10/04/2023

China jails prominent legal activists Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi

The BBC reported that ‘in response to past criticism about its human rights record, Beijing has said “only the 1.3 billion* Chinese people have a say on China’s human rights”.’ It could well have added: ‘and if any of them exercise their right to have their say, we shall listen to them. In due time there shall be no more criticism’.

_{^{* A slight exaggeration may be seen to exist here. The number may be correct if an average lifespan were 50 years and the country had had a population of the current size for about seven times longer than history would allow, otherwise the figure should be 1.3 milliard, roughly 1‰ of the number quoted.}}