Pelosi's Office Doctors Transcript After Nancy Calls China 'One of the Freest Societies In the World'

Brittany M. Hughes | August 9, 2022
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Last Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she'd always felt a strong connection with China because as a kid, she thought she could dig a hole on the beach and actually get there.

And considering what a bang-up country she apparently believes it to be, maybe she should have.

Speaking in defense of her "One China" platform Tuesday, Pelosi, who recently returned from a trip to several Indo-Pacific countries, called China "one of the freest societies in the world" during an interview with NBC's Today Show.

"We still support the One China policy. We go there to acknowledge the status quo is what our policy is. There was nothing disruptive about that. It was only about saying China is one of the freest societies in the world," Pelosi told Savannah Guthrie. "Don't take it from me.  That's from Freedom House. It’s a strong democracy."

"Freest societies in the world"? 

Perhaps Nancy would like to take a look at the State Department's own 2021 human rights report, which describes China as "an authoritarian state in which the Chinese Communist Party is the paramount authority."

And - ready for this? - it goes on:

Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: arbitrary or unlawful killings by the government; forced disappearances by the government; torture by the government; harsh and life-threatening prison and detention conditions; arbitrary detention by the government, including the mass detention of more than one million Uyghurs and members of other predominantly Muslim minority groups in extrajudicial internment camps and an additional two million subjected to daytime-only “re-education” training; political prisoners; politically motivated reprisal against individuals outside the country; the lack of an independent judiciary and Communist Party control over the judicial and legal system; arbitrary interference with privacy including pervasive and intrusive technical surveillance and monitoring; punishment of family members for offenses allegedly committed by an individual; serious restrictions on free expression and media, including physical attacks on and criminal prosecution of journalists, lawyers, writers, bloggers, dissidents, petitioners, and others as well as their family members; serious restrictions on internet freedom, including site blocking; substantial interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, including overly restrictive laws that apply to foreign and domestic nongovernmental organizations; severe restrictions and suppression of religious freedom; substantial restrictions on freedom of movement; refoulement of asylum seekers to North Korea, where they have a well founded fear of persecution, including torture and sexual violence; the inability of citizens to choose their government peacefully through free and fair elections; serious restrictions on political participation; serious acts of government corruption; forced sterilization and coerced abortions; trafficking in persons, including forced labor; violence targeting members of national, racial, and ethnic minority groups; severe restrictions on labor rights, including a ban on workers organizing or joining unions of their own choosing; and child labor.


Oh, and also that whole murdering Uyghurs thing.

Related: Biden Forgets He Already Shook Schumer's Hand - After Only Four Seconds

Pelosi's office must have known her waxing poetic about a communist dictatorship would go over like a lead balloon. In the official transcript of her interview posted on the House Speaker's website, Pelosi's statement has been altered to sound as though she meant to call Taiwan a free society, reading instead:

"It was only about saying [Taiwan] is one of the freest societies in the world. Don't take it from me. That's from Freedom House."

Pelosi3

Sure, Nancy.

Still think you can dig that hole? I'll go get you a shovel.

 

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