This Is Not America

      Three intellectuals were detained on December 13 who have been critical of the government. Relatives of the three were handed a warrant that said they was suspected of "participating in activities harmful to the state. These detentions are the latest in an effort of the governments attempts to crack down on media and writings that speak out against the state. While this sounds like one of the latest stories to come out of DC lately, the twist to this story is that this all happened in China. If you read the story and replace Yu Jie, Liu Xiaobo, and Zhang Zuhua with John Williams, Carl Lampher, and Richard Smith, you would not be surprised to think that it was an American headline. This fits in nicely with the story of DC wanting to crack down on political free speech for the internet. Along with other stories of crack downs of free speech in the past few months, it leaves one to wonder, "Is China really the example that we want to follow even though we are financing our country from them?"