COMMENTARY | News from China often lacks interest. One reason can be publishing opinions may result in the shutdown of your Web page as reported by the Committee to Protect Journalists when an official reported the connection between blood donations and the spread or AIDS or in arrest as in the case of a website owner reported by Amnesty International.
China's news often lacks the who, what, where, how, why of Western journalists and only reports a business deal or event. Platonian dialog, where a reasoned intellectual looks at a situation and asks other questions that are learned in Western school interactions. The closest I've seen of an attempt to get Chinese opinions in Chinese news is a poll about the bombing of Libya in the Economic Observer News.
PLA leaders have tried to erase Confucian style of thought in favor of the scientist method of inquiry — state a hypothesis, develop tests, compare results against the hypothesis and reach a conclusion but it seems part of their culture. Even though officials like Li Yuanchao may ask for transparency in elections as reported by Xinhua, reports are more likely to provide Confucian attitudes.
Confucius encompassed the Tao, or Way, in his Analects, often devoted to examining the moral character of officials. An AFP report about microblogging in China in Yu Jianrong finds a modern Confucius that documents officials that fail to follow rules. In Taoism, the conflict about opinion is shown as follows:
"When the man of highest capacities hears Tao he does his best to put it into practice. When the man of middling capacity hears Tao he is in two minds about it." So much for debate and the lack of it seen in Chinese politics on line. Who would want middling debate when you could hear what a leader says?
Confucian ideals are also shown by China Online when reporting wealthy Cheng Guangbio and Wang Shi lack taste in the way they donate money, perhaps since the Tao says that "The man of power must not reveal himself as a possessor of power."
Perhaps, the reason why China won't allow the import of U.S. movies despite a WTO ruling, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, is taste not repression?
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