Thoughts on Recent Events of the Olympic Torch

Like thousands of people who went to see the Olympic torch relay in San Francisco, I was deeply disappointed by not seeing a single flame. Later, I watched the videos of the live reports on Youtube. My heart sank to the bottom. I have never seen anything like this: the Olympic torch – a symbol of world peace – was heavily guarded by three walls of police and security.

The first wall was the “blue guys” – the Chinese “torch body guards,” the second wall was police motorcyclists, and the third wall was fully armed policemen. Since when has the Olympic torch to be protected by an army troop? To me, the torch run has completely lost its meaning, and it was a bigger embarrassment than what had happened in Paris.

I understand the protesters have the right to protest and they were trying to make their point. But such protests can hardly get their point across and may even just do the opposite. Although they made it clear that they were not protesting against the Chinese people but the government, the Chinese people were angry and rallied behind their government more than ever.

Unlike Americans who separate themselves from the government, Chinese still see the government as their representation, or their collective “face,” especially on the international stage. When the government was humiliated, they felt they were losing face, therefore, humiliated; when the government was criticized, they took it personally and believed they were attacked.

It seems today Chinese are angrier toward foreigners than their government. It's not surprising that many young people were calling for a boycott of Carrefour – a popular French supermarket chain in China. The strong sentiment of nationalism is troublesome. The irony is that although Chinese are vocal against foreign media’s biased reports, they are mute on the government’s news censorship, which contributed to the problem in the first place.

A young entrepreneur, who owns an interior design firm in Beijing, once told me: “We know our problems, but it’s not up to Westerners to point the finger at us.” He said he couldn’t care less about politics – or democracy for that matter, as he had all the freedom to do anything he wanted.

Early this year, a top think-tank in Beijing released a “political reform plan,” which laid out the detailed blueprints for building a “modern civil society,” and eventually “mature democracy and rule of law.” I haven’t read the report, but according to a Reuters article, the report indicated that “freedom of the press is an inevitable trend” and current political system is incompatible with the economic growth. It mapped out three phases of reform in the next 12 years, including human rights, religious freedom, and restriction of the communist party’s power.

It seems that China is moving toward the right direction. The most important thing is that the world cannot afford to have a “closed China” and go back to the Cold War. Economically, America and China are too inter-connected and inter-dependent. America has a lot of influence on China in many areas, but not by bullying (which I believe is one of the reasons for the strong nationalism among the Chinese youth), but by engaging and leading by example.

The Olympics, which was supposed to be a great opportunity to show the world what China has achieved, is turning out to be a great challenge to China’s leaders. It would be interesting to see how events unfold in the next few months.

What do you want from us?

This is a hilarious summary of the confused minds of the Western world..., so confused that even the Chinese people get confused (from China Herald).

What do you want from us?

When we were called "sick man of Asia”, we were called peril.
When we billed to be the next superpower, we're called the threat

When we closed our doors, you smuggled drugs to open markets.
when we embrace free trade, you blame us for taking away your jobs.

when we're falling apart, you marched in your troops and wanted your fair share.
when we're putting the broken pieces together, “Free Tibet” you screamed! “it was invasion.”

So we tried communism, you hated us for being communist.
So we embraced capitalism, you hate us for being capitalist,

Then we have a billion people, you said we're destroying the planet.
Then we limit our numbers, you said it was human rights abuses.

When we were poor, you think we're dogs,
When we loan you cash, you blamed us for your debts.

When we build our industries, you called us polluters.
When we sell you goods, you blamed us for global warming,
When we buy oil, you called that exploitation and genocide.

When we were lost in chaos and rampage, you wanted rule s of laws for us.
When we uphold law and order against violence, you called that violation of human rights.

When we were silent, you said you want us to have free speech.
When we were silent no more, you say we were brainwashed.

Why do you hate us so much? We asked. “No”. You answered, “we don't hate you”.
We don't hate you either Bud, do you understand us?? “of course we do”, you said, “We have CNN, BBC, and CBC”.

But why, we still feel, your western people are not happy with us.

What do you really want from us??

My friend, What do you really want from us??