Secretary Clinton’s landmark speech of January 22 on Internet freedom spoke eloquently of how censorship is not just a freedom of speech issue but also one of international peace and security. The imbalance of information that results from censorship according to Clinton “is one of the leading causes of interstate conflict.”
Although she probably did not intend it to be, Clinton’s visit to the Shanghai International Trade Exhibition on May 22, was a clear and compelling example of how the “asymmetrical” flow of information creates lopsided opinions that are translated into misguided policies, which only exacerbate the potential for future conflict.
As she distributed teddy bears to Chinese children, Secretary Clinton added to the universal praise for the world’s largest expo that hosted 3.5 square miles of exhibits from 189 countries and 45 international organizations. “It’s like a coming out party for countries and cities,” Clinton told reporters. “There is a real historical significance to them doing this.”
So, where is the imbalance of information? Well, Secretary Clinton and her entourage were, literally and figuratively, stepping on it. Beneath the feet of Clinton and underneath the exhibit foundations, including that of the United Nations, lie the pulverized remains of 18000 homes of Shanghai residents, who were forcibly evicted without compensation or any hope of due process for redressing their grievances.
Either by conscious decision or through ignorance, Clinton has contributed to the asymmetrical flow of information that breeds the very conflict she spoke about earlier in the year. Forced evictions are not isolated events. They are every day occurrences in a China, which distinguished New York University Law professor, Jerome Cohen, referred to in recent testimony before the Congressional Executive Committee on China, as a “country of laws without the rule of law.” Prior to the Summer Olympics in Beijing, more than 300,000 residents were forcibly evicted to make way for what the government referred to as “beautification” projects. Every year thousands of peasants have their land expropriated by developers in collusion with local officials. This activity is only possible in a society where government is not subject to any check and balances and has no regard for its citizens. Those who do protest, and the brave lawyers who try to defend them, are routinely punished through loss oftheir job or jail or both. Such corruption of government is systematic and endemic.
A simple Google search reveals how little of this information about the nature of the government of China gets beyond the wall of censorship so closely guarded and maintained by the communist rulers. This absence of information about how China is governed and the way it treats its people presents the Chinese government with a blank canvas on which they paint a picture of rulers whose enlightened policies have created an unprecedented harmonious and stable society.
Nothing is further from the truth. Secretary Clinton’s glowing praises for the Chinese government while she stood on the demolished homes of tens of thousands of Shanghai residents whose children could not receive a teddy bear and whose families were disposed of as we would throw out the morning garbage, is indeed an ironic reminder of how the asymmetrical flow of information can lead to conflict. Where does Secretary Clinton think all the anger and frustration of the Chinese people victimized by their government goes? Does Secretary Clinton have any idea how her words and actions further alienate and demoralize the Chinese people? Does Secretary Clinton think her kind words and teddy bears will magically change the way that the government treats its citizens? Or will the government more logically see it as a green light to continue its policies of alienating its citizenry, which of course will only further add to the cauldron of despair and discontent of the people under its rule? Following her own logic about misinformation leading to conflict, at on point does she calculate that the continued and expanded repression of the Chinese government and the continued acquiescence of the United States, based a on one sided information set, will erupt in the very kind of instability and conflict that she wants to avoid?
The widely accepted belief that the Chinese government will moderate its behavior as it becomes more integrated with the world community is an unfortunate assumption resulting from lopsided understanding of how the Chinese government operates and how it is alienating its people. It is time that the American government and the American people realize that they are the victims of censorship and the asymmetrical flow of information about China as those Chinese people themselves, who because of censorship, are today unaware of what happened on Tiananmen Square at the dawn of June 4, 1989.