Ridiculous

While we're on the subject of the Olympics, I found this NY Times article by Nicholas Kristof kind of interesting. So we all know that China is communist and you can pretty much forget about free speech, let alone protesting. But for the Olympics, China decided to "allow" protesting. Except that you have to get a permit first, and if you are approved, you can only protest in a designated area, and the full names and information of each protestor must be submitted to the government. It's so ridiculous it actually makes me laugh. You should read the article; it's kind of funny. Kristof picks a really minor subject to protest and then tries to get around all the red tape involved.

Sadly...China has allowed a grand total of zero protests (of the 77 applications) at the Games (surprise surprise), and has actually arrested and detained about 6 people who simply applied to protest. So, I happen to disagree with Kristof's last point that China is 'showing progress' in this area...a fake 'protests allowed' stance for the Olympics is by no means even close to freedom of expression. But the rest of the article is a pretty good look at the system, at least from the point of view of a westerner who is not in any danger of disappearing into the black jails of China.