microbe said:
I agree China doesn't have an optimal government and it needs changing, but keep in mind how big a country it is. You cannot teach the concept of Democracy to everybody in one day while the country just came out of a thounsands-of-year Feudalism not very long ago. Nowadays at least China is stable and growing, and people aren't starving and are being educated. Its political environment is becoming more and more transparent and relaxed too.
Yep. Even today, there are two mindsets here. That of the cities and coastal provinces - individualistic, economy-centered, liberal, free of historical baggage, and eager to interact with the world; and that of the rural areas - politically conservative, society-centered, carrying a huge grudge against past foreign oppressors, and perhaps even slightly xenophobic. If the 1989 movement had succeeded then, the communists would have simply turned guerilla just like the Khmer Rouge, and probably gain power again by using the rural masses (just like 1949). Then there would be another Cultural revolution all over again...
However, there is hope. Millions of rural young people now come to work in the industrial towns along the periphery of cities. While here, they get exposed to new ideas, concepts and thoughts (along with fashion, McDonalds and MTV
). When their contracts are over after a few years, a lot go back
to their provinces and raise families. In a few generations, we should be able to see a significant change in people's mindsets throughout the country.
The Yankee said:
This is in addition to diluting the Tibetan influence in the land by moving families and discouraging Tibetan-Tibetan marriages and so forth.
Some Han families are moving there, but they're doing it on their own. Nobody's forcing them to.
And how could you discourage Tibetan-Tibetan marriages when being a minority here actually means more priviledges? If anything Han families are looking for any loophole to claim to be an ethnic minority, just so they can be exempt from the one-child policy.
I'm sure the Tibetans would NOT want to share this priviledge with others.
Actually the joke is that Tibetan girls prefer Han boys because Tibetan blokes take a bath only 3 times in their entire lives: upon being born, just before the wedding day, and in preparation for burial.
I know, I know, very un-PC but I just need to share it with you guys, surely you people won't take it against little ol' moi?
<--- *trying to be cute*
Hundegesicht said:
Growing up in a totalitarian state you may not have realized this, Dann, but the purpose of the police is to protect the people, not oppress them.
The Yankee got 3/4 of it right. I'm 50% Chinese, 50% Filipino, and grew up in the Philippines. Even in a democracy, the police can become the oppressors if corrupt enough. During the 1980s, if you're walking the streets of Manila at night, and you see some cops in the distance, better find another route to walk, and fast! They just might stop you, frisk you, and conveniently "find" drugs on you.
Thankfully such horror stories don't happen anymore now.
Hundegesicht said:
The fact of the matter is China is an oppressive, fascist state that controls 1/6 of the world's population brutally and frankly looks to be gearing up for a world takeover, and they're not going to stop unless someone, internally or externally, stops them.
No we're not. Too much trouble... Thankless task... You wind up being hated by everyone...
Hmm, sound familiar?
And like alex994 said, it's 1/4!
Plexus said:
I kinda wish I was Chinese... then I could be an insurgent.
Uh... You realize you could be slowly and agonizingly tortured to death if you really were one?
