[PakG1]

I don't disagree with your logic. But I have come to believe no government is innocent either, though some countries are more guilty than others. I am not defending the Chinese government. I am saying it doesn't help to paint them as 100% evil because of some practices with which I really disagree and label to be terrible, because then I'd have to paint most countries as 100% evil. Even if it's true, it's not productive and only escalates the tension, which is a shame because there are good things we can also teach each other. But I'm also not saying pull a Neville Chamberlain and give up what I think is right for "peace in our time". It's complicated and thank goodness you and I are not the diplomats that need to take care of foreign relations with China on behalf of our western countries (I presume you're from a western country).

Change it from beat your wife to spank your children in clear cases of wanton disobedience to make my logic easier to digest. I wouldn't spank my future kids. My wife definitely won't, and she has an even stronger opinion than I do on it. But my parents spanked me when I misbehaved. Did that make them bad parents? Should I paint them evil? If I want them to change for when they babysit my future kids, does it help to paint them evil? It certainly won't open any dialogs. It would close the dialog. And understanding why they spanked me from a cultural and historical perspective allows me to better have that dialog with them.

Look, my original point was simply this: I reported that many of my Chinese friends did not feel horrified or afraid of their government. Though they know there are issues, they are for the most part satisfied. We've really gone on a tangent to talk about some of my own opinions, but I do think it's always good to have dialog with others anyway.