Rebecca McKinnon writes: “In my experience, most Chinese, like all other human beings I’ve ever met, would very much like to have freedom of speech.”
She goes on to skewer Scoble who said: “I’m not Chinese. I’m American. So I have ABSOLUTELY NO BUSINESS forcing the Chinese into a position they don’t believe in.”
Isn’t this one of those moments where there is the business reality (i.e. software companies, like all businesses, are concerned about revenues and market share), and then the humanistic reality (we believe that freedom from repression and personal opportunity are core values for the world’s citizens) ?
I’d lean toward Rebecca as the person who can teach me a lot of things about the Chinese business environment and Chinese freedom of expression (or lack there), but I’d also remember much it is not in the fabric of big business to take an overt political stance.
During my week in China, last week, I met with some bloggers and other social media types, and heard a great deal about how ast risk individuals felt about being singled out for crackdown, and the need to back doors and alternative platforms for blogging etc outside of the Chinese government’s control. This is an issue that I heard from more than one person–Along with complaints about difficulty of doing business in China, the general practice of registering companies and banking in Hong Kong, these conversations sent the message to me that China is still a fairly closed society–with exceptions it makes much of.
Yes, the potential is there…but it’s still potential.
For this China newbie, these dialogues demonstrate how much there is to learn…and why contact between our countries is so important.