Interesting, though, that they prospered - as much as one could - in China as soon as the CPC came into power at the end of the Chinese Civil War. The family was taken out of the farmlands and moved into the television media business… in charge of broadcasting propaganda. T’s family is still in China, since they eventually fell out of favor with a later “administration.” T is the only one who managed to get out. Efforts to visit or get her family out of there have been impossible. They couldn’t even get a visa to attend her wedding in 2004.

I find it interesting that in the efforts to eliminate feudalism and imperialist sentiments that those in power simply created another corrupt, feudalistic society whose leaders are full of sh*t. That’s kind of a broad statement, but all the insightful comments so far have done an excellent job of detailing why China is a mess. I mean, if they treat their own like this , it’s no absolutely no surprise about how they treat Tibet… or anyone else for that matter.

Anarchy, anyone? Well, that would be hard, since anarchy isn’t everyone doing whatever they want… it’s everyone doing what is right… and that varies from person to person, not to mention culture to culture. Then again, even the anarchists can’t agree on what is right . Arrrgh!

…or you could just put me in charge.

Basic idea is that the state power is not strong enough to overcome regional abuses which might go some way to explaining actions not matching words…

“Many people assume the problem is that China remains a communist dictatorship and that abuses occur because a strong, centralized state ignores the rights of its citizens. With regard to Tibet and the suppression of the religious movement Falun Gong, this may be right. But the larger problem in today’s China arises out of the fact that the central Chinese state is in certain ways too weak to defend the rights of its people.

The vast majority of abuses against the rights of ordinary Chinese citizens — peasants who have their land taken away without just compensation, workers forced to labor under sweatshop conditions or villagers poisoned by illegal dumping of pollutants — occur at a level far below that of the government in Beijing.”

The culture appears to tolerate a strong version of the political attitude where what you say need not have any connection with reality

This corroborates something from the article I mentioned. It claimed that the central government in China often dictates or mandates a policy, but then doesn’t check too closely to see if it is followed.

So the policy can be implemented in various ways in different provinces. The key thing seems to be “saving face.” By implementing the policy in their own way, the provincials seek not to offend the national bureaucrats. And by not checking too closely on the provinces, the bureaucrats ensure that neither they nor the locals lose face.

As far as you and the media — I think the media has changed a lot in my lifetime. Journalism in the 70s, however cynical and jaundiced, also acknowledged a higher calling, striving for objectivity and fairness.

The right has skewed that horribly, at least here in the states. They’ve embraced subjectivity, openly sneering at any attempt at objectivity, claiming that it is all subjective and the media institutions that historically tried for fairness are really skewed.

Which isn’t to say that you, too, might not have changed a lot, too.

I don’t think it is any worse than many others regarding colonialism (Tibet is just the flavour of our time, you could easily pick ten other regions around the world in similar straights) but its hard to find a nation quite as dismissive of the lives or their own. As much as people like to rag on America, it is a prince in comparison.

What rankled me most recently came from a series of articles in the NYT outlining a story where China had publicly declared an environmental cleanup, and one environmentalist ended up tossed into prison,(he’s still there) because the threatened the mills who were pouring unadulterated poisons into the common waters (local foodstuffs had become practically nonexistent), and the to pour on the irony, the region was given an environmental award. The culture appears to tolerate a strong version of the political attitude where what you say need not have any connection with reality, and you can end up in prison if you act in concert with the statements made.

And the media? Though I will always be in favour of a free press, over the years I have become ever more disenchanted with what passes for thoughtful journalism. But then that is probably more me changing than the institution itself.

Individual politicians? wouldn’t most of us be glad if they stayed away?