Is it me or do American writers have an inability to write an article containing anything about China without a reference to politics? Lots of athletes from poor countries practice like robots, spurred on by parents or society. It happens in the US too. Is it better to get forced by the government to practice gymnastics or your crazy obsessed parents? I suppose it's a little bit better, but don't get all holier than thou, which Americans would certainly win a gold medal if that's an olympic event.

"Is it better to get forced by the government to practice gymnastics or your crazy obsessed parents?"

I'll take a crazy parent telling me what to do over a Communist State. Absolutely.

I'd be willing to bet that most Americans trust our parents to have our best interests at heart over the gov't, but then again we haven't been brainwashed since birth to put the State before our families.

Compared to other countries, I don't know how much Americans put their national self-worth into the Olympics. East Germany used the Olympics to try to prove they were a real country and not just the Soviet occupation zone. The other Warsaw Pact countries used the games to prove they were creating homo Sovieticus - The New Soviet Man. I don't think I need to say more about the 1936 Berlin Games.

About the only time I've noticed national feeling have any kind of edge in the Olympics was the Dream Team in 1992. After years of competing with one hand tied behind our back we unleashed our pros against their state-sponsored professionals. And we wiped the floor with them.

*** About the only time I've noticed national feeling have any kind of edge in the Olympics was the Dream Team in 1992. After years of competing with one hand tied behind our back we unleashed our pros against their state-sponsored professionals. And we wiped the floor with them. ****

Apparently you starting watching the Olympics in 1992. Otherwise you would have mentioned the U.S. beating Russia in hockey, and that godawful rah-rah boycotted LA Olympics in 1984.

And gee, what a suprise - NBA pros are the best basketball players. Who would have guessed that?

How, exactly, does one write an article about a state-sponsored sport without mentioning the state?

When American writers write about American athletes, they mention the crazy parents or the militant high school coach or the specialized magnet school or whatever institution pushed and supported and molded those athletes into the finely-tuned machines they are today, so why would they avoid mentioning the Chinese institutions and attitudes that shaped the Chinese athletes?

I remember 1972 and the silver medals that will never be claimed.

The 1980 hockey win you are referring to was very much a victory for the underdog, not a dominating roll-over.

Despite your attitude (amazing what kind of courage having a screen name gives people) I agree that the 1984 Olympics were a little lopsided. Sure Americans won lots of medals, but against whom?

"Other teams have been sending their pros for years. Now they can take their whipping and go home." - Charles Barkley

You will always get your China-bashers, people who know little about China, tibet, nor Taiwan but would love to opinion about all three because they think it's trendy.

As for others, xenophobia is at an all time high at the moment. Most people here also grew up with the "America #1" and "Freedom is the best" type of ideas imprinted into their skulls. China represents a threat to your average American because China represents a set of conditions which Americans don't understand. For years we have been taught that Freedom and Democracy is essential for basic human happiness, that laisse faire capitalism will maximize prosperity, that Asians are weak in sports other than kung fu, etc. China defies all of these ideals which your average American grew up with. As the result, people will go out of their way to find something wrong with China, so they can justify the stuff which they have been taught and believed all of these years.

Finally, in US politics and media it's politically correct to speak ill of China. Can you imagine Obama or McCain speaking favorably about China on anything? The instant this happens the other politican will make an attack ad on this topic.

"For years we have been taught that Freedom and Democracy is essential for basic human happiness, that laisse faire capitalism will maximize prosperity"

Uh, isn't that kinda true? Are you arguing that the Chinese wouldn't be happier with more freedoms? And you do realize that the extraordinary rise in prosperity in China in the past generation has coincided pretty neatly with increased financial freedoms, right? What do you think a rising middle class of 300 million people would mean if China was really communist? Not to mention the US is far from laissez faire.

I would agree that China gets far more scorn than other countries with questionable human rights records, but perhaps this is due to the massive scale of everything they do, whether good or bad.

P.S.: Americans never thought asians were only good at kung fu... they had ping pong too!

"Are you arguing that the Chinese wouldn't be happier with more freedoms? And you do realize that the extraordinary rise in prosperity in China in the past generation has coincided pretty neatly with increased financial freedoms, right? What do you think a rising middle class of 300 million people would mean if China was really communist? Not to mention the US is far from laissez faire."

No, I am not arguing that Chinese wouldn't be happier with more freedoms. I am aruging that Americans were taught that people cannot live happy without Freedom and Liberty. When you see any newspaper featuring an article about a happy peasant in China, the typical American response would be that the peasant is 1)A party member 2)Coerced or paid to give such a response 3) brainwashed. Why can't so many Americans simply accept the fact that maybe the Chinese guy is happy with his current conditions? Why would you automatically assume that Chinese would be happy to trade off stability for political freedom? Do you think most Iraqis are content to trade off stability before the war, to their newly granted "freedoms"?

I have also never suggested that communist economic system is the way to go, or that free trade did not help China. I wrote that Americans are taught that laisse faire is the best system. At least I was taught that growing up. I also noticed that in the mid-late 90s many Americans expected China's economy to falter because it's still mostly state controlled. Is that not true?

MM, ah I suppose I missed your point a bit. Yeah, I'd agree Chinese peasants might be happy in spite of (or maybe even because of) the conditions imposed by the authoritarian government. You know, whatever "happy" means. And I would agree that if the only options you give someone are lawless chaos and oppression, many would choose oppression, but I'm not sure why that is a necessary examination in light of discussions of China's government.

I was never taught that laissez faire was the way to go by people that really knew economics; somewhat regulated free markets like US or western Europe was presented to me as the way to go, but we all have our own experiences. I guess you could read xenophobia into that, but I think it's a stretch.