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Second, the speech was aimed at an American, not Chinese, audience. A large part of the audience is from those earlier generations he's referring to, or considers those earlier generations heroes. Again, it's not Obama's responsibility to conceal the reality of American politics from Chinese ears.
Third, while needlessly insulting another country is uncalled for, I don't believe Obama did that, and no national leader should neglect representing the beliefs of their own people in order to placate the sensitivities of those in another country who might launch a boycott. If they want to launch a boycott, that is their personal right. But I fail to see how its a mistake for Obama to speak to the beliefs of the people he now leads.
Thank you for the comment.
Maybe I expect too much of him, but I thought he as a leader should:
1. know that it's not just the Americans he's speaking to, but he would be heard all over the world, and there will be an impact, or conscequence of everything he says.
2. not repeating the rhetorics simply because they've been said for centuries, not saying what he thought the people in general would agree so, but make a better judgment of the implications of his word, and whether it would be in the best interest in the country he's leading. And as I said, I could see no reason why he cannot replace the word "communism" with "Stalinism" or something, and I can see no benefit for America as a country to cause any hard feelings in Chinese, especially when every American owes China 2,000 dollars =)
Shame on US at large not just him, indeed.
You seem to agree that there was nothing in President Obama's inaugural address that was calculated to cause outrage among the Chinese people. However, I will have to trust you that outrage indeed was genuinely felt.
You are also not the first to find fault with Obama's rhetoric. To claim, as he did, that "earlier generations faced down fascism and communism" is admittedly an easy metonymy for a much more complicated historical action. But I would allow, as davesgonechina does, that it is also a formulation with which those earlier generations (i.e., voters) would likely agree. We don't need semiotic theories to know why. A simple history lesson will suffice.
America's battle with (and triumph over) Fascism (meaning here the governments of Mussolini, of Hitler, of Imperial Japan) was merely an interlude in a much longer existential struggle against the Communism of the Soviet Union. "Stalinism" does not properly capture this historical episode. Recall that Khrushchev thoroughly repudiated Stalin in 1956, although this denunciation didn't stop the invasion of Hungary later that year. Neither did it prevent the building of the Berlin Wall, nor the true outrages brought to Czechoslovakia in 1968.
This system (which Americans are in the habit of calling "Communism") was exported to many countries within the USSR's sphere of influence (often by intrigue or force). The Chinese Communist Party was founded under the auspices of Soviet agents. Mao Zedong later absorbed its lessons quite well. (It was Khrushchev who said, "When I look at Mao, I see Stalin. A perfect copy.") Can we discuss Communism without Stalin and Mao? Would you register outrage if Obama had mentioned 'Leninism' instead?
This is not to say that America's struggle against "Communism" was always carried out by noble means (or to noble ends). Consider McCarthyism. Consider the Bay of Pigs in Cuba, the Contras in Nicaragua. Consider U.S. support for the Mujahideen in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion.
Also consider how very socialist the West has become since Marx and Engels penned their famous Manifesto (wherein they demanded, among other things, progressive income tax, public banking, an end to child labor, etc). And so when Obama says, "We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense," he is speaking to these achievements in civil rights as well.
Ella, you say that in censoring Obama's speech, the Chinese media are doing Obama (and by extension, all Americans) a favor. Perhaps. But they are conversely doing a greater injustice to the citizens of China, who deserve the truth, and whose interests the media should serve. Petty dignity indeed.
(1) I think by now most Chinese people also know China isn't really communist anymore.
(2) Chinese media had no choice - if, like you said, a comment like this by Obama would trigger boycott/uproar, CCP would be more concerned with maintaining good relations with the US by suppressing public opinion - so why not prevent that altogether in the first place by censoring sensitive phrases? Boycott against the French and Japanese both ended the same way, with the Chinese government deleting inflammatory comments online, suppressing public anger and nationalistic fervor. Chinese leadership wants business, not damaged relations.