While I sympathize with the sentiment, this just isn’t true. Other nations, particularly Europe and the Middle East, are just as quick, if not quicker, to point out the flaws of other nations. I have stopped to think about this quite a bit, actually, and I’ve discovered that most nations are pretty much like most other nations. We’re not so different, so while I agree that the U.S. has flaws like any other country, we’re certainly not “the only country” that has them.

Its good that you feel that your rights have been upheld and that you’ve been treated in a manner befitting your human dignity.

But i doubt that bloggers who’ve had their blogs shut down by the Chinese govt or those rallying peacefully for Tibet can say the same thing.

“Dont beleive everything you hear from media”.

Between several media sources and one government which shuts down every outlet in the country which criticizes it who do you think is more credible??

If you don’t want to accept anecdotal evidence, do a little research on the web. It is all there in black and white, “factually.” I do understand that the government undertook a major clean up in Beijing, where I have never been, in preparation for the Olympics. But the air quality is evidently still bad there, which is why the American Lung Association has released a warning.

As for the observation of someone travelling in China as a tourist, China goes to great lengths to ensure that tourists do not have exposure to the negative workings of the government. When I was in China I felt perfectly safe to go anywhere, anytime, even in areas where Westerners were still a curiousity. My Chinese government tour guide at one point told me that no one would dare to threaten or harm a tourist because the repercussions would be immediate and very harsh.

I love China too. My daughter is from China.

I agree though that China has some major issues but I don’t feel like people understand the Chinese enough to get them to actually deal with anything. People need to understand that China as a nation had been beaten, starved, and humiliated for a loooong time at the hands of pretty much every single Caucasian superpower. So now they–not just the government but the entire nation–feels this overwhelming need to compensate for their weakness by showing strength and unity by all means necessary. To be utterly nerdy and use a literary figure as a comparison…China is completely like Scarlett O’Hara from “Gone With the Wind” after the Yankees were done with her. That whole “I’ll never go hungry again and I’ll always have money even if everybody in the world hates me cuz fuck them I don’t need them at least me and mine will be alright”?…yea that’s basically their mindset.

So people. Next time you want to call the Chinese a bunch of “amoral heathens” or something of that sort…save your breath/typing for something a little more constructive? Cuz blasting them/calling them names/etc is not going to help the world in any way whatsoever.

And regarding the little girl, how fucking horrible is that? Let her learn that the world favours pretty people like we did, in high school when boys were mean to you because you didn’t have boobs (but haha to the girl that had them in grade 7 because by grade 11, she was fat). But seriously, to do that to a child is just all sorts of wrong.

The US has our fair share of problems too, you know. I really wish people would start focusing on our own issues first. Nobody is going to take us seriously if we are dishing criticism hypocritically.

The pollution in China is incredibly bad, because the government has a policy of economic growth no matter what the cost to their people or the environment. When I was in China, my ability to just breathe decreased dramatically each day, and if I hadn’t left the tenth day I probably would have had to go on oxygen or something.

China has not had a communist government in quite sometime. What they have is a brutally repressive totalitarian government. However, life in modern China is so much better than it was during, say, the Cultural Revolution, that most young people ignore the bad and throw themselves into making as much money as they can, now that individual entrepaneuriship (sp???) is possible.

Remember that the next time you happily buy a $5 T-shirt at Walmarts or Target.