A few days ago I brought up how no one really cares to point out how atrocious China’s human rights record is, and how Harper half muttered it again under his breathe after visiting the country for a spanking.
Soon after I saw Murray Dobbin had posted a hypothesis about why Harper is willing to attack the human rights record in China while overlooking atrocities in Afghanistan and other countries:
One of Harper’s most important constituencies – the anti-abortion movement – has China at the very top of its hate list. If you believe abortion is murder then there are more babies killed in China every year through abortion than in all the rest of the world combined.
Now, Harper’s association with the religious right, while somewhat quiet, is well established and you can easily find evidence of how much pro-lifers hate the Chinese government (and not just because they’re dirty Communists). So perhaps it does all make sense now.
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It looks like you/Dobbin are linking two factoids to magically conjure up a new one. Has Harper ever said what Dobbin claims?
While politicians should be distrusted as a matter of principle, they need no help in looking bad. China sucks badly on human rights but also is a positive force in the region (upsetting the Tibetian theocracy for example). This is the normal course of things – every country has pluses and minuses. And the only way to shift that is to hold up the dirty laundry for all to see. Even a religious person can get that right from time to time. Works everywhere except for Thailand, North Korea, and any place run by megalomaniacs.