NationStates Jolt Archive

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/05/01/MNGE5CID7E1.DTL

This is potentially scary, really. My father lives in Beijing because of his job and I visit him there regularly.

Anyway, the article speaks for itself better than I can.

For example, even as 20,000 anti-Japanese protesters who massed in Shanghai on April 16 made headlines worldwide, a larger and far more volatile crowd staged an uprising in Huaxi, a village in coastal Zhejiang province a few hours south of Shanghai. Upset over environmental contamination from local chemical plants, 30,000 residents demonstrated in the streets, clashing with police after authorities tried to stop their peaceful protest and seizing control of the town.
Though journalists have since been barred from the town, reports that trickled out painted a scene of chaos. A reporter for the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post described the riot as a "melee of epic proportions."

Meanwhile, smaller protests are becoming almost commonplace.

"In a lot of ways, what we're hearing about in Zhejiang is more typical of what is happening all over China," Tanner said. "They have more problems than they have money and political systems to cure them."

good. fuck those state capitalist bastards.

good. fuck those state capitalist bastards.

Eh. I'm not really interested in seeing tens of thousands of Chinese protestors sent through the proverbial grinder as they were in '89.

Eh. I'm not really interested in seeing tens of thousands of Chinese protestors sent through the proverbial grinder as they were in '89.
So what was is your opinion about this? Do you think those people should keep their heads down and not protest?

I say protest like hell. So what if they send tanks out again. Keep it up. No government can survive without the support of its citizens. Time to revolt and take away power from the commie capitalists.

So what was is your opinion about this? Do you think those people should keep their heads down and not protest?

I think China should attempt to re-evaluate its own foreign policies before it proceeds to make itself look like an even bigger hypocritical jackass.
Case in point: Taiwanese independence, or the lack thereof.

Which is not to say I condone the Japanese re-writing of history, but I'm just a wee bit biased against my ancestral motherland [China] to begin with.

And of course, I realise that in China, there's a huge difference between the people and the government, but history has shown us time and time again that they've pretty much written the book on suppressing protests.

I think China should attempt to re-evaluate its own foreign policies before it proceeds to make itself look like an even bigger hypocritical jackass.
Case in point: Taiwanese independence, or the lack thereof.

Which is not to say I condone the Japanese re-writing of history, but I'm just a wee bit biased against my ancestral motherland [China] to begin with.

And of course, I realise that in China, there's a huge difference between the people and the government, but history has shown us time and time again that they've pretty much written the book on suppressing protests.
I agree with you. I'm from China too, and the current government has seriously fucked the country up.

So what was is your opinion about this? Do you think those people should keep their heads down and not protest?

No, I totally support the Chinese protestors and I think there should be more civil disobedience. I support the workers' protests and those protesting on social issues, but I disagree with the anti-Japanese protests, which are just government-sponsored acts of blind nationalism.

I just worry that the police and military are going to crush them like bugs. I know the protestors understand the risks involved, and I find their brazenness admirable, I just get very nervous when I think of the government retribution upon the demonstrators. On a larger level, I also worry about the repercussions a new crackdown could have on the Taiwan issue and the further erosion of rights in the Hong Kong S.A.R. Also (and this is a far more heartless reason, admittedly), a destabilisation of the Chinese mainland could spell major economic trouble for an Asia that has only just begun recovering from the '97 economic crisis as well as for the greater international economy.

Beijing has been increasingly heavy handed. It hasn't been heavily reported beyond Asia, but the Chinese government has engaged in increasingly invasive tactics to keep its own brand of 'social order' intact such as the censorship and screening of mobile phone text messages among other things.