In the same day that China announced a return of the E3 reconnaissance plane from Hainan Island, China imprisoned US National Li Shaomin, a business professor at City University in Hong Kong.
He went to China to visit a friend. He didn’t return.
In addition to American Wu Jianming, China has two US citizens detained for “state crimes and espionage [for Taiwan].”
Two US Nationals in Chinese prison would exceed the limit of ordinary Americans. That limit is zero.
Li Shaomin is the author of several books on business and society. One of his recent publications discussed the evolution of Taiwan’s political institutions and democracy. He held that China could learn from the renegade province and gradually implement democratic institutions.
Those thoughts are patriotic yet romantic views of what China could be without the 54 million corrupt scumbags that run the country as members of the Chinese Communist Party.
Even more disturbing, however, is the fact that the US Government and the US Media is not making the detention crisis as much of a priority as they did for a destroyed reconnaissance plane with equipment dutifully destroyed by US military personnel before Chinese authorities could get to it.
The US Government is beholden to business interests in China. There’s too much money at stake to worry about a couple of Americans that essentially don’t count because of the pervasive nature of US racism.
If the US Government knows what’s important, they’ll take a hard line on getting the Americans out of prison. Even if it means losing the spy plane, this should be where State Department priorities are.
