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> On Aug. 24, Chinese state media announced a proposed change in the Criminal Procedure Law which would allow police to legally detain individuals and hold them

> On Aug. 24, Chinese state media announced a proposed change in the Criminal Procedure Law which would allow police to legally detain individuals and hold them incommunicado in secret detention for up to six months without contact with either their families or legal counsel. Up to six months! That's not bad, considering the fact that some prisoners have been held in Guantanamo for 10 years+ and can be detained there indefinitely without trial and subjected to torture [1]. [1] https://www.amnesty.org.uk/guantanamo-bay-human-rights https://www.amnesty.org.uk/guantanamo-bay-human-rights

vorpalhex 7y ago
The Chinese don't intend this for terrorists who are blowing up rice markets filled with women and children in Iraq, they intend this for journalists and protestors.
- tepidandroid 7y ago
  Who are allegedly blowing up rice markets filled with women and children in Iraq. Remember, there is no trial. Also, according to the HRW article: > The Chinese government is pitching the proposed change as merely an extension of the conditions of the existing practice of residential surveillance, or “soft arrest,” to suspects in state security, terrorism or major corruption cases. “Soft arrest” allows police to confine criminal suspects to their homes for up to six months without trial or due legal process.
- jandrese 7y ago
  Or for guys who had an opportunistic neighbor who wanted his land and was willing to "rat him out" to the US forces desperate to capture some bad guys.
  - jdietrich 7y ago
    Or some poor schmuck whose name was blurted out by some other poor schmuck who thought that reeling off some random names would make the torture stop.
- bjlorenzen 7y ago
  Have you ever spoken to a Chinese? They have their own good intentions too. Besides that, why do you always trust that our governments’s label of “terrorist” is never self-serving or opportunistic? The civilians we bomb every week might have a different perspective
- dcposch 7y ago
  Here, read about one of the many people detained and tortured by the United States who turned out to have absolutely nothing to do with terrorism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_El-Masri https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_El-Masri A different Khalid al-Masri is a suspected member of al Qaeda. So they tortured the wrong Khalid. Oops. This is why basic things like the right to a trial, open court proceedings that journalists can attend, the Geneva convention prohibiting torture, etc etc are so important. To trust a government to decide guilt in secret is to be ignorant of history.
  - pault 7y ago
    Enough with the whataboutism. Everybody knows about the dirty business the US gets up to. It doesn't excuse Chinese authoritarianism and human rights abuses.
- erklik 7y ago
  The US does intend it for terrorists, but the US also intended to neutralise "WMDs". So, believing either US or China is crazy.
mrighele 7y ago
Scale also matters. According to your link about one thousand people were sent to Guantanamo. Right now in the region of Xinjiang about 1 million Uyghurs are being held in re-education camps (about 10% of the Uyghur population of the region). Even if the USA compare terribly to the (rest of?) civilized world regarding human rights, as a non-American and non-Chinese I fear less the US government than the Chinese. (The fact that I'm not from a Middle East country probably helps...) [1] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/09/china-up-to-one-million-detained/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/09/china-up-to-o...
- djsumdog 7y ago
  America sent all its US citizens of Japanese descent to Manzanar at one time. Many died there. The CIA overthrew the democratically elected government in Chile on September 11, 1973 leading to the deaths of 11,000+ people. Iranian-Contra, Bay of Pigs, United Fruit Massacre, The School of the Americas ... I mean, America isn't at the same scale because it's 300 million people vs over a billion.

vorpalhex 7y ago

The Chinese don't intend this for terrorists who are blowing up rice markets filled with women and children in Iraq, they intend this for journalists and protestors.

tepidandroid 7y ago
Who are allegedly blowing up rice markets filled with women and children in Iraq. Remember, there is no trial. Also, according to the HRW article: > The Chinese government is pitching the proposed change as merely an extension of the conditions of the existing practice of residential surveillance, or “soft arrest,” to suspects in state security, terrorism or major corruption cases. “Soft arrest” allows police to confine criminal suspects to their homes for up to six months without trial or due legal process.
jandrese 7y ago
Or for guys who had an opportunistic neighbor who wanted his land and was willing to "rat him out" to the US forces desperate to capture some bad guys.
- jdietrich 7y ago
  Or some poor schmuck whose name was blurted out by some other poor schmuck who thought that reeling off some random names would make the torture stop.
bjlorenzen 7y ago
Have you ever spoken to a Chinese? They have their own good intentions too. Besides that, why do you always trust that our governments’s label of “terrorist” is never self-serving or opportunistic? The civilians we bomb every week might have a different perspective
dcposch 7y ago
Here, read about one of the many people detained and tortured by the United States who turned out to have absolutely nothing to do with terrorism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_El-Masri https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_El-Masri A different Khalid al-Masri is a suspected member of al Qaeda. So they tortured the wrong Khalid. Oops. This is why basic things like the right to a trial, open court proceedings that journalists can attend, the Geneva convention prohibiting torture, etc etc are so important. To trust a government to decide guilt in secret is to be ignorant of history.
- pault 7y ago
  Enough with the whataboutism. Everybody knows about the dirty business the US gets up to. It doesn't excuse Chinese authoritarianism and human rights abuses.
erklik 7y ago
The US does intend it for terrorists, but the US also intended to neutralise "WMDs". So, believing either US or China is crazy.

mrighele 7y ago

Scale also matters. According to your link about one thousand people were sent to Guantanamo. Right now in the region of Xinjiang about 1 million Uyghurs are being held in re-education camps (about 10% of the Uyghur population of the region). Even if the USA compare terribly to the (rest of?) civilized world regarding human rights, as a non-American and non-Chinese I fear less the US government than the Chinese. (The fact that I'm not from a Middle East country probably helps...) [1] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/09/china-up-to-one-million-detained/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/09/china-up-to-o...

djsumdog 7y ago
America sent all its US citizens of Japanese descent to Manzanar at one time. Many died there. The CIA overthrew the democratically elected government in Chile on September 11, 1973 leading to the deaths of 11,000+ people. Iranian-Contra, Bay of Pigs, United Fruit Massacre, The School of the Americas ... I mean, America isn't at the same scale because it's 300 million people vs over a billion.