China as a country and its citizens will suffer because the Chinese government is not taking in various perspectives on the issue of censorship. At the very least, the Chinese government should consider the possibility of a society where censorship does not exist: "In other countries where censorship is non-existent, we see growing open-mindedness; however, in China...their relentless effort to constantly censor and suppress its citizens have ultimately made them blind to potential advancements" (Kaiman). Because China has been parochial for so long, they have lost the ability to consider another perspective where censorship is not needed in order for their society to prosper. Although China may be skeptical of the benefits of freedom of expression, its benefits have already been proven in many countries around the world, including the United States. Freedom of expression reaps definite benefits because it paves way for "open-mindedness," which ultimately leads to an influx of new ideas and innovations flowing to a society. However, because China is so stringent in its views, it can not consider the possibility or the benefits of a society where censorship does not exist. Thus, their people are restless and are frustrated at the government for suppressing their rights: "The people are starting to realize that their rights have been taken away by the Communist party and they are feeling that they are being constantly oppressed" (Kaiman). The government should, at the very least, consider the citizens' perspectives. However, they failed to do even that. The creation of the Great Firewall makes the citizens feel as if they are "constantly opressed" and thus can not express their ideas freely. A government in any society should always put the citizens' interest in mind; however, even though people are fighting censorship everyday, China's government makes no effort to take it down or offer a concrete negotiation. China's stringent doubts on the benefits of censorship will inevitably cause some kind of disorder in their society. This disorder can be seen in Persepolis: Iranian citizens rebelled and demanded for freedom of expression, but because the Iranian government also did not accept any other way to govern Iran other than strict religious rule, many people who fought for democracy heavily protested and died at the government's hand. On a more global scale, China will suffer heavily for not considering different perspectives; as censorship-free countries move into the future, China will be left behind because their level of innovation will be suppressed by censorship. Because of their parochial views on ways of governing their country, China and its people will experience hardships.
Works Cited
Kaiman, Jonathan. "China Anti-Censorship." Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 07 Jan. 2013. Web. 31 May 2014.
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York: Pantheon Books, 2003. Print
Do you think that people in China will revolt on the scale that the people in Iran did for their rights? I feel like this would probably merit some sort of involvement from other countries. The US likes to play world police and we are quite dependent on China so if the censorship ever causes riots we could see a lot of controversy. However, it's unlikely that the Chinese government would stop censoring without some sort of influence from outside forces. If this is seen as aggression, there could be a lot of tension and hostility between different countries. Is this unavoidable?
ReplyDelete