Pinkie Delving into foreign policy?

Anyone with even a pedestrian knowledge of press freedom knows that China is one of the most oppressive regimes on the planet. You can read about the Chinese oppression of bloggers here from The Guardian. A blogger convicted of "separatism" was recently sentenced to life in prison. The source Reporters Without Borders has their 2013 World Press Freedom Index where they list 179 countries in order of press freedom from best to worst.

Number one on the list of countries for freedom of the press is Finland. The United States comes in at the rank of 32. North Korea comes in at 178 (eh-hem to my friends at Lake Worth Community). Cuba and China come in at 171 and 173, respectively. 

If you are a reader of Lynn Anderson's blog and excitedly purchased your plane ticket to Beijing you might want to reconsider. To further clarify how incorrect she is, here is another news report from The Guardian:

Michelle Obama on Saturday [March 22, 2014] told students in China, which has some of the world's tightest restrictions on the internet, that freedom of speech and unfettered access to information make countries stronger and should be universal rights.

The first lady was speaking Saturday at Peking University in Beijing during a week-long trip aimed at promoting educational exchanges between the US and China. The trip also took on political overtones when she was granted a previously unscheduled meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping on Friday.

Mrs Obama said the free flow of information is crucial “because that's how we discover truth, that's how we learn what's really happening in our communities and our country and our world”.

I suggest that we contact the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., flooding it with letters urging the authorities to send the other blogger to China for five years and give her the same Internet privileges that the average Chinese citizen has. Rosetta Stone would be a great gift for her so that she can master Mandarin, one of the easier languages to learn. Then, her main focus should be the need for Taiwanese independence and self-determination, along with a free Tibet.