Word: communists
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David Shambaugh paints a rosy picture as the People's Republic of China turns 60 [Sept. 28]. Let's not forget that China is a communist dictatorship with a one-party system, a rubber-stamp congress and a judiciary under the control of the Party. Human rights are routinely trampled, even though they are written into the constitution; dissidents are jailed for long periods of time. The Chinese government did not hesitate to send tanks against its own people in 1989, and we have seen what the government can do against the Tibetans and the Uighurs when they dare rise...
...sign both of its remoteness from Beijing and the difficulty of governing it. That challenge centers on the Uighurs, who comprise the region's majority population and claim a linguistic and cultural heritage that is markedly different from that of the rest of China. And while six decades of communist Chinese rule have brought tremendous prosperity to some, modernization has also raised a profound disconnect between the region's old inhabitants and newer arrivals. Encouraged by Beijing, millions of Han Chinese have migrated west, imbued with a state-sanctioned spirit of manifest destiny. As skyscrapers loom where bazaars once stood...
...send some of the nation’s most productive workers on a free vacation to the European center of culture. Of course, they couldn’t possibly do this in reality—after all, capitalist temptations were lying in wait to seduce and entrap those good Communist citizens. Instead, the Soviet government chose to “build their own ‘Abroad’ in the Steppes of southern Russia, near Stavropol, with a real city, and many inhabitants,” a charade which lasted until a foreign journalist got hold of the story...
...Times of a Soviet Capitalist,” a gangster friend of the titular character joins his family for dinner. He too, finds something lacking in the new, disorderly capitalist system. “In all of its history, Georgia never did so well as it did during Communist times,” he declares. “Everyone had their piece of bread... I hated the communists. But look at what people have to go through now. You think what they have in Georgia is freedom? Being able to eat, that’s freedom...
...while the old Cold War allies may still want to counterbalance American influence, Moscow and Beijing are linked by 21st century economic concerns. "We cannot be as close as we were in the 1950s," says Han. The communist neighbors grew apart starting in 1956, and even after the fall of the Soviet Union, trade between Russia and China remained slow. In recent years it has expanded rapidly, from $10.7 billion in 2001 to $56.9 billion in 2008. "Half of that is energy," says Zweig. "Energy is a very important component of the bilateral trade relationship. In many ways...