YouTube Channel Asian Boss took to the streets of Beijing , the capital of China, to directly ask its citizens their thoughts on the concept or democracy, freedom and ultimately what they thought of their government.
CEO and founder, Stephen Park, opened the video relaying a report that China was set to take over the U.S. economy in 2020. However, the country still seems “mysterious” to Westernizers especially.
“It’s often portrayed in the Western Media as a communist nation whose citizens enjoy zero freedom,” Park said.
In fact, that idea of limitation of freedom is often portrayed in the Western media as something to be fearful about, such as when the U.S. State Department had issued a travel warning earlier this month.
He randomly went up to different people in Beijing to ask them questions about their country and how democratic they believed China to be.
“What does Democracy mean to Chinese People?” was one of the first questions Park had asked.
“Democracy is letting everyone speak and gathering everyone’s opinions,” one young person had said.
“Law and order must be respected,” another said.
A young woman, saying that she was college educated, said she is part of the current generation that China does have a democratic system, believing that other countries do not have that.
“What is the difference between Western and Chinese politics, or more so, between the U.S. and China?” was another question Park asked.
“Not much. The U.S. isn’t better than we are, and I don’t think we’re stronger than the U.S.,” one person said.
Stephen asked later on in the interview, “What does freedom mean to you?”
Responses included: “Freedom to me is living a happy life. I’m very happy right now,” and “Freedom is no one restricting me as long as I don’t break the law.”
Stephen ended the questions by asking what those living in Beijing would say to U.S. citizens who were afraid to come visit.
One person replied, “China isn’t as scary as you think it is. If you come to China as a foreigner, we’ll at least give you respect.”
Stephen ended the video by emphasizing again that the people in the video were chosen at random, and that this type of interview process was an important way of gathering information about what citizens thought of their government.
“Whether you agree with their views or not, I hope we can at least agree that getting information straight from the source is much more insightful than hearing it from the mainstream media.”
The channel pinned their comment, giving some insight into their process of making the video and asking its followers to keep conversations civil.
There were mixed reactions to the video in the comments section, with those praising the video for the context it provided and others saying that it showed how citizens in the video were being “brainwashed.”
