On his recent interview with Wen Jiabao, which also happened to be his first contribution to Time magazine after moving from Newsweek, Fareed Zakaria asked some questions that revealed a lot of chinese premier Wen Jaibao's thinking. The entire script can be found at CNN.com at this link.
One that really struck me as hilarious was his answer regarding Freedom of Speech. His reply was basically people can read and say anything they want EXCEPT anything we don't want them to read or say. I laughed on this one.
It is all too famous that if you search certain topics, such as Tiananmen Square, you run in to what has been lovingly named the "Great Firewall of China". Among those banned topics is the famouse jailed political activist Liu Xiaobo, who recently received the NOBEL F***ING PEACE PRIZE. And yet, any internet search of his name will only reveal a few very critical article regarding his activities, according to an article in a recent Newsweek issue. I also read, I think on CNN.com, that some chinese college student, when asked if he knew about Liu Xiaobo receiving the Nobel prize, replied something to the effect of "I don't know who it is, but it must be a great leader in the party, to be able to recieve such an honorable award!" Only people who have the skills to get past the firewall had access to this knowledge, and even then their posts on the web were deleted almost instantaneously.
Freedom of Speech? Nope. Freedom to be under the illusion that you have freedom of speech until you actually excersise it and then get arrested and jailed? Yes.
Just look at the fact that Liu Xiaobo's wife, who is A FREE INDIVIDUAL, was detained at home and was not allowed to meet anyone following her husband's receiving the Nobel peace prize. Reporters gathered in front of her home, some of them had been INVITED by her and yet the chinese police barred them from entering. Liu Xiaobo himself? Probably doesn't even know it. No one in the outside world has been able to talk to him pretty much since his arrest. We don't even know for sure that he is alive. We can only guess he is alive because of the trouble that would arise if it was discovered that he died/was killed.
To be honest, I have a lot of problems with China. Politicial, economical, historical, you name it. It's the people's, and the leader's mindset that infuriates me. It's almost as despicable as those of Republicans and Tea Partyers. It was awesome when some chinese girl in my class suddenly spoke up about the Dalai Lama and said he is a violent person who instigates violence in younger men for his own selfish political agenda. It's also great how they are clashing with Japan right now regarding the controversial islands. It's also great how they treat Korea (historical issues there, it's complicated). It's incredible how they invite foreign investors in with lures such as low labor cost and then screw them over once they are in.
It's not that the US was any greater. The US also engaged in racist propaganda, violated a LOT of human rights and did things that were unethical even by standards of back then. We massacared native americans, took their land, enslaved black people of hunderds of years, discriminiated against "minorities" until VERY recently (it still happens but at least by law it's not SUPPOSED to happen). We impose our will pretty much by force on many countries for our own benefit. We tried to ASSASSINATE leaders of other countries because we deemed them "dangerous". We screwed over Afghanistan, and we also screwed over Iraq, all because we were incompetent and couldn't get our shit together, and I can only hope we don't try the same crap on Iran. We broker unfair Trade deals with other countries such as Japan or Korea, press sanctions on countries that don't follow our will and pressure other countries to join in, and punish those who don't follow. Nope, we are not a group of angels. It's a wonder we are not MORE hated in the world.
It's just that.....in my eyes, China is twice as bad. At least.
Norpocalypse
11 years ago
