Democracy
DISSENT: Critics Quickly Jailed in Cuba, China, Turkey
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A renowned Chinese clean-water campaigner in the industrialized Shanghai watershed was taken from his home last week by undercover police officers on charges of blackmail. Although pollution there is bad enough to have brought visits by top Communist Party officials, Wu Lihong’s family says his work upset local officials who profit from factory taxes. Critics say Chinese harassment and detention of activists is commonplace. In Cuba, journalist Oscar Sanchez Madan was arrested, tried and jailed all on the same day; a week later, human rights advocate Rolando Jimenez Posada was given a 12-year sentence after being held without charges for four years. Both trials were held in secret, and neither had defense lawyers present.