A reaction to ideological pressure

In the angry protests sweeping across cyberspace against certain Western media outlets' distortion of the facts in the Lhasa riots, Chinese netizens repeatedly posted a slogan that had been forgotten in China for nearly 30 years: "Down with imperialism!"

The reappearance of the ideological slogan merits some thought.

Ever since China began the drive to reform and open up, the country had shelved ideological disputes with Western countries. And in the past three decades, the public seemed to have forgotten the old political slogan. All they cared about was the country's economic development. They were more interested in whether their home appliances were up-to-date than in the question of whether socialism or capitalism was more ideologically correct.