China and Beyond

Here's is Evangeline's response to my question about reactions to the recent North Korean nuclear test.

Dear Mr.Downs:

Well, you must have heard enough words from the Chinese Government about what happened in N.Korea .So,maybe it's better to show you some hard-to-find opinions,which widely exists in China,espeacially in big cities like Xi'an.

Americans and westerners often consider China, N.Korea and Vietnam to be similar not only because the Chinese government helped them in two wars many years ago,but also because we all have the Communist Party which is quite different from yours. So, people will be easily reminded of China as soon as the other two countries are mentioned.

It was true that our 3 countries often took the same steps in the period of Chairman Mao .Yet a revolution took place in China in 1978 and after that we clearly understood that it was a world for development, not for wars or conflicts. Even though our so-called destination and yours are not the same, we can still work together to make the people have better lives. From then on, China, N.Korea and Vietnam separated in different ways.

Today, we Chinese, especially teenagers in big cities, have already regarded ourselves as part of the world. The news we read everyday and the study methods we have today are getting closer and closer to that in those countries like yours. Our way of development is getting farther and farther from what a so-called communist-Party country should be, and so do the government's policies.

To you Americans, the opinion above can be sort of ridiculous----How can a Chinese say his country is no longer like a communist-Party country! But it's true. If you keep an eye on the Chinese government's policies recent years, you may easily find how different they are from those of N.Korea.

Nowadays, a few American media blame China, for it seems that China hasn't made a contribution to the Parley and even have a little predilection for N.Korea. In fact,we are now trying to coax N.Korea back to the table because of the reality that N.Korea is becoming the menace to China!

Nobody can promise N.Korea and China can be friendly forever, there's no forever friendship between countries! For instance,China and Vietnam had a war together fighting against other countries in 1960's, yet quickly in about ten years,w e had a 'crazy' war ourselves(from 1978 on)and the relationship between us broke up.This caused quite a lot of little conflicts on the border.

Now,our Chinese are afraid that if N.Korea, whose leader is a little bit crazy, gets the nuke, It'll certainly do harm the Chinese' safety. Perhaps the Chinese development of economy will be prevented in a certain extent.

Now you can understand why China would like N.Korea to come back to the table----Because we must! The parley is a way to protect our people,and maybe the best way to solve the nuke problem in N.Korea. It's only a personal view on the N.Korea problem, but I promise it's the most applauded view in our class.

I can't appreciate myself with this E-mail for I haven't tried to write such a political article before. If you want some information more,you can connect to this website: www.phoenixtv.com It is not a website from the government but is enjoyed by lots of Chinese people, for it gives us the reality and is more free to talk about the current affairs.

Yours Sincerely,

Evangeline