Chinese officials are preparing to "strike hard" against civil unrest. Are they planning another Tiannamen-style massacre? There is something fundamentally wrong with a government that has to torture, repress, and murder it's own people (and its neighboring peoples) on a regular, systematic basis in order to maintain stability. China isn't the only country guilty of such crimes, but they are certainly the most visible. As one of the largest, and most important, nations on earth -- and as a key member of the global community -- China really should hold itself to a different standard. Just because protestors are comprised of disenfranchised peasants, workers, students and ethnic minorities does not mean that their lives and causes are without value. In fact, the whole point of the Maoist revolution was ostensibly to liberate the lower classes from oppression -- so I find it very ironic that the regime that grew out of that revolution is now actively oppressing the very same people it was formed to liberate. Worse still is that the Chinese government -- with or without Google's support -- cannot possibly succeed at a policy of repression in the long-term. Eventually, the more acts of violence that are perpetrated against the Chinese people, the more disillusioned those people will become. And eventually the regime will fall out of favor and be dissolved. Since that is the inevitable outcome of the current direction of Chinese policy, why not just spare the needless loss of life, and take a different approach now? The Chinese government should find a way to listen to its people and work with them to build partnerships and solutions from the bottom-up instead of forcing them to comply from the top-down. Anyway, what I say doesn't matter -- I'm sure the Chinese government is not reading this blog. Fortunately, capitalism is like a virus, or an acid, that is already colonizing China and will inevitably result in a shift to something like democracy there, eventually. It's just too bad that so many people have to suffer in the process.