Thursday, July 9, 2009

Global Guerrillas on "Chinese Exceptionalism."

From John Robb's Global Guerrillas newsletter.

JOURNAL: Chinese Exceptionalism

By John Robb

Posted: 08 Jul 2009 02:33 PM PDT

The great part about being a Chinese dictatorship in a world with one rule set (Adam Smith's), is that your paramilitary forces can slaughter 140 156 protestors without even a whimper from the global community. Western political elites just don't care because a) business with China is more important than human rights and b) China reacts like a spoiled child when chastised, which makes it not worth the hassle. Of course, the reaction we see today on Chinese repression may become the same we see when similar things happen in the developed world.

What's even more interesting is how the opposition is using the information terrain to help get the message out. From twitter (like Iran) to cell phone cameras, the images of the event were broadcast around the world. China's response? A combination of "shutdowns" of information systems and counter attacks by loyalist information militias. While the opposition is learning how to use information terrain better with each incident (this response was faster than what happened when China cracked down on Tibet), it still hasn't branched out into using those same tools to spread disruption (which is the only effective way to disconnect).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Amazing isnt it, but than guess who originally opened trade negotiations and placed us where we are today...

Keep posting!