Red- uh, Mainland- China Again

The Associated Press reports today, 3/7/08, "China will be stricter on foreign performers after Icelandic singer Bjork shouted "Tibet! Tibet!" at the end of her concert in Shanghai this week, the government said Friday," apparently after performance of her song "Declare Independence."

Chinese sensitivity, and resort to totalitarian tactics, over oppression of the Himalayan region is not surprising, given that it is, after all, a totalitarian state. (I hesitate to note that the government's concern that the comment "hurt Chinese people's feelings" brings to mind the impetus behind so many speech codes in our own country, though not so much as to prevent me from mentioning it.) The response of the "Culture Ministry" to what we Americans, and much of the world, recognize as legitimate (even mild) political expression should remind us of the nature of the Chinese regime, especially alarming in the world's largest nation.