This semester’s COR has been a rather different experience for me. As someone from China, I am taking courses about my own country. Has there been any significant change in perspective, after reflecting on the knowledge gained from both COR 330 courses? No, nothing significant has changed for me. However, while some people will think that change signifies progress, this does not apply in every case. For me, the trip to China and the two classes have merely affirmed some suspicions and thoughts I had of my own country.
For one, my experience has, above everything, confirmed that China is just plain complicated. More specifically, things are truly not what they appear to be. For example, while most people will criticize the Chinese government for Tiananmen Square, placing all the blame on their part, I see things just slightly differently. While I too condemn the actions that the government undertook that sad night, there are many reasons why people such as Deng XiaoPing were unable to take things into another direction. Do not forget that Deng himself was exiled, and he himself remembers this very well. Most people will logically assume that Deng took a hard stance towards the Tiananmen Protests because of his belief. What I truly hope, and I could very well be wrong, was that Deng understood that pairing up with Zhao Ziyang, who was charged with communicating with the students (who were actually quite uncooperative and incoherent in their organization) would leave him vulnerable. With Zhao Ziyang and Deng Xiaoping gone, the country would be left in the hands of conservative leaders such as Li Peng, who were opposed to free market enterprise and any change in the economy and politics of China.
Perhaps Deng was truly against the Tiananmen Protests, and it could very well be that he truly wanted to crackdown on the protestors. However, if he is as brilliant as I think he is, then it is quite possible that he was wary enough of the situation as to distance himself from Zhao Ziyang, hoping not to be dragged down along with him, leaving the country in worse hands.
Another thing that enjoyed immensely over the course of the semester was simply learning more about my country. If anything, the China trip has made me realize how much more larger my country is than I assume. It truly is a logistics nightmare, having to link a country of over a billion, scattered all around geographically on all kinds of terrain and habitats. It is not a simple task. In addition, while the country is big, it is not without geographical problems and worries – it is relatively closed in, especially when considering Taiwan is like a thorn, blocking the path Southeast towards the Pacific.
Some may (and they already have) openly point out that China’s actions are indicative of its ambition and aggressiveness, but they are assuming too much and reading too much over a simple situation. I cannot say for certain that China’s latest actions are made with entirely peaceful intent, but neither do these actions confirm in anyway that China is extremely aggressive and dangerous. For example, the country is being criticized for its over-emphasis on economics, but when we consider it, the country’s sheer size in area and population requires it to place emphasis on the economic wellbeing of its people. Let us not forget that the People’s Republic of China was established only in 1949, in a time when the country was in absolute devastation.
To me, we must stay observant of China. The interesting about China is, as my friend puts it, you never really know what they’re up to. There’s always that ‘but’, or that ‘maybe’ that stops you in your tracks. I am quite confident that China’s rise in this century is quite harmless to the world, but you never know. This may sound rather unscholarly, to just simply attach “you never know” to your conclusions. But in this case, and with China, I think it fits quite suitably. If anything, this is part of China’s ‘game plan’.
No comments:
Post a Comment