China's Empire

After the chaos of the Taiwan elections, the Economist has a good article on China's concerns about its rebellious colonies (via Oxblog):

While regaining its “rebellious province” is vitally important in itself for China, the authorities in Beijing also worry that the more Taiwan asserts its independence, the more encouragement this gives to pro-democracy campaigners in Hong Kong and to those demanding greater autonomy in two troublesome western provinces, Tibet and Xanjiang (or East Turkestan, as it once was and is still called by its large Muslim minority). [...]

Having crushed an incipient pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square in 1989, the Communist Party leaders in Beijing continue to have nightmares about Taiwan’s pro-independence drive and Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement undermining their monopoly on power and causing China to unravel. This fear is fuelled by calls from Tibet and Xinjiang—annexed by China after the Communist revolution—for more autonomy, and maybe one day even independence.

In the past month, Beijing has shown some signs of easing up on dissenters. Wang Youcai, a dissident imprisoned since 1998 after helping to found the China Democracy Party, has been released, as has a Tibetan nun jailed for campaigning for independence. And the annual session of China’s parliament passed a constitutional amendment upholding human rights.

However, as Amnesty International has pointed out, the rights already enshrined in China’s constitution are widely abused and, while the parliament sat, pro-reform campaigners were being rounded up in Beijing to stop them causing embarrassment. On Monday, America asked the UN Human Rights Commission to condemn China’s “backsliding” on human rights, at which China angrily suspended all talks with America on rights-related issues. Any concessions made by Beijing towards dissidents, and any softening of its rhetoric towards Taiwan, are most likely only tactical moves aimed at reasserting the Communist Party’s grip, rather than heralding a genuine move towards liberalisation.