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Story by BEIJING (Reuters),
China unveiled another double-digit rise in military expenditure on Tuesday, but for a third year in a row the defence budget will be exceeded by spending on domestic security, highlighting Beijing's concern about internal threats.
Spending on the People's Liberation Army (PLA) will rise 10.7% to 740.6 billion yuan, while the domestic security budget will go up at a slightly slower pace, by 8.7%, to 769.1 billion yuan, according to the budget released at the opening of parliament's annual meeting.
The numbers underscore the ruling Communist Party's vigilance not only about territorial disputes with Japan and Southeast Asia and the U.S. "pivot" back to the region, but also about popular unrest over corruption, pollution and abuse of power, despite robust economic growth and rising incomes.
The number of "mass incidents" of unrest recorded by the Chinese government grew from 8,700 in 1993 to about 90,000 in 2010, according to several government-backed studies. Some estimates are higher, and the government has not released official data for recent years.
"It shows the party is more concerned about the potential risks of destabilisation coming from inside the country than outside, which tells us the party is much less confident," said Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group.
"A confident government that is not afraid of its population doesn't need to have a budget for domestic security that is over defence spending," he added.
In his "state of the nation" address to the largely rubber-stamp legislature, Premier Wen Jiabao listed maintaining social harmony and stability as one of the government's priorities for this year.
"We should improve the mechanism for assessing potential risks major policy decisions may pose for social stability ... The purpose of this work is to preserve law and order and promote social harmony and stability."
Still, China's defence spending is contained at about 5.4% of total expenditure, up from 5.3% last year, and remains at about one-fifth of the Pentagon's outlays. But even with its worries about domestic problems, Beijing has become increasingly assertive on the world stage.
Wen said the government "should accelerate the modernisation of national defence and the armed forces ... (and) should resolutely uphold China's sovereignty, security and territorial integrity and ensure its peaceful development".
"It's not good news for the world that a country as large as China is unable to protect itself," parliament spokeswoman Fu Ying said on Monday. "China's peaceful foreign policies and its defensive military
policies are conducive to security and peace in Asia." Asian neighbours, however, have been nervous about Beijing's expanding military, and this latest double-digit rise could reinforce disquiet in Japan, India, Southeast Asia and self-ruled Taiwan, which China considers part of its territory.
A spokesman for Taiwan's main opposition Democratic Progressive Party accused China of being two-faced. "China has been stressing a peace agreement with Taipei and portraying a peaceful image, but its high military budget and provocative actions in the East and South China Seas disputes run contrary to this image," said Lin Chun-Hsien.
Japan and China have locked horns over islands each claims in the East China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines and other nations have challenged Beijing over claims to swathes of the South China Sea that could be rich in oil and gas. Over the past six months, China's stand-off with Japan over a series of uninhabited rocky islands in the Eas
East China Sea known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China has become more acrimonious.
The increase announced in the national budget is at a slightly slower pace than the 11.2 percent rise planned for last year, though actual spending in 2012 reached 691.3 billion yuan compared with the budgeted 670.3 billion yuan.
Dog Lover, the most hardworking CCP mouthpiece, keeps conveying a message that CCP is vigorously preparing to go to war. If CCP is peaceful and harmonious as she claims herself to be, there's no need to keep mentioning war.
Answer
Because, in the CCP mindset, Harmony = Homogeneity
Because, in the CCP mindset, Harmony = Homogeneity
What are some of the core beliefs of Scientology?
Frankenste
I have never read L. Ron Hubbards book, "Dyanetics", and know it is considered to be the bible for Scientology. I probably will never read it, but want to know the key factors of this religion, which seems to have a few followers who when talking seem to be normal, with the exception of Tom Cruise. What has caused this religion to become popular, which was introduced by a science fiction writer?
Wow! I really don't know what's worse. Someone making fun of others beliefs, which I think was Hubbards true intention by creating such a comic book story, or anyone actually believing that any of his science fiction writing to be true. I think like any religion, there are words of wisdom for people, and Scientology may have some good ideas about making people successful in life, as do most other religions. But for anyone to actually consider that any of the alien part of the story to have actually occurred as compared to some kind of symbolism, or just a good sci-fi story, they have to be a little out of their mind, if not totally. I bet Hubbard gathered a flock of people even before he considered making any money off his flock. If you have followers who throw money at you, why not lead them? And if the follower is making money in the process, why not follow? I think Scientology might be a clean and sober way of life, but is geared as a business. The new religion is money.
I can only comment on things as I see them. Scientology is more of a mystery to me than most religions, and I think it's due to the fact I have never heard anyone really talk about what goes on in it. I can see where it works for many people, but I still don't see why it is labeled a religion as compared to a self help course. I'm glad it works for some people, because I believe many people need some kind of path to follow. I will not knock any religion that is aimed at making someone a better person by becoming more in tune with theirselves and their surroundings, as long as it is not at the expense of others. I think L. Ron Hubbard was extremely successful in life, by the amount of money and material posessions he obtained, as well as a very large following, but I think that his bazarre stories of alien souls attaching themselves to humans were a product of his wild imagination that drew the interest of many people. I guess faith in oneself might be the best faith to have?
Answer
They believe many things, including the notion that we are all eternally existing souls called "Thetans", that we can each control matter, energy, space and time by will alone once we reach our true potential, that the concept of a messiah is a mental implant, that our bodies are infested with the murdered souls of aliens from 75 million years ago, that psychiatry is orchestrating a worldwide conspiracy, and that mental illness does not exist. Here's a more detailed overview:
Scientology, which questionably calls itself a new "religion", is the brainchild of 1950âs science fiction writer & occult enthusiast L. Ron Hubbard. The organization, by means of Hubbardâs self created psychotherapy technique called âDianeticsâ, claims to be able to help rid members of any & all mental constraints including but not limited to emotional scarring (from this & "past" lives) due to "engrams" (past negative experiences stored in our unconscious mind), psychological disorders & chemical imbalances (the solution is to convince members that these things don't actually exist) & drug dependence (including legally prescribed psychopharmaceuticals which counteract the effects of psychological disorders Scientologists believe to be nonexistent). Their âtreatmentâ of substance abuse includes little more than massive, often dangerous doses of vitamins and unhealthy extended sessions in a sauna.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianetics#Scientific_evaluation_and_criticisms
Dianetics review: http://dir.salon.com/story/books/review/2005/06/28/dianetics/index.html
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,812852,00.html
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Narconon/detox.htm
http://www.nypress.com/20/22/news&columns/feature.cfm
Scientology is most certainly NOT a religion. In fact, one of the only reasons they enjoy "tax exempt status" on religious ground in the United States is because they bullied the IRS into a "deal" through extremely aggressive barratry (which is the offense of persistently instigating groundless lawsuits) against said government agency & its officials, & arranged to drop all 2,500 frivolous lawsuits only when an "agreement" was reached. In addition, Scientology's lawyers hired private investigators to dig up any "dirt" on IRS agents which was then used to blackmail or publicly smear all "vulnerable" agents. It was an all-out WAR that Scientology had waged against the IRS, & was even described as such by Scientology's "CEO", David Miscavige, in his 1993 speech to the International Association of Scientologists.
http://legalminds.lp.findlaw.com/list/fedtax-l/msg00445.html
http://www.lermanet.com/scientologynews/nytimes/nyt-irs-030997.htm
http://www.factnet.org/headlines/give-away.htm
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Cowen/essays/irs.html
The official Scientology organization is composed of a number of âlevelsâ. One begins as a âpreclearâ & works their way up. One must purchase virtually every service crucial to advancement directly from the "church" & at staggering prices. "Auditing", for example, is purchased in 12½ hour blocks, costing anywhere from $200-$750 for introductory sessions to between $8,000 & $9,000 for advanced sessions. Basically, Scientology claims to possess exclusive knowledge of the path to religious redemption & then charges obscene amounts of money for every tiny incremental step towards this end. Visit this link to see how $380,000 is a conservative estimate for the total cost of moving all the way up the Scientology hierarchal ladder:
http://www.xenu.net/archive/prices.html
These are the total costs for auditing alone:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_as_a_business#Costs
Hereâs an explanation of what âauditingâ is:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061224182319AA2nnd6
At level OT III (Operating Thetan Level 3), some very strange & fiercely guarded secrets are imparted upon worthy members who have paid enough money to advance to such a level (and no, this isn't a joke): The evil alien ruler Xenu killed millions of aliens (Thetans) from around the universe by kidnapping them, bringing them to earth in golden DC-8 âspace-planesâ, stacking them around volcanoes & blowing them up by dropping âh-bombsâ into the volcanoes. Scientologists believe the souls of these aliens (these souls are "Body Thetans") were captured, brainwashed & released; they then attached themselves to our ancestors (and according to Scientologyâs belief in Thetan immortality, they also attached to us during âpast livesâ) & cause many of our mental & physical ills to this day. Auditing is said to âclearâ us of these Body Thetans as well as the âmental implantsâ they supposedly impose on our minds.
http://www.spaink.net/cos/essays/atack_ot3.html
http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/spaink-ot3.html
http://xenu.net/archive/leaflet/Xenu-Letter.pdf
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/OTIII/
Scientology has taken a very hostile stance towards psychiatry & psychiatric drugs irrespective of the fact that some people require medication to remain adequately functional during everyday life. It doesnât recognize legitimate conditions like autism, epilepsy, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or ANY neurological disorder / chemical imbalance at all, & the âchurchâ has been known to withhold prescription pharmaceuticals from members (often with harmful & deadly results). The âChurchâ blames psychiatry for the Holocaust, as well as school shootings & even September 11th. Itâs been suggested that Hubbardâs vehement opposition was born of the psychiatric communityâs rejection of his âtechâ as a valid treatment method, but itâs also possible that Hubbard chose psychiatry as a scapegoat. Organizations like Scientology are notorious for villainizing a specific out-group because their âstand against the enemyâ fosters cohesion within said organization, & psychiatry was an effective rallying point considering many people already distrust & oppose the mental health profession.
http://www.anti-scientologie.ch/usa-scientology.htm
http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=3137&IssueNum=136
http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/07/01/sci_psy/index_np.html?pn=1
http://perkinstragedy.org
L. Ron Hubbard, the man behind the creation of Scientology, was & still is a controversial figure. Biographies & lists of personal accomplishments differ greatly between Scientology & non-Scientology publications as the âchurchâ tends to exaggerate & outright lie about his early life, his education, his travels, his achievements etc, preferring to paint a distorted, flattering picture. Several books & articles present facts which flatly contradict these church-published accounts (links to free online copies of these books & articles are provided below), showing conclusively that he was NOT the brilliant, accomplished figure revered by Scientologists. During his autopsy, the sedative Vistaril⢠was present in his body, which several of his assistants would later attest was only one of many psychiatric & pain medications Hubbard ingested over the years. It had also been said by many who knew Hubbard personally that at the end of his life he was âa psychopathic insane person screaming about BT's [Body Thetans]â¦â
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/Bare%20Faced%20Messiah.pdf
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/atack/contents.htm
http://www.clambake.org/archive/books/mom/Messiah_or_Madman.txt
http://lisatrust.bogie.nl/scientology/essays/jeff-hubbard.htm
To be blunt, Scientology is a cult. It employs semi-legitimate psychotherapy & self-help methods to keep people loyal & convinced of its merit while it simultaneously sucks them dry financially & attempts to keep them far away from ANYONE, even friends & family, who would dissuade them from remaining in such a harmful situation. It bullies all known critics, opponents, âenemiesâ, etc, often through malicious litigation & character assassination. Itâs a particularly greedy as well as manipulative & dangerous cult that takes its anti-psychiatry fanaticism to deadly limits.
http://www.solitarytrees.net/racism/harass.htm#start
http://www.factnet.org/Books/SocialControl/scs.html#toc
http://www.garloff.de/kurt/sekten/mind1.html
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/24/Tampabay/The_unperson.shtml
http://www.xenu.net/archive/personal_story/funkydonny.html
They believe many things, including the notion that we are all eternally existing souls called "Thetans", that we can each control matter, energy, space and time by will alone once we reach our true potential, that the concept of a messiah is a mental implant, that our bodies are infested with the murdered souls of aliens from 75 million years ago, that psychiatry is orchestrating a worldwide conspiracy, and that mental illness does not exist. Here's a more detailed overview:
Scientology, which questionably calls itself a new "religion", is the brainchild of 1950âs science fiction writer & occult enthusiast L. Ron Hubbard. The organization, by means of Hubbardâs self created psychotherapy technique called âDianeticsâ, claims to be able to help rid members of any & all mental constraints including but not limited to emotional scarring (from this & "past" lives) due to "engrams" (past negative experiences stored in our unconscious mind), psychological disorders & chemical imbalances (the solution is to convince members that these things don't actually exist) & drug dependence (including legally prescribed psychopharmaceuticals which counteract the effects of psychological disorders Scientologists believe to be nonexistent). Their âtreatmentâ of substance abuse includes little more than massive, often dangerous doses of vitamins and unhealthy extended sessions in a sauna.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianetics#Scientific_evaluation_and_criticisms
Dianetics review: http://dir.salon.com/story/books/review/2005/06/28/dianetics/index.html
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,812852,00.html
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Narconon/detox.htm
http://www.nypress.com/20/22/news&columns/feature.cfm
Scientology is most certainly NOT a religion. In fact, one of the only reasons they enjoy "tax exempt status" on religious ground in the United States is because they bullied the IRS into a "deal" through extremely aggressive barratry (which is the offense of persistently instigating groundless lawsuits) against said government agency & its officials, & arranged to drop all 2,500 frivolous lawsuits only when an "agreement" was reached. In addition, Scientology's lawyers hired private investigators to dig up any "dirt" on IRS agents which was then used to blackmail or publicly smear all "vulnerable" agents. It was an all-out WAR that Scientology had waged against the IRS, & was even described as such by Scientology's "CEO", David Miscavige, in his 1993 speech to the International Association of Scientologists.
http://legalminds.lp.findlaw.com/list/fedtax-l/msg00445.html
http://www.lermanet.com/scientologynews/nytimes/nyt-irs-030997.htm
http://www.factnet.org/headlines/give-away.htm
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Cowen/essays/irs.html
The official Scientology organization is composed of a number of âlevelsâ. One begins as a âpreclearâ & works their way up. One must purchase virtually every service crucial to advancement directly from the "church" & at staggering prices. "Auditing", for example, is purchased in 12½ hour blocks, costing anywhere from $200-$750 for introductory sessions to between $8,000 & $9,000 for advanced sessions. Basically, Scientology claims to possess exclusive knowledge of the path to religious redemption & then charges obscene amounts of money for every tiny incremental step towards this end. Visit this link to see how $380,000 is a conservative estimate for the total cost of moving all the way up the Scientology hierarchal ladder:
http://www.xenu.net/archive/prices.html
These are the total costs for auditing alone:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_as_a_business#Costs
Hereâs an explanation of what âauditingâ is:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061224182319AA2nnd6
At level OT III (Operating Thetan Level 3), some very strange & fiercely guarded secrets are imparted upon worthy members who have paid enough money to advance to such a level (and no, this isn't a joke): The evil alien ruler Xenu killed millions of aliens (Thetans) from around the universe by kidnapping them, bringing them to earth in golden DC-8 âspace-planesâ, stacking them around volcanoes & blowing them up by dropping âh-bombsâ into the volcanoes. Scientologists believe the souls of these aliens (these souls are "Body Thetans") were captured, brainwashed & released; they then attached themselves to our ancestors (and according to Scientologyâs belief in Thetan immortality, they also attached to us during âpast livesâ) & cause many of our mental & physical ills to this day. Auditing is said to âclearâ us of these Body Thetans as well as the âmental implantsâ they supposedly impose on our minds.
http://www.spaink.net/cos/essays/atack_ot3.html
http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/spaink-ot3.html
http://xenu.net/archive/leaflet/Xenu-Letter.pdf
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/OTIII/
Scientology has taken a very hostile stance towards psychiatry & psychiatric drugs irrespective of the fact that some people require medication to remain adequately functional during everyday life. It doesnât recognize legitimate conditions like autism, epilepsy, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or ANY neurological disorder / chemical imbalance at all, & the âchurchâ has been known to withhold prescription pharmaceuticals from members (often with harmful & deadly results). The âChurchâ blames psychiatry for the Holocaust, as well as school shootings & even September 11th. Itâs been suggested that Hubbardâs vehement opposition was born of the psychiatric communityâs rejection of his âtechâ as a valid treatment method, but itâs also possible that Hubbard chose psychiatry as a scapegoat. Organizations like Scientology are notorious for villainizing a specific out-group because their âstand against the enemyâ fosters cohesion within said organization, & psychiatry was an effective rallying point considering many people already distrust & oppose the mental health profession.
http://www.anti-scientologie.ch/usa-scientology.htm
http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=3137&IssueNum=136
http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/07/01/sci_psy/index_np.html?pn=1
http://perkinstragedy.org
L. Ron Hubbard, the man behind the creation of Scientology, was & still is a controversial figure. Biographies & lists of personal accomplishments differ greatly between Scientology & non-Scientology publications as the âchurchâ tends to exaggerate & outright lie about his early life, his education, his travels, his achievements etc, preferring to paint a distorted, flattering picture. Several books & articles present facts which flatly contradict these church-published accounts (links to free online copies of these books & articles are provided below), showing conclusively that he was NOT the brilliant, accomplished figure revered by Scientologists. During his autopsy, the sedative Vistaril⢠was present in his body, which several of his assistants would later attest was only one of many psychiatric & pain medications Hubbard ingested over the years. It had also been said by many who knew Hubbard personally that at the end of his life he was âa psychopathic insane person screaming about BT's [Body Thetans]â¦â
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/Bare%20Faced%20Messiah.pdf
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/atack/contents.htm
http://www.clambake.org/archive/books/mom/Messiah_or_Madman.txt
http://lisatrust.bogie.nl/scientology/essays/jeff-hubbard.htm
To be blunt, Scientology is a cult. It employs semi-legitimate psychotherapy & self-help methods to keep people loyal & convinced of its merit while it simultaneously sucks them dry financially & attempts to keep them far away from ANYONE, even friends & family, who would dissuade them from remaining in such a harmful situation. It bullies all known critics, opponents, âenemiesâ, etc, often through malicious litigation & character assassination. Itâs a particularly greedy as well as manipulative & dangerous cult that takes its anti-psychiatry fanaticism to deadly limits.
http://www.solitarytrees.net/racism/harass.htm#start
http://www.factnet.org/Books/SocialControl/scs.html#toc
http://www.garloff.de/kurt/sekten/mind1.html
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/24/Tampabay/The_unperson.shtml
http://www.xenu.net/archive/personal_story/funkydonny.html
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