Okay, this is my take. I’ve spent about 8 of the last 20 years living in Mainland China (as well as another 7 in HK and Taiwan), first came here in 1985, have a published guidebook on SW China, am married to a Shanghaiese, and Shanghai is my home.
-Discussion of dissidents, what’s it like?
Few dissidents are known in this country.
-How frequent are public executions? Have any of you Chinese Dopers ever witnessed them?
Nope never had. Although on ancedotal story circa 1986 is that in Ma’erKang (Barkam) in Northern Sichuan, the charge d’affairs of the US consulate in Chengdu pulled into the town square minutes after an execution when the body was still there
-How restrictive is internet access?
barely. Of course, I haven’t tried to access anti-china sites. You can get at least some Taiwan government sites. None of the wire service sites, Bloomberg, etc are banned. I’ve heard some are but 2 seconds ago I pulled up the cnn webpage. I’ve heard that porn is widely available but profess no personal knowledge.
-How free is travel is Xinjiang?
How free is travel in China? Actually, I’m not sure. I used to be when I first came here there were about 200 places you could go without a permit. Now almost all places are open to westerners. Tibet you may or may not need a permit for, but practically speaking it is a formality. For Xinjiang, I have not heard that there are any restrictions.
I myself in the 1980’s went many a place closed to foreigners, especially in Tibet, the Tibetan border areas. I’ve been kicked out of more places at that time than I can remember, but say somewhere around 20. I was never formally arrested, although once I had a police escort for two days back to the provincial capital of Chengdu, and then questioned for an afternoon before being cut loose.
-Is Tiannanmen Square a taboo subject?
Depends on who you talk to. Occaisionally meet people who were protesting on the square and they may talk about it a little bit.
-What will people think if you consider Taiwan independent?
they will think you have a mental disease. I mean how could any rational person think Taiwan is independant? Well, that’s the view. Sure, you can discuss it although I wouldn’t do so in a classroom or on TV. The ignorance on Taiwan is huge. The Taiwanese now have pretty good first hand knowledge of China, which is a marked contrast to 20 years ago. The Chinese though are broadly speaking not allowed to visit Taiwan. I have said for years the best thing the Taiwanese could do to publicize their cause is to allow open tourism to Taiwan. No one has listened to me yet. I feel I have a pretty unique view since I’ve lived in both countries for many years.
-How are the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward viewed by the general populace? How are they taught in school?
Viewed as stupid mistakes. That’s a no shitter. Not sure how it is tought in school. Old PLA revolutionaries that toe the party line will say so. The big criticism that you will hear even from party faithful is that Mao’s biggest mistake was encouraging the population to get out of control
-What’s the latest on the Chinese government investigating claims of a UFO landing site in some part of rural China?
never heard of this one.
-How pervasive is government spying?
The neighborhood watch system has largely broken down. Still pervasive in the 1980’s and somewhat through the 90’s. People no longer have cradle to the grave socialist system. you buy your own house, change jobs, move, create new businesses, etc. While still there to a certain extent, big brother can’t watch everything.
-How much relative freedoms do the people enjoy?
The faustian bargain is you can do whatever you want as long as you let the government run the big show. In turn, the government largely leaves the individual alone as long as you don’t rock the boat. Of course, the more money you have the freer you are, but that could be true in the US as well. You do not ask the government for permission to change schools, change jobs, move, travel, and only a few hoops to get permission to leave the country.
-What’s the ‘on the streets’ opinion of the US?
By and large they like Americans. Not sure if they like our country, but on a personal basis the Chinese generally a positively pre-disposed to Americans. Probably more so than to any other country.
-What’s the general consensus about the war in Iraq? Started out thinking that Saddamn was a bad guy that should be taken out, to a great big ol What the Fuck? The US really fucked up it’s international relations in China over Iraq, and it was a venture that was initially largely supported. Let me rephrase that. The Chinese man in the street that I know was intially largely supportive and then became very negative on the actions and percieves the US as being giant hypocrites. I don’t think it has really hurt Sino-US relations to a large degree as that is an on-going love hate relationship. We’ll see how N. Korea is handled behind the doors.
