The Fear of Chinese Government Officials

Hyperlink to source text in Chinese: 中国官员们的恐惧

Translated, proofread by @krizcpec

I read a report on the Internet that said many officials have anxiety about the Internet. Though there was no statistics provided, I found that report believable. Why?

Throughout history, [until the age of the Internet,] Chinese government officials had never been under genuine supervision and restriction. The saying “people's eyes are sharp” is but another way of saying that people are blind selectively. When the authorities need your eyes to be sharp, your eyes have to be sharp; when the authorities need you to turn a blind eye to something, you would have to do as you are told. In other words, the masses are used by government officials as puppets, and they can do nothing about it. On top of these, the populace sees the officials' unlawful actions, corruption and has no channel to air their discontent: the media, controlled by the government, would certainly not cover news stories that make officials look bad [simply because the public is dissatisfied]. Those disclosed corruption cases may be real, but their disclosures were not the result of effective supervision by the people, but rather the political struggle at top levels; or they could also mean those politicians had lost their backing. These disclosures have nothing to do with democratic and free supervision or victory of the common people; anti-corruption is but a pretext with which different political figures or factions fought against each other.

Don't be indolent, think!

Hyperlink to the source text in Chinese: 别在思考上偷懒

Translated, proofread by @krizcpec

Chongqing officials' eerily oppressive approach is really funny: I was invited to give a talk at a forum, and it was canceled on the grounds that fire safety requirements had not been met. However, some of my friends didn't give up trying, and at last they managed to organize in a bar a talk that was more like a question and answer session. The audience was from the younger generations, most were students. 

The theme was movies, we discussed Chinese movies shot by foreigners; education in movies; and movies I enjoyed. These would of course led to discussion on many social problems, because they are closely related to our lives, and our rights. And I felt they were all anxious, eager to have an answer, or the answer, to whatever problems they have; this mentality may not be limited to individuals, nor is it just a reflection of the youthfulness of these people, it is, I'm afraid, a sentiment that is spreading across society. Such sentiment is understandable: it is a response from the masses who are increasingly disappointed with the government; it could be used as a wind vane to observe this society.

Who exactly is unreasonable?

Hyperlink to the source text in Chinese: 到底是谁偏激？
Translated and proofread by @krizcpec

These days I often being criticized as biased. It appears that once being criticized so, all my arguments would become worthless for discussion - as if they are meaningless and untenable simply because of that criticism. And those critics would feel condescendingly a sense of victory without fighting. There are those who say not even a single word regarding the government's decades old of evil practices, and have an unreserved support of the government. These people have severe Stockholm syndrome, oblivious to their psychological yearning for persecution; some even feel happy to have this syndrome.

Quotations from Ran Yunfei (Part Four)

As at the date this translation project started, twitterer @wuxinkuaiyu had tweeted 65 quotations from the detained dissident writer. Here are the last batch of the quotations translated into English.

Translated by @sikoalice
Proofread and modified by @krizcpec, @gaodawei

51. 这个社会太多的人想搭便车，很少人有责任感，觉得这个社会需要去努力。而且中国人讲究实用，巴不得今天做了事情明天就能收到效果。这就像中国人对读书的态度，如果认一个字能挣五块钱，那他愿意，要不他宁愿去打几把麻将。
Translation: There are too many people in this society who want to get a free ride, only a handful have the sense of responsibility and consider efforts necessary to bring forth a better society. The thinking of Chinese people is all about being practical and looking for an immediate pay-off: they want what they did today to pay off tomorrow. This is just like the Chinese’s attitude towards reading. They would do it willingly if they were to be paid five dollars for each character they learn; otherwise they would rather play Mahjong.

Fight for the love of yourself

hyperlink to the source text in Chinese: 为热爱自己而斗争。

Translated by @fabiano226
Copyedited by @kRiZcPEc and Michelle Buchanan (@michisle)

Since we were children, and on into adulthood, the educational brainwashing we have received has told us to love the Communist Party, love socialism, love China, but it has never told us to love ourselves. The idea of cherishing our own life has not been promoted; no attention has been paid to safety education–which, by the way, should include not only how to deal with natural disasters, such as earthquakes, or fire, but also an understanding of food safety–because our humble lives are not considered worth it. Those political science textbooks–from sociology to Mao’s works–were all impractical, exaggerated, and stupefying.