back
6 comments
The current 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, was recognized by the 14th Dalai Lama on 14 May 1995. Three days later, the 6 year old Panchen Lama was kidnapped by the Chinese government and his family was taken into custody. The Chinese government instead named Gyaltsen Norbu as the 11th Panchen Lama. Their nomination has been widely rejected by Buddhists in Tibet and abroad, while governments have called for information about and the release of the Panchen Lama. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima has never been publicly seen since 1995.[10][11]
Sad case. Hard to think about. I tried to figure out if a "misunderstanding" was plausible or not.

This reddit post[1] claims to have a human translation of Peng Shuai's original accusation. In the comments there are a few people talking about whether words should get translated as rape or not.

Other commenters go back and forth over whether America has the moral high ground to condemn this behavior among the Chinese. On the one hand, if Joe Biden had sent a car to pickup a young tennis player, bring her back, and then pressure her into having sex, then it would have been a national scandal. On the other hand, if the US irresponsibly blew up 80 innocent women in Syria most people wouldn't bat an eye and there would be no repercussions, and isn't it worse to murder 80 than rape?

If I'm understanding her post correctly then there is no real way it could be a misunderstanding - unless she means she was lying about some part(s). I can't tell, per translation difficulties, whether this was forcible rape or something slightly lower on the coercion scale, but either way, seems bad. How she was treated after the fact seems bad too.

I find it very depressing to think that there will be no real accountability. Peng Shuai is just one woman, and surely other and more extreme, abuses must be happening regularly. A culture of authoritarianism that punishes those who speak out must be crawling with bad behavior just beneath the surface.

And yet, the worst part is that American and Western people will continue to enable China's bad behavior by continuing to work and trade with China. It's profitable to do so.

1 - https://www.reddit.com/r/tennis/comments/qmn69a/full_transla...

The previous US president was quite open about him assaulting woman, and there were no consequences whatsoever. People still work and trade with US.
I mostly agree with the moral high ground dilemma. An important distinction is that in free countries we can at least talk about (let alone protest) bad behavior, and without fear of being disappeared. That's a real path toward positive change that doesn't exist in China.
Because of course people in China can't protest.

"The number of annual protests has grown steadily since the early 1990s, from approximately 8,700 "mass group incidents" in 1993[1] to over 87,000 in 2005.[2] In 2006, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences estimated the number of annual mass incidents to exceed 90,000, and Chinese sociology professor Sun Liping estimated 180,000 incidents in 2010.[3][4]"

Remember also that Peng Shuai never disappeared.