The OpenOffice.org Annual Conference goes to Beijing

All the more reason to sound the voice of software freedom there.  You see, China is not the
Chinese government.  China is the Chinese people.

This is why I do not buy into all the well intentioned, but misguided, efforts by people to
avoid buying goods made in China, etc.  China's rulers will not be deprived of any meals
through boycotts or economic sanctions.  Only the Chinese people are hurt.  Perhaps the idea
of making the economy so bad that the people will rise up against their government might have
some merit.  But I can't help but feel that the ethics of applying such pressure are
questionable.

On the same note, I do not believe in shunning them when it comes time to pick a location for
an important conference involving the concept of software freedom.

And remember, the billion people of China potentially have a lot to give back to FOSS.  But
first, they must understand that it is in their best interest to respect the licenses and
contribute their changes back upstream, and must understand how that is best done, and all the
other little details about how and why to become integral members of the our world wide
community.

I think we westerners are feed a fair amount of propaganda about China. Its not the most open
country in the world but then again, in Guantanamo there are hundreds of political prisoners
held without trials and without any official charges. 

Democracy is not a process that can or should be forced. Its an evolution that needs time to
settle and develop. An unstable democracy is much worse than any one-party system.

"I have a hard time understanding a freedom loving software group honoring China by having a
conference there. Is China not the most restrictive country for journalists, much less its
citizens?"

To answer your question: No. You are simply repeating the propaganda you have been fed since
birth. No wonder you have a hard time understanding. If we want to propagate ideas about
freedom, this is exactly the right thing to do: go out there, meet people, let them see that
what we stand for is friendly and peaceful, that we have something good we want to share. You
can't force people to be free - it has been tried in Iraq (as well as in Afghanistan, Vietnam,
Korea, ...), and we ought to have learned by now.

This is not to say that there is nothing to criticise, but show me a country where everything
is perfect; where everybody enjoys perfect freedom, where there is no inequality, no social
injustice, etc etc. And try to turn it around: America has been criticised strongly - and with
good reason - for its transgressions, but the only effect this has on most Americans is that
they get defensive; it certainly hasn't made the American government change its ways, as far
as I can see. So why would anybody expect it to be different for other countries? If we always
criticise China, we only achieve to alienate the Chinese.

Apart from that, before we even think about criticising, we should at least make sure that we
get the facts right, so we don't make ourselves look like idiots. "Democracy" and "freedom"
means different things to different people, and if you ask people, you will find that it
rarely has anything to do with lofty principles; people just want to be free from worry.