Politics in China

Americans, as far as I am aware, have a very general idea about the Chinese government. Though it seems like mythology--perhaps owing to my generation's feeling of significant political freedom--that a communist government in such a powerful country could go on unchallenged for as long as it has. But I assure you, every bit of the government's oppressiveness is there, if one looks. It is subtle, but present, in most every thing. I'll give a few examples.

(1) An example of a joke that a Chinese student told before class one day-- I took it to be a rather typical Chinese joke. It went as follows: "The U.N. decided to host an essay-writing contest for youth in Africa, America, and China. The topic was: What is your own idea for solving the food problem in Africa? But no one could write the essay--the youth in Africa didn't know what 'food' was, the youth in America didn't know what 'Africa' was, and the youth in China did not know what 'your own idea' was.

Interesting, eh? I mean, on several levels. Here's a joke that another Chinese student told. Similar in format: The U.N. decided to host a competition to see which government had the best police force, Russia, the U.S. , or China. So they released a rabbit into a dense wood, to see who could catch it the fastest. Russia looked and looked, but could not find the rabbit anywhere. The U.S. looked and looked, but could not find the rabbit anywhere. Finally, China looked and looked, and after a long time a bear came running out of the wood screaming "Ok Ok, stop beating me, I'll say I'm the rabbit!"

And the students laughed at this one. Hmm. But maybe jokes aren't the safest way to gauge the political tensions in a country...

(2) Our tour guide told us on the very last day in Beijing-- a scorcher, nearly 40 degrees Celsius! (over 100 F) that if the temperature ever reached 45, the government had to give its employees the day off, to stay inside. The guide continued, with a smirk: "And so the government never lets it be '45 degrees'! "

Again, the strangest part is that the Chinese people I spoke to treat this all as a big joke. And they seem to sincerely consider it that. And now, for the final example:

(3) Most of you know that the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square was at the beginning of this month. I remember watching the BBC news on the day of the anniversary at my B&B in Scotland, and the reporter (who was actually at Tiananmen Square, trying to interview the scattered and few mourners who had gathered there) was immediately surrounded by plain-clothed police men and his camera shut down. But here is the second part of that story. You already learned that I could not access certain websites while in China, including this blog--which in itself is already a strange feeling. But some of the other Americans and I were watching the news in our hotels during the conference about the developments in Iran, and several times the reporters (not Chinese, obviously) would begin to compare the protests to Tiananmen Square...but before they could finish the word "Tiananmen", the screen would go white, and a message in Chinese and English would appear, informing the viewer that there must be a technical problem with our (our!) television set. Same as when you'd access a "forbidden" website: the browser would say "Internet connection interrupted. Please try again later." Right.

To the Americans, this all seemed most disturbing. I told some of the Chinese students about it, but they didn't seem to understand (again, most decidedly NOT an intelligence thing, obviously! But a major cultural-political schism between our viewpoints), nor did anyone--even the most intelligent and informed persons in their culture--the professors--seem to say much about foreign affairs. At all. The English-language Chinese newspaper had no foreign affairs section-- just stories about the good and happy things occurring all over China.

I say this not to mock, but to reflect in some small way the shock it was to observe, first-hand, things that I had known about this government and yet not fully believed. And to try to understand the puzzle of why those who by all accounts *ought* to care...didn't.

How can the Chinese people--*especially* those I met, who were young, scholars--philosophers, at that--, thinking fresh and radical ideas and who have many of them lived in the States for at least 9 months--how can they have such a peaceful, passive attitude?

This question is, I believe, the one most of their American young academic counterparts are dying to know. After many discussions with my friends in Beijing, I think I know understand the dilemma a little bit better. But only marginally.

In a nutshell, it really does strike me as a basic incommensurability between worldviews. Imagine growing up in a country with a stable government which, yes, has its faults, but nevertheless has ruled for as long as you have lived? Not only have you never seen what another government might do for the people of China-- you have never even seen what another government might LOOK like, in possibility. There is nothing that exists but that which IS. And that is the state of things. To change things up is too risky. So things are bad, yes--but what can we do? The alternative could be worse.

One student I talked to at length had been in the States and had read news reports and histories about Tiananmen Square, but when I asked for her reaction she stated that she had also watched interviews with a few of the leaders from that demonstration, being interviewed years later. And when asked why these activists had risked their lives for a different China, the reasons they stated were for freedoms like sexual liberties, free Capitalist markets and the chance to get really wealthy. Needless to say, this view of democracy as being a liberal situation for the youth to go buck-nutty made a deep and indelible impression on my friend, and she seemed literally disgusted by such a bacchanalian lifestyle. I was, in my heart, broken that this depraved version of democracy was the dominant one endorsed by the few from her country who had dared to fight for it.

This seems to be the prevalent mindset of the students I spoke to: no other government could handle the Chinese people, it would be much more terrible to risk a change of government, the government really isn't so bad, and Western "democracy"is a very one-dimensional system that destroys traditional values and roles.

It still breaks my heart, but then again, I have been privileged to be born, live, grow, and study in a country where radical political shifts (where by "radical" I mean substantially different but STILL STABLE, and meeting the basic needs, more or less, of the people) are dreamt of often, and (the great part!) have in fact been modeled in the comparatively infantile life-span of our country. Perhaps not to the highest degree of liking, but still, it has happened and will continue to do so.

And so I cannot argue with my Chinese friends in the way I'd always thought I would, or even be aghast at their apparent complacency. I can no longer even call it "complacency", because the context of young adults in China is so oblique to me, and so very different, that to comment on such things would be to insult the beautiful, intelligent, and extraordinarily kind students I had the chance to meet there. What I can do, instead, is encourage my friends to visit the United States, to taste a different version of politics and see what might fit or not fit their massive and ancient culture, and to experience the goods and the ills that come with freedom of speech and press, etc., but to experience a full dose of it. As far as these particular freedoms, most of the students are aware that their government monitors and restricts their media and blocks access to certain "truths"-- but that is not enough to move to action. It felt to me, as an outsider to China, as case where (as Joni put it) "you don't know what you got til it's gone." But for my Chinese peers, something cannot be "gone" which was never "there".

I am no politician--nor even a mild political junky. I'm just trying to process the things I learned in community with a group of students in China, and trying (however poorly) to express the richer yet more tangled perspective such encounters with real people often afford.

p.s. the pictures are, of course, from Tiananmen Square.
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