Human rights

On Human Rights

Featured image My assignment early this week was to offer some comments on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) at a day long conference at Mathias Corvinus Collegium, featuring a distinguished international cast of academics. Nowadays we see all around us the promiscuous claims that any good thing a liberal can dream up is asserted to be a “fundamental human right,” and while the »

COVID’s Greatest Victim: Hong Kong

Featured image Before COVID arrived, there were mass protests in Hong Kong over the ChiComms in Beijing repudiating their promise to respect Hong Hong’s democracy for 50 years following the 1997 handover. Dissidents were being arrested and jailed (Jimmy Lai is still in jail), and free elections canceled. Once COVID hit and lockdown started, any chance of mass mobilization dried up. There wouldn’t even be a chance for a Tiananman Square moment. »

Apple’s China syndrome

Featured image Lawrence Franklin’s Gatestone column discusses recently leaked documents further revealing the enormities committed by China’s regime in its Xinjiang province. It also provides a useful review of the situation to date. What is to be done? Franklin modestly conclude: “Democratic countries should distribute these leaks globally as cautionary warning to all societies that the CCP’s projected panda bear image of China obscures the reality of a quite different animal with »

Who really cares about the Uighurs?

Featured image American venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya doesn’t. He made this clear in a podcast. Among other things, he said: Nobody cares about it. Nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs, okay?… Of all the things that I care about, yes, it is below my line, okay? These comments turned out not to be “okay.” The pushback was such that Palihapitiya later tried to walk his callousness back. After a day »