In China, which has autocratic rule, you can shut down the
channels of information available in most countries. In the Middle Kingdom, you
can pretty much say what you want in an e-mail to one other person. The problem
comes when you try to make a statement to multiple people. Your Internet
provider will have to quickly step in and make sure this e-mail won't make
political waves. China used to be very good at shutting down the flow of
information, but just lately a crash of a new high-speed train got wider notice
than party leaders expected.
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal have very good
coverage of China and the Wall Street Journal translates its stories into
Chinese and posts them on a website. I read both papers, and from conversations
with Chinese friends on the Mainland, seem to know more than they do about
what's going on with Bo Xilai and the death of a British citizen.
It has all the ingredients of Greek Tragedy. An ambitious
wife with a lust for power and money, combined with the death of a British
citizen who was apparently helping the party leader of Chongqing get money out
of the country to foreign bank accounts. However, when you listen to the
stories many Chinese immigrants pass from person to person, you hear about sexual
activities by both Bo and his wife, multiple murders and vast amounts of money.
The stories defy credibility.
This is all because China has worked so hard to keep
information from its people. Rumors abound when there is a lack of freedom of
information. Whatever strange things happened in Chongqing, the rumors have
taken over. Suppressing information only makes people want to know more. And in
a country in which gossip is on a world class level, the most lurid is bound to
get the most attention. At a crucial moment of change in the leadership of
China, rumors only fuel an instability where citizens imagine the worst
No comments:
Post a Comment