Posted on 07/25/2008 2:46:56 AM PDT by robertvance
While Mao’s body has been amazingly preserved since his death in 1976, it seems that his spirit has not survived the test of time. He may lie in eternal peace inside his Mausoleum but the world around him has changed considerably; China is no longer the gray and drab country that it was during Mao’s time. It is now a place where people can dream and then go out and make that dream come true. It is not like the old days. People other than just high government officials can drive cars. Chinese people can do business and store up wealth for themselves. Peasants can go to the university now; finding food to eat is no longer such a grave concern. Just around the corner from where Chairman Mao lies in State, the American restaurant chain McDonald’s is full of Chinese people enjoying greasy food and a cool environment. Inside homes, people can watch Western movies on DVD and even occasionally on state owned television. The world is just a mouse click away for the millions of Chinese people who have access to the Internet. Friends and family are no longer afraid of discussing politics with each other. It is even acceptable to criticize the government behind closed doors. All this is happening as Chairman Mao sleeps peacefully at Tiananmen Square. If only he knew.
(Excerpt) Read more at teachabroadchina.com ...
From what I've seen, this is false. The average Chinese news channel is a conduit for glorifying the Chinese state. American channels covered the Abu Ghraib incident in microscopic detail. Chinese news channels don't provide any critical coverage of the government with respect to the Tiananmen Square massacre during anniversaries, let alone the recent Tibetan demonstrations. While the American media was whaling on Bush for 1000 unavoidable drownings during Katrina, the Chinese media fawned over Wen Jiabao as Chinese rescue personnel ignored people whom the Western media managed to talk to, before they died over a period of days.
Yes, he's always been a communist - the Chinese and the Soviets both helped him come to power with funding, training and weaponry. Ever since he came to power, he's been doing a version of the Chinese nationalizations of property after the Chinese Communist victory in 1949. Lo and behold, roughly a decade after he came to power, the Zimbabwean economy started sliding south. The problem is he's encountering is the same one as the Chinese encountered after the communist victory - looting the productive members of society can work for a number of years, before these people decide that it's no longer worthwhile to work hard, only to hand all their stuff to looters.
Hello! I’m looking out my window now and seeing dishes everwhere—it’s one of those “illegal but allowed” things. In Shanghai, where we stayed, we watched Taiwan news channels!
Your point about the Chinese media not covering some stories is well taken—certainly no one talks honestly about Tiananmen. But I’ve seen several discussions about riots out west and these are reported in the daily news.
I realize that some may read my words and think I’m touting China as some kind of paradise—my goodness, I know it’s not. But it is an amazing and rapidly changing place.
My signup date has nothing to do with the fact that you wish to argue only through intimidation and name calling - a typical sign of ignorance.
Just because China is not a communist country doesn't mean it's not a problem. I think the real problem with China isn't communism - it's the fact that over thousands of years, China has been the ever expanding empire. Only two centuries of relative weakness* has somewhat constrained China's territorial ambitions. When Japan embarked on its quest for empire, it was merely emulating what the Chinese had done for thousands of years before it. Ordinary Chinese are not satisfied with China's boundaries, and I suspect a Chinese leader who decides China needs more land and starts a war to take that land would have universal public support. (He would, of course, cite historical documents where China treated those as tributary states).
* Note that this weakness was only relative to the Western powers. The Chinese state mustered up enough military power to take Tibet and East Turkistan during the period of "weakness", now about 40% of China's entire territorial extent.
But I see the same thing happening with China. The US and her allies has won the idealogical war. And now, there is an uneasiness about China pursuing the same thing the West is. China is developing increased economic cooperation from countries in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and the Pacific Rim. The exact same thing America is doing. Something that is a result of China abandoning Marxism and embracing capitalism.
There are significant differences between the Japanese and the Chinese. The Chinese have not given up military pursuits. They have significant espionage efforts in America - with a couple of dozen ethnic Chinese, or Chinese nationals charged annually. The Chinese sell ballistic missiles to America's enemies. Chinese nuclear bomb plans showed up in Pakistani hands. China props up North Korea's Kim Jong Il with economic aid. It props up Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe with economic aid. It supplied the Taliban with weapons after September 11. The Chinese Propaganda Ministry came up with a video - right after 9/11 - celebrating that event as a well-deserved blow against America. Heck - some Chinese journalists were booted out after being seen applauding at live coverage of the collapse of the Twin Towers, as they were being escorted around the city on a PR junket conducted by State Department staffers.
Cowboy Jay and ImphClinton - please meet “compound w,” the most virulent and brainwashed ChiCom troll on this forum. In its few days here, this one has managed to post the most outrageous opinions against freedom and in favor of forced abortion and genocide.
Zhang Fei - meet the new batch of trainees from the PLA re-education camp. But for people like you who have been to China, we wouldn’t have any way of refuting the liars and the knaves that are sent to sign up here on a weekly basis now.
And, as far as what is happening in its domestic economic marketplace, everything that is allowed are privileges granted by the dictators not rights that the dictators cannot, and do no revoke at will when it suits the Chinese Communist Party's interest.
Politically it has morphed into a form of state-capitalism that most closely resembles communism's close cousin - Fascism.
The west's current relationship with China has the west's head in the sand, believing the west's own wishful-thinking myths about China with a heavy dose of U.S. crony capitalists helping to sell those myths (dictatorships are always easier for "global corporations to deal with - more predictable).
He’s still playing games with me on the other thread too. Same old same old. Throws out a lie, plays wounded when called on it, then starts insulting. Round and round the same pattern we’ve seen a dozen times.
Which other thread is the abortion cheerleader infecting now?
“No ethics, no morals, the State remains supreme over the individual?”
Kind of sounds like DC. :)
What, pray tell, are those critters?
I started the name calling? You are out of your f*ing mind.
“abortion cheerleader”
another lie?
“Throws out a lie, plays wounded when called on it, then starts insulting. Round and round the same pattern we’ve seen a dozen times.”
You seem to be living in bizarro world. Over dozens of posts I’ve listed specific examples of changes that have occured in Chinese society and politics over the past several years. I’ve made logical comparisons to other nations. I’ve admitted that China remains an authoritarian state.
But for you guys, anything other than hate spewing against China renders one a “commie mouthpiece.” It’s downright laughable.
What are you talking about? You’re the one who called a FReeper who has been here since 1998 a troll. You’re delusional.
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