Olympic nightmare?

Li, thank you for your post. We are fortunate to have someone like you on this board who can speak about these issues from a local's perspective. I also appreciate your honesty. For what it's worth, I am glad the Olympics are being held in China. I think it will be good for China, and good for China's relationship with the larger international community. -Chris Thanks for your understanding. I agree that the government has done a great deal of harm to China and its citizens. But I do not think that isolation China from the international community is going to do any good to the ordinary people here. Take Iraq for example, before the war the international community put sanctions on Iraq. the result was very obvious: the ordinary people suffered more and Sadamm enjoyed more. Right untill the war. The same thing would happen in China as well if China were isolated. The only difference would be that the government, or the interest-gained/powerful group replace Sadamm because in China it is now a group dictatorship pollitical system rather than a one-person dictatorship. Another thing why I oppose an isolation approach to China is that China needs new ideas, new ideology from other cultures/countries to change its own way of thinking. An Isolation approach would block the spread of those new ideas into China, which would escalate the situation here. Many Chinese people, significantly influenced by the traditional Chinese culture, have no idea or very little idea on what another culture is like or what another political system works. As a result, when they think the government is wrong they still turn to the Chinese culture/political theories trying to find a "new" way to reslove the problems, which, in my opinion, is not new at all. The same recipe with different ingredients. If we look into the nearly three thousand of years of Chinese history we would find a continuous replacement of a new dynasty to the old one, then the new one was replaced by the next new one. What kept change was who controlled the country. What remained unchanged was the controlling mechanism each dynasty used. In terms of political/philosophy theory behind the political mechanism, confucianism, the dominated theory, was upheld by generations of CHina for neary two thousand years. Individualism, individual's Freedom, democracy, the respect of private ownership of property, etc. all those important ideas never gained a position in Chinese history. The communist party we have today is no different. They may call themselves communist party but in nature they are still more or less a traditional Chinese ideology dominated political party. As Chairman Mao put it: the ideology adopted by the chinese communist party is a combination of the Maxism with the real Chinese situation. or probably more correctly, the localization of Maxism. Mao emphasized the REAL CHINESE SITUATION again and again in his works. In his early political life Mao was critised by classical Maxists as being a not real maxist and was suppressed until he led the chinese communist party to survive the Long March. Coincidence or not Mao actually never set his foot on a foreign land except Russia. All the leaders after Mao, no matter how they disagree with him, still carries Mao's perception into the new ideas from another culture. For example, all the important policies made by the government must emphasize the unique characteristics of the chinse society when introducing new ideas, new approaches, etc. In theory, it is correct that every new idea must consider the real situation of each case before those new ideas get implemented. But in real world, many parties distort the new ideas to gain their own interest under the name of considering the unique characteristics of our sociey. All I want to say is that CHina must look outside of both its geographic boders and its culture/political sphere to take new blood to guide its sustainable development. Only more communication with outside world can contribute to that. An isolation approach would only make things worse. Why we need the new ideas from outside? because the continuous three thousand year of history makes it very very difficult to change by only resorting to the things of our own. Finally I want to point out that the above said is only my personal opinions. Many many of my fellow countryman would not agree with me. Those who read them should be aware that if they want to explore more about China. Li

Li, thank you for your post. We are fortunate to have someone like you on this board who can speak about these issues from a local's perspective. I also appreciate your honesty. For what it's worth, I am glad the Olympics are being held in China. I think it will be good for China, and good for China's relationship with the larger international community. -Chris Thanks for your understanding. I agree that the government has done a great deal of harm to China and its citizens. But I do not think that isolation China from the international community is going to do any good to the ordinary people here. Take Iraq for example, before the war the international community put sanctions on Iraq. the result was very obvious: the ordinary people suffered more and Sadamm enjoyed more. Right untill the war. The same thing would happen in China as well if China were isolated. The only difference would be that the government, or the interest-gained/powerful group replace Sadamm because in China it is now a group dictatorship pollitical system rather than a one-person dictatorship. Another thing why I oppose an isolation approach to China is that China needs new ideas, new ideology from other cultures/countries to change its own way of thinking. An Isolation approach would block the spread of those new ideas into China, which would escalate the situation here. Many Chinese people, significantly influenced by the traditional Chinese culture, have no idea or very little idea on what another culture is like or what another political system works. As a result, when they think the government is wrong they still turn to the Chinese culture/political theories trying to find a "new" way to reslove the problems, which, in my opinion, is not new at all. The same recipe with different ingredients. If we look into the nearly three thousand of years of Chinese history we would find a continuous replacement of a new dynasty to the old one, then the new one was replaced by the next new one. What kept change was who controlled the country. What remained unchanged was the controlling mechanism each dynasty used. In terms of political/philosophy theory behind the political mechanism, confucianism, the dominated theory, was upheld by generations of CHina for neary two thousand years. Individualism, individual's Freedom, democracy, the respect of private ownership of property, etc. all those important ideas never gained a position in Chinese history. The communist party we have today is no different. They may call themselves communist party but in nature they are still more or less a traditional Chinese ideology dominated political party. As Chairman Mao put it: the ideology adopted by the chinese communist party is a combination of the Maxism with the real Chinese situation. or probably more correctly, the localization of Maxism. Mao emphasized the REAL CHINESE SITUATION again and again in his works. In his early political life Mao was critised by classical Maxists as being a not real maxist and was suppressed until he led the chinese communist party to survive the Long March. Coincidence or not Mao actually never set his foot on a foreign land except Russia. All the leaders after Mao, no matter how they disagree with him, still carries Mao's perception into the new ideas from another culture. For example, all the important policies made by the government must emphasize the unique characteristics of the chinse society when introducing new ideas, new approaches, etc. In theory, it is correct that every new idea must consider the real situation of each case before those new ideas get implemented. But in real world, many parties distort the new ideas to gain their own interest under the name of considering the unique characteristics of our sociey. All I want to say is that CHina must look outside of both its geographic boders and its culture/political sphere to take new blood to guide its sustainable development. Only more communication with outside world can contribute to that. An isolation approach would only make things worse. Why we need the new ideas from outside? because the continuous three thousand year of history makes it very very difficult to change by only resorting to the things of our own. Finally I want to point out that the above said is only my personal opinions. Many many of my fellow countryman would not agree with me. Those who read them should be aware that if they want to explore more about China. Li