Noam Chomsky first sentence in his most recent article pertaining to China reads: \u201cOf all the \u201cthreats\u201d to world order, the most consistent is democracy, unless it is under imperial control, and more generally, the assertion of independence. \u201c This\u00a0 is both awful and insulting. It is awful because of its ridiculous reductionism. I would like to see the reaction of Xanana Gusamo to the charge that the government of Timor Leste is under imperial control. I would also like to hear what the latest Nobel Prize recipient would say to the charge that democracy is a threat (diacritical marks). Today in places like Zimbabwe,\u00a0 Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan civil society is under siege by a variety of forces who wish to see their programs and personnel eliminated. These civil society groups are struggling with opening democratic space. They do so at great personal risk. They do not see democracy as a threat but as an inspiration and a hope. This is where the intellectual fetishism of Chomsky loses its way and enters a minefield of destructive polemic.<\/p>\n
All of us working with civil society and democratization groups in Asia expected that Liu Xiaobo would be awarded the prize last year. We are overjoyed that he was awarded it this year. That China branded and condemned Liu as a criminal and denounced the Nobel prize Committee speaks volumes.<\/p>\n
The leaders of the People\u2019s Republic of China will meet in Beijing in mid-October. Crucial decisions may be made about the issue of desperately needed political reform. Western intellectuals condemning democracy without even defining it play into whose hands?<\/p>\n
The most recent moves by China concerning its maritime borders as well its use of trade sanctions on rare materials are sending shock waves throughout the region. That China has surpassed Japan as the worlds second largest economy is a monumental achievement of the government and the people. Yet might and right always need to be reconciled. China\u2019s per capita wealth is, however, ten times below that of Japan. Moreover in China today, income disparities are widespread, riots numbering\u00a0 more than 80,000 rock the countryside, product safety is problematic and accountable and transparency non-existent. The central government knows it is in\u00a0\u00a0 economic and political crisis. The government does not know whether to open up and reform or to continue an iron-fisted rule.\u00a0 The stronger the reaction to Mr. Liu\u2019s Peace Prize the deeper the internal debate in China.<\/p>\n
In the late 1970s, an electrician named Wei Jingsheng called on China to take on a fifth modernization \u2013 democracy. For this he earned the personal enmity of Deng Xiaoping. He was jailed for 15 years. Wei easily could have been China\u2019s first Nobel Peace Prize winner. That honor has gone to Liu. Mr. Liu, who first gained notice in 1989 after saving lives during the military crackdown on pro-democracy student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. In\u00a0 2008 he helped\u00a0 organize a movement around a 4,000 word document called \u201c Charter 08.\u201d For this\u00a0 he was jailed.. Charter 08 was modeled after \u201cCharter 77,\u201d a document issued in 1977 by intellectuals in Czechoslovakia asserting the principles of democracy.\u00a0 A key sentence in Charter 08 reads: \u201cBy departing from these [universal] values the Chinese government\u2019s approach to \u2018modernization\u2019 has proven disastrous. It has stripped people of their rights, destroyed their dignity, and corrupted normal human intercourse.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Peace Studies to be taken seriously a set of standards need to be applied. One of these is democracy. Furthermore, all imperial\/military\u00a0 acts by any government must be condemned.\u00a0 I remember having a conversation with a civil society activist in Kabul. We were standing. He asked me what I thought of President Karzai. When I answered that if that if American and allies are promoting him as a democrat then we are doomed. He then said, \u201cOK, now we can sit and talk.\u201d Pandering to China and ignoring or worse yet excusing its defaults does not promote peace, deters development, and in complicit in deterring and delaying needed democratic reforms. All of us working with civil society and democratization groups in Asia expected that Liu Xiaobo would be awarded the prize last year. We are overjoyed that he was awarded it this year. That China branded and condemned Liu as a criminal and denounced the Nobel prize Committee speaks volumes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7810\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nPaul D. Scott, is on the Steering Committee of ARDA (The Alliance for Reform and Democracy in Asia).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"