wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

is it true that the PRC made NY state change the name of the freedom tower?

It should be noted too, that the PRC may have already blocked this online discussion from their people. This is a probability, not a supposition. I encourage people living in China to write in if I'm wrong.

I was really disappointed in one call-in of the guy who profess to complete ignorance of the 60th anniversary in the age of Wikipedia and online news.

"The people in China may not have the option to stay home."

This type of view is a typical view from like the Cold War years. And shows how out of touch some Americans are with the rest of the world.

"I am sure that most of the Chinese-Americans in this country are appalled by the “celebration” and by the Empire State Building lighting up for such a heinous reason"

I am sure you can't speak for all Chinese American so don't spew out junk like that. I AM Chinese American and frankly (as one of the guests implied), we should be celebrating that China is progressing and not being bullied by Western countries as it were pre-WW2. Whether or not the Empire State Building should have been lit up red and yellow; who cares? Take your picture and move on.

Joy's expression of amazement at "support" shows a vacancy in mental outlook - sounds analogous to political rhetoric in America. Nobody's home upstairs. Pretty scarey when you see it in the extreme, and realize how close this "vacancy" is to the minds of the 80 million or more Americans who are either illiterate or close to it.

She may have been reading from a script but if she didn't own her outlook, she's a great actress

I can't believe I am saying this, but I completely agree with #8 Calls'em/aka Phil from Queens!

But, like #14 said, China virtually owns us, so maybe we're gonna have to start getting used to bowing down to our financial masters?

AI-YAH!!
now there' impressive journalism...and then there's impressively unimpressive journalism...This has to be an example of one of those that tops my bottom list.

And that Joy Ma, did she get the memo about getting on the air to discuss this topic?? She couldnt seem to put togehter 2 cohesive statements. On an earlier show, BBC had more intelligent expressions of thoughts from Chinese students pulled off the streets.

Communism - Racism? I don't see the difference, we light up the empire state building for July 4th, this country was celebrating it's independence while owning slaves? Whatever people!

If we ever start thinking that China's system of government might work better than our messy democracy, just remember that if Joy, the guest correspondent went off script even for a second, Beijing would disappear her. This is why she gamely produced facts about the parade she saw, but little in the way of opinion.

As for China "becoming more capitalistic," let's not be too disingenuous, shall we? The German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, who visited Harvard recently, cited the predominance of authoritarian political systems, which he's likened to the rise, historically, of dictatorships and their erosion of civic freedom. In an interview he said: "One has the choice between a party dictatorial mode, as in China; a state dictatorial mode, as in Russia; an opinion dictatorial mode, as in the United States, and a media dictatorial mode, as in Berlusconi's Italy..." And he sees developing a global change to "authoritarian capitalism." I think China exemplifies this without stretching any points...

To Sam [5] - I'm sure the Empire State Building got a pretty penny for lighting up for this repressive regime. Perhaps they got to pay off all the new lobby renovations. If that's so then the $10 million was well spent and taken in exchange for a few hours of BS.

It costs money to have the empire state building celebrate occasions with the lights so we shouldn't see this as NYC supporting China but rather a routine part of capitalism in this city.

PS I think under other circumstances, the owners of the Empire State Bldg wouldn't have deigned to celebrate the PRC in such a manner, but considering how much debt is owed to the PRC, I guess one shouldn't be surprised.

I mean to say China's 60 years

Interesting piece. Now how about more on the dangerous natural gas drilling upstate?

I have mixed feelings about this anniversary. Given China's terrible history in the century after the Opium Wars, it was a good thing, in principle at least, that China finally got a relatively stable form of government. On the other hand, in order to achieve that, the new mandarins have inflicted such suffering on their own people. Not to mention the detrimental meddling in their neighbors' affairs: witness North Korea. Not only has the PRC been protecting the Kim regimes for far too long, but were it not for China's interference in the Korean War, the peninsula would likely be unified, prosperous, and nuke-free.

The guest sounds like the CLAW from Get Smart

Perhaps besides measuring a country in terms of its market output, role as an economic competitor, etc, one might also consider how closely it hews to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

The People’s Republic of China is one of the most vile regimes in the history of the world. It was and remains a repressive dictatorship. Now, with the out break of corporate statist capitalism, it is little better. Tens of millions of people were murdered by this regime and 100s of millions were enslaved. Most there are still enslaved, at least economically. There is no true free speech, freedom of religion or assembly. There is little or no redress of the Govt. except by embarrassing it with demonstrations, which happen in doves and are often brutally repressed. I am sure that most of the Chinese-Americans in this country are appalled by the “celebration” and by the Empire State Building lighting up for such a heinous reason. It should be a day of mourning.

The caller who questioned America forgets that we don't have to be patriotic, it is a choice. The people in China may not have the option to stay home.

and if we feel so strongly against China, perhaps we should not borrow money from them!!

I heard on the Rachael Maddow show that Empire State building refused to lit the building green on the request from Iranian oppositions stating that they do not make any political statement but, they decided in lighting it red, yellow and red in support of China's 50 year celebration. What's the hypocracy?

OK Seriously....we need to learn to celebrate diversity without controversy in this Country!

i'll say it; for god sake; isn't it time to stop hating jews; haters; get over it and aspire to be more like them; that's what paul specter said; his wife's dad was a propaganda artist for communist china and paul could barely hold back laughing when he told me; his wife is widowed and a designer at FIT; they live in queens and have TONS of friends and go to graduations at west point; FREUDIAN!

I heard that they built villages just outside Beijing so the soldiers could live there for months and rehearse. They might have destroyed woods and crop fields for that.

Parade through Tianamen Square....

well, that speaks for itself, I think.