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Originally Posted by KenWittlief
I worked with an engineer who grew up in China, and came here as a student. He decided to stay. When he was a child the government decided what classes he would take, what school he would attend, and what his assigned career would be.
He was not allowed to travel, inside China or out, without written permission. Every aspect of his life was controlled until he left.
He is a little younger than me, I would guess he was born in 1960. Things may have improved a little, but not much.
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A lot of things have actually changed quite a bit since the 60's. Two reasons: the Cultural Revolution failed miserably, and Deng Xiaoping. One really led to the other, and since the 80's there's been a gradual shift towards opening up the country. Regarding your examples, there's no longer preset careers, travel within the country is open, and travel internationally is generally not a problem. When we were trying to set up a visit from my grandmother, we had far more problems with the US Embassy granting a visa than the Chinese government giving a passport.
In fact, most people can live their lives without heavy-handed government control. That's not to say all is right and well: censorship is widespread, news is propaganda, any politics is a very touchy subject, etc. But the bigger issue for most of the country is the economic disparity between cities and rural areas. Their issue is more about the incompetent government rather than the totalitarian government, with corrupt officials, ineffective policies, and the like. These are getting fixed, to some extent, when protests are done skillfully (to the right people in charge, quietly to avoid embarassing the government). A lot of the old conservatives are still in control, so things are slow-moving and it will not be easy, but the direction they're headed in gives cause for optimism.
This change, though, must come from within, and it will have to be a gradual erosion. There's still too much political inertia, pride, and infrastructure for radical changes, but progress is being made. In that regard, Wikipedia can take whatever stance it wants, and everyone can applaud their moral high ground, but it won't help make the change go faster or more effectively. Whether appeasement is any better, I don't know. I do know, though, that it opens a channel into the country that is not ultimately government controlled (unlike state-sponsored companies). I'd think that would count for something in the long run.
And whatever government exists at the end of the day still has to take care of the social and economic issues of 1.3 billion multi-ethnic people living in a hugely varied and disjointed geography without creating a total ecological collapse. Unless it happens to turn into a
magical government, they've got generations of work cut out for them.