Seriously, if you have nothing to add to the dialogue here, why do you keep making asinine comments? Just to troll people and get a reaction from them? Having been banned from other sites already, one would think you’d have caught on by now… So, let me put this another way to you mahathir_fan, why not spend your time more constructively?

You think that I would still go to their website after they insist on moderating my comments? There are so many websites on the internet and my postings, like it or not generate more dicussions which could have meant more hits for them.

I’m like the guy who goes to church and instead of listening and obeying the pastor, I insist on examining the original maniscripts written in Hebrew to verify the bible translation authencity. As a result, the discussion never getto the point about how Jesus died on the cross etc. etc.. because every couple of lines, I will question the translation and the pastor got fed up and I get banned. The pastor wants the discussion to be centered around the love of Christ and assume that the Bible is authentic or have the faith to believe it is or ask one or two questions but that is it. Not someone who insist on the original maniscripts, does his own translsation of the bible, and then compare his translation with those of the “experts” and then launch an attack on misleading translations by the “experts” after every few lines. This was basically why I got banned because as they said they assumed their readers have some “basic knowledge” assumption. Meaning, if they post a posting about famine in North Korea, they expect the discussion to be centered on bashing Kim Jong Il. Not someone to question them if they had doctored up photographs on their website making original coloured photographs of North Korean children into black and white for more dramatic effect, etc. etc..

Perhaps the Pentagon and the CPC have a symbiotic relationshop in this regards.

Given the choice between a US foreign policy led world and a Chinese version I’d take the former, horrible as it is these days. Regarding military power, events unforeseen, even a modern Chinese military will be no match for NATO in my lifetime. Factor in a probable NATO-Oceana-Russia-Japan alliance in wartime and it seems China would get it’s head handed on a platter. Still, I’m totally against an EU lifting of the arms embargo to China. Why feed their sense of power projection when even their own citizens have so few human rights?

The problem will be trying to stop the Chinese military buildup as western companies directly or indirectly supply them with the means to modernize their forces and space program, and western trade and investment and technology transfer there favor a foreign currency balance which gives them the means to buy influence and advanced weapons industries of their own. Republicans - warning about the rise of the dragon while feeding it American jobs and industries - go figger.

As can be expected, zero get through — kind of like vetted non-Communist candidates in China’s glorious elections.

Note that it is the people who say China isn’t a democracy that has yet to muster up a single unrebutal point to say it isn’t a democracy.

Some people say itisn’t a democracy because there are no elections. I have shown that not just there are elections held every 5 years, but there are oppositions that run against government candidates. Some say it must protect the right of minorities. I have shown that the constitution provide for this right, and one needs to look no further than Tibet to witness how the Tibetans are allowed to use their own language in official proceedings. Some say it is not a democracy because it is not a government by the people. I have provided facts to show that the people in Taishi has successfully recalled their elected representative and replaced him with a new elected candidate through the democratic process. This proves that the government belongs to the people because the people can at any moment in time recall their representative.

There is nothing else that is missing as far as facts are concern about China’s democracy. What is missing, if you are a impartial observer, is TRUST. Do you trust that if the Communist party goverment loses majority seats at the general election that they will willingly hand over party to non-Communist party members? If you don’t TRUST them, then just state that as your reason for not considering it as a democracy. That’s a subjective opinion and there is nothing that I can or will do to change your mind until that day if it comes then we’ll know. However, there is no reason for you to cook up lies like accusing China of not having elections or the right to vote or stand for election. Then there are those who cannot be convinced because they are anti-China in nature. They cannot have China classified as a democracy because then they could not villianize it.