Chin Jin.The West is going the way of China.Patriot Act,Preventative Dentention ,legalised assassination and now The defence Authorisation Act.They also got rid of the Posse Comitatus Act in the US that stopped the Military from policing the US people.

They now want to censor the Internet.We have John Howard's Sedition laws which are much like the Patriot.All they have to do is broaden the definition of a terrorist to include us.It is happening in the USA right now.

Well you see, Chin Jin, here's the problem.

"If one sincerely wants to prompt China to improve its human rights record, one should fundamentally aim at prompting a change to China's current political system. Only if China undertakes political reforms and becomes a democracy can its human rights record begin to improve."

Only China can turn China into a "democracy".

Any and all attempts by "the West" to introduce it to other nations has a pretty abysmal record, I think you would agree, whether the introduction has been through conquest, annexation, invasion or bribery.

And let's face it, the only weapon we have is the perpetual tut-tutting and finger-wagging that typifies the current preferred approach. It just makes us all look like maiden aunts at a rave.

Frankly, if human rights are a problem in China, the 1.4 billion Chinese are just going to have to sort it out for themselves.

I agree,

In the end, the Chinese people will have to sort this matter out for themselves. However, it is important for the West to continue to raise the issue of human rights whenever and wherever. There are people in China who are deeply concerned about human rights.

No matter how ineffectual we are in getting the Chinese government to improve its record, at least brave advocates for human rights within China will know that they are not alone. We should persist.

This is important, for it is these lonely people who will be the leaders of China one day when the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party collapses under the weight of its own selfish illegitimacy.

China is part of the world economy. Their economy depends to a large extent on selling to the rest of the world and buying from the rest of the world. If nations with a different view of human rights from that of China would refuse to trade in any way with China until China's attitude towards human rights changed, the attitude would change. Would capitalists give up cheap labour? Would consumers give up cheap goods? Would Australia's mining companies give up an outlet for their products? Of course not. If they would they could change the human rights situation in China.

Pericles wrote:

>>Frankly, if human rights are a problem in China, the 1.4 billion Chinese are just going to have to sort it out for themselves.>>

Agreed.

And this does not apply only to China.

Right now the best thing for Western countries to do about Syria is - nothing

Ah but Stevenlmeyer,they've found large quantities of oil/gas off the coast of Syria,lebanon and Greece.The oil/banking imperialists are not going to let that slip out of their grasp.They already own Greece.Syria is the recalcitrant one who must be saved from their oil oppression, err they meant,given their freedoms back.