The foreign view on China
When I was less than ten years of age, I was pretty happy because everyone would know about Chinese kung fu and they would think it was so great. There was this Chinese phase when people really started liking some Chinese things (mainly martial arts and some movies). But after the 90s were over, the 2000s rolled in and every time I looked on the news, there was some thing about the Chinese government being too oppressive or all the indecent things done in China. The pollution, the greed, and all these negative connotations of China. When I read these articles, I got offended, but also a bit amused.
Compared to the United States, China is still only a developing country. The industrial revolution that has suddenly taken over the country mirrors the economic prosperity and the US’ developing strong foothold in the 1800s to 1900s. During the United States’ industrial revolution, the number of defected products and amount of pollution was most likely unable to statistically record. Immigrants had a very tough time. Let’s not all forget how children were sent to work in factories and if one part of their arm was cut off during mindless factory work, they weren’t given medical treatment–they were fired and sent home. It wasn’t until half a century after the first industrial revolution did better reforms develop. The Progressive movement helped fuel reforms for these horrid conditions, including the poisoned food sources that industries had been using to feed the people. That is why the Food and Drug Administration was established. But the condition of foods and drugs weren’t really enforced all that much until the 1950s.
Freedom of speech is also an entirely muffled subject. There’s no such thing as true freedom of speech in the world. If one writes about something that’s unpopular, one can get seriously injured by others. Bombings can occur, and it did occur to scare the blacks from rising to secure their equality. During the red scare, hundreds if not thousands of families were sent to ruin because they were suspected of having a tie to communism. Throughout the US history, there have been stains.
So, looking at our own history, can you really blame China for what’s happening? Like a child, China has to go through some of the same steps in order to reach a good stand. Such steps don’t take one or two years. They take decades to accomplish. But China’s doing a very good job already. It is more than twice the size of the American population, many of whom are still living as farmers. Even though there is a widening rich and poor gap, China is doing a very good job to maintain that its population stays stable and doesn’t suddenly plummet or jump. Also, its education is slowly developing to become better. Only a single digit percent of the Chinese population are illiterate nowadays, so that’s really a good thing, considering the difficulty of becoming literate in Chinese.