Okay, which game is this and why haven’t I played it yet?
Old. Might & Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven.
How many Maoists does it take to change a light bulb?
One hundred. One to screw in the bulb and 99 to chant “Fight darkness!”
For the modern Chinese leadership, I think this is a very big factor. As Martin Hyde pointed out, most Chinese leaders are career bureaucrats, trying to optimise the performance of China Corp. while still maintaining the system. The collapse of the Soviet Union, and the attendent Russian economic woes, is seen by them as a sign that liberalization is a Bad Idea. In addition, previous attempts at democratic reforms, such as the Hundred Flowers Campaign under Mao and the more limited “local self-government” reforms that occured in the '80s, have, by this paternalistic view, ended badly - through “uncontrolled” protest and the Tienanmen Square and associated protests, respectively.
I’ve lived in China for a few years now, and I’d just like to underline this point. In general, people here don’t think the government’s really doing all that much bad. Tibet and Xinjiang are beset with “terrorists” and other bad influences; it’s actually amazing how much anti-Xinjiang propaganda I’ve heard just from random locals. I’ve recently gotten a few chain text messages warning me about eating at Xinjiang-style restaurants and BBQ, because it’s a “fact” that Xinjiang people are dirty and capable of spreading AIDS and other diseases when they cook your food. Very few people could give a rats’ ass about their sovereignty concerns.
As for censorship, most people don’t care, and one reason is that it’s not obvious (in day-to-day life) what is censored and what isn’t. The only people who really know are active political hounds (rare), and they can get around the Great Firewall quite easily anyway.
Also, quite a few people I know (and of course, there are many exceptions) have argued that China does have freedom of expression, but really, they see it as the “freedom to say what should be allowed to be said”. When I ask them if I could go on CCTV tomorrow and announce that the little island off their coast should be free, there are horrified expressions and then a tense whisper: “That’s wrong! Why would you ever want to do that?”
For all its strange inefficiencies, the PRC has been remarkably effective in making sure that they come off looking just fine (or at the very least, inevitable and immovable) in the eyes of the people.
Thanks dude, I found your comments particularly insightful. Perhaps you’re right, all this talk of seemingly ‘brutal’ dictatorial policies is moot if the local population doesn’t see things that way.
xiix, that’s what’s been said from the beginning. Tradition means there’s no sense of imposition- things haven’t been changed to be this way, they’re not missing anything that they’ve ever had or can see people around them enjoying. If there wasn’t the censorship, this wouldn’t be the case, hence the censorship.
I live in PDX, so I’ve had the benefit of discussing this with a few Chinese over the years.
Long ago, the chinese government made a faustian bargain that “we stay in power, and you can get rich.” In other words, individuals in China, especially in the more affluent cities, have a lot of freedom as long as they don’t cross the line to question the right of the government’s rule.
[Unfortunately, as part of that “bargain” I am refraining from the Tibet threads. Read into that what you will.]
Power attracts the corruptable…
-with heaven above and the barbarians (us) below. I think this expalins a lot about Chinese politics. The emperor’s rule was benevolent, and the method of rule was approved by Confucian scholars. It is probably the only way that such a large country can be governed. As far as i know, the Chinese people want a little more freedom-and the current leadership is too fearful to loosen up. maybe they should bring back Imperial rule?
Which gives rise to the folk wisdom that if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow.
You say you want a cultural revolution…
And since SDMB attracts the pedantic completists…here’s the full quote 
“All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptable. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted.”
–Frank Herbert
This is not unique to China. There are quite a few Americans who would say that our freedom of speech does not mean that you ought to be able to do anything you want to to an American flag (as long as said flag is your property), or that the KKK should be free to hold a rally in public. “Freedom to say what should be allowed to be said” characterizes those attitudes quite well.
Of course, that’s a truism. You’re pretty much ALWAYS allowed to say what should be allowed to be said. Freedom of speech was never meant to protect that because it doesn’t need protecting. Freedom of speech is meant to protect the saying of the unacceptable, the uncomfortable, the politically undesirable, the disgusting, the unpleasant. I’m much less uncomfortable when the Chinese, who have lived for millenia under totalitarian or at least autocratic government, espouse that view, then when Americans, who are supposed to have a government and civic tradition that holds the latter definition of freedom of speech to be a high ideal, also hold to the former definition.
Because of all the squat toilets.
India is just about as large, in land area and in population, but it manages to make democratic government work.
…well, sort of.
But could an emperor make things run any better?