It was interesting to see the Op-Ed article by Yang Jianli, released by the Washington Post for its September 30 issue.
It is rare for mainstream U.S. news media to let on -- to breathe a word of the existence of the Chinese democracy movement, still active with voices, events, and activism in the United States (the "land of the free," were it not for censorship by the mainstream press). The Post previously rejected a joint Op-Ed from Lian Shengde and John Kusumi.
So. The cat is out of the bag at the Washington Post. Here is an excerpt from what Yang wrote:
All of us in the Chinese democracy movement stand in solidarity with the Burmese people, who are engaged in a life-or-death struggle to free their country from years of oppression and decay. Everything is at stake for the Burmese, but the outcome in Burma will also have a major impact on our struggle in China....
China has a parasitic relationship with Burma. Beijing sucks out Burma's natural resources -- especially oil, gas and timber -- at heavily discounted prices, which it obtains because so few countries are willing to do business with a regime that manages its own economy so poorly and that has such a terrible human rights record. China views the junta's preservation as in its own interest, to ensure that competition for those resources remains minimal. To this end, China is the principal arms exporter to Burma, providing 90 percent of its weapons. Without $1.6 billion in past military assistance from China, Burma would not have been able to create a 400,000-member army, the second-largest in Southeast Asia, behind only Vietnam.
See the whole article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/28/AR2007092801356.html
