LogFAQs > #942222601

ssjevot posted...

Are you unironically arguing that people in the West didn't care about Tienanmen Square? You should maybe read about what happened at that time or something, because as much as I don't like the US myself, that's not at all true that they didn't care at the time.

No, I'm saying that after Tienanmen Square it took a year or less for the initial outrage to fade, and then there was generally a kind of fatalistic acceptance that "well, this is just how China is". Interest spiked again in 1997 when the fate of Hong Kong after the hand-back became an issue.

But it's only really been since China has started rubbing shoulders with Uncle Sam in the superpower stakes -- in fact, only the last two or three years, really -- that people have again paid much attention to what kind of government is running China. And my thinking is that because Chinese government and politics haven't really changed since Tienanmen Square, this latest concern isn't really sparked by its record on human rights but by discomfort at the prospect of the US finally having a serious economic competitor. In other words, it's the thought that Uncle Sam might not always be #1 that's really grinding Americans' gears, not any crackdown by the Chinese authorities.

I'm just hoping that critics of China's human rights record are sincere enough about human rights to be concerned about them even in other countries that don't pose an economic threat the the US, but I'm pessimistic.

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Watching the shadows burn