Working with China to Promote Democracy
China represents an uncomfortable thorn in U.S. efforts to promote democracy around the world. While some projects have been successful, a large gap exists between the increasing U.S. funding in China and its "limited impact." Moreover, U.S. democracy promotion in China has contributed to strategic distrust between China and the United States; Beijing perceives it as a strategic move to destabilize the rise of China and sabotage the Communist Party's leadership. At the same time, China's growing power while maintaining one-party rule and rejecting democratic change generates fear and distrust among many Americans.
The Chinese Political Dissidents in Exile: Struggle for a Sustainable and Relevant Movement
The overseas Chinese democracy movement started in the early 1980s and comprised of the networks, organisations and campaigns of those mainland Chinese activists, in exile mostly in the West, particularly the United States. These dissidents were mainly Democracy Wall (1978-79) veterans, the Tiananmen Square event (1989) student leaders and intellectuals, and other activists who became politicised while studying or living abroad. This paper investigates the reflection and readjustment of the political exiles to halt the decline of their movement over the past decade, to make it more sustainable and relevant to both their host nations and conditions in China in the new century. While the movement has little direct role to play in China’s democratization or its host states’ policies towards China, the exile community has become more flexible and adaptable in both strategic direction and tactical approaches, with more efforts to: intervene and support new social contention in China, establish specialized campaign agencies, experiment with new models of organizational development, influence domestic and international public opinions, and rejuvenate solidarity with the evolving civil societies in Taiwan and Hong Kong on the basis of shared political values more than “one China” sentiment. The significance of these new dynamics, in terms of the movement’s survival and impact, can only be appreciated by breaking free from state-centric perspectives which have already been challenged in the literature on transnational social movements and exile politics.
Developers of the hepatitis B vaccine.
air at VA facilities, one of the many pieces of unfinished business beyond those major issues that we discussed in our Commentary. We agree that all facilities where current and past military personnel serve and receive treatment should be 100% smoke-free and note the recent Institute of Medicine report Combating Tobacco in Military and Veteran Populations. The report, which was commissioned by the Department of Defense (DOD) in 2007, calls for the DOD to set a timeline to eliminate smoking on military installations. The report also recommends that the DOD stop selling tobacco products in military commissaries and exchanges, prohibit tobacco use anywhere on military installations, and treat tobacco use in the same way as other health-related behaviors, such as alcohol abuse and poor physical fitness. We join Matthews and the Institute of Medicine in urging the VA and the DOD to take more immediate steps to protect the health of the men and women who serve in the armed services, as well as the civilians (such as Dr Matthews) working to serve them.