I understand what you're saying O&T, but truthfully I'm not just referring to private conversations. I'm also referring to in-class discussions. Furthermore, in some of these classes there are students who are members of on-campus communist organizations and even staunch defenders of the communist one party system. Other students are aware that there are ears everywhere and are nevertheless quite willing to openly discuss any and all problems. Granted the Tibetan and Taiwan issues are still taboo subjects in the classroom, but that's not a problem for me because I agree with the One China policy anyway and, well, lest I open a whole other can of worms in this forum, I won't mention my feelings about the whole "Free Tibet bumper sticker mentality." At any rate, even my communist students are advocates of free speech and I believe that's the ultimate direction this country will take as it follows the Hong Kong model.

I haven't followed the link you provided yet, but I will say that there are grass root movements throughout China that are addressing and will ultimately address all such issues. "Rome wasn't built in a day." Therein lies the difference between me and many other posters here. I believe that change is inevitable, and yes definitely needed, but I also believe it can't happen overnight and that a certain amount of patience is needed. Condemnation won't get us very far. Advise coupled with patience and understanding will, however, go a long way.

As a bit of digression, let me add that I was part of the environmental movement in America that really got going in the late sixties. In some ways, I'm still waiting for a positive outcome of all that energy output. Yeah, there's been some movement in the right direction and in some cases some excellent improvement, but we've got a long way to go. Change is inevitable, but far too often much slower than we'd like.