If the Tibetans stood up to demand a return of the Dalai they would be shot by the Chinese.
Americans and Frenchmen VOTE for their government. They have rights under a constitution. They have freedom of speech and freedom of religion. They have the right to bear arms and to petition their government for grievances.
Neither Chinese nor Tibetans have any of these rights. They are serfs/slaves to a cadre of evil men. As such they are not free men.
Freedom is expensive. Freedom can only be purchased w/ blood.
Until China raises the "capital" to purchase freedom they will remain a poverty stricken nation. Regardless of the trade balance.
Finally I truly know a typical American. What an ardent man yet with so vacant voices. When you are told by the American media how does China look like but not from the eyes of you own because of lack in knowledge on Mandarin Chinese, do you really think you are right?
Firstly I must state that I am not here to criticize anything or anybody, to tell my idea is the only purpose of this post.
China is heading for more improvements. I have been watching NYT for more than 5 year when I am just a little boy, and know what is really happening in America.
Could you tell me when Bush decided to occupy Iraq which caused thousand of Americans dead and even more Iraqis in pain, where is your right for petition? As a stark contrast, when China government plan to build a noxious chemical plant in Xiameng(a Chinese coastal city) the citizens stood up for protests which finally make the government abolish this plan.
Where is the right for Americans under constitution when there is a cyclone at Katrina which causes great wreckage but you troop are sent there just to crack down the people suffering? While in this Sichuan quake our army are sent there to save people?
As for freedom of speech? In china there are a lot of media that could tell the truth, for example the newspaper of southern-city, do you have even a small piece idea of this newspaper? No. Try to talk about the freedom of speech in China after finished reading some articles in this newspaper. And, take our university as an example, in her BBS system there is a board where everyday thousands of articles were posted to talk about the politics and the government. Do you know it? I am sorry no. Maybe we don’t perform the best, but we are in the process of doing better.
Freedom of religion? It is who that told you in China we have no freedom of religion? Do not make me laugh. Around me all the people are free to believe in any religions, one of my friends is a Christian, although the amount of persons who believe in religion is small, due to the Chinese special history of religion. Recently in 2007 September - A new Roman Catholic bishop of Beijing is consecrated - the first for over 50 years to have the tacit approval of the Pope. Does it tell you anything?
AND, China has a graduated-students’ population of over 100,000,000, such as me, who can access almost all the western media like NYT and BBC, who can read such a lot of western thoughts on democracy and freedom, who can think after such a reading. Are they all blind to withstand such a government if it is as you depicted to block speech and religion?
If you know Mandarin Chinese you can access Tianya Forum in China to see what is really happening in China, instead of just listening to the education of media of your own.
Americans and Frenchmen VOTE for their government. They have rights under a constitution. They have freedom of speech and freedom of religion. They have the right to bear arms and to petition their government for grievances.