Tag: democracy

An Attack on Democracy: The Burning of Australia’s Old Parliament House

Commentary It has been widely reported that on Dec. 30, 2021, a group of protestors, carrying Aboriginal flags, gathered outside the Old Parliament House in Canberra, the capital city of Australia, and set the front entrance to the heritage listed building ablaze. It was the second such incident; the first one occurred on Dec. 21,…


New York Times Charges Democracy Threatened, Fails to Look in the Mirror

Commentary The lot of a columnist is not an enviable one. It’s the details and the logistics that weigh one down. It’s hard to keep everything straight. Just now, for example, I was looking over “Every Day Is Jan. 6 Now,” the cheery New Year’s message from our former paper of record. It’s signed by…


Burma Court Jails Celebrities Who Supported Democracy Protests

A court in military-ruled Burma (also known as Myanmar) jailed three prominent show business figures for three years each on Thursday for their part in protests against a February coup, media reported. The military overthrew an elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, triggering protests and turmoil that is still unfolding….


How Democracy Was Dismantled in Hong Kong in 2021

HONG KONG—For Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, 2021 has been a year in which the city’s authorities and the central government in Beijing stamped out nearly everything it had stood for. Activists have fled abroad or been locked up under a draconian new National Security Law imposed on the city. Opposition voices have been driven out…


It’s the CCP That Thwarted Democracy in Hong Kong

Commentary The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) published a white paper on Dec. 20 that condemned the British government for not granting the Hong Kong people democratic election during its 150 years of colonial rule. The CCP then claimed that Hong Kong had to wait until its reversion back to Chinese sovereignty that its people could…


Please—Stop the Coup Porn

Commentary In a recent Washington Post op-ed, three retired generals, Paul Eaton, Antonio Taguba, and Steven Anderson warn of a supposedly impending coup should Donald Trump be elected in 2024. The column seemed strangely timed to coincide with a storm of recent Democratic talking points that a re-elected Trump, or even a Republican sweep of the 2022…


Democracy With Chinese Characteristics Debunked

News Analysis Beijing’s claim that China is a democracy according to the generally accepted definition is nonsense. In practice, China’s “whole-process people’s democracy” amounts to authoritarianism. Chinese state-run media are continuing the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) agitprop campaign aimed at denigrating the U.S.-led Democracy Summit, in which communist China was not invited, while uplifting China’s…


To the American Left: The Real Threat to Democracy Is Runaway Spending

Commentary Senator Joe Manchin—and 50 other Senators are standing up to runaway spending. A minority of them think otherwise. As a result, according to the Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, “democracy is hanging by a thread.” In truth, however, runaway spending and inflation have historically preceded the end of democracy—not fiscal prudence. The American Left…


CCP’s Suppression of Hong Kong Is ‘Wake-Up Call’ to Free World: Democracy Activist Nathan Law

The rise of Communist China is an “existential crisis” for liberal democracies around the world, according to Hong Kong democracy activist Nathan Law. “Hong Kong is a prime example of how an authoritarian regime can erode a free city… global leaders can learn from it,” Nathan Law, author of “Freedom: How We Lose It and…


Will Taiwan Defend Itself From a Chinese Attack?

Commentary At last week’s global Summit on Democracy, Washington managed to offend both Taipei and Beijing in a rare instance of unity between the two. Of course, the reasons for the unity of criticism were quite different. Beijing views Taiwan as a renegade province of the homeland and not as an independent, democratic country. It…