Open Sources

Open News has published a whole series of articles about the conditions at Camp 12, Chongo-Ri, based in part on interviews with a newly escaped female prisoner:

– Female prisoners at the camp make wigs and false eyelashes for export.
– Visitation rights afforded to prisoners.
– How prisoners are stripped of their dignity.
– How prisoners are prepared for release.

I believe these are images of Camp 12, although the lack of a perimeter fence surprises me, and it’s remarkable to think that 3,000 prisoners could be packed into such a tiny compound.

Former North Korean gulag prisoners illustrate their memories.

So North Korea circumvents South Korean trade sanctions by transshipping its products through China. Yes, and they also circumvent a number of U.N. Security Council resolutions the very same way. In fact, one of North Korea’s most important markets for its counterfeit cigarettes is the United States itself. This is why I say sanction the entire North Korean government under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act. In the end, these people can hardly think non-criminally. They take pleasure in flaunting every law and standard of civilized humanity.

Is anyone else skeptical about a New York Times reporter’s assurance that Hu Jintao’s request to hear “a famous anti-American propaganda melody from the Korean War” at the White House “clearly was unintentional” rather than a deliberate insult contrived for uber-nationalist Chinese netizens? Me neither. After all, to believe that, you’d have to believe that the rank amateurs at the Epoch Times know something about the pathology of the Chinese regime that the finest journalistic minds at the New York Times can’t grasp.

And yet some of the peasants continue to harbor incorrect thoughts:

Of course, sarcastic animations and other web jokes about these incidents are common. What is not common is the end of the video, which depicts a rabbit rebellion where masses of rabbits storm the castle of the tigers and eat them alive. For viewers who have already gathered that in this picture, rabbits represent ordinary Chinese people and the tigers represent the government/the powerful, this is a revolutionary”“literally”“statement. The clip ends with what seems almost like a call to arms for the new year, with Kuang Kuang saying it will be a meaningful (有意义, could also be translated as “important”) year and then the end title reading: “The year of the rabbit has come. Even rabbits bite when they’re pushed.

This isn’t the bullshit so-called “inciting to subvert state power” that Liu Xiaobo was given eleven years for. This video is actually inciting people to subvert state power. [China Geeks blog, emphasis in original]

Unlike the author of this post, I happen to think that the fear of losing their necks is the only thing that will drive the Mandarins to moderate China’s oppressive and corrupt character. The Mandarins won’t fear for their necks unless someone steps up to challenge the state, and the state has closed off all avenues for anyone to challenge it peacefully. Other than rising up, what’s really left? The best thing we can hope for now is that the uprisings will be big enough to force change, yet small enough not to throw the entire society into war and chaos. Hat tip to a reader.