Monday, August 29, 2011

Chinese Politics

an article by Keyla Inoa


To most Americans the People’s Republic of China’s Communist government is one that threatens America and jeopardizes Chinese lives for the benefit of their national economy. However, the Chinese people seem to have a different perspective of their own government.
Despite its label as a Communist country, the Chinese government implemented a capitalist economy in 1978. This decision allows for private businesses and a wide range of family incomes to be created, which include those at a poverty level. Currently led by Hu Jintao, China seems to be prosperous and rapidly rising to be one of the world’s largest economies. However, most of its people seem to live in poverty. When riding a train from Xi’an to Nanjing, the Chinese Exchange club students witnessed people who were impoverished. We went to the second class area and found ourselves with people, both children and adults alike, sitting on the floor – this was a twenty-four-hour overnight train. We offered the people fruits that we had available, and while they seemed to take them, they looked around at one another and politely declined. On the other hand, while with our host families, we got to experience another side of China. Our host parents were professionals, with careers as doctors, and editors and police officers. While one may think that they must have an abundance of money, that is not the case. While in a gathering, my host mother asked Monica and I what her social status would be like in the United States, Monica asked, “well, how much do you make a year?” My host mother responded, “twenty-four thousand” and Monica simply said, “You would be poor, like really poor” which brought laughter to the group. (Of course, the cost of living is much lower in China than in the United States, so twenty-four thousand goes a lot further!)
China, known for its many intellectuals, fails to inform its people of political matters that deal with Taiwan and critical opinion of China. Taiwan claims to be a separate country from mainland China and is in the midst of fighting for its independence. Yet, when presented with this fact Peter, one of the Chinese students, was shocked. He asked Ms. McMurdo for a clarification of the situation. Once Ms. McMurdo’s explanation concluded, Mina, the Chinese teacher, turned to Ms. McMurdo and asked her to not speak of the issue because the students are not taught about it in school. Additionally, the Chinese government continues to censor the information that travels through its people. China censors political speech and information, including on the Internet, which is why when attempting to log onto American websites such as YouTube and Facebook one will find an “error” on their screen. 

In spite of the fact that most of China’s people live in poverty and are censored, the Chinese people remain loyal to the government. When asked to give her opinion on China’s Communist party Autumn, my host mother, declared her love and appreciation for the government. She stated, “I really like the government. I think Hu Jintao really loves the people, he cares about everybody.” Fearing her response, I decided to challenge her statement and said, “Well, the government seems to be doing certain things such as creating a large amount of pollution that could be deadly to the Chinese people.” She took a pause to collect her thoughts and said “they are trying to fix that.”

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