Last week I had a short letter in the Wall Street Journal commenting on an op-ed by Journal editorial board member Collin Levy about China's repression of religious liberty. (Years ago, by the way, when she was a rising senior at Vassar, Ms. Levy was my summer intern.) Because the Journal is behind a paywall, I reprint the letter here, then add a few comments that could not be included in a short letter. Sept. 17, 2024 In her richly informative "China Expands Its Religious Repression" (Houses of Worship, Sept. 13), Collin Levy cites "37 academics, lawyers, journalists and others who signed a letter calling on the international community to insist that China live up to its human-rights commitments." Unfortunately, China is doing just that. As with all communist constitutions, China's basic law lists rights we in the West take for granted. But at the end of that list is a general defeasance clause: "Citizens of the People's Republic of China, in exercising their freedoms and rights, may not infringe upon the interests of the state, of society, or of the collective." And who determines that? Why, the Chinese Communist Party, China's real government.
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Table of Contents
- Last week I had a short letter in the Wall Street Journal commenting on an 1
- Journal is behind a paywall I reprint the letter here then add a few 1
- Sept. 17 2024 1
- In her richly informative China Expands Its Religious Repression 1
- Houses of Worship Sept. 13 Collin Levy cites 37 academics 1
- As with all communist constitutions Chinaʼs basic law lists rights we 1
- Fidel Castro put it succinctly Within the revolution everything. 1
- Against the revolution nothing. Chinaʼs religious repression is 1
- Roger Pilon 1
- Senior fellow Cato Institute 2
- The misreading of the Chinese Constitution shown in the letter Ms. Levy 2
- Reagan administration as the director of policy for the State Departmentʼs 2
- Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs I found that even our 2
- Doing so you will also see that communist constitutions are fundamentally 2
- I brought those difference out in some detail in my chapter in a 1998 Cato 2
- Constitution makes it clear from the start that the PRC is a socialist state 2
- The document was written therefore with a specific agenda in mind 2
- This is top-down rule by the Chinese Communist Party. It should hardly 2
- Not surprisingly several of those who commented on my Journal letter 2
- After Franklin Rooseveltʼs New Deal constitutional revolution followed by 2
- Lyndon Johnsonʼs Great Society of the ʼ60s to say nothing of the agendas 2
