Speaker:

I'm sure that you will find the people of Taiwan have a much freer and more open press/media that offers conflicting/oppositional discussion on matters politic without being ' controlled ' by the government.. independent press...


as for mainland China.. the press and media are controlled/shut down or otherwise restricted in reporting anything negative about the government or its state agencies.. Your internet activities are monitored/censored and restricted..even you must be aware of the ' conditions' under which you have access to the internet and outside the country web sites which might have content 'different/critical' of official government policy , etc..just mention Falun Gong and politicians go apoplectic...

Your understanding of what Taiwan wants will be filtered through what China wants...

As I said in another thread on China.. Does China really want to ' absorb ' millions of dissident/democratically inclined people who will not stand to have any of the ' liberties' they now have to be restricted?

Look at Hong Kong.. a small enclave but constantly marching/protesting and harranging the government for ' free' elections, etc. etc.. Unless the government is prepared to march in troops and suppress its ' own ' population though mass arrests, and other ' controls' it will have to allow more and more freedoms to placate and pacify the people...eventually, there will be multi-party systems, legal opposition and reform that can't be suppressed, restricted or stopped in any way..

just a matter of time before China undergoes a ' second revolution '..

glad you and your cohorts are able to post and visit this site, just wonder how long you'll be allowed to before our pollution of your thought processes cause your benevolent overseers to shut you out of our forums..

Rocketeer:
I know one unique political characteristic of China is the despotism.And multi-party systems is considered better than the despotism in the western countries.But I think,if the government,no matter in what form,can provide a happy life for the citizens,it's a good one.No matter what political system it is ,the goal of it should be making a better life for the citizens.Communists can do it,so we have no reason to pull it down.As for Falun Gong,you may think it's the right for the people to have their own religion belief.I think so ,too.But Falun Gong is really a evil religion.It tells people,everyone has a unvisible Falun in s/he's body.If you do as the hierarch says,the Falun can be visible.Thus many people lost their lives when trying to cutting themselves to see the Falun.And it tells the believers,that if they want to go to the Heaven,they should burn themselves.And many people really burn themselves.It was harmful to the people,the society.The government forbade it to keep the citizens' safety.This is the truth.I have met with the believers of Falun Gong.I never know that the government is monitoring me when I sufferring the internet.At least I can still say anything about our government.And I have never heard that someone is forbidden to get on the internet because s/he had said something negative about the government.

I must agree with Speaker on Falun Gong. i read about it in the newspapers over here, and apparently it is really violent.

Otherwise, I think Taiwan is really not part of China, and that they don't want to be part of China. They are too independent/democratically minded.

Speaker:

Interesting take on Falun Gong.. have dedicated followers here but yet to see any cut or burn themselves in defence or revelation of thair ' faith' .. Still, they rate well below the Church of Scientology who, you may know, are descended from Intergalactic Aliens...

takes all kinds..

I agree that a monolithic government system can be beneficial and work to empower its people, problem is when cronyism, nepotism, bribery and corruption set in [ inevitably, it seems] and there is no allowance for opposite viewpoints, checks and balances, input from divergent [ though not necessarily dissident elements] or a willingness to accept alternative viewpoints..

single-party systems have little tolerance for criticsm or revelations of short-comings and lead to oppression, repression suppression and LOL depression among the people..

I have to say,Aufklarer,I have never expected that there is a foreigner who knows the truth of Falun Gong.It's really a surprise to me that you do know it .
Rocketeer,If the believers of Falun Gong really behave so well,and are liked by those people,then,congratulations!
I'm amazed at your exact guess of the cronyism, nepotism, bribery and corruption.It's really inevitable for the local government in many cities.But in the Communist Party,there's no such phenomenons.And,in China,every important decision made by the Communist must be carried out after the agreement of the People's congress Council.This can prevent the Communist from being despotic,I think.Our government is not perfect,but it's trying to be better.

quote:

Originally posted by SPEAKER:
Rocketeer:
I know one unique political characteristic of China is the despotism.And multi-party systems is considered better than the despotism in the western countries.But I think,if the government,no matter in what form,can provide a happy life for the citizens,it's a good one.No matter what political system it is ,the goal of it should be making a better life for the citizens.Communists can do it,so we have no reason to pull it down.As for Falun Gong,you may think it's the right for the people to have their own religion belief.I think so ,too.But Falun Gong is really a evil religion.It tells people,everyone has a unvisible Falun in s/he's body.If you do as the hierarch says,the Falun can be visible.Thus many people lost their lives when trying to cutting themselves to see the Falun.And it tells the believers,that if they want to go to the Heaven,they should burn themselves.And many people really burn themselves.It was harmful to the people,the society.The government forbade it to keep the citizens' safety.This is the truth.I have met with the believers of Falun Gong.I never know that the government is monitoring me when I sufferring the internet.At least I can still say anything about our government.And I have never heard that someone is forbidden to get on the internet because s/he had said something negative about the government.

So, according to you, Falun Gong is an evil religion because one of the practitioners set himself on fire. So, I guess Buddhism should also be considered an evil religion because some Buddhists have done the same thing. Should Islam be considered an evil religion because Muslims are blowing themselves up all over the place. The fact of the matter is there are about one hundred million Falun Gong practitioners around the world, some even in China. Your views of Falun Gong are extremely scewed, just as your views on Taiwan are. I can't believe some of the bs the CCP feeds its people. Unfortunately, the majority of the people believe this crap. Falun Gong doesn't tell it's practitioners to dissect themselves and set themselves on fire as you stated. If that was the case, there wouldn't be any practitioners left. There are millions of Falun Gong members in America and Europe and they haven't caused any problems whatsoever. The CCP banned the religion because its growth became a threat to its monopoly of power, especially in the countryside. When the CCP saw how powerful the sect had become, they started arresting and detaining practitioners everywhere. Organized religion helped cause the collapse of the Soviet Union and CCP is worried the same could happen to them. Don't believe everything your government tells you.

Hmm,that's really a deep question.To believe or not,that's a problem.But,we have really seen many pictures and videos about the victims of Falun Gong.In fact,almost every Chinese is a believer of the Buddhism,but the goverment doesn't ban buddhism.And,Buddhist was burnt after death,because the burnt bone of the hierarch,which called the Buddha's relics,is considered holy.And it's a hornor for the hierarch,too.As for Islam,sorry,I don't know much about it,but I don't think it can cause so many death of believers as Falun Gong does.Maybe Falun Gong is rated well in Europe America,but it still tries to foment the people to oppose the government by phones or paper.It's really crazy.
Our government,how to say,maybe has some secrets as you say,but it really does many things good for us,we will never betray it.