Regarding the upcoming olymipc games i've just read another article about how the chinese government (mis)uses the internet in a very effective way and silences chinese people who have a different opinion than they want them to have. It's scary how easily they can organise mobs to terrorise their own people. It isn't the first article i've read about using them such practices and they also don't seem to stop with such actions inside their country as they also motivate their people to flood foreign media this way if they aren't reporting the way they like it.
I always thought that the internet is really good for the world in terms of that it enables a worldwide communication for a lot of people and so helps somehow growing together. But this is quite the opposite of what i would have expected. It's interesting when you're reading newspapers which also deal with international politics to see that a large part of the world has nothing in common with basic values which for instance are normal to people living in europe. It can really make you kind of sad and give you some taste of the stoneage.
Having lived in China, I can tell you that life isn't remotely how you'd imagine it to be from reading or watching Western news reports. You know, propaganda exists in all countries; one might argue that it is simply more subtle and sophisticated in Western ones.
Having said this, I don't condone the more extreme and brutal methods of control that the Chinese government occasionally resorts to. But you need to understand that the Chinese have a different concept of human rights. Recently, Luo Haocai, the China Society for Human Rights Studies director, said:
"China believes human rights like other rights are not 'absolute' and the rights enjoyed should conform to obligations fulfilled. China opposes separating rights from obligations."
I agree with this, but this philosophical difference between Western and Chinese thought is a major source of misunderstanding between cultures. Unfortunately, the press - both Western and Eastern - often fail to report the news in a sufficiently nuanced manner (often due to a combination of a lack of understanding, a political agenda, and commercial considerations) to make this clear. They're more interested in sensationalising the news and emphasising the worst extremes - that's what people want to read and hear about.
What people often fail to understand is that many Chinese people don't need to be manipulated to express hatred for foreigners or to engage in activism (although they are manipulated, none the less). Believe it or not, but the policies of the Chinese government that seem most ludicrous often reflect the opinions of the Chinese public.
I respect your points, and many of them are valid, but they seem rather simplistic and naive to me. I particularly object to the implication that if european values are right and good and just, other value systems (in this case Chinese ones) must be wrong and bad and unjust. It's not as simple - not as black and white - as that.
Best thing to do is 'invert' anything you're told through the media.
It's what they don't say that's the real news at any rate.
Ive been to china.
The people / country are lovely. I found them to be friendly, helpful and hospitable and you get a sense of personal safety when travelling there.
When i arrived in china from laos i sent a week in hospital with a septic and severely laccerated foot that i got while kayaking (on the namrik river in laos). People were very helpful to me on the 3 sizes too small crutches and would actually let me go first, sit down etc (this comming from people whos concept of an orderly civillized queue is non existant!).
Also, the hospitals do not feed patients, thats the families job. I had told my companions to go off and i would catch them up later leaving me in a 100% non english speaking environment (inc staff). However, the family of the guy in the bed next to me fed me too, and i even taught their son (injured in a streetfight) some basic english words.
However the authorities are a TOTALLY different picture and can be frightening.
Some examples:
1- Upon entering china from Laos I was detained for almost 2 hours while a very strict, serious (and very sexy) woman in millitary attire questioned me repeatedly on where i had been, what i was doing there, where was i going, where was i from etc.. etc..
2- I was on a very overcrowded bus in Kunming, the police came abord and squezed through the mass of people checking IDs and asking questions in an agressive tone. I asked the chinese guy i was with afterwards wether they were looking for a criminal or something, he said no, it was just a routine (and regular) patrol practise.
3- Going from Gualin province to hong kong through the "special financial zone" on a 24 hour busride, i had just got to sleep when an armed police patrol got on the bus, shouting at everyone, shining torches in faces and checking IDs. Mine was in my pocket but my friends was in his backpack underneath. So he was hurried off the bus and the lugage hold emptied whilst they found his bags which were then emptied and searched.
4- Internet cafes all have tight survellance and ID needed to be shown before use and numbers recorded.
So while the culture, people & country are fantastic, the "authorities" are quite horrid.
Bah, no politics, not even tainted technology politics please.