China - an Ex-Pat's Perspective

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The Star Spangled Banner was written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key and set to the tune of a popular British drinking song "To Anacreon in Heaven."

" O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!" is the last line in the lyrics as everyone knows.

After spending 13.5 years in China and learning the culture and language, I have returned for what was supposed to be a permanent move. I missed 9/11, most of George Bush's Presidency and quite frankly, have found the country in a sorrier mess than I expected.

As an ex-pat, I had heard about what was happening, but one could not experience the way things are until one has witnessed events for themselves.

Recently Bush chided China over its press, labor rights and freedom of assembly and not to mention, religious freedom.

Recently, China has done much to change the labor laws, giving workers more rights, including foreign workers in China. The situation has become so uncomfortable for foreign companies than some have decided to pull out and go to Vietnam and other areas of Asia where they can save money by using sweat shops and cheap labor for Western markets.

China has a large population, much larger than America and the reason freedom of assembly and the press is restricted is because, due to the size of the population and the fact that the Chinese are a manic-depressive, collective society, a full scale riot can get out hand very quickly, as tempers can flare up very easily amongst the population. I have witnessed this first hand and the violence there does often result in death of officials who treat workers badly on a daily basis.

As far as Falun Gong and other religious groups are concerned, state run churches and places of worship are decided by the government, though there are many underground religious meetings that take place.

Part of the reason for restriction is because every popular movement in China has resulted in the downfall of the government and the current regime is less than 100 years old.

Let us now contrast this to American society. We may think we have freedoms.

However, recently we have given birth to an office known as Homeland Security. The very name speaks of Communism or Facism.  Hitler used the  words "homeland" as well as "fatherland" while China uses "Motherland".

The Patriot Act, H.R. 3162 was enacted on October 24, 2001. Now the government is allowed to access information on the library books you borrow, your medical records, tax records, or they may also break into your home and conduct secret searches without telling you for weeks, months, or indefinetely.

Recently I sent some private goods from China which contained nothing illegal, such as back up disks of my hard drive with my kids' photos and school lesson plans, etc, books and clothing. The only thing I received, the box having been opened was an important file, which I mistakenly put into the shipment. Everything else is being held under scrutiny by the government, though no reason has been given.

In the Preamble of the Constitution, part of it reads:

"...and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

The Bill of 'Rights was ratified on Dec 15, 1791.

We can see that the Patriot act is a direct violation of the Bill of Rights.