I am here to make a challenge.

I was recently reading a report from Human Rights Watch on the Chinese government’s failure to deliver on its National Human Rights Action Plan (NHRAP). The NHRAP is a broad document drawn up in 2009 to address the most basic of human and social rights questions within China today. It creates targets for the expansion of rights to basic standards of living, assembly, information, speech and the rights of ethnic groups. On it’s own, it is a laudable document.

The cynic in me believes that the document is nothing but a smoke screen designed to deflect criticism of what is, from my perspective, a brutal and authoritarian one-party government representing the interests of only the most wealthy members of a single ethnic group.

According to HRW, little progress has been made in terms of information, speech and political rights, and according to monitors, the situation has only gotten worse. The report contains a litany of abuses which have increased from 2009-2010, not the least of which include torture, illegal detention, broad use of the death penalty, heavier restrictions on the dissemination of information and internet freedom, arrests and disappearances of political dissidents and tighter controls on Uighurs and Tibetan groups.

All of this should be of no surprise to anyone. However, I am often curious as to what the average Chinese citizen feels about the broad abuses and totalitarian nature of it’s government. Here at the University of Michigan, science departments are filled with students from China. In some departments, the number of Chinese graduate students dwarfs that of domestic students. Yet, only once have I ever heard a Chinese student express anything remotely political, and that was to slam Japan’s incredible abuses during World War II. Outside of that, the only things I have seen were demonstrations against free-Tibet protesters during the Beijing Olympics.

In short, the silence is deafening.

I am very familiar with (and disgusted by) the incredible abuses of the United States government and US based businesses. We tend to wage the most egregious abuses against people who don’t have the right to vote or who live outside the US. Historically, we have committed genocide, silenced dissidents by putting bullets through their heads and are noted for vast abuses against ethnic minorities, not the least of which includes the slave trade.

There, I got that out of the way. A criticism of China is not to assume superiority of the United States or Europe. In fact, it is because some people in the West are so familiar with the fruits of genocide, racism and business/governments out of control that we criticize China. Plus, they make stuff cheaply for us, using the poorly paid, desperately poor people from the countryside, racking the conscience of some.

So, I challenge anyone from China to explain to me how the vast abuses of the Chinese government are in the least bit defensible. Please explain to me how these abuses are in anyway different from former occupiers such as Japan and Britain. Please explain to me how the occupation of Tibet and the cultural genocide of the Tibetans is vastly different from the Japanese occupation of East Asia or the colonization of Africa, or the Native American genocide.

Please perhaps explain to me what exactly the Chinese government is so afraid of that it needs to jail and torture all persons critical of its policies. Is the Republic truly that weak?

I do not seek to humiliate, I seek to understand. I would very much like to know if there are people out there who may be as outraged as I am.

You can contact me anonymously if you wish.

My email address is pslarson2@gmail.com.

New Years is always full of resolutions and promises, most of which fall to the wayside once the reality of work sets back in. My resolution this year is to read 100 books, at least in part. This is not an extreme move. 365 books would be ridiculously extreme and would call my very sanity into question, unless I were reading Harlequins or counted comic books as “books”. The difference will be that I will at least make some attempt to document the project, creating a personal diary of what should be, an in depth bibliography of works relating to topics of interest on this blog. I won’t review them all. That would take an extra year. I will, however, make an attempt to review the most impressive.

At 100 books over the course of the calendar year of 2011, that would be approximately one book every 3.65 days, not an unreasonable feat.

Starting now, I’m up to three books. Here’s one:

Aung San Suu Kyi – “Letters from Burma” – Aung San Suu Kyi should require no real introduction. For the past several decades, Aung San Suu Kyi has fought tirelessly for democratic reforms in Burma, which has suffered under a brutal authoritarian regime since 1962. Part political revolutionary and human rights advocate, part intellectual, along with being the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi has spent the better part of the past two decades under house arrest. During this time she has continued her fight for democracy in Burma, using a non-violent, people centered approach while generating foreign support through her writings and infective charisma. “Letters from Burma” is a collection of short essays written for the Mainichi Newspaper in Japan throughout the better part of the 1990’s. What results is a series of snapshots of the struggles of the NLD Democratic party in Burma, a woman hesitantly thrust into the political spotlight and observations of a deep culture in turmoil.

What is unique about Aung San Suu Kyi’s letters is her ability to weave her unapologetic political views with support not from her political contemporaries, but with her intense Buddhist faith and her deep respect for the Burmese people and it’s long and fascinating culture. This short book, provides not only information on the political history of Burma, but also works as a primer of Burmese culture for outsiders. More importantly, her writings serve as an intense introduction to Theravadic Buddhism and how Buddhist teachings can influence politics and governance. Specifically, Aung San Suu Kyi frequently cites the The Noble Eight Fold Path as a standard for not only personal and human interactions, but all upon which the people should construct and manage the state, to ensure benefit for all.

Aung San Suu Kyi, like many other non-violent political revolutionaries, is able to endure through equal parts of dedication to the cause of a subjugated people and to human rights, and the willingness to admit her own failings and weaknesses. I conclude with a quote from her fantastic essay “Freedom from Fear:”

“It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it, and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”

Recently released from house arrest, she has resumed her column for the Mainichi, the first of which appeared today.