Socialism with Chinese Characteristics

Today Julie (a girl in my weekly English conversation class) asked me to help her with a speech she is preparing to give tomorrow in an English Language speech competition. Afterwards she invited me to have dinner with her and her boyfriend. They are a cute couple. They are from the same small town in Henan. While she is in Henan Daxue (this university) studying history her boyfriend is in Beijing studying forestry. Towards the end of our conversation he asked me: "What do Americans think about China's human rights?" This question made me pause. It could be that he wanted to know my true feelings. But it could be that he wanted to pick a fight. I assumed the latter since the question seemed to come out of the blue. So I did what I usually do when some one here I don't really know asks me what seems to be a pointed question. I choose not to answer.

I said, "I don't think most people in America know very much about China". I guess I didn't really feel like telling him that lots of people in America probably imagine China to much worse than it really is. I also wasn't sure if he really wanted to know what my feelings were and wanted to be less personal. Then he told me that developed countries have the luxury of human rights while developing countries have much more important things to worry about like jobs and food. Which is an argument I'm familiar with. I'm pretty sure it's the Chinese government's official talking point on the issue.

I then asked him the question I wished I'd asked him first which was, "What are human rights?" But he never answered. His English was limited but its also possible he never thought about it. His girlfriend said, "let's change the subject" and "boys always want to talk about politics".

It didn't seem like he was going to answer my question. So in an effort to redeem the conversation. I said, trying to get him to elaborate on his ideas (something I'm always trying to get Chinese students to do with limited result), "So when developing countries are finished developing will they have human rights too?" His girlfriend had to translate the question to him and though I couldn't say it in Chinese myself, I could understand that she translated it somewhat differently than what had said. Something more along the the lines of "When China develops will it become like the West in terms of human rights?" (close enough) To which he answered an emphatic "No". I said, still wanting to elicit some sort of his own thought on the subject of which he initially broached (of which I am quite curious), "So then, it will be something new."

He didn't follow and so I explained that if China's future wasn't going to be like the West's and wasn't going to be like China's past, then it must be something entirely different. To which he said "Oh, yes". So then I asked him what that was going to be like. And he said, laughing, "That's something we can't even imagine."

I still don't know what exactly to take from this exchange. I'm about 90% sure he brought up the subject to needle me with it. Now in hind sight it might be because I was so inquisitive about the new agricultural reforms that are soon to be rolled out. I asked him about them partly because I was immensely curious about what the son of two aging farmers would have to say about these things. The government is treating these reforms as a slightly sensitive subject, though honestly the only people who would have some beef with them would be some whacked out Maoist of which very few are still alive. It is possible that he took offense to my questions, though I certainly am in support of the reforms and was just curious to get some input from someone who knew about them.