One of my favorite journalists working in Beijing today is Evan Osnos, who has acquitted himself most ably carrying on the tradition of excellent China writing in The New Yorker. His vignettes on the Letter from China blog are always a must-read and today’s short piece, entitled “Life after Google“, concludes on a rather elegant and poignant note:
There is, however, a deeper, more troubling sensation. As Americans living in China at this moment in its history, many of us have fashioned an image of a country that is moving—in its own shambling pattern of fits and starts—toward something better for itself and the world. Sure, it thrashes around a lot along the way, but on many days it seems to end up a fraction of an inch closer to a better, healthier, more humane way of life. But this is not one of those days. A superpower that is willing to jettison a tool so central to life as a global citizen begins to look less like a calculatingly pragmatic steward of its people’s interests and more like an addled Goliath.
Well said.
Morning, to right, a backwards step indeed.
(Have you met him? I’d like to.)