by Steve Lin
Dear Kris,
Thanks for your kind support and taking time to write me your thoughts.
I understand your feeling of distrust or even disgust of the current Chinese government. Believe me, I don't trust it either, just as I don't trust the current US government.
Having grown up in China and been taught to hate the American government, I was misled into hating and fearing the American people as well. But the reform that came after the Cultural Revolution changed my worldview gradually. Having lived in the States for the last 11 years, I realized how laughable and dangerous it was to be brainwashed while not knowing it. The whole experience taught me that I need to use my own brain and judge things based on facts, not what people tell me are facts, and also that there are always two sides to a coin.
The then-communist government in China did the country and people terrible damage during the years before 1976, which is totally inexcusable. But since the end of the Cultural Revolution, it has gradually forsaken the communist ideal, even though they never said so, nor did they change the name of its party, its government, or its national anthem, unlike the current Russian government. It has done a lot to better people's living standard, economic freedom, and believe it or not, religious and political freedom.
The communist government did persecute countless people on religious grounds because the communist ideal rejects God. Now that communism is only being paid lip service, the government has moderated its behavior in this area due to peaceful western influence and gradual self-awareness of what it has done. But it is still doing a certain degree of suppression because of the fear of manipulation by foreign governments and the priority it sets for social stability. I don't agree with a lot of things the government is doing, but as an American citizen now, I don't have the divine rights to point fingers and demand changes any more, unlike my ex-fellow countrymen, who have every right to do so should they want to.
You said that you don't like the Chinese government, but love its people. It's a hard thing to reconcile, since the government is made of its own people. It may be hard for you to believe, even though Chinese people don't particularly like their government, the corruptions, the constant propaganda, etc, the majority of the Chinese don't want to have a political reform right now. They don't, no way in Hell, want those so-called dissidents to run the country. To them, they are the traitors, they are the equivalent of the Castro-haters in USA that are asking for the stay of the economic embargo which is making the lives of their own people miserable, not Castro, the same people who held Elian Gonzalez hostage in wanton disregard of the most basic human rights of him and his father and also in total disregard of US law. If they want to fight for their countrymen's freedom and welfare, they should have stayed in Cuba, or China for that matter, and suffer the same painful result of such sanctions that they are proposing.
Do you honestly think, by not granting China WTO status and constantly sending "routine" spy planes to the Chinese coast, China will be more progressive and open, develop fewer nuclear bombs and missiles to carry them, Chinese people will live better, the Christians and Muslins in China will have more freedom? Do you honestly believe that the current leaders will suffer any hardship at all because of this? I didn't think so.
So now you go to war with the Chinese government over religious freedom or Taiwan independence. Do you think you are going to kill the Chinese "government"? No. The United States can't even get rid of Saddam Hussein. All you end up killing are the innocent Chinese people, the same people you proclaim you loved, with the Christians and Muslins alike in them, along with our fellow young American soldiers who may not know better. In any circumstances, among people or countries, the use of force is only justifiable when used in direct defense of oneself, not when it is done to get rid of imaginary threats or even worse, for naked aggression. We are living in a nuclear era with a president who pronounces it "nukular". Would you honestly trust his judgment with his finger on the missile launch button? I didn't think so.
If you would like to find out more facts about China, regarding current issues like Taiwan and Tibet, and what people of Chinese origin think about them, I highly recommend you read the articles by Bevin Chu on www.antiwar.com. I share many of his views. See especially, "The only China threat is the China threat theorists."
I have read some message board postings about China during the past months of the spy plane incident. The people there, who proclaim themselves as for the good of China and Chinese people, ironically, invariably get into heated argument with the China defenders, whom are very often ordinary Chinese logging-on from mainland China, and quite often they will eventually say, "Let's NUKE'EM. Let's NUKE those godless Chi-coms back to the stone age." That's when I realized that they are not really for the wellbeing of the China or Chinese people. As a matter of fact, they don't give a damn about those "slant-eyed yellow perils." All they care about is the US world dominance, regardless of just cause or not. All they have revealed are their true faces of arrogance and bigotry.
Changing China is a very hard thing to do. It's best to let the Chinese people work it out themselves. All we can do is take care of our own business at home so that we may one day set a good example. War is never a justifiable option.
Please let me know what you think.
A disclaimer by Steve Lin:
This email was sent to me by a reader, whom I wasn't able to get in touch with, in response to my earlier piece "Rockwell is right on China". His return email address was not valid. Therefore I failed to obtain his explicit permission to publish his opinion. To protect his privacy, I have taken out his last name and email address in the text. If he doesn't like me to publish this article at all and tell me so later, I will take this text off-line. The whole text from Kris is verbatim, without any changes by me.
Kris wrote:
Steve –
I am a 32 year old "white" American male, so although our age is the same, I realize our backgrounds could not be further apart. I, however, do realize that there are feelings of prejudice and hatred and distrust that you can daily experience or at least witness. For those expereiences, I empathize deeply with you. It is (as you say in your article) the bigger crime that the people of China are lumped into the same distrust as
People have for the government of China. Please know that this is not the case with me personally; the Chinese people that I have come into contact with during the course of my life and work have always been a joy to be around, hard workers, self-disciplined, respectful of others, etc. I hope they have foundme to be the same.
However, I do have a distrust of the Chinese government; strangely enough, this distrust is not politically or economically based. While I wholly disapprove of the communist agenda, the philosophy of government alone is not the cause of my feelings – in other words, I'm not a natural "commie-phobe." The basis of my concern with the government of China is based in human rights, specifically as it relates to religious freedom. There are well-documented cases (not by the American government
Propaganda machine) by independent Christian organizations of outright real religious
persecution in China for those who step outside of the "State-approved" religious teaching. I as well have a personal friend who is a Christian missionary to China, and he has related stories of the religious situation in China as well.
The issue is not whether or not you are Christian, a follower of Confucius or others, or completely non-religious. The issue is that all men should be able to worship as they see fit without the fear of the government squelching the free expression of their beliefs or persecuting them for practicing those beliefs. So I hope that you would at least understand that there are reservations among people out here about the Chinese government that are not driven by the US propaganda or media machine. In addition,
We do not all lump Chinese people with Chinese government, for it is the Chinese people themselves we are concerned about in regards to this persecution.
I know our worlds growing up were far apart, but my assumption is that you now enjoy the freedoms that are afforded you in America. My hope is that all your countrymen would experience those same freedoms, and, unfortunately, the Chinese government is that which now stands in the way of such an ideal.
