US Secretary of State John Kerry met with four Chinese journalists and bloggers Saturday to discuss Internet freedom before concluding his Beijing trip. Some participants asked the US government to put more pressure on China to ease restrictions on Internet use and to help "tear down the great Internet firewall." They also urged the White House to support "Chinese who aspire for freedom" including activists Liu Xiaobo and Xu Zhiyong.
Such issues are not new in China's cyber world, with various people continuing to cry foul for Liu and Xu. However, it is somewhat unusual for several non-official folks to talk about these issues with the US Secretary of State.
The US revealed the news, not only helping Kerry exhibit that he has actually talked about human rights in China, but also conveying a signal, to some Chinese who are discontent with the current institutions, that Washington has always been heeding and supporting them.
Washington has neither the capacity to influence China's political process, nor power to impede any departments concerned from sanctioning dissidents who engage in illegal activities. It has been fully demonstrated during the past several rounds of conflicts in the 1980s and 1990s.
The dissidents are too naïve to count on the US government to offer special support and assistance to them by criticizing China's existing legal system.
The US ideological permeation into China has far gone beyond the dissemination of knowledge and ideas and some US forces expect that it will create political effects conforming with its own interests.
Building China into a democratic and prosperous nation has long been a consensus of society amid the magnificent momentum of reform and opening up. Nevertheless, Chinese people have gained more insights and political discernment after weathering a myriad of trials and hardships during the past century. China will stick to its political path unless disruptive fiascoes occur. This is hard to be reversed by a minority of dissidents with Western support.
However, China's mainstream society must keep vigilant against the concerted effort by dissidents and the Western world, the development of which is completely uncertain. How to properly handle such precautions amid the endeavor to accelerate reform and opening up as well as emancipation of the mind is likely to become a complicated challenge within the diverse development of China's society.
It is difficult to garner a clear picture of the overall architecture of our era and most online activists in China could only calculate on short-term interests within a restricted structure, which is a rather helpless reality. A sober mind in politics is in dire need to help bring forth positive energy in China's progress and avoid slipping into negative energy, the top priority of which lies in adhering to patriotism and promoting public interests.