I spent last week in China as part of a board meeting with some of our joint venture business partners based in China. It was my first time in China, and some of my preconceived notions were shattered, as is the case for many people who visit there for the first time. But other perceptions were confirmed.
China is a communist country, but we were not met at the airport with machine gun-carrying soldiers. We were not harassed during our visit simply because we were Americans. In fact, we were warmly greeted and shown the best of hospitality by our business hosts and the government officials who were invited to attend our dinners and luncheons.
But communism is about government control. And despite the warm hospitality and reforms instituted over the last 20 years to create a hybrid communist-capitalist country, Big Brother is still Big Brother. It's just not as obvious as it was decades ago.
We visited the ancient Great Wall of China, which the Chinese started 200 years before Christ across their northern border, roughly 3,000 miles long, to protect themselves from their enemies to the north.
Today, there is another great wall technologically erected by the government to protect the people from outside influences. This wall blocks 1.3 billion people from social networking with the rest of the world. There's no Facebook, YouTube or Twitter allowed. There's none coming into the country, and there's none going out.
When I tried to access my 40,000 friends on Facebook and Twitter, it was blank!
The government owns all three telecommunications companies, and simply restricts incoming information from those sources. Too much information and an open exchange of information are considered a threat to government control. http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=219365
China is a communist country, but we were not met at the airport with machine gun-carrying soldiers. We were not harassed during our visit simply because we were Americans. In fact, we were warmly greeted and shown the best of hospitality by our business hosts and the government officials who were invited to attend our dinners and luncheons.
But communism is about government control. And despite the warm hospitality and reforms instituted over the last 20 years to create a hybrid communist-capitalist country, Big Brother is still Big Brother. It's just not as obvious as it was decades ago.
We visited the ancient Great Wall of China, which the Chinese started 200 years before Christ across their northern border, roughly 3,000 miles long, to protect themselves from their enemies to the north.
Today, there is another great wall technologically erected by the government to protect the people from outside influences. This wall blocks 1.3 billion people from social networking with the rest of the world. There's no Facebook, YouTube or Twitter allowed. There's none coming into the country, and there's none going out.
When I tried to access my 40,000 friends on Facebook and Twitter, it was blank!
The government owns all three telecommunications companies, and simply restricts incoming information from those sources. Too much information and an open exchange of information are considered a threat to government control. http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=219365
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