I watched a very interesting PBS special on China last night. It was called Frontline: Tankman Remembered. This was very well done and I recommend you check it out. I believe PBS allows you to watch their programs online.
I am not very in tune with current events. I am a history buff and read a ton of history books every year. I can barely hold my own in any conversation about current events. I am also surprised how little I knew about the situation in China in 1989. With communism failing in Russia and the Gulf War I can see how I did not see to much about this.
I now realize how troubled China is, how unhappy the people are and how the entire country is a ticking timebomb. People call China the next superpower? It's just as likely the government will be overthrown and the country will be plunged into chaos. I personally feel we should not do business with China and treat them like Cuba.
There is a problem with this. As ruthless as the Chinese government is, as cruel as they are, and with the countless horrible things they do there is a problem. The government is also brilliant with the way China has emerged as an economic superpower. They allowed Western companies to come in and build an impressive infrastructure. China now has a middle class of around 250 million people, around the size of thr US middle class. They are overtaking us in every consumer category(Oil, cars etc etc) and becoming a vital global trade partner. The country also has 850 million poor who live and work in brutal conditions. It is quite horrible and there is no improvement in sight. The government no longer gives free education or medical (but lets people rent land now instead of working for the government, this is a brilliant semi capitalistic move). I will not go into all the details here but I do recommend you watch this special. It is soo good. I am soo glad I do not live there. This is the key sentence from below, and why China is in trouble: "Last year, there were more than 70,000 demonstrations, many of them violent, but few have been covered by the news media."
Below is a snippet about the special:
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A 90-minute “Frontline” (8 p.m., PBS, check local listings) examines one of the most powerful images of recent times. “The Tank Man” recalls the student and worker protests in China’s Tiananmen Square in early June 1989. For a few days, it seemed that a new breed of people power would topple the Communist government that had ruled with Stalinist ruthlessness for 40 years. Instead, the regime sent in troops and tanks. Thousands were killed, and the demonstrators were dispersed. Days later, a lone man, thought to be a worker, stood alone in front of a line of tanks. Defiant, alone, defenseless — he became a living symbol of individual resistance.
But what happened to the anonymous “Tank Man,” and what has happened to China since Tiananmen Square?
“Frontline” interviews journalists and human-rights activists who have heard rumors about his arrest and possible execution over the years. They also explain how China’s repressive regime has used the nation’s explosive economic growth as a kind of safety valve against dissent.
When “Frontline” reporters showed current Chinese university students a picture of the “Tank Man,” they had no idea who he was. Memory of his resistance had been all but vaporized in his native land.
Rapid change has brought prosperity for some but dire conditions for more than a billion Chinese. Most cannot afford newly privatized medical care and education, and pressures for change are mounting. Last year, there were more than 70,000 demonstrations, many of them violent, but few have been covered by the news media.
Most chilling of all, this “Frontline” explains why American corporations, including Google, Yahoo! and Cisco Systems, have cooperated with Chinese authorities to censor news and information and to help them locate alleged “subversives.”
