Miah in China

Back in early 2006 Chinese President Hu Jin-tao presented a list of eight moral principles, or do’s and don’t’s, found on China Daily:

Love, do not harm the motherland.
Serve, don’t disserve the people.
Uphold science; don’t be ignorant and unenlightened.
Work hard; don’t be lazy and hate work.
Be united and help each other; don’t gain benefits at the expense of others.
Be honest and trustworthy, not profit-mongering at the expense of your values.
Be disciplined and law-abiding instead of chaotic and lawless.
Know plain living and hard struggle, do not wallow in luxuries and pleasures.

The suggestions all deal with obedience and progress, both essential to the success of the Party’s agenda.  Obviously with all the scandals, corruption, and abuse that happen, these principles are not being followed even within the Party itself, but they remain lofty goals.  If you don’t follow, may shame come upon you – the ancient Chinese way to ensure people stay in line, either by having rule-breakers write self-confessions, or go through re-education through physical labor, both still currently practiced.  But is perhaps shame is not as effective with a capitalist economic system.

As Alexa Oleson reminds us, Deng Xiaoping (Mao’s successor, widely credited with the re-opening of China and repairing the Cultural Revolution) said: “It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white; it is a good cat as long as it catches mice.”  Communist or capitalistic, having great values or none, China is a major contender today – but what are the mice it is trying to catch?

From Shanghaiist (via jkpittman)

A giant poster on the wall of a training barracks in Beijing in preparation for the October 1st parade reads:

Sit for four hours and don’t move;

Stand for four hours and don’t fall.

Blow for four hours and don’t get tired.

Hold for four hours and don’t urinate.

Sacrifices must be made.

Bill Clinton’s recent rescue of the two American reporters from prison in North Korea made a big impact on Chinese blogs.  For many, this action by an important former leader spoke much louder than words, doing more than I realized to boast our reputation in China.

Comments on the rescue from ChinaSMACK, translated from Chinese blogs:

Don’t say their weapons are the most advanced in the world.
Even if they use the same weapons as other countries, they would still be all-conquering.
Because what they are defending is freedom, is their own wonderful life, is happiness.
[How unified is America’s fighting ability?  Probably not as all encompassing as China’s would be.]

Writing 100 books, filming 1000 movies, sowing 10,000 editorials to ask the citizens to love their country…
none cannot compare to how inspiring this incident is to citizens’ patriotic feelings.
[Did this inspire my patriotic feelings?  I was happy for them, but I don’t think I loved America any more.]

Americans are pretty amazing, even Old Kim needs to give them face.
Being with/having such a boss/leader, so blessed.

only people can be the judge of history, and the people believe: facts speak louder than words, and no matter how good your propaganda is, it is no match for others honestly making one trip.

many of the things America does that appears humanitarian are actually for their own interests, otherwise why do we not see America go rescue the many refugees in Africa, Iraq, or Afghanistan?

America’s government puts the interests of the American people first.
China’s government puts the interests of China’s Communist Party first.
This is a fundamental difference.

Are only Americans worthy of having human rights? Africans are not people? Iraq, Afghanistan people are not people?
Since is it like this, why is America always criticizing China’s human rights? Chinese people’s matters are what business of their’s?
America is known as the world’s police, they want a hand in everything, and in the end, isn’t it all for America’s own benefit? For Iraq’s oil, many American soldiers died there, but according to you, you think those soldiers died for the Iraqi people’s human rights?

I don’t whether or not it is just a show. Getting the people back is the inescapable truth. *thumbs up*

Seeing one’s own past president suddenly appearing before you in a hopeless situation, who could accurately describe this feeling?

You will never have the opportunity to understand [that feeling], because this is China, so if you were abducted by someone, I doubt no high-ranking/important person would come get you.
[They are more in awe of their leaders than we are – we have much more access, unscripted press conferences, public speeches, magazine interviews, views of their families.  We can get in line and shake their hand at a speech, school, fundraiser, etc.  Chinese leaders rarely appear in public, do not give unscripted interviews, and rarely give interviews or speeches at all.  American leaders need our support and votes.  Theirs do not.]

They must really love their country, because their country really loves them.

Truly moves people, truly makes people envious. It must be great to be American.

The feeling I have is that these two people may be important spies, otherwise, just using your brain a little and you would know, why would they make a big fuss over two journalists?
Look at how the two of them have Asian looks, but their husbands look like trained operatives.
[I don’t think they watch the same spy movies as we do.  My idea of a spy is someone super classy like James Bond, or someone who blends in perfectly like Jason Bourne or Brad Pitt’s character from Spy Game.  They think Peace Corps volunteers are spies.  Why else would you come to help others for free?]