After reading this article it would appear to me that China is going  bad. I know that this question is very loaded, but it seems that after studying china for 5-10 years and watching it become more repressive  then it was that it would be safe to assume they are moving in the wrong direction. This article made me aware of how little I know about China and keep up with the news in the country. I was not aware the China had the “Great Firewall”. A lot of our rights such as Freedom of the speech and freedom of the religion clearly do not exist. I could not imagine what America’s news would look like  if  the government placed such strict controls on the media and  news. I feel that  if the government tried to regulate religion as tightly as it is in China right now it would face a lot of protests and lash back.

The anti-foreignism policy seems to come from an extremely paranoid place. Maybe I am just not aware of how many foreign spies are in China, but it seems excessive to assume every nice foreigner or professor might be a spy. The program implemented in Public Schools to make children be able to identify spies even in the ranks  seems like  it could create paranoid children with possible prejudices. I understand that since China’s market capitalization dropped by $40 billion that probably scared the president and he wants to boost his economy, however not allowing his people to buy from the U.S. software  companies and banning Apple products does not seem like a fix to the problem more just short term solution for someone that is scared to loose their economical power to another country.

I will be interested to see if U.S. changes its engagement with China in the next couple years. I believe that if China continues to get more oppressive and closer to it’s Maoist roots U.S. would have to alter its interaction. At the same time I wonder if China’s policy is self-destructing enough to not need to do anything about it. I know that cutting off ties would impact the entire world so that does not seem like the best solution, however I don’t see China compromising or meeting  the U.S. in the middle.