Power of the Internet

In Skypeland, I have had numerous examples of the power of the internet. Today, I talked to two young ladies studying Japanese in university in Shanghai. Although they had standard government educations in Chinese government schools and only got their information from web newspapers issued by the Chinese government, they were suprisingly well informed about Chinese history and current affairs. I was stunned that they knew about the Chinese attacks on Tibet, India and Russia, although I think they new less about the Chinese attacks on Vietnam a few decades ago. They were well-informed about the relations with Taiwan and the failed negotations with North Korea. They were pessimisstic about the current negotatiations with North Korea to get North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program, and sounded more like Neoconservatives in the United States than Chinese on this issue. They expressed displeasure with the Chinese communist party. I was surprised at how different they seemed to be than most Chinese people I have talked to.

A Japanese friend said it was possibly because these women speak Japanese, and so have more access to foreigners than the average Chinese person. However, other Chinese students of Japanese we have talked to were not this knowledgable.

I am not sure how these two ladies knew so much, but maybe it is because of the internet. It is just too difficult for the Chinese government to censor everything on the internet.