As I was going on Renren, a Chinese social network exactly like Facebook, to get in touch with my friends in China as usual, I noticed some weird statuses posted by a couple friends. And within seconds, those statuses disappeared instantly and the status update feature was unavailable. Those statuses I saw all had some of the same words- translated to English, "jasmine club" "government" "police". I was curious what exactly happened so I googled it, hoping that I could get something. The Chinese key words I typed in didn't really have relating results, and the English key words I typed in brought me to the Tunisian revolution, and jasmine revolution refers to the protest in changing the government. I googled again today and I found two articles that sort of summarized what happened :
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/world/asia/21china.html?ref=china
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-20/china-blocks-coverage-of-jasmine-revolution-protests.html
Even though I don't completely believe in everything the articles say. I mean I believe in what happened but sometimes I feel that the western media always exaggerate details to reach the effect of making people angry, and blaming the Chinese's social, political, and economic system. But anyway, since we are talking about democracy and politics in class right now, I think this "revolution" that did not happen does plays some role in understanding democracy not only in America but also in the world. China saw what happened in Egypt that an authoritative government was overthrown. China has to make sure that it wouldn't happen in China, and of course the situation in Egypt was way worse. My opinion on this event is that I think everyone gets a say in what the government should do. And people should have the right to protest and show opposition instead of being arrested for using the "freedom of speech." There isn't really any freedom of speech if you can't say anything except praising the government and the communist party. I could understand why China blocked Twitter, Facebook and youtube since these are all American social networks. And I even in some ways support this action. American values, thoughts, ideas, and cultures are extremely different from those of the Chineses'. By over exposing these ideas to a newly developing country where people are not as educated and extremely patriotic is dangerous in many ways. But I can't believe the government even blocked some function of its own social network and even stopped the phone service. This has gone too far. I feel that the human rights and privacy are hugely invaded. Who would like to live in a place where if you wear a jasmine flower on your clothes you would be arrested and be convicted of treason. Under this system, people are afraid of saying anything that seems to object what the government is doing. It is just really depressing.
Athena,
ReplyDeleteI love the way you are connecting dots from around the world as you are thinking about AmCon materials. We'll soon be reading a Frenchman's book in which he makes obvious that part of his interest in the USA is stimulated by the situation in his own nation. As I read it over the weekend, I was struck by the similar concerns present today in Egypt and elsewhere. My hope is that our reading and conversation contribute to our ability to act, even in the midst of discouragement.
LDL
Athena, I'm glad I read this! It's so interesting to view native perspectives on events occurring within their native countries, because quite often American biases influence how we see what happens in other countries. Thank you for this!
ReplyDelete