In defense of (and fear of) Chinese censorship

  Read how growing up in a police state affects a young person's understanding of freedom of speech -- and lack thereof -- as we see in this piece in The Journal of Political Risk. In this case, it's Grace Zhang, a Chinese student studying at Adelphi University, in New York, defending censorship.

Most Americans would find her argument preposterous. But then, this Shanghai  native will have to return to China some day. It just wouldn't do to irritate the authorities.

Here's the first paragraph of her piece:

"There has been a great deal of attention, domestic and abroad, surrounding China’s education minister, Yuan Guiren, and his January 2015 speech in Beijing.[i]In his speech, Yuan touched on the controversial topic of minimizing the usage of Western ideals in textbooks and classroom discussion in higher education. He called for limited use of Western textbooks, effectively blocking the way of Western values entering the classroom and forbidding the criticism of Communist Party’s leadership and negative attitude from teachers that will affect students. To Western countries, this speech may be difficult to understand and may also easily trigger criticism because Yuan’s opinions go explicitly against the liberal education that Western higher education has stood for centuries. I, however, am of the opinion that if one only reads the words of the speech without any consideration of China’s difference in political systems from Western countries, it is very easy for readers to think that China is blocking the way of liberal education in their universities, but the actual purpose behind this speech, is Yuan’s advocating for Chinese national interest.''