I can't help but wonder if recent letters defending China's "liberation" (invasion) of Tibet were penned by Chinese Communist Party members doing student work at UF. This is the official party line in a country without a free press, where opposition to one-party, communist rule is dealt with harshly and quickly. Americans remember the events of Tiananmen Square some years ago, when hundreds of student protesters were shot and killed while peacefully assembling. But the younger generation of Chinese don't; they receive information only after it has been carefully scrutinized and edited by the country's 30,000 government-employed Internet censors, among others.
A Google search of "Tiananmen Square" in China yields very different results than one entered anywhere else in the world. No reference to the incident that caused international outrage will even show up; just some happy pictures of people celebrating the "great Communist state." In an Orwellian world, described in the novel 1984, where the government controls all information that is released to its citizens, forming an informed opinion is difficult. And in a country like China - which has a 99 percent conviction rate in its criminal trials - dissent is dangerous business.
As Americans, we gasp in horror at this act of sheer brutality. The Tibetan people have spoken time again: China out, Dalai Lama back in. Shouldn't the world support them in getting what they want?
