The bad news: Bo Xilai ( a Maoist, military-favouring corruptocrat in jail) has been declared "President for Life" of Zhi Xian Party which is pushing for a Maoist revival. Although he is justly in jail and his wife appears to be a murderess, he crushed Chongqing gangsters and sounded good about being for the little guy. This isn't about democracy, it's about payback and struggle for power. Any time monolithic power is faced with competition, you get change, sometimes for the better. Headlined information is from a larger article by WR Mead at ViaMedia.
I've not read China's constitution but it probably has the same feel good language as the constitution of the former USSR which sounded like it would work okay in Canada too. It was not the real Russia. To get a feeling of life in Communist China under the Cultural Revolution that Mao and his wife unleashed, of how many millions of lives were snuffed or ruined, of how much of the land's cultural heritage was burned and smashed, read Wild Swans by Jung Chang. You don't want a revival of Mao. Oddly, Trudeau père and Trudeau fils seem to have thought well of it during its worst days.
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| An innocent in China |
"Constitution first" is a battle cry in the US too. There's a parallel school in some Christian circles: "Sola Scriptura". (The Word of God in the original given language is infallible and sufficient to settle all important matters).
Why do statements of principle inspire but often fail?
Why is the uninspiring detail of daily politics like making sausages, something you don't want to know too much about.
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