Take That, Evil Chinese Beast

A very well put piece by Susan Elfers from the Op-Ed section of today's Cincinnati Enquirer sums up all the reasons that I no longer fund The Revolution From The East:

Tibet - Since China invaded Tibet in 1950, the Chinese government has worked diligently to extinguish an ancient civilization and annihilate a cultural heritage. Over 20 years, 1.2 million Tibetans died as a result of China's policies. The Chinese are still imprisoning thousands of Tibetans for their political or religious activities; torture is carried out regularly; sexual assault is used to punish, humiliate and coerce nuns.

Religious persecution - Most Christians in China worship in secret. They must hold Mass in the middle of the night, changing locations to avoid police raids. Nearly 2,000 Christians are arrested in China every year.

Death penalty - An estimated 7,000 to 8,000 prisoners were executed in China in 2006, about 22 people per day. About 70 crimes are punishable by death, including tax fraud, embezzling, accepting bribes and drug-related crimes.

Free speech - The Chinese government has the most sophisticated apparatus blocking or banning hundreds of Web sites in China. Web sites containing the search results for such words as "freedom" and "human rights" are censored.
They also block access to thousands of news Web sites and jam the international radio stations of Chinese and Tibetan language programs.

Forced abortions - China's one-child family planning has resulted in forced abortions, infanticide and imbalanced boy-girl ratios. Women in China who have not been given approval by their government to give birth are forced to have abortions as late as nine months into the pregnancy.

Additionally, here's a link to a petition to get President Bush to personally boycott the Beijing Olympics. This is the chance for all you anti-political types out there to participate in the process without having to actually vote, so don't let it slip away...