Political: The Chen Yonglin Case. A turning point?

The recent attempt at defection of Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin, (folowed quickly by similar assertions by two of his fellow countrymen) raises several crucial issues.

As this case relates to both my country of origin, and the country that I am now living in, I feel quite strongly about it. A strong and empowered China (in the most genuine meaning of the word 'power') will be a great thing for the world. There are 1.3 billion people who can be bought out of a veritable slumber (and yes, there are degrees of slumber, including our own) and that can only be a good thing if power is defined and employed responsibly. It will not be agood thing if the current trend continues, and the Chinese authorities continue to breed economic robots, cogs within the China machine, whose prime purpose is to bolster some collective sense of pride, ego, and the power (over and above others) of the CCP. This is why the recent developments in Australia are so important. The west must learn to set moral and ethical boundaries for itself, and for China. There is no excuse for violating humanity en masse for the sake of doing business, for a few bucks.

Governments must be responsible to an intelligent and informed poulation, not masters driving them according to covert agendas. This goes for all nations. I don't want to live in a world where evil is swept under the carpet because it does not serve the agenda to reveal it, or because it will cause people to lose face. There comes a time when one has to go beyond the discomfort of "offending" people, and to call a spade a spade.

I met a woman a few years back who told me she lived in India in the same community as the Dalai Lama. She and her sister regularly sat with the DL and others, and discussed political and spiritual matters. One day, whilst sitting before the DL, the woman's sister became hysterical when recounting some abuse she had exprienced in her life. What did the DL do? According to that woman, the DL stood up and slapped her sister hard across the face! I don't recall all the other details, but the woman told me that her sister never again made such a scene, and seemed to mature as a result of the "slap". The moral of the story is that sometimes people need a good slap across the face when their own egos are unable to concede their own errors or shortcomings. Simply nodding politely because they might be offended is to concede power to the human ego and the endless games and manipulations it likes to play.

The key is in finding the right time and place to administer the slap. Another important point is not to allow the slap to degenerate into a persecution/abuse in itself. (i.e. not to try to score points of or play power games in order to gain power OVER another) I think this is the time to stand up and be counted; and give the Chinese authorities a slap. Boundaries have to be set, or one day we will wake up and find that we have crossed so far beyond what is good and right, that turning back will be very difficult or impossible. Do we (the Australian govt., Australians, the West, everybody) have the courage?