Archive for July 24th, 2008
Free speech – getting better in China, or worse in the West?
The announcement about China setting up “protest zones” during the Olympic games has been met with both optimism and criticism. Some are praising this as an improvement on the current situation. Others are criticising this as nothing more than just for show.
What should be of interest to most of us is the article’s observation that similar zones were set up in the 2004 games in Athens. In fact, this has been a growing phenomenon at many world events, such as World Bank and IMF meetings, where mass protests are expected or take place.
The authorities claim that this is necessary because of security, citing the violent protests which occur at these events. Which is another reason to condemn the people who resort to violence; for giving those in power another excuse for their neo-fascist methods. But the fact is that they began the use of such zones not because of the security concerns but because such large protests inconvenienced those taking part in such meetings. God forbid that public servants should ever have to directly face the public they claim to serve.
The NY Times does a great job in highlighting just how far from an open society China still is, and some of the hypocricies involved with the Olympic games, not just in China but generally. But it does a disservice to its readers and to society when they fail to shine some of that reflection on our own society at large. That China can claim to be liberalising so much by emulating the West in setting up protest zones says more about us in the West than it does about Chinese society.
