Avoiding the Anti-China Expressway
For months, I have watched the media and the masses badmouth China on everything from Internet censorship, lead-filled consumer products, and most recently, China’s treatment of Tibet (complete with Olympic torch protests). I have been staying attuned to the coverage of China in western media over the past several months, and I have reached a verdict: we are being brainwashed into thinking China is bad. This is similar to how we were brainwashed into thinking Russia was bad when they were a communist nation. This is something that concerns me because it seems like we’re heading towards a new cold war era thanks to mainstream media’s propaganda.
First, I want to say that I’m not some communism-loving fanatic. I love democracy, even though I don’t think a democratic government can work for some countries and cultures (Iraq, for instance). Like most kids, I was taught that communism was a bad form of government in school, which is not surprising since I grew up during the height of the Cold War era (the Regan years). My classmates and I were taught that the U.S.S.R. along with any other country with a communist government was not our friend. However, I have also learned not to believe everything you read in textbooks because history is often not reflected accurately. I have applied this method of thinking when it comes to items I read in the news, hear on podcasts, and watch on TV. As a result, I am instantly inclined to believe that much of what I’m hearing or reading is not entirely accurate. Someone is pushing an agenda to brainwash millions into believing something that may or may not be true. After all, something must be true if you repeat it enough, right? This is why I look at the news coverage of China doing “bad things” with a side eye.
Do I believe China is doing some outlandish things to its citizens? Of course, they are, but tell me, what country isn’t? I’m absolutely positive that many of the western countries pointing fingers at China are doing bad things to their citizens on a daily basis. But our faults and problems in the western world are not as important as what China is doing at the moment. To me, it’s a hypocritical way of thinking that we, as westerners, should sit back and evaluate before casting stones at a glass house.
Taking a note from Adam Curry’s discussions of China, I want to expand on some points I’ve noted over the past few months. Some want to protest China for locking up bloggers and other dissidents who criticize the government, yet a key fact that’s being glossed over (at times) is that American companies – Yahoo and Google in particular – are helping China lock these people up. Instead of just getting upset with China, shouldn’t people be getting upset with the American companies who are serving as accomplices? Granted, some are but not enough of them are actively mobilizing and boycotting these companies if they feel so strongly about this issue. If you’re going to protest China over this issue, don’t discriminate. Protest Yahoo and Google, too. Kill your Flickr, Gmail, del.icio.us, and YouTube accounts. Use a different search engine. Set up a picket line outside of Yahoo and Google offices and protest them the same way you protested the Olympic torch.
Some also want to protest China’s treatment of Tibet, which is not new by the way. Well, isn’t this just a form of history repeating itself as history often does? We’re simply just watching a rerun of how western nations once ruled their territories. I mean, do people forget how Great Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal once commanded and conquered North America, Africa, India, and other places with similar treatment to the people they ruled? China wants to rule their country and their territories with an iron fist, but these other European countries, including America, did similar things (and still do in a disguised, dictator form of democracy). If you need some examples, let’s took a look at a few:
- the slaughter of thousands (and probably millions) of Native Americans, the indoctrination (conversion to Catholicism and European culture) of the survivors, and forcible removal of tribes from their own land into segregated communities (aka reservations)
- the monopolistic control that the East India Company had over India’s goods and ultimately, the country itself
- the division of African nations’ borders by Europeans (who did not understand the cultural impact), which are still causing civil war between groups of native Africans today
- the kidnapping (and re-kidnapping of escapees) of Australia’s Aboriginal children to indoctrinate them into European culture
- the lynchings, beatings, rapes, torture, murder, and sub-human treatment of African Americans from slavery (1600s-1800s) to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s
Granted, these are historical examples, but if you would like some current examples of westerners’ treatment towards their “own,” then Muslims and immigrants (especially Latinos) are in. Still, the “shock and awe” at China’s treatment of Tibet is hypocritical considering many western nations aren’t focusing those same feelings towards their own issues.
In some ways, I’m not surprised by westerners’ growing disdain for all things China because the masses are being indoctrinated by the industrial mainstream media complex, which is nothing more than a giant public relations firm for [insert any western country here]. I’m not about to jump on an anti-China bandwagon because some reporter or news outlet says I should. I don’t agree with some of the things China has done and continues to do, but I also feel the same way about America and other countries in this world. That being said, I think you should open your eyes and snap out of the government’s media’s marketing efforts to advertise how bad China is. Instead of complaining about what China is doing to their people, I say we need to focus on fixing our own problems. How can you point the finger of suppression at someone else when your own country suppresses you?
On a final note, before condemning an entire culture and country of people, sit back and think about something. There was a rise in anti-Americanism over the Iraq war in European nations a little while back. Many took to the streets in protests and treated some Americans they encountered abroad rudely and with outright fury over the Iraq war. Because a few (the US government and officials) representing the many (the American people) felt we should go to war, we invaded a country with unfounded “evidence” that Saddam was reviving his nuclear efforts. I, along with the American people, had nothing to do with President Bush’s and Congress’ decision to invade Iraq; we couldn’t individually vote on an invasion. We had to rely on our representatives to vote for or against the war. Yet because of some bad decision making by the few, the many were railed against (by some) whenever they were in other countries. Some of these Americans living and visiting abroad said the treatment was unfair because what their government did should not be held against them as individuals. Let’s take this same scenario and apply it with the Chinese people who are living in China and working here in the US and other countries. Think about what I’ve said here the next time you see/hear or read something about China.