China wants North Korea to have nukes

One of the most interesting features of Skypeland is the chance to talk to people from other countries, societies and cultures. When I talk to people from China, I often find them very defensive about China. Few are able to wrap their heads around the concept that their news is censored, or their access to information is less than the rest of the world's, or that the Chinese government operates differently than other governments in controlling the news and information that the public has access to. There is even a special version of Skype which is designed for China to allow the government to monitor the Skype calls of Chinese residents.

When I talk to Chinese people, I ask things like:

*How many wars has China been in since 1950? Most Chinese I talk to guess that the number is zero. I have observed Chinese people who deny or try to explain away the Chinese wars with India, Vietname, Tibet, the USSR, the UN when they came in on the side of North Korea, and so. on

* Does the Chinese government believe that North Korea should be armed with nuclear weapons? Almost no Chinese are aware of Chinese participation in the Six Party Talks, or that China is not in favor of North Korea possessing nuclear weapons. When I ask a Chinese person if they think that North Korea should have nuclear weapons, they almost always say yes. When I tell them that this disagrees with their government's official position, they are bewildered and confused.

* What happened in Tiannamen Square? Almost all Chinese people believe they know the "true story", but when I ask them to explain a bit more, I hear all kinds of crazy claims. For example, most believe that the government was correct, but few know what the protestors were protesting. I have heard some claim that the Tiannamen Square protestors were upset because "evil foreigners had cheated them" (why the Chinese government would shoot them then, I have no idea, and why Chinese people would think that the Chinese government is justified in such an action is beyond me). Almost no Chinese know that there were Chinese students in the US at the time, most of who stayed in the US. When asked to guess, they estimate there were no more than about 2 thousand Chinese students in the US at the time, instead of the correct figure of about a quarter million. Most are shocked to hear that so many Chinese who were outside of China at the time of Tiannamen decided to stay away from China forever because of the Tiannamen Square event.

* Do the Taiwannese want to be part of China? When I ask about whether the Taiwanese want to be absorbed into China, they often make excuses or try to justify why China should absorb them.

* Has Tibet always been part of China? When I ask about Tibet, they claim Tibet was always part of China, so they have the right to conquer it and occupy it. One Chinese person recently told me that Tibet is a nice place to vacation, and that many Chinese go to Tibet for vacations, and that this justifies the Chinese taking over Tibet by force. Ah yes, sounds like a good reason, doesn't it?

I respect the Chinese for being patriotic, and proud of their country. It is a shame that so few know about Chinese policies and history, however. I have not yet asked any Chinese about the prison camps for Chinese journalists, Chinese slave labor and prison labor policies, and forced organ harvesting. I suspect that I would hear defensiveness and disbelief.

Often the Chinese I talk to claim it is impossible for me to know what is going on in China because I do not speak Chinese. When I point out that we have millions of Chinese that live in the West that are fluent in Chinese, and so through them we can access Chinese news sources, I notice that they are not quite sure what to say. They have little idea of what the world is like outside of China, I suspect.

The Chinese on Skype feel they are living in the most perfect country on earth, because their government tells them that this is so. Most Chinese I talk to cannot quite understand the value of self-criticism and self-reflection. They observe the self-criticism and debates in the West over assorted Western policies, and believe this shows how corrupt the West is, instead of how weak China is for not engaging in the same exercise.