidnapped from other countries.
When will China be held accountable? Not by Biden, that’s for sure.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/29/the-disappeared-china-renditions-kidnapping/
“picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”
Sounds like Sunstein has been advising communist China.
Pooh Bear and the CCP are having a bad week.
“U.S. bolsters support for Taiwan and Tibet, angering China”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-china-idUSKBN2920JZ
This creates a very clear line in the sand that the ChiCom’s had better not cross.
But this is Pooh Bear’s real problem:
“Japan’s record $52 billion military budget aims at safeguarding against China”
https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/japans-record-dollar52-billion-military-budget-aims-at-safeguarding-against-china/ar-BB1c76qM
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If all your tools were made in China then you are a Chink tinker.
In China the prosecution can just make up crimes.
Now do Russian Hoax…
Professor Turley,
I looked into the article and there appears to be some discrepancy as to the accuracy of what you reported. See the attached link: https://www.lawfareblog.com/covid-19-speech-and-surveillance-response
Thank you.
JamesG, Jack Goldsmith and Andrew Keane Woods are as trustworthy as Pit Vipers. They are statists.
Their slippery attempt at trying to walk back what they originally wrote in the Atlantic article is very transparent. It is also extremely arrogant, for a lot of reasons. But both of them come by arrogance naturally. Arrogance always goes with the Harvard territory.
The 1st Amendment was written very clearly by the Founders, and is not open to anyone’s own personal interpretation of the 1st Amendment, due to the internet. That includes Goldsmith and Woods.
It clearly and simply states that “Congress shall make no law” — “abridging the freedom of speech”. Period.
Not only are they attempting to dance around the 1st Amendment in the Lawfare article you linked, they are also completely ignoring the 4th Amendment. Which is every bit as vital and important to the individual liberty and freedom afforded to We the People, as the 1st Amendment.
The foundation of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution is that the government only exists to serve the collective interests of the people. We the People do not exist to serve the interests of the government.
This statement from the article:
“When the United States was living the digital libertarian dream, China for its own reasons was worrying about digital harms (and not just ones that threatened the Chinese Communist Party), the need for regulation, and the possibility of control. The U.S. government scoffed at China’s efforts and downplayed the harms—and the need for regulation—of digital networks. But now the United States and U.S. tech firms too have acknowledged that the internet enables very serious harms, and requires regulation”
is a classic example of statism. It assumes that Big Brother in the form of the US government and “U.S. tech firms” are the end all and be all for determining what does, and does not, constitute harm, and therefore what does, or does not, need to be regulated.
That is exactly what is already in place in China. So the Sheep costumes that Goldsmith and Keene are attempting to use to cover the fact that they are actually Wolves, is not working.
Duly noted.
No comments from the leftist here about a law prohibiting picking quarrels and provoking trouble. They like that kind of “justified” censorship. If they comment against it they might interrupt the eventual evolving to the socialist utopia.
Joe Friday and fishwings are standing in the bulwarks against the evil Trump. Just like the Chinese dissident they are at grave risk of losing their freedom for their exposure of the Trumpian witches. Such courageous posters here the world has never seen. Freedom fighters to be remembered by statues in their likeness. We have all been here for the revealing. We have been overwhelmed by the queasiness in our stomachs
As has happened many times over the centuries, it is time for Japan to once again bring China to its knees.
China needs to be broken up. That’s the only chance the Chinese people will ever have of getting democracy, peace, and justice.
It will also finally end the “systemic racism” propaganda in America. That’s just Beijing trying to change the subject, using American finger puppets.
Wait for it… wait for it…
I am particularly pleased that China virus news reports coming from Chinese Bio-Chemical weapons research labs have been silenced.
We have here a story about a brave dissident willing to risk her freedom for the right to speak her mind. Yet, the posters here make petty comments about Lincoln or Trump instead of recognizing as a hero who had everything to lose. Wow!
Wait a minute. That’s precisely what “Crazy Abe” Lincoln did after unconstitutionally suspending Habeas Corpus, and they built an absurd memorial for that despotic tyrant.
There should have long ago been a $25 trillion+ global decision for damages against China, accomplished in an ad hoc court, if no where else.
And Trump wouldn’t do the same thing here, given the chance?
Once again you make a statement based on something that Trump might do. Inference totally made up in your mind. Remember, if Trump could burn the world to the ground he would. If Trump could starve all the little children he would. Etc. etc. etc. Ad Nauseam.
Why is it you lefties continue to harp on what President Trump might do, when after 4 years he hasn’t done any of it and the Democrats have?
Maybe you can quote a Democrat President that wanted to jail his opponents. Who called the press “The enemies of the people” Hell, he wants to overturn a election that he clearly lost, as I said, given the chance.
Maybe you can quote a Democrat President that wanted to jail his opponents.
Crossfire Hurricane/Razor ring a bell for you? IRS targeting of conservative groups ring a bell for you? If you in any way support those efforts to weaponize government agencies against American citizens, then you are an enemy of the American people.
Olly, it is not possible for the mind of FishWings to let any wrong doing by the Democrats to filter from his deep consciousness into a cognizant opinion. This state of mind is representative of a new medical phenomenon known has TDS. This is life changing malady. Watch for coming explaining articles in prominent magazines such as Psychology Today.
Olly, putting aside that you have already admitted being an enemy of the American People here, according to the IG Horowitz, Crossfire Hurricane was begun for legitimate non-political reasons and the IRS practice of challenges by the name of groups was found not to be targeting conservatives.. Neither were begun by the President
Olly, don’t pay any attention to joe friday. The rewriting of history is his common tactic. Isn’t it interesting that no Democratic activist groups were targeted by the Obama administration IRS. In Joe’s mind the Democratic groups all wore halos and the Tea Party members were dressed in forked tail and pitchfork costumes. After all, Obama told him it was so. So easily convinced when he has a predisposed position searching for a narrative that fits. Look Michelle! they fall for it ever time.
Think,
Friday has proven over the last 4 years to be fairly proficient in identifying criminal activity. Unfortunately, his failure has been that his conclusions are invariably myopic. He’s got a blindside that prevents him from objectively looking at facts and evidence.
“Obama’s Escalating War on Freedom of the Press”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/obamas-escalating-war-on_b_3635370?guccounter=1
“At a news conference two months ago, when President Obama refused to say a critical word about his Justice Department’s targeted surveillance of reporters, he touted plans to reintroduce a bill for a federal shield law so journalists can protect their sources. But Obama didn’t mention that he has insisted on a “national security exception” that would make such a law approximately worthless for reporters doing the kind of reporting that has resulted in government surveillance — and has sometimes landed them in federal court.”
A classic example of Barry the Grifter talking out of both sides of his mouth.
But he never passed up an opportunity to be a good little Wall Street shineboy at the expense of the lower, lower middle, and middle classes.
Fishbrain fails again. But you have a great future ahead of you breathing air and taking up space.