Mindset, Not Infrastructure, Still Developing
Since the first day I set foot in China seven years ago, I have heard a constant refrain of “China is still a developing country.” This is used to explain anything and everything from poor driving skills to confusing ticket-buying procedures. The truth is that in many ways China is a highly developed country. It has a smart, skilled workforce that excels in high-tech areas, among others. Yet the government mindset is still developing at a dangerously slow pace. How else to explain the fact that every time a major event pops up, the internet slows to a crawl?
When the National Congress meets, somehow it takes hours to load even text-heavy sites. Every time there is a Tibetan revolt, slow internet. And such is life a month before the Olympics. Presumably the cause is filtering programs scanning everything going through nation systems, but the result is infuriating. It’s not right that I should have to wait four minutes to find out that Obama is closing the gap in North Dakota four months ahead of the election. These are things I need to know! Now!
I feel the need to reiterate what has become my my motto for the Olympics: this is the chance to show the world how impressive and modern China has become. Turning the internet sporadically into a North Korean system is not the way to knock the ole chip off the shoulder. I know the government thinks that supplying Playboy to the Olympic Village is the way to show how international the country is, but in a modern society, the internet, not newstand, is for porn (forgot, that will take ten minutes to load). And we all know how athletes will need their fix.
Share This
Bill responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 10:37 am →
I suspect the Chinese government will choose to show how omnipotent and powerful the Chinese government is rather than how impressive and modern China is. The desire is to show that the Chinese government can and will do anything to show that if you are under its thumb, you better behave the way they prescribe.
Allroads responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 11:33 pm →
Josh
The first time I saw that clip I cried for two days… that is almost as long as it takes me to open one of my sites that is hosted in the US.. tears.
R
Yokie Kuma responds:
Posted: July 14th, 2008 at 12:49 pm →
I think one of the problems is we have not changed our impressions that the Olympics is an international event and thus we get confused by actuality it is a national-only event.
MONICA responds:
Posted: July 16th, 2008 at 10:35 am →
Bureaucracy-corruption, these are the most serious problem of Chinese government.