Public Relations

Letter to the Tech

The April 8 Tech had a cartoon with China stabbing Tibet in the pole vault event during the Olympics.

An Open Letter to the Editor of The Tech
(In response to the cartoons: Page 4 of The Tech, on April 8, 2008 and April 11, 2008):

An editorial cartoon serves as a visual metaphor to express satire towards political issues. Last week's cartoons imply that China does not deserve to host the Olympics because of human rights issues in Tibet. While we do not deny that China still has many problems, many Chinese and Chinese Americans are concerned about China's image in the West. We are concerned that many Americans and other citizens of other Western countries have an outdated and distorted view towards China.

Through the lens of the media in some Western countries, many have developed their views on China as a country identified with human rights abuse and government dictatorship, while neglecting all other sides of the story. Many have sympathy for the Chinese people, whom they often assume to be living under oppression and going through all kinds of hardship, despite the fact that they might not know what is really going on there. As Chinese students at MIT, we grew up in China and did see some of the problems depicted by the Western media. At the same time, however, we have had much more positive experiences in the past 20 years, including the drastic economic improvements in China that the world has marveled at. Because of the changes of education policy in China, many of us enjoyed the opportunities to study in foreign countries and see the world outside of China through our own eyes. In turn, we also encourage and invite people around the world to travel to China and talk to local Chinese, from whom one can learn what the real China looks like—be it good or bad.

As indicated by the cartoon, China, just like any other country, has human rights issues. However, it is disturbing to see people judge China with double standards. We must realize that every country has to go through various reforms and developments to figure out the best working system, and along the way, imperfections transpire. Not to say mistakes can be overlooked, we believe it takes time to correct them. China has been working very hard on tackling those issues (real elections for people’s representatives at townships, transparency of the judiciary process, preferential rights for the minority ethnicities, etc.), on the premise of keeping a stable, while developing, China.

The Olympics is an international sporting event intended to celebrate excellence in sports. Chinese, Chinese Americans, and many other peoples around the world are proud that China is hosting the Olympics. In contrary to what many people say, our pride is not to legitimize all of China's human rights abuses and political positions. All Chinese are proud because this is the first time China has been economically able to host the Olympics. It is a testament to the hard work of hundreds of millions of people and the progress China has made. China invites people all over the world to participate in the sporting festival, and see the real China through their own eyes, rather than through the media which oftentimes can be biased. We encourage everyone to invest more critical thinking on what you hear from the media. Furthermore, we don't mind people having critiques about China, but please offer the critiques in a constructive manner, so as not to instigate hard feelings and further misunderstandings.