On Google and China

I read this article on the aftermath of the Google situation in China, and I found the reporting odd. The first half of the article is about a party that Chinese Google employees held, complete with cocktails and the Beijing elite. The second half starts with an interview with the host of the party - who does not work for Google anymore and says that the party had nothing to do with the company.

And, the most important part of the article, in my opinion, was buried at the end:

"You [Americans] don't appreciate the people who are here in China ... life is harder here. Life is different, and people in the States don't see that. They don't appreciate that," Tian [a former Google China employee] said. "They see their so-called principles are getting bent and they don't like that."

Americans' views on tolerance and acceptance are extremely skewed. It is okay to be intolerant of religion (because religious people are intolerant), but it is unacceptable to be intolerant of certain illicit activities (because that's judging others). We should be completely accepting and open of other cultures, but not if, like Tian said, our "principles" are being compromised.

America should leave China alone. We don't know what is best for their country. We don't even know what is best for our country.



By the way, the Chinese word for "tolerance" basically means "to have no choice but to stand something."

Tian'anmen Today

CNN has an article about how young people in China don't have any opinions on the 1989 massacre at Tian'anmen Square in Beijing. The article asks whether their apathy is real - that they just don't care, or if it is in line with the Chinese concept of putting up a front - for everything.

Sure, CNN did some interviews of students saying that politics in China is dirty and everyone wants to stay away. But I think it's obvious that the government doesn't want it's young people to know what happened...

Suggesting that Tian'anmen is anything but a community square for Mao-worship and hanging out with the family (one child per, please) is like treason. Don't talk about these things, people.

This past year, I informed a young Chinese friend of what the rest of the world associates with Tian'anmen. It was a rough evening for both of us. He couldn't believe he had never, ever heard of this before. He was outraged that it has been so covered up in his country. And I felt really weird for showing him that almost everything he's known his whole life might possibly be a conspiracy.

Of course the young people don't know. And if they do, why should they care, because no one else around them has ever mentioned it before.