I can’t answer all these questions but from my experience the news and press we receive in North America, does not depict the China I visited. The China I was in, was free. It is not the fairest country, if you are born rich, it is much easier for you to succeed and if you are poor, the chances of improving yourself socially, are very slim, but in all fairness, you could say this about a lot of countries that are labeled Democracies.
You may ask, why do I say China is a free country, when our whole lives we were told something differently. Well from my two week stay in China, Mike and I read the newspaper every day and every day, there were articles questioning the government and numerous laws, and there was one article in particular were a man was suing the Chinese government because one of the many city camera’s caught him speeding but it was not the speeding ticket he was fighting over, apparently the photo in which he was caught speeding, he was also caught feeling up a woman in his front seat, and he was suing the government for invading his privacy…LOL… It’s true. And the newspaper actually said he may have a case, WOW. Now, if I were to tell you just the story and not tell you what country this was happening in, now be honest, who would have guessed China? Yeah China, the biggest communist and military present country in the world, has a citizen that is suing them for invasion of privacy and on top of that, this man is still alive and it was printed in one of their National newspapers.
Don’t get me wrong, I still would never wear a ‘Free Tibet’ t-shirt in Tian’anmen Square and expect to get away with it, but seriously, I couldn’t believe the free speech the newspapers had in China. It was probably one of the biggest and pleasant surprises I had while visiting China.
More blogs on my trip to China to come later….
-S
