Our internet is not completely free either — we have laws against slander, libel, defamation, misrepresentation, advocating violent overthrow of the government.

Realistically speaking, China has a billion people, many of them selfish. If they were given free rein to make whatever irresponsible statements they wanted, the effects on society could be disastrous. There are individuals who call themselves “pro-democracy dissidents”, but at least some of them are irresponsible demagogues seeking to create their personal empire. The leader of Falun Gong does not strike me as a great democractic statesman; if allowed, he’d just as soon become the Ayatolla Khomeini of China. Most of the “pro-democracy demonstrators” at Tiananmen were opposed to capitalism; what triggered the demonstration was the lifting of price controls to market values. They figured correctly that building a papier-mache of the statue of liberty would get them positive attention from Western media. Most of the demostrator kids were sons and daughters of high-level party officials, having grown up on chauffered limos and personal swimming pools. They were really advocating a higher level of socialism, free of petty corruption. The demonstration would have faded out peacefully, were it not for some bad apples that began trashing public monuments.

Westerners harbor a fantasy that the only political repression that happens in China is against religious and ethnic minorities. In fact, ethnic minorities are allowed to have as many children as they want (unlike the majority Han) and are judged on lower academic standards for college admission. “Christians” are typically middle class Chinese from cities whose real intent is learning English. In fact, the worst repression in China is the “Kou” system, a kind of apartheid system that separates rural peasants from city dwellers.

How much do Westerners really care about impoverished rural Chinese, who are not Christian, kill female infants, are not concerned with abstract concepts of freedom or democracy? To them, “freedom” would be an excuse to sell even more babies, traffic drugs, spread AIDS.