I refer to the Malaysiakini article ‘No’ is all they know, no?

In lambasting the government of Malaysia, the writer also took pot shots at China. It would have been better if he had not for it only exposes the superficiality of his knowledge about China.

First things first. He implied that Google was in China to bring freedom of expression to the Chinese people. Hah, so it did not go to China to make money? It knew about the Chinese government’s policy on censorship before it went in. If Google really cared so much about censorship why did it wait till now to bring this up?

The truth is that Google only managed to get a small share of the Chinese net traffic – losing out to indigenous search portals. Obviously, Google having found that it is not as profitable as it thought it would be, decided that it would no longer stomach the hassles of doing business in China.

What better way to save face than to say that it is withdrawing because it would not compromise its principle of ‘free speech’.

‘...no principles, no humanity, no integrity, no soul, no mercy and no notion whatsoever of shame ...no honesty, no transparency, no truth, no justice...’

Jeez, what a lot of ‘no-s’ from someone who apparently knows very little of what goes on in China. Not enough; the writer goes on to talk about China’s ‘massive system of political corruption and plunder...’

Has he got China mixed up with Malaysia? Well, let’s deal with a few facts.

‘No principles’? Which set of principles is the writer referring to? Regarding foreign policy, China has always dealt with issues on points of principles – unlike America which on the one hand warns Iran not to build nuclear arms yet on the other allows Israel to have them.

‘No justice? Corruption and plunder’? There is corruption in China; of that one cannot deny. But the government takes it very seriously; when uncovered the perpetrators are brought to justice and are punished – often mercilessly. There isn’t the hypocrisy and double standards that we see in Malaysia.

There is no cover up. Justice is handed out transparently. Lately, in the famous Chonqing Trials – a chief justice was given a life sentence, the provincial police chief, the mayor of Shenzhen and other high ranking government officials as well as billionaires were treated the same as the gangsters they colluded with. All of them were punished – some forfeited their lives, others received heavy jail sentences.

The fight against corruption at all levels is ongoing. One reads weekly of cases being brought to court. Illegal skyscrapers are demolished when developers ignore warnings not to build.

‘No justice’? ‘No transparency’? ‘Hypocrisy’? If only the government in Malaysia will do one tenth of what China does to eradicate corruption.

And on the question of ‘plunder’, the writer has not said what the government of China has plundered from her people. Fact is, the Chinese government has done more to lift the living standards of her citizens than many other countries. Today there are health clinics, schools, electricity, tarred roads and running water in even the remotest parts of China.

On the other hand, in Malaysia there are many kampung and long houses without these basic services. The writer should not let his blind rage against the Malaysian government confuse him.

China is not Utopia. There are many things wrong in China. It’s a huge country with massive problems. There is room for improvement. But it is unreasonable to expect the Chinese government to take her hand of the tiller and institute Western type ‘freedoms’ – look what happened to Russia (with its mafias and oligarchies). However I believe China will in time liberalise.

Generalisations made in the way of the writer are not just unjustified, they also reduce the credibility of the writer. Perhaps he should stick to criticising the Malaysian government – something he seems to be good at.