Comments on China

Michael 'the man' Arnold has some comments on a post I made about China a couple of weeks back:

The 'letter from China' you linked to seems to me to be a fairly accurate summary of what people think here. The exception is the June 1989 movement -people do see it as a protest against authoritarianism in the present government, but it is generally viewed as misguided and misled. It's generally accepted here that the students were spurred into theprotests by factions within the communist party itself trying to take power over the then current leadership, rather than overthrow the entire corrupt party itself as the students themselves demanded. People believe the military were given strict orders to clear the square no matter what the reaction of the crowds, and were instructed to fire their weapons over the students' heads. It's believed the massacre was the result of a tense situation getting out of controland scared, inexperienced soldiers opening fire in frustration. Many people privately doubt this story, but in any case no local Chinese appreciate being drilled on the Western interpreation of events because they've all heard it too many times. Except, of course, those young people who idolise the West and are eager to prove they are in agreement with Western theories.

Meanwhile, the marxist.com website has a new letter from a reader in China, which considers the argument that the country is now well and truly capitalist.