the world is deaf

China's policies, particularly related to human rights. Let's take a second and be honest here. This is yet another example of ulterior motives and prejudices blinding everyone and rendering us all deaf.

I will not go into a lot of political specifics here as my issue in this post has nothing to do with specifics and everything to do with how both sides of the debate are handling the discussion. Critics of China claim that its system is bad, its economic practices harmful (and borderline illegal) and its human rights policies abhorrent. As a result, they take actions such as boycotting the Beijing Olympics, blocking its WTO membership and seeking WTO sanctions against it. The Chinese insist that the rest of the world is just attacking it due to jealousy and fear, as well as a desire to unduly influence it and limit its growing presence. As a result, they appear to take most critical remarks as uncomfortable nuisances rather than potentially constructive criticism and act accordingly.

In these situations, usually both sides have mistaken impressions and take some unfair actions, yet no one appears willing to admit even the possibility of a misunderstanding or exaggeration. I had long had an impression that people were particularly quick to harp on China. If you wanted to discuss a "safe" political topic here that most people could agree on it would be easy to accomplish this by saying something like "those Chinese... treat their people horribly and pay them shit.. it's just so wrong, you know?" And if someone in China heard this they'd say "those foreigners don't know anything about this country and just want to attack us and break down our economic gains.. haha, what do they know?" Equally quick to suspiciously dismiss any semblance of a criticism that flies their way, without weighing the argument itself. This is all ludicrous. If critics continue judging a different culture and a different system by their standards without open-mindedly asking them to explain why they might be doing it in the first place and if the Chinese continue to ignore all critiques and cavalierly dismiss dissenters without trying to open a dialogue. Is no one willing to take one second to look from the others' viewpoint? Or is no one even capable of it?

Either way, it is severely disappointing to me... at this point, I hardly feel able to trust any "facts" that anyone gives me as everything is just loaded with political motive these days. Is it just me who actually wants to find the truth? The answer is not going to be black and white; it's not just wrong or right and no one will turn out to be absolutely correct. However the point is that we discuss not attack. Discussion requires admitting where you may be mistaken, where the other has an argument with merit. It doesn't look like anyone is willing to relinquish first and take the high road though.

I hate to say it, but in this circumstance game theory yet again seems to prevail. It is no doubt costly, both in terms of pride and effort, to try to reasonably consider the perspective of the opposition, with dubious payoffs. And given that you don't expect (usually rightly so) the other of showing you similar consideration, the answer is simple: why bother? Oh it is all too easy to fall into this bad equilibrium and we do, time and time again.

All I ask is that, please, if you are interested and you want to talk about this subject, check for yourself. Better yet think for yourself what happened, what might be misunderstood and what people said fairly or unfairly. The point is: discover for yourself! And always realize that the people you hear protesting or defending have their prejudices and biases too. A Chinese government official who claims that a dissenter was trying to overthrow the government and that's why they arrested him - there, potential bias! A Chinese minority protestor living in America or Turkey is a select sample.. one that probably wasn't a huge fan of China to begin with and one that may not even know well the current social environment there - there, potential bias! It is not difficult to think of potential biases and sort them out for yourself.. all you have to do is be willing to think logically and try to be aware of them. These problems may truly be long-lived issues of China or they may be a manifestation of other frustrations against it. None of us know, but let's look at every potentiality given that none of us knows the whole truth.

Having said that, let's also not be ridiculously suspicious of everything anyone else says to the point that we refuse to listen. Listening is important. You'll need to hear them both to judge the merit of the argument and to potentially have a point in refuting their argument in the future. Turning a deaf ear on people solves NOTHING as you have not dealt with the problem at all, nor have you proven your point to anyone.

And how was I impelled to write this today? Last night splashed across the news were numerous minority protests in China, passionate and righteous. But dig a little deeper and ask what the government actually did wrong in the conflict.. in fact, did yet deeper and find out what started it all. Then check who is initiating the violence and the death toll on both sides. Ask yourself if the government either encouraged this or exacerbated it. I invite you. Then today, I found a scientific article in a reputed journal detailing a study on a Chinese region seemingly negatively affected by a military test of the Chinese government. I forwarded it to a Chinese acquaintance who, after reading maybe 2 paragraphs, discarded it as dissenter propaganda. At that point, I knew I had to write this.

Postscript: As a general policy, I have spent years avoiding talking about anything related to China, as I know that if I ever defend it, I will automatically be labeled a red commie with blindly nationalist tendencies and if I don't then people will either think I'm politically ignorant as per the education encouraged by the Chinese government or believe that I've confirmed China is indeed evil. Enough is enough. I'm breaking my silence now and I don't give a rat's ass about what people think..