Monday, April 27, 2020

Chinese internet users who uploaded coronavirus memories to GitHub have been arrested

Reddit gives a bit of a false impression about how much people in China hate the government. I have two brother in laws who grew up in Taiwan and the US (for most of their lives the US). They both now work in Beijing (with Taiwanese citizenships because being a Taiwanese citizen helps get certain jobs in China). They also spend a lot of their time in Canada and the US and Taiwan. (My parents in law are Taiwanese). I've talked to them in the US, not through the firewall, and what shocks them the most is how anti China America and the West is and how inaccurate the portrayal of how people in China feel about the government is. They both say that they can get through the great firewall using a VPN or other work arounds but it's slower and they haven't ever had any particular need for anything outside the great firewall anyway. These are people who have spent a lot more of their life without the firewall and know everything about Chinese history a ny westerner does.

They talk about how the "police state" is not the atmosphere that people feel. Instead it is one that is more culturally eastern of trusting your elders to help keep you safe and make decisions for you that we, as westerners, would culturally find appalling, but in eastern culture is normal in most countries (nor just China) on a family level. They are also always surprised when they come back to the US after a time abroad by things like the obesity and diabetes epidemics, the number of racially or politically motivated shootings, guns, police brutality, ICE, and of course, Trump. Basically they don't love the CCP but they don't see that the US is inherently better when looked at with cultural differences in mind.

I'm not saying the Chinese government does nothing wrong, they do, but our image of the Chinese as unwilling sheep with an oppressive shepherd is not how I've heard it described by any people I know who have loved or spent a lot of time there. The west likes to label any government more involved or more authoritarian as evil but we forget that it is the people governed by them who should make the decision about whether they are ok with it or not. The eastern world doesn't see US as some shining bastion of freedom. Obviously there are those who support revolution in China and want change. The same is true in America. But we don't hear from those who don't on Reddit. I'm not in any way pro CCP nor would I personally want to live under a government that authoritarian. But I was also raised in the US with Western values.

Don't forget that there is propaganda and right now the US wants to make China the next USSR. So should we ignore atrocities? Not at all, but we are letting thousands die in camps on our southern boarder and separating families ourselves. And if you think the US doesn't keep certain scientific projects classified than you should know we do. Again, I'm not saying I support the level of information control China exerts, but right now in the US both political sides and all major news companies are writing article after article defaming China and even those that admit earlier claims about China were overblown (like those claiming Shi,the scientist overseeing bat coronavirus research labs) was some kind of mad scientist covering up covid-19 secrets is actually known very well and spend a lot of time collaborating with US scientists and is known, respected, and trusted, and her actions resemble that of any scientist studying something that is sudden ly killing a lot of people would when trying to determine if it could have come from their lab or not regardless of final discovery.

So don't stop thinking for yourself, but try to remember that the US wants us not to like China right now, and look for both sides of the story before you decide something is all evil or all good because in my experience almost everything falls in between.

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