China's youth no fan of the US government

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

[Note how the article mentions in passing that the freedom of personal
expression in China is "largely unfettered". This elementary fact seems
lost on many "progressive" Internet forums.]

NY Times, April 22, 2001 

Chinese Youths' Adopt a Darkening View of U.S.

By CRAIG S. SMITH

SHANGHAI, April 21 ? Zhou Jing's view of the United States as dangerous and
domineering has hardened since American warplanes bombed China's embassy in
Belgrade two years ago and an American spy plane more recently collided
with a Chinese fighter jet off this country's southern coast.

"The embassy bombing had a huge impact on me," said Mr. Zhou, 21, sitting
in an American-style cafe across from Fudan University, where he is a
student. Though he hopes to study in the United States someday and has no
quibble with the American public, he said the bombing confirmed his view of
the American government as unreasonable and arrogant.

"And there's no fundamental difference between that event and the spy plane
incident," he added.

Mr. Zhou's growing ambivalence toward the United States highlights a change
in generational attitudes over the last 10 years. It has left those coming
of age now with the most negative feelings about the United States of any
generation since the 1970's. . .

The current generation of college students grew up during a period of
unprecedented economic growth that has been virtually devoid of political
contention. Communications and the freedom of personal expression are
largely unfettered.

And these youths have little knowledge of the turbulent Cultural
Revolution, which is virtually ignored in Chinese schools and is rarely
spoken of by older generations who are eager to forget the past and move on.

This is the first generation under the one-child policy to reach maturity,
and many have enjoyed the devotion ? if not indulgence ? of parents with an
only child.

Government-set limits are widely supported by today's young people as
necessary to the country's continued development. Most support China's
frequent use of the death penalty and many view curbs on freedom, such as
the crackdown on the Falun Gong spiritual movement, as essential to
maintaining social order.

"China's younger generation matured in the 1990's, a period when U.S.
policy and U.S. rhetoric sought to change the way China is governed, in
part by making strong accusations against the Chinese leadership on human
rights and other issues," said Dr. Lieberthal, the China scholar. But those
accusations ignored developments that gradually produced a growing middle
class and greater freedoms of speech and mobility, he added, changes that
are very real to most Chinese.

Chinese attitudes toward America are first set by mandatory "current
affairs" classes that Chinese students attend from primary school through
high school and even into college. The classes focus on salient news and
act as a mechanism for communicating the Communist Party's interpretation
of events, particularly for those of a political nature.

Pamphlets distributed by universities as part of that education program,
for example, condemned the American-led bombing campaign in Kosovo. And Mr.
Zhou recalls during high school studying criticism of the United States'
threat of trade sanctions and charges of Western influence in blocking
China's effort to serve as the host to the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/22/world/22CHIN.html


Louis Proyect
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