It's cool that you were able to do that! I was lucky enough to have traveled the world when I was growing up, as my father used his summers away from the university to work in developing countries and sometimes took us with him. Aside from that, he just loved to travel and gave me the "travel bug," I guess. I've always loved going to other countries and seeing other cultures, their architecture, the way they live, eating their food, etc.. They all have something to offer. It doesn't matter how poor they are, either, because some of the poorest lands can have some of the richest cultures and the richest history. I would rather travel than do just about anything. If I can instill that into my kids, it'll be at least one thing worthwhile that they've recieved from me. Impeach Bush and Send Him to Tibet to Report the News!
Deeds Speak Louder than Words. Now I understand why US govornment and military are called liars. Remember april 2001?
I would say currently China is a communist country, but slowly moving to modern socialism. I hope one day Taiwan can rejoin China and turn into two party system. Did I make myslef clear? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxOTPFrGzgA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an6LqOxM4Zc
I think everyone who can should spend some time living outside of their own country. When I lived in Asia I actually better understood what it meant to be an American. In regard to the back and forth on who is brainwashed if we only rely upon one source of news all of us are brainwashed which is why I think its important to look at several. Both CCTV and CNN have their own biases whether they are aware of it or not but the way you overcome that is to look at where they are reporting is similar.
In regard to the US backing down over an American surveillance plane that made an emergency landing on a PRC base? I'm not sure how that is relevant other than that you are making the case that the US will back down in a confrontation with the PRC. I think comparing a downed plane with an attempted military assualt of a US treaty bound ally are very different things.
Funny how China forgets that without the USA defeating the Japanese they might still be an occupied territory of Japan. DD
I don't think Chinese have forgotten that, that's why Chinese people in China view Americans much more favorable than Japanese. However, it seems that lots of Americans have forgotten that US and China were allies during WWII. But ideology or at least the ideology in name have turned allies into strategic competitors and enemies become allies. If USA didn't defeat Japanese, instead of China being still an occupied territory of Japan rather it's more probable that Japanese became Chinese. Mongol and Man invaded China, and later on they converted to Chinese. It's not how righteous Chinese people are. That's just how powerful Chinese culture is. You asked a funny question earlier comparing human right in China with Nazi Germany. I guess China must be much worse. Because Brits and Americans didn't care much about what Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan did in other places, before they were attacked. They weren't outraged by anything, but they are outraged by everything in China. So China is much much worse; otherwise, US could be wrong. And we all know, that's not possible.
The US is wrong lots of times, it is just that we as US citizens are free to discuss it. For instance, invading Iraq was stupid, dumb and completely wrong, and I can not stand George Bush as our president. Now, let's see someone from China come in and talk about Tibet, or how badly some of the people are treated over there. DD
Most Chinese are intelligent, sir. The US regards Iraq as an imminent threat to US security, even that country is far faraway. Taiwan is not faraway if you live in mainland China.
Chinese were on their way to win the war against Japenese, so the bombs only made a quicker surrender by Japan. But if Japan defeated China before 1941, the outcome of the WWII will be very different. China and US were helping each other during WWII.
Competitive news source doesn't guarantee you fair and balanced coverage, but your own consolidated effort from different news sources with conflicting interest might help you. Before you throwing around those capitalism terms, you probably want to look at it this way, the posters with Chinese background arguing with you, have exposure to both Chinese and West media, including the same competitive news source you relied on. No doubt about it, there is press censorship in China, and it's not as free as Western world in terms of news reporting. However, knowing that, generations of Chinese actively sought for different news source. In current China, there are hundred of cable TV channels as well, although news channels are strictly following "party lines", there are lots of subtle differences, and people learned from the past, to read between lines. Not many people take words from "People's Daily" at face value. Despite censorship on Internet, it's just impossible to filter everything out. There are so many ways get around it. While I was visiting China, I was able to access those blocked Chinese oversea BBS. In hotels, you can watch CNN or BBC or FOX. Because I have traveled and lived in many places, personally, I always read news from many sources, including US, UK, Germany, Mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. Even my father read news on Internet from Mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. Not everything is accessible to him, but he's never lacking of sources with different interest. How many people on this board seek news outside of US source? Many Chinese posters here at least read news from Chinese language and English language. Among them, many have education overseas and living/working experience overseas for more than 10 years, or even 20 years. Some are even grown up in Western world. What makes you think they are all brainwashed, but you are not while getting news from different channels at one place with the SAME interest? Do you think you are getting a balanced picture of Dem primary before the Wright fiasco by watching CNN, when CNN removed 2 analysts from the panel for their "not objective view" as Clinton supporters, while having the characters like Martin, Jamel, and Gloria on the panel? Is watching MSNBC going to help? Competitive news source does not give you enough information as you would hope. Both Bild Zeitung and Spiegel magazine had extensive coverage of the riots in Tibet, and they both used pictures of Nepal and Indian police beating demonstrators to support their claims how Chinese force is cracking down peaceful monks. They both used pictures of Chinese military helping Han Chinese escape the chaos as evidence how Chinese military is arresting peaceful Tibetans. That's not a show of lack of professionalism, but rather some lowest integrity. One is tabloid kind of newspaper, another one is more serious magazine enjoying much better reputation. They are competitive, but they both LIED and FAKED news in such tragedy. Do you think German people can get a fair coverage of this event based on such competitive news source? Chinese people in China have limited access to news source from the West, but more educated people actively look for other sources through Internet. As tight as the censorship might be, it's IMPOSSIBLE to block everything, and people are getting information from outside. However, how many Americans seek for news from sources outside of US? If they won't be brainwashed with (capitalism) competitive new sources, how do you explain the fact that many still believe WMD was found in Iraq?
