Reflective Essay

Alex Sakalas

IS-336X-02

5/1/15

Word Count: 1042

Help Received:

Citations

I’ve learned a lot about China in my time in this class.  I think one of the important things I took away from this course is the level of corruption and censorship that the government is part of.  I never understood the extent of the corruption that was in the government until I read an article I was doing for my blog about the stomping out the corruption in the military and the government.  I learned that China is on the road to democracy but not actually there yet. China has a long road ahead of them.  Another thing that I learned about China, and government in general, is the role accountability plays in making decisions in the government.  The ability for the government to get a general consensus of the people and to make decisions based off of it is key.  If the government can’t hear the voice of every person, then how can they go about making a decision that will benefit everyone?

I think that the second paper meant the most to me.  I remember hearing about the censorship in China through high school but I never really understood the extent of it.  In the second paper I did some research on the censorship of internal and external information on the internet.  Internally, certain things like messages or emails that contain messages critical of the government have been known to not make it to their intended recipients.  The author of one of the articles that I referenced in my second paper had just that happen to him. He wrote a message over a Chinese based app called WeChat that never reached its intended recipient because the contents of the message were mildly critical of the government (theatlantic.com).  Another thing that I pulled from my second paper is the level of corruption in the government.  Xi Junping is having a huge crackdown of corruption in the government and in the military.  Basically he is sweeping through anyone that holds power over others and trying to sift out those guilty of corruption.  Fourteen different generals in the Chinese military have been recognized as having been investigated or convicted of corruption (wsj.com).  Even in a military as large as that of China’s, that has to be slightly unsettling for the people of China seeing that.

When it comes to my views of accountability in the US, I believe that I expressed my views fully in one of my blog posts.  There are a large number of people in the United States that are extremely active and participatory in the government.  And there are also a large number of people who sit back and take no part in the government besides voting.  There are entire organizations here in the US whose sole purpose is to help with passing along the problems of the people to the government.  Many people are active enough in the government that our elections are representative of the opinions of the people.  That is not necessarily true of the government in China.  The voice of the people are heavily censored and it is extremely hard for the people to bring about change in the government.  The people are forced to congregate in secret or march in front of government buildings to get their message across.  They need to really come together and pressure the government into the change they want to see.  Also, in one of the videos we watched, we saw that there were millions of migrant workers who traveled around China looking for work.  We also learned that majority of these people do not apply for new papers when they move into a different region while looking for work.  But when they do this they limit their own ability to be part of the governmental process.  Without their input, a large demographic of voters opinions is missing from the election and that could result in these people later being unhappy with the government.

I don’t really think a whole lot changed in my views between the first set of blogs and the second.  I learned a great deal between the two, but my views did not greatly change.  I still believe that China is in need of a complete revamping and overhaul of the government.  I think what really brought this to light were the videos we watched in class.  The Under the Dome video and the one about the migrant workers increased my interest exponentially.  I didn’t know that the workings of the government was as corrupt as it was until I took this course.  I know that every government has its flaws but I didn’t realize the extent of the problem until we discussed it in class.

Looking back on my semester and all of the different topics we have commented and talked about, I would have to say one of the more interesting things I have read/written would be the article about an anticensorship’s website being DDoS.  It ties back into the censorship problem that the Chinese government has.  The government is busy censoring websites and messages that contain messages critical of the government, and certain other websites are making it their job to mirror those websites for the Chinese people to see. Now there was a massive DDoS attack against one such website, an attack so large it could only have been orchestrated by the Chinese government itself. Now if that is true then it just shows even more so the lengths that the Chinese government will go to in order to stop these messages from spreading (bbc.com).

Before I took this course, I was never really that interested nor knowledgeable about China or the workings of its government.  But since taking this course I have taken away many points, some more important than others.  For example, I didn’t know that corruption was such a big problem in the Chinese government.  But recognizing it is in another government, it also makes you look at your own government differently.  And I think that is more important than anything you can take away about one single government.  It’s the information you can relate and use in other ways that is the most valuable.  And I have taken a lot of that away from this course.

Citations

Fallows, James. “Sobering News Out of China, Part 4 Million.” The Atlantic. February 24, 2015. Accessed May 2, 2015. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/02/sobering-news-out-of-china-part-four-million/385889/.

“The Coming Chinese Crackup.” WSJ. Accessed May 2, 2015. http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-coming-chinese-crack-up-1425659198?mod=e2fb.

“Anti-censorship China Activists ‘under DDoS Attack’ – BBC News.” BBC News. Accessed May 2, 2015. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31967100.

Paper 2, Alex Sakalas

The world-wide ratio for boys to girls is 102 boys for every 100 girls born. In China the situation is much worse, having 115 boys born for every 100 girls.  To help combat this the Chinese authorities are going to launch a new campaign to stop gender exams and illegal abortions.  In China, there is a high demand for males who can support the family.  But by having males heavily outnumber females, reproduction becomes an issue and could lead to the decline in the Chinese population. By cracking down on gender exams and illegal abortions, hopefully the ratio can be re-balanced.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2015-05/01/content_20594129.htm

China announced the plans for a $46 billion dollar economic corridor connecting Kashgar in the Chinese region of Xinjiang to Gwadar in Pakistan.  This is huge for Pakistan, as it is more than twice the amount that has been invested in it since 2008.  This will spark jobs and economic activity that Pakistan has sorely been lacking over the past couple decades.  Pakistan will have to overcome decade old insurgencies that are located around Gwadar, which is on the Arabian coast. For the Chinese, this relationship has geo-strategic significance.  This corridor through Gwadar gives China excellent access to Africa and the Middle East.  This plan will also expand economic activity in remote Xinjiang.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32400091

In recent news, Hillary Clinton has managed to rile up China with a recent tweet about the arrest of five female activists who were protesting a wide array of women’s issues. Hillary tweeted “The detention of women’s activists in #China must end, this is unexcusable.”  Chinas foreign ministry spokesman said that “We hope that public figures in other countries can respect China’s judicial sovereignty and independence.”  Way to go Hillary.

An anti-censorship website called Greatfire has recently come under fire from an unknown source.  DDoS is an overload of a websites capabilities.  The greatfire website, which is currently mirroring censored websites for the chinese people, has had its bandwidth pushed to the limits and is now forced to pay for increased bandwitdth, or abandon its website.  I find this article interesting because it shows the lengths the Chinese government will go to just to censor the internet.  It’s obvious the Chinese government was behind the attack.  Few others could orchestrate an attack of that strength of size.  The whole article can be found here: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31967100

The Chinese People and Hong Kong

This course has been riddled with instances of the people conflicting with the government.  Protests, movements on government buildings, and large assemblies of disgruntled rural peoples are just some of the examples of the ways the Chinese people have attempted to show their contempt for the government.

As we read in one of our books, the people were forced to find alternative ways to pressure the government since they were not able to meet at the government buildings.  They were forced to go about their approach in an almost unnecessary manner. The people had to get people to travel in small, inconspicuous groups to the government buildings and meet up at a predetermined time at the building so that they could protest without getting shut down before reaching their objective.  This is just one example of the lengths the people are going to in order to circumvent the government’s strict policies on meetings.  The censorship of the internet is another way the Chinese government is cracking down on internal and external negative influences (most being external).  One of the articles on theatlantic.com that was posted illustrates a strong opposition from the government towards media incoming and leaving external to the country.  The example that was given in the article was a message in WeChat that was mildly critical of the government never reaching its intended recipient.  Not to long after, the sender was booted from the system on all devices.  Is this a coincidence? Possibly. But its not like this is the only instance of this happening.  China has put up a massive firewall around itself, slowing all internet that holds databases outside the country and censoring everything coming in and going out.  Looking back, the US proposed a bill tightening up on online piracy.  The people shot this down quickly though.  Wikipedia had a blackout and megaupload protested, both of which are huge websites used by hundreds of thousands if not millions of people a day.  The people here are too ready to stand against the government.  This isn’t necessarily true in China, whether it is because they are scared of the backlash, or because they just don’t know how to go about doing it.

I believe that some of the actions that the Chinese government is taking is creating dissent among the Chinese people.  In wsj.com article about Xi Junping cracking down on corruption in the military, It is obvious what he is trying to do by doing this.  He is attempting to reestablish his image to the people, to present the government as a strong, unified face.  In my opinion, Xin Junping is showing the weakness in the government.  By having this huge public crackdown, he is showing the suspected flaws for what they really are.  The people’s suspicions are being brought to light in this public crackdown.  The government, instead of coming across as stronger, is showing the inherent weaknesses in it.

I don’t believe that the Chinese government in hong kong is very successful at the moment. This is evident in the large scale of protests that have taken place there, most prominent being the Umbrella Revolution.  It is obvious the people, especially the younger populace, are unhappy with the restrictions the government is trying to place on elections.  But the people can not keep protesting without bringing forward a formal solution or a complaint of some sort.  A protest or sit in alone will not solve anything.  Actions are good but a voice is better.

The Chinese government is never going to get past where it is now without giving the people some kind of voice. Hong Kong and China in general are struggling to keep their people happy. The government is doing its best to hide the fact that it is in a state of disarray, but it cannot. The Chinese government is falling apart from the inside, and they won’t let the people voice their opinions.

There have recently been a crackdown on  corruption in  the Chinese military.  As of Tuesday, the names of 14 generals who had been either investigated or convicted of corruption were released.  One of the men investigated was the former vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission.  The article later went on to say that some extremely hefty sums of money were paid out to some of these individuals.  I find this interesting because it seems even the head honchos in the military aren’t left out of the problem of corruption that seems to be plaguing China.

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-china-blog-31732064

I think living in the PRC would be extremely stressful.  While it sounds like the people are making headway towards having their opinions known, there is still a lot to be desired.  I don’t think at this point the people of the PRC can keep the government accountable for their actions.  From the readings it seems like the main way the people get their feelings across is through protests and marches on the political centers.  The way that the people are censored and forced to meet underground just goes to show how suppressed their voice is.  The people have next to no voice unless they assemble in the masses.  I believe the reason for that is the government, obviously, is afraid of real change that might come about as a result of the people having a say in the way things are run.  The only other option I could see for the people would be to set up councils on a large scale between villages.  And I feel like this is already a thing, but these councils need to take the next step and really pressure the government on a large scale for change. There is really no other way for the people to be heard.  They are being shut down by the government on such a scale that any sort of assembly is made impossible.  Back to the censorship, the government is doing what it can to stem the flow of opposition from both foreign and internal sources. What the people really need is a champion to lead them, to assemble them into a mass that the government can’t turn down.  What I’m really talking about here is a overturning of the government.  If the people are as unhappy as they appear to be with the current state of their government, then it is their duty to go about changing it if the government wont change itself.  They need to rise up and go about taking their futures into their own hands.  This is just the beginning of a long change that the Chinese government needs to undergo, but it’s a necessary step.

I believe that we as citizens of a local, state, and national have a requirement to hold our governments accountable at every level.  Personally, I believe this is easier said than done.  Up until this year, I had no real interest in the runnings of the government.  I just left everything political up to my parents, and I would just sit back and lets things run their course.  But now I have a genuine interest in learning the workings of the government.  Despite this, I am still learning about the inner workings.  However, I think that people have the right and the public duty to demonstrate and challenge the government when appropriate.  The voice of the people need to be heard and every person should involve themselves in some way with the government.  Most people are happy with just voting and leaving things alone until it becomes time to vote again.  In some situations, however, it can be difficult to hold the government accountable because those in power are blind to the wants of the people.  Some of the people that hold power in the government are either oblivious to the needs and wants of the people, or they just don’t care.  In either case, the people have a civic duty to bring it to light.  Like I said before, I’m not very knowledgeable about the government or how people actually go around having their voices heard.  The only thing I can really base anything off of is the movements and protests I see on television.  Those, from what I have seen, have never been very successful in getting their point across.  In one way, I guess, they are successful in the aspect that they bring national attention to their cause.  But when it comes to getting real change from the government, I think they have failed.  If they truly wanted to get their point across, I’m sure that they could find a more appropriate way to do it.  What comes to mind is the Ferguson riots.  The case was already brought to the view of the public through countless news organizations. But they didn’t receive any real acknowledgement from the government towards their plight.