OK, so what -was- the plan here?

[bzarcher]

Reading the newstubes this morning there seems to be a huge outrage over what's going on in China with a group of foreign protestors.

Let me see if I got this all right.

1) Students, artists, and "citizen journalists" get tourist visas to China for the olympics.

2) Said tourists stage various protests in China, mostly on the subject of Tibet.

3) Tourists are shocked and appalled when they get arrested for this and demand their release? Particularly the "citizen journos" despite their lack of actual press credentials that might allow this.

4) Internets aflame with RABBLERABBLE over the fact that a totalitarian country cracks down on dissenting voices.

Really, seriously, what did people expect to happen? A pat on the head, some steamed buns, and a "Don't do that again, you fiesty little scamps!" This is a country who has a historical precedent of shooting political dissidents in the back of the head and billing their surviving family for the cost of the bullet. Being arrested should have been EXPECTED and planned for. The possibility of deportation should have been considered.

As it is, I'm sure the US government will probably step in and get them released to US custody (and then on the first plane back to the states, I suspect), but c'mon. Don't act like this is somehow unusual or surprising.

Comments

[spoonybardol.livejournal.com]

Yeah, seriously.

While I think the Chinese government has made this the most farcical Olympics ever, these protesters really, REALLY should've known better.

But who knows? Maybe some of them did? Maybe they just wanted to draw MORE attention to the situation via the spectacle of it all?

Most of em probably need to be whacked with a clue-by-four though.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

Even if they did know and are now playing dumb to try and get attention/sympathy, that just annoys me more for them playing dumb!

Gaaaah.

[mscongeniality.livejournal.com]

Hell, even in the US, you generally need a permit to stage a demonstration on federal property. Not because THE MAN is keeping you down, but so that they can re-route traffic and city services as necessary. What would make someone think that they could get away with demonstrations scot free in a country where that kind of activity is straight up illegal? It seems like some sort of ridiculous naivete that they don't need to comply with foreign laws while they are abroad.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

YES! Exactly!

I mean, I can't imagine why the Chinese would be bothered by a bunch of people showing up unannounced to do a "Die-In" at Tianamen square, could you?

[mscongeniality.livejournal.com]

I don't know, did they have cardboard tanks with them?

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

From what I read? Tanks -and- they "buried" everyone in Tibetan flags.

[mscongeniality.livejournal.com]

Niiiiice. I'm sure that's gonna make those darned totalitarians think twice!

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

Remember, once they feel guilty, we'll start having TRUE FREEDOM! *sparkle*

....

gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. I feel dumber having written that.

[alathaniel.livejournal.com]

...

Someone really needs to sit down and explain that China Does Not Have A Free Press to these people.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

Alternatively, "China does not have freedom, period." would also work.

[buschap.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm inclined to think they expected that and just wanted the publicity. Recall Dave "John 'Peace' Doe" Tarbell.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

Oh, god, I'd actually managed to forget about him for the most part.

But, yes, the exact same deal.

[aphextwins.livejournal.com]

What spoiled, uninformed children we are. Sovereignty, or human rights? Don't tell anyone, but I am pulling for China in this one.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

I don't have any problem with people wanting to call China's actions to attention - just don't be surprised when that bear you keep poking decides to swipe at you.

[avylin.livejournal.com]

But... but they're Americans. Americans are free! Everywhere! Always!

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

OH! Sorry, I forgot.

We'll just remind them!

[jennekirby.livejournal.com]

The whole thing reminds me of a less terrible but just as puzzling WTF situation in college. The day the US invaded Iraq in 2003 several of my classmates put themselves in white jumpsuits without identification and lay down in the center of a major intersection in Portland so that they'd be arrested, and they're still complaining that the police were rude to them*.

The best part about this was talking to the police beforehand, when the protesters were rallying. I initiated a conversation with them (I have been to a lot of protests, but my role has always been encouraging reasonable dialogue between protesters and authority figures--one of the best ways of doing this is to give out sandwiches and water to the protesters so they act more rationally) asking what they'd been told beforehand about the protest, and they knew people were hoping to get themselves arrested, but they wanted to know why. I told them what my classmates had told me--that they'd hoped to, I guess, flood the jail system by being anonymous and seriously disrupt the city? Something along those lines. They couldn't get charged and released without giving their names, just like the entire bus system shut down when they couldn't get through the mass of people in the intersection, totally alienating most of middle-class Portland from their cause.

*There was one really unacceptable incident--they separated the men and women and put a transgendered friend of mine in isolation, where they strip-searched and verbally berated her for hours. By all accounts it was pretty terrible, and she actually disappeared after that and none of us heard from her again. A mutual friend who is trans but was then presenting cis-gendered had, I think, reason to start fearing the cops after that, but everyone else was mostly bitching about being yelled at occasionally and having to share a cell with the rest of their accomplices in this ill-conceived plot. What, did they think being arrested would be fun? At least it was over spring break--all of them had given up their names and left jail by the time school started again.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

What, did they think being arrested would be fun?

Unfortunately, that seems like exactly what people think.

I am sorry for the trans-friend, though. She, at least, has a right to be upset for what happened.

[degraine.livejournal.com]

If you want a story of protesters in China to feel sympathetic about, I recommend these two 'dangerous rabble-rousers'.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

And them, I do feel sorry for.