USA or PRC?"Lately, I find myself worrying about my adopted country, the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. ," wrote Chinese emigrant EMIGRANT. One who quits his country for any lawful reason, with a design to settle elsewhere, and who takes his family and property, if he has any, with him. Vatt. b. 1, c. 19, Sec. 224. intellectual Liu Baifang in an October 26 Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times Morning daily newspaper. Established in 1881, it was purchased and incorporated in 1884 by Harrison Gray Otis (1837–1917) under The Times-Mirror Co. (the hyphen was later dropped from the name). opinion column. "I'm alarmed that dissent is increasingly less tolerated, and that those in power seem unable to resist trying to intimidate those who speak their minds. I grew up in the People's Republic People's Republic n. A political organization founded and controlled by a national Communist party. of China [PRC], so I know how it is to live in a place where voicing opinions that differ from official orthodoxy can be dangerous, and 1 tear that model." While America remains immeasurably freer than the totalitarian state Noun 1. totalitarian state - a government that subordinates the individual to the state and strictly controls all aspects of life by coercive measures totalitation regime he fled in 1977, Liu sees ominous signs that the American government "is veering toward the authoritarian world that speaks in one voice, the very political model it has so often stood against," he writes. One small but telling example he cites is President Bush's press conferences, which "seem to me to have become more and more like those held by the Chinese Communist Party Chinese Communist party: see Communist party, in China. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Political party founded in China in 1921 by Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, Mao Zedong, and others. : Nothing but the official line is given, and probing questions from reporters, which are crucial to advancing the public's understanding of the government's actions, are often evaded or ignored," continues Liu. Another example was the administration's apparent retaliation against former State Department envoy Joseph C. Wilson, who debunked the administration's claim that Iraq had tried to acquire uranium from Nigeria. After Wilson published an op-ed column critical of the administration, "someone in the administration allegedly leaked information to the press that Wilson's wife was an undercover CIA CIA: see Central Intelligence Agency. (1) (Confidentiality Integrity Authentication) The three important concerns with regards to information security. Encryption is used to provide confidentiality (privacy, secrecy). agent." "When honest government officials and outspoken citizens are ignored or, worse, marked for intimidation, it begins to seem that the Bush administration is acting more in keeping with Lenin's notion of democratic centralism than with the founding fathers" notion of the necessity of a sometimes inquisitive citizenry and a free press," Liu warns. "I am getting a whiff of the Leninism with which I grew up in the air of today's America, and it makes me feel increasingly uneasy." |
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