if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803
Flipping Channels
by Lee
You are not going to BELIEVE what I just discovered being broadcast on Chinese TV.
Comments
Buddhism is tolerated simply because it’s so ingrained in the culture. One of the first things the CCP did when it came to power was kick out all the missionaries.
There are Chinese Christians here, but they don’t have churches, they meet in private. I’m sure the government knows about them, but it’s unofficially tolerated. As you say, as long as these groups aren’t meeting to plan an insurrection, the government mostly leaves them alone.
That’s another example of the “oddly libertarian” nature of China. The government knows that it’s in a precarious spot. Their country, like ours, was founded by a revolution. And if a country can revolt once, it can revolt again. In order to remain in power the CCP looks the other way on any number of issues, like the hooker bars, or drugs, or pirate satellite dishes, or the theft of intellectual property. They know that these things keep the people happy, and happy people don’t revolt.
Of course, they’re cracking down on a lot of these things before the Olympics, but after the games life will revert back to what it was.
So it’s interesting, isn’t it. We have an armed country, and our government doesn’t give a flying fuck about what the people want, they enact laws all the time “for our own good.” China has an unarmed country, but it tolerates all sorts of behavior because they’re things people want to engage in.
One thing my China experience has shown me, government is government is government. They’re all the same. Democracy is, as Churchill said, merely the least-worst of them.
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Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought China did allow religion. They government will regulate and allow religion as long as it doesn’t question the authority of the government.
I’m sure if the show mentions the Chinese revolution of the 40s in anything less than glowing terms (when referring to the communists) it will be yanked.
Maybe since it’s based in the 40s the show does the right amount of Jap bashing for the Chinese government.