Young Educated Chinese Students Know...

Nothing, as it turns out, at least about the unrest happening in the Middle East and northern Africa.  Twice over the past few days I've asked various people in my office what they know about the recent news, the successful government ousting in Tunisia and Egypt and the current upheavals in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Oman, etc.  For the most part, they have responded with blank stares and questions.  One girl vaguely knew about Chinese citizens being safely returned home from Libya (Thousands of Chinese citizens worked in Libya, mostly in the oil industry, and China was one of several countries to run citizen-rescue campaigns in the first days of the unrest), but she didn't know the reason for the rescue.  How did she hear about it?  The Chinese version of Twitter, which is heavily government controlled, it seems people were just rejoicing about safe returns without going into any detail.  Yesterday I asked students in my office what they knew about Libya, and they had no idea anything was happening.  

Equally scary, they had no idea the recent steps the Chinese government has taken to suppress the news.  I don't know extensive details either, but apparently the government was nervous that news of the protests against single-party rulers and oppressive regimes would galvanize Chinese who are unhappy with the system here (which has does have remarkable similarities with some of the toppled  or toppling regimes: single party rule, oppression of expression of free opinion, blocking of access to information, diminished human rights).  There are several parts of China where large minority groups have formed nexi of discontent for decades, like TIbet and Xinjiang (in northwest China) where they were particularly worried.  But apparently there has also been massive government action to suppress the news, and crack down on known humans rights activists and anti-government voices in the rest of China as well.  Seedling protests and demonstrations were quashed before they could get off the ground, and apparently there have even been attempts at some protests in Beijing, which were more heavily attended by police in riot gear than any protesters.  Many activists have been placed under house arrest or are being trailed, and the wife of the recent Nobel Peace Prize winner from China, Liu Xiaobo, has 'disappeared'. (and the students didn't know about him winning, either).

At least from the perspective of a regular resident in Beijing, the government has succeeded - which is just wild!  Imagine the scope of the effort necessary in a country with 1/5 of the world's population!  When I search for 'Libya' on Google (which automatically uses Google Hong Kong anyway due to Google's departure from China on human rights grounds), the first nine hits were pages like 'Libya - Wikipedia' and 'Libya - International Factsheet'.  Only 2/3 of the way down the page did any news surface, and it was a week old.  Similar search results came up when I searched for the other countries experiencing unrest.  Nothing has been mentioned that I know of on the national TV channels (which are the only ones available) and no one is talking about it.  Educated, intelligent young students who own computers have no clue.  And if they don't know, then you can guarantee that your average Chinese bank workers or fruit vendors or farmers have not the faintest idea of any type of political unrest anywhere in the world.

It makes me wonder that the government is so worried.  To me it seems there's something self-incriminating in the immediate reaction for intense 'stability management' as they call it - why the need for such extensive efforts unless there is something wrong with the way the system is currently structured?  I feel like people inherently want freedom of speech and religion and thought and are often willing to fight for it, something which seems confirmed by recent world events, and despite the Chinese government's success until now with suppression of any of the above, their very need to block even the whisper of other societies' successful and ongoing attempts at change highlights problems at home.