OPINION:
The recent COVID-19 outbreak and strict quarantine measures notwithstanding, China’s authorities have, overall, handled the pandemic in their nation pointedly. Watching the small amount of news feed allowed to leave the nation in the fall of 2019, I was somewhat amused by TV images of some citizens being literally dragged back into their residences to help contain viral transmission.
As the months passed and the COVID-19 epidemic became a pandemic, I couldn’t help but notice how China’s strict handling of its own outbreak (while allowing few rights and freedoms to its people) likely made for a relatively short initial crisis. Yet many Chinese citizens have tasted and enjoyed samples of freedom’s sweetness, either through travel or Western images missed by China’s internet censors. Potentially problematic for China’s authoritarian government, those samples cannot be un-experienced.
Perhaps with greater democratic freedom can come weaker national security, and vice versa. While I wouldn’t exchange my Western freedom for such national security, it is still foolish to pretend a national-security sacrifice isn’t being made in exchange.
FRANK STERLE JR.
White Rock, British Columbia
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