Free Speech, Censorship, and Self Determination Issues in Protests against the Chinese Government :: China Government Research Politics Papers

Free Speech, Censorship, and Self Determination Issues in Protests against the Chinese GovernmentIntroductionAs a Chinese American, I have long admired the African American culture that spawned the civil rights movement. Here was a people buffeted by a history of discrimination that insist its equal rights as men and women. Whether advocating nonviolence and integration or separation and violence if necessary, these men and women used and asserted their freedom of speech on the streets, in writings, and on the airwaves.Today we see china growing rapidly in economic power yet shake by protests by workers displaced by the closings of state possess enterprises and migrant workers treated as second class citizens. We see organizations, from the Chinese Democratic Foundation to the Falun Gong, advocating and maintain human rights. The Chinese government has been relentless in nip(ing) those factors that undermine social stability in the bud, no matter where they come from.(7) Many h uman rights organizations and dissentient organizations have turned to the Internet to protest these government actions and to communicate, inform, and advocate their message to both the Chinese people and to the rest of the world.As a believer in protests and freedom of speech and someone who wants Chinese culture to grow, I should be a staunch supporter of these organizations and their actions. Yet, I am torn.Whats Happening In ChinaChina is undergoing rapid and violent change. China has the fastest growing economy in the world, growing at 9.1% clip in 2003. SFGate recently reported on Shanghai novelist Mian Mian whose tale exposing an underground of rock, drugs, and promiscuity is reminiscent of America in the 60s. The number of Chinese Internet users is estimated at close to 80 million. A naked generation of artists have appeargond on the scene, wryly commenting on Chinas rapid change. China, nominally communist, seems freer than ever before and its future looks bright.Yet, y ou also hear reports of corruption, of large and growing underclass, and renew repression. It seems that partly fueling Chinas engine of growth is a near inexhaustible supply of cheap and desperate labor spawned by the closing of state owned enterprises (S.O.E.s) and an impoverished rural population. These hardships have spawned a migrant labor population, estimated to swell to 100 million this year, that has flooded urban centers looking for work. These workers are denied education, medical care, pensions, are locked out of most jobs, and are vulnerable to labor abuses.