International Law

Economist: Why Don?t More Chinese Support Torture?

By Stan

From The Economist:

Opinions on whether the use of torture should be prohibited appear to vary widely around the world. According to opinion polls conducted early in 2008 respondents in western European democracies such as Britain and Spain were most hostile to the idea of even some degree of use of torture, whereas residents in big but poorer countries such as Nigeria, Turkey and India seemed most willing to tolerate the idea (perhaps in these three cases because of violent domestic threats to political stability). Surprisingly, democracies are not necessarily more hostile to the practice than non-democracies. According to the polls, Americans are more willing to tolerate the use of torture than are Chinese.

Um, maybe I’m reading between the lines here, but doesn’t that last sentence seem to suggest that one would expect the Chinese to support torture in greater numbers than what the poll showed?

I’m not sure I follow the argument with respect to democracies, either. We are talking about an opinion poll of citizens, not a survey of government practices.

Confusing. Maybe I should just go to sleep . . .

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Full post as published by China Hearsay on August 01, 2009 (boomark / email).