Category: Communist regimes

What’s the state of China’s dissidents and non-state actors ?

     

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences researcher Yu Jianrong, a rural sociologist known for his social commentary and vocal advocacy for political reform, recently adopted the tone found in central Party edicts… Read more »

‘Tyrant is dead, tyranny continues’: Cuban dissidents fear post-Castro crackdown

     

While Cuban-Americans partied in the streets of Miami after Fidel Castro died, dissidents in Cuba stayed home, fearing more repression though some hope his brother Raul will enact reforms, AFP… Read more »

Defending democracy a Sisyphean task

     

History does not follow a teleological path. There is no straight road towards freedom, notes David Motadel, an Assistant Professor of International History at the London School of Economics. Throughout… Read more »

Ideologues and inertia stall Cuban reform

     

The Cuban economy is in tatters and the regime is backtracking on promises of reform, while human-rights groups say that beatings and detentions of dissidents have soared since the U.S…. Read more »

China’s ‘anxious’ core leader learned lessons from Soviet collapse, Arab Spring

     

Even in a moment of triumph, China’s president, Xi Jinping, exudes anxiety. Since the Communist Party gave Mr. Xi the exalted title of “core leader” last week, it has built… Read more »

Cuba’s reform going in reverse?

     

The slow pace of reform in Cuba is raising questions about President Raúl Castro’s legacy, reports suggest. Frustration has begun to set in, with energy cuts paralyzing production, the economy… Read more »

West’s ‘China fantasy’ a conceptual failure and strategic blunder

     

A top-level meeting of the ruling Chinese Communist Party has endorsed President Xi Jinping as a “core” leader, giving him equal billing with late supreme leaders Deng Xiaoping and Mao… Read more »

Once a symbol of hope, Hungary now a study in democratic frailty

     

Protesters with referee whistles disturbed the Hungarian government’s commemorations of the 60th anniversary of the anti-Soviet revolution of 1956 on Sunday, as supporters of Prime Minister Viktor Orban tried to… Read more »