A reader has pointed out that a propaganda website friendly with the Chinese government and hostile to Falun Gong is quoting a recent blog entry of mine. She suggests that this means that I am aiding the government in its harsh persecution of the cult.
I, of course, don't see it that way. Two crooks are wrestling here, and I've made my opinion known that both combatants are crooks, period. I find it really funny that the propaganda site is blithely repeating my words, "Most people with democratic opinions see the Chinese government as a group of autocratic villains with a history of persecuting good people." I look forward to the day when the Chinese people no longer suffer either under dictatorial leadership nor religious delusions.
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In every story there is a villain, and his adversary is either a hero or a hapless victim. But we don't live in a story.
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One of my pastimes is writing on Wikipedia. It's almost unavoidable since I use the encyclopedia daily and keep running into stuff to correct -- facts, spelling, stylistic mishaps. In the past, though, I've been really discouraged when trying to improve the articles about Falun Gong (a.k.a. Chinese…
I'm both fascinated and repelled by modern China. Such an ancient and rich culture, but with such a repressive modern government! Another ten years or so and the Europeans and Americans will be involved in desperate conflicts with the Chinese for dwindling resources... most of them involving petroleum.
You might want to add an update to the original post stating your position, so if anyone follows the link from the pro-regime* site they know unambiguously where you stand.
* I was about to write "pro-communist," but the Chinese govt hasn't been communist in years.
What fun! They take the hit to provide a bash for Folun Gong. Congrats on being posted on a consulate web site, I think.
Larry Avers -
I share your fascination/repulsion. I have had an interest in visiting China since seeing a large screen travelog on it when I was seven. But now that it is actually plausible for me to visit, I am loathe to give them my hard earned money.
HP -
I know a lot of people who actually assert that China was never actually communist. They follow that it was really more of a way to express that they were anti-western nation. The only problem I have with that, is that China was probably more rabidly anti-Soviet, than they were anti-west. It is obvious however, that there was definitely something of communism that got lost in translation, even if you use the Soviet model to define communism (which had definitely lost something in translation from Marx and Engles).
"Two crooks are wrestling here..." Well said professor. I enjoy your blog very much. Many thanks.
Thanks man!