440
PARTISAN REVIEW
prise, no one in China ever suggested
to
me that Americans are not
free. Some envied our liberty or even said they wanted it for
themselves. But the more common attitude was that China was bet–
ter than the United States because America was being destroyed by
the perniciousness and emptiness of freedom - an expression of our
acquisitiveness that had led to crime, the disintegration of the fam–
ily, and a society in which friendships are based on economics.
The essence of this negative view of freedom was that in
America sex was rampant. I was asked (with a certain amount of
hesitation and apology, since no one wanted to embarrass me)
whether it is true that pornography was allowed. I acknowledged
that it was. I was also asked whether there was homosexuality.
When I suggested that homosexuality was a practice that should be
permitted in a country that was trying so hard to keep its population
down, no one could understand how I could possibly think of
something so outlandish. I was told that China had no homosexual–
ity and never would have any in the future . Why, then, I wondered,
was it necessary to outlaw it? It was hard to explain that in the
United States families do exist and that most people have little con–
tact with pornography . When I suggested that China might be more
prosperous if people were free to choose their jobs or express their
political opinions, I usually was told that Chinese society would
disintegrate if freedom were tolerated.
The student demonstration that began in Hebei on Decem–
ber 9, 1986, and spread to Shanghai, Beijing, and elsewhere show that
there are many Chinese who long for freedom and democracy.
Nevertheless, there are others who fear freedom of speech. They are
willing to grant that abuses and cruelty are more likely to continue in
a state where dissent is not permitted , but their fear of pornography
is great, and they feel political repression is a price worth paying in
order to prevent it. Yet if sexual freedom existed in China, behavior
would hardly change. There are thousands of students from main–
land China in America , for instance , who do not spend their time in–
dulging in orgies . No one forces them to enter porno shops. There is
no reason
to
believe things would be different in China. Yet China
assumes that if the laws against pornography were repealed, its
society would disintegrate.
It is not clear whether China, and communist countries in
general , are afraid of freedom because it might lead to sex, or
whether they are afraid of sex because it might lead to freedom.
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