From the Readers

Impressions based on emptiness

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-12 07:58

While traveling in Turkey presently, I met a Japanese who worked in Xi'an for three years at the beginning of this century. Hearing that I am a freelance writer in China, he said: "Oh, life must be hard for you!"

"Why?" I asked. He felt embarrassed and dared not explain. "You probably mean because of censure?" I helped him. He agreed. I explained that as a writer, I always say what I really think, that I write about what I have seen with my own eyes, and that I often criticize China and the Chinese. If I agree with the government's position, it's not because I have been asked for or because I can gain advantages from it.

I asked the Japanese man to give me only one example of lack of freedom he had witnessed. He racked his brain for a time, and finally answered: "I was not granted a driver's license in China." To which I answered: "Excuse my openness, but I think you are propagating a baseless impression." The same day, I received an e-mail from Canada: "What do you think of the Chinese Nobel prize for Peace?" asked a friend, also a writer. I logged on to read the news, only to discover that the Nobel Prize committee had - once more - used the high profile world organization to interfere in politics.

In China, it is not forbidden to have personal views on the government, and not forbidden to express them on government websites or elsewhere.

What is punishable is to disrupt public order and to draw society into agitation, riot, or rebellion. If China is progressing daily and peacefully, it's because of its stability. China is large, and so is its population. Rome was not built in one day. Some obvious progress is made daily. So, let's be patient, and support it instead of disrupting social order.

Lisa Carducci, via e-mail

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