Chinese Netizens Say Time To "Clean Up" Foreign "Trash"

Don’t you “China watchers”ever get tired trying to read and make sense of all those Chinese netizens’ online comments? Yeah it’s a reflection of what “the people” think and how they may one day act, blahblah, but if you haven’t got the sense by now that these are mostly just a bunch of frustrated, bored young people blowing off steam and moaning for nothing, then there is something wrong with your China watching methodology. 
How many times have they REALLY, I mean really, influenced Chinese policy making? 

The new social taxes (48%) aimed at foreigners was not working fast enough, I guess.

It’s a real shame the government hasn’t matured past Maoist-era-sounding slogans.  That angle on this story wasn’t one that had occurred to me before you mentioned it.

We already have our problem with homegrown criminals. Why should China need more of the same from foreigners?

The actual numbers of foreigners living in China is extremely small compared to other advanced countries; according to the data on this site, Beijing’s foreign population is 0.005% of the city. Whether young hot-heads influence policy or no, such pronouncements from the government surely cannot add to the comfort level of the many honest and hard-working foreigners now living here. It is one thing for some idiot journalist to spout off, or for web-bloggers to posture, but quite another when government officials announce a “clean-up”. Whatever criminal activity exists in China, surely the foreign culprits are a miniscule fraction of the whole. 

America should start cleaning, there are also many many people illegals in large cities and small towns. Illegals enter into America without papers than want benefits, Obama is lifting restriction before an elections on illegals to that he can get the hispanic vote! A President should not take this upon himself for his benefit but let the people of America vote on these issues, Anyone is welcome in America if you follow rules and do things right. Illegals enter the country without papers already enter breaking laws!
In Japan you cannot be a citizen even if you are born there if your father is non Japanese. He has to be a native Japanese, this control citizenship and illegals. We do not have to be so harsh but a baby born in the USA should not become a citizen unless parents have legal papers. Our laws were made when America did not have a big population, and we needed people for this vast country. Laws have to be updated. Liberals will comment on this I know as a fact or illegals. Remember all are welcome in the USA, but follow the law and rules for immigration!

when I first read the headliner ” clean foreign trash” I first thought , junk food. I thought China was going to be the first country to clean out western fast food, which is making kids fat!

Great article!

The anger towards foreigners is humorous given that the entire economic development of China over the last 20 years is based heavily on opening to “foreign” influnece and “foreign” technology, expertise, education, etc. China would still be an unbelievably poor nation barely able to feed itself if it weren’t for “foreigners.”

This is a very good article, and a different perspective. When I lived in China, I was sometimes treated worse, but usually better. I didn’t take advantage, and treated people with respect. I also taught my kids that every where they went they represented their country. That being said, people are the same no matter their race, and there are always a few bad ones.

‘clean up’ is the kind of language that leads to ‘ethnic cleansing’–genocide. China has a history of hating foreigners and periodically booting them from the country. Their open and shut policy tends to go in cycles. It’s only a matter of time before they descend into maniac hatred of all things non-Han. And the reasons for such bad behavior are never reasonable or logical–just knee jerk reactions with replies such as ‘i dont need to explain’–this seems to be the dominant culture in China–’i don’t need to explain’ from top to bottom in all aspects of life–the hallmark of a totalitarian anti-human society. There are wonderful people in china but they are bullied and silenced and marginalized and have no freedom of expression.

Some people teach because teaching is the noblest profession on earth–the equivalent of planting a tree–it will provide shade for hundreds of years. What other professions can boast such power. Capitalism creates animosity, division, contempt, envy, and promotes inhuman actions. So business is not noble or uniting. What is a business man without a teacher? What is the truth without a library? What is a journalist under the heel of a corporation or the PRC? Teachers are often writers, intellectuals, artists, the creative wheels of society…there are no jobs in the west because fascism dominates the social paradigm and the corporate-aristocracy has exported all the jobs to China and other third-world nations (3rd world in mind and spirit) to exploit slave-labor at the behest of its authoritarian government–willing partners in exploiting its own people. As for teaching English–Chinese are not qualified–teachers are not taking anyone’s jobs–they are filling a vacuum. There are few Chinese who have the skills and knowledge to teach English with any credibility–good for basic levels and standardized exams–but they are not really doing well in that area either because students simply cant write or understand the exams or critical thinking-western thinking. They need native speakers, qualified teachers–especially with English backgrounds. If i am learning Chinese I want a Chinese teacher. If i am learning Kung Fu, i want Bruce lee not Jackie Chan. In the west, most students still go to school to study humanities–philosophy, sociology, linguistics, history, writing, literature–something China has none of–but there is no jobs in the humanities–except teaching. So English teachers in China are doing exactly what they trained for–they are not failures–they are going where the jobs are and building society–teachers are the foundation of any good society–the humanities are the bedrock of society–without humanities we are just automatons–. America wont create jobs–it fires teachers and cuts their pay in half because fascist hate education–they want a standardized work force like China. English teachers are professionals that should be highly regarded. Its high time people start questioning the morality and the character of Chinese students who cant and wont learn–who despise learning, and refuse to open their mind to anything non-Han. Don’t blame the teachers–blame the students and a culture of apathy, obedience, and conformity, a culture where individual expression is crushed. The universities in China are sad sad institutions that roll out automated non-thinking drones–the most brainwashed people in China. You want to find creativity and non-conformist thinking in China–don’t look in the schools. Look somewhere else. Despite stereotypes of the obedient student, Chinese university students have little respect for teachers or classmates and no empathy for them either (obedient only to administrative drones waking them on the head all day). They spit in class, pick their nose, play video games or watch movies while the teacher is talking, laughing with ear buds and taking phone calls in class–when politely asked to refrain they consistently ignore the request. When asked simple questions or thought provoking questions they stare like deer in the headlights unwilling to break conformity scoffing at the teacher, rolling eyes, heaving huge sighs because they are asked to think or respect the student next to them. It’s very very hard to teach people who don’t care, have NO curiosity about anything and no passion. Pop music and NBA is all they care about. Ive had students tell me they want to go abroad–anywhere–just so they can feel something. So what about all the students and the rich who are fleeing china? Perhaps, the truth is, these hatizens resent themselves and loathe themselves. And perhaps that’s why so many jump out of windows–and the authorities insist on covering it up. perhaps they hate themselves for being cowards–for not standing up to injustice when they see it, for allowing China to stagnant in pollution and litter and inhumanity–they don’t blame themselves–they blame the other. they deflect their own shortcomings on to the other. Classic bigotry. and it leads to rivers of blood every time. because they fail to take responsibility for themselves and their own country. no sense of community. Bound only by a dark ribbon of hate. In a time of no heroes…

The Chinese have every right to dictate their own economic, cultural, and domestic policies. This includes the regulation of immigration. As a Westerner, I just wish that the West would have he guts to do the same thing.

you are wrong. people use the internet to say what they can say and are too cowardly too say in public. The hatred is overflowing. I have students changing their ‘English; names simply because it sounds to Japanese. They openly curse the Japanese in class and applaud Americas nuclear bombs mass-murdering hundreds of thousands. This is openly said in public. Burning and Japanese cars–this is tolerated and acceptable by many–quietly if not violently. To simply ignore the rhetoric online is like denying your reflection in the mirror.

However, I wonder how much of their hate for foreigners of all kinds non-Han, is really just a deflection of their hatred for the government and themselves–any excuse to vent and blow off steam–because they cant rally against the government and they cant rant against the government or themselves without looking like unpatriotic self-loathing foreign devils. Perhaps much of the anger is just anger at themselves. And the government loves to use foreigners as a distraction—don’t look behind the curtain–look at those filthy white pigs and your neighbors over the pond.

not the point–deflecting the issue. bad things happen everywhere-you cant blame foreigners for it. Chinese should take a long hard look at themselves and start punishing corruption, slave trafficking, earth destruction causing widespread cancers–tantamount to infanticide and genocide–clean up the damn water and air. People have right to breathe in any country.