Goodbye Cruel World

At the risk of being discovered and banned from China forever, I feel compelled to make an observation about this so called "emerging first world country." 

First of all, it's not a first world country. It's government quotes achievements such as economic development, urbanism, and the Beijing Olympic Games as signs of it's transition from a lesser developed nation into a rival to the great United States of America.

Really, who are they kidding?

There is a fundamental change that needs to happen and that is a cultural one. China is about as far from democracy as we are from the moon. The government exerts an iron grip over its people, controlling aspects of public life which we in the real "first world" take for granted. 

30,000 internet police patrol the superhighway every day, shutting down sites that express any from of free opinion which differs from the official line. Free speech is considered a threat to internal security and is dealt with in the harshest way possible. Corruption is intertwined in everyday society, a society where class and social standing can mean the difference between a free life and repression.

These are not traits of a first world nation.

At least the hypocrisy of their translated titles can bring some levity. People's Liberation Army? The only thing it's liberating from it's people is their freedom. 

Walk around Tiananmen Square in Beijing and you see streets with names such as Peace and Freedom. The irony is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face. Where was the peace and freedom during student protests in 1989?

The Chinese haven't failed to disappointment with the current Beijing Olympic torch relay. Those athletic Chinese men in light blue tracksuits are seductively titled "The Beijing Olympics Sacred Flame Protection Unit." They sound like a high school cheerleading group when in actual fact they are paramilitary soldiers from the People's Armed Police. Highly trained in riot control and maintaining internal security.

Don't be fooled by the blue tracksuit.

And this is part of the problem. China has been fooling it's own people for many years now. People who due to limited education and government suppression take the government's word as gospel.

Unfortunately, the rest of the world isn't going to fall the same way.