China Views Americans As 'Cultural Barbarians'

GlobeTracker| This visual art collage was left outside Google’s Beijing office on Jan. 14, as a sign of support in the ongoing conflict between Beijing and America over censorship. Today’s WSJ explores the ‘clash of civilization’ concept as it applies to America and China.

America talks of terms of universal human rights, and that includes access to the Internet.

Mrs. Clinton talked about Internet freedom in terms of universal human rights. Her speech was promptly denounced in a Communist Party newspaper as “information imperialism.” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu claimed that China’s regulation of the Internet (banning references to Tiananmen, Tibet, Taiwanese independence and so on) was in keeping with “national conditions and cultural traditions.”

In many cultures of the world ‘obedience’ to a higher authority — whether that entity is a religious heirarchy or the state — is viewed as essential to cultural success and triumph. Therefore, China must ‘take on’ the cultural barbarians, as America is viewed. Read on at WSJ.