Lonely politics…

I was happy to have my first English blog set up on blogspot.com. I posted the web link on my Facebook, on my MSN, and on my xiaonei.com, in order to tell as many friends as possible about my new blog. But to my surprise, blogspot.com has also been blocked in mainland China. Well, I guess that’s the reason why my new blog is so lonely~ It’s not that my blog is such a boring, but that my friends just can’t access to it.

As far as I know, Facebook, Twitter, and Blogspot are blocked in mainland China. There may well be other sites, but I don’t know. I don’t use them. About a month ago, we visited the Chinese embassy in one of our Monday programs at the Washington Center. When we came to the issue of internet freedom and the inaccessibility of those social networking websites, the diplomat answered in such a logic: 1. He doesn’t know these websites. 2. Chinese people can find other ways to log onto these websites by proxy software or websites. 3. There’re tons of similar social networking websites in China and netizens can fully utilize them.

His answer was quite “reasonable”, as it was expected by us. What else could he say about it? He’s not authorized to say anything further and deeper. But because we understood his standpoints didn’t mean that we fully agreed with him. I’m not saying that as a diplomat, he’s only representing China and going to any lengths to protect China. What I’m saying is that China is walking down a wrong path to present herself to the world.

Indeed, people are now living in an information age. If they want, they can find a way to climb over the “Great Firewall” and get the information from abroad. There’s nothing the government can do to completely block the international information flow. Just count how many people have cell-phones and internet access in China. Just count how many people travel outside the country each year from China. Just count how many Chinese students are studying abroad at present. They carry information and ideas. The people exchange and ubiquitous information exchange render the Great Firewall in China almost ineffective, and notorious.

So what’s the point for the government to fight for a war that is doomed to fail? I don’t know. But I’m sure about one thing. The Chinese leaders are not fool. They are super smart with rich experience and broad knowledge. They’re more powerful and determining than any other political leaders in today’s world. If they want, they will make the best changes to the existing system. The problem is, they can’t. The concepts of country, government and party are so mixed that it becomes an either-or choice.

The Chinese leaders are experiencing such a hard time now. Their choices are never easy. How to unite a country as one against all the latent and prominent factors that are tearing the country apart? How to maintain stability as a whole when many people are suffering from poverty and repression? How to protect the authority of the country while accommodating itself to the existing world order and norms that requires compromises? How to decelerate the environmental pollution and ecological destruction? How to sustain the development of economy and export under the grave pressure of RMB appreciation?... All kinds of problems are haunting China right now. This is a country with more than 1.3 populations and the world’s largest growing economy. If China collapsed, it would be as devastating as climate change and global warming.

China’s image is terribly aggressive and negative for a long time on the global stage. It reached a peak in 2008 when the Olympic torch relay took place in Europe and many people participated in anti-2008-Genocide-Olympic campaigns. China is always lonely. China needs alliance. China needs the developing world. China needs peaceful developing time and opportunities.

But what’s the root of all those problems? I don’t want to bring it up. I think everybody have got it already. Yes. It’s the system. It should be improved. If it can’t, then change.

I love my country. I’m proud to be a Chinese. If I had a choice to decide which country I want to born in for my afterlife, I would choose China again. Just because I love it so much, I hope to see its development and prosperity.

China is so lonely.