wr2014_web_0

WORLD REPORT 2014Chinese couples can have a second child, but not ending altogether the use ofofficial coercion and surveillance in such personal matters. However, the governmentcontinued its predecessor’s intolerance toward organized dissent, and evenretaliated against journalists who work for media companies that took up suchsensitive topics as the enormous unexplained wealth of Chinese leaders and theirfamilies. Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo remains in prison serving an 11-year sentencefor advocating democracy, and his wife, Liu Xia, remains under unlawful housearrest.China seemed most worried about the new threat to its monopoly over public conversationposed by the rise of social media. China’s “Great Firewall,” built toblock access to the Internet outside the country, is worthless for preventing conversationamong Chinese that social media sites like Sina Weibo now permit. Andwith China having an estimated 400 million social media users and growing, thegovernment is having a hard time keeping up, despite its proliferation of censors.Social media have given the Chinese people new opportunities to spotlight officialmisconduct, and at times the government has had no choice but to beresponsive.Beyond elections, abusive majoritarianism comes in cultural forms as well.Whether it is Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan restricting the rights of women, orUganda or Russia undermining the rights of gays and lesbians, abusive leadersoften speak in terms of a dominant or traditional culture, as if that justifies abusingthose who differ from it or fomenting discrimination against them. Typicallythese leaders pretend that alternatives to their tradition are imposed from theoutside, as if all homosexuals in their country were imported or all women whooppose discrimination are transplants. In fact, the only imposition going on is bythe dominant elites of those countries against those who dare to differ or standup for their rights. No one insists that any particular women must reject genderstereotypes or that particular gays or lesbians must abide by their own sexualityrather than the government’s preconceptions. But if they choose to do so, antidiscriminationobligations make it their choice, not that of the government. Theinternational community gets involved when a government denies that choice,not to impose any particular choice.12