Discussions about China seem to bring out the worst in everyone.
Have a quick read of the following article from the Far Eastern Economic Review. It tells the story of the "50 Cent Party" and how it functions of the Chinese Web. The article is fairly non-judgmental and merely relates the practice of opinion management as is practiced by the Chinese Communist Party. It also provides some examples of smaller institutions that have employed similar measures, such as Nanjing University.
Now look at the comments that follow. They are full of emotionally-based posturing and argy-bargy.
ICBMs! Danger! China is not practicing multicultural diversity in the same way as the US! Horror!
On the other hand...
Foreigners don't understand China! Angst! Foreigners bully China! More Angst! [Wave fist]
Really, more often than not people who comment on articles in the electronic press dress up emotional outbursts as textual analysis and criticism. When one thinks about it, the court of public opinion is poorly named. Rather, it should be termed the kindergarten sandpit of public opinion.
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