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Comment by arn | Hacker News Reader

I read this story today which makes it sound like, at least in this one case, the truth may be closer to alpine's take.

http://www.sfgate.com/sports/ostler/article/Missy-Franklin-s...

"Chinese 16-year-old Ye Shiwen astounded everyone with her finishing kick in the 400 IM. London's Daily Mail newspaper sent a reporter to Ye's hometown to interview her parents.

They told of their only child being selected at age 6 to be schooled in an elite full-time swim program. At 11 she turned "pro" and entered what was basically a work camp for kiddie phenoms, one of 20 selected from a pool of 20,000 candidates. Between ages 11 to 14, Ye was allowed one brief visit with her parents each week and one brief phone call home, many of them very tearful.

The parents talked of missing their daughter terribly, but Ye's mom said, "In the West, you pay a coach to turn you into an athlete. But in China, the state pays, so you have to sacrifice something in return.""

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Right. This is all true. I'm not supporting their system. But the parents are not forced. They have a choice. They choose to sacrifice something in return for a good economic life and future for themselves and their children. There are tens of millions of chinese workers who left their village or town to work at big cities. Many of them only see their children once or less per year. In comparison, the chosen athletes life is so much better. Sure, china should definitely improve their system but I don't think it's fair to demonize them when it's simply not true.

That's the only option those parents have.

If you are very poor and the party offers your kids education, food and a career. I doubt if any parent wouldn't let go their kids.

Its basically like putting up your kid for adoption. People do that when they have no way out. If they had absolutely any other option, trust me they would keep their kids with them.

Well, they don't have another choice, and so this is a good option. It's better than what happens in India, with almost half the child population suffering from malnutrition - it's even worse in India than in sub-Saharan Africa, which is saying something.

Nowhere in the article does it say that the child was kidnapped or otherwise taken from her parents without consent. At best you can infer that the parents are being shut up by the government, but then that means you've already decided what the truth is.

EDIT: Basically what you see theorique implying below.

Should also point that the overall "Chinese Miracle" was partly fueled by vast migrations of poorer workers from inland areas to the coast to work. They typically have to leave their children/family in their villages, and get to see them once a year at Chinese New Year. This in no way makes the Chinese athletic development system 'right', and I don't mean to trivialize the family's blight, but I think it's important to have -some- context.

maxwin, it's a bit of a stretch to say the parents have a choice. Consider this:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/01/20/145360447/the-secr...

So it was 1978 and a lot of 'capitalism' has happened since, but the Party is still in charge.

Are you kidding me? It's an article about China in it's darkest years. They definitely have done worse things like staving millions of lives due to poor governance. I am talking about the new China. The 21 century China. And the generations of athletes born after 1980s or 1990s (which are the majority of the current chinese athletes). If you're talking about the old generation living under communist rule, sure, there were worse things than kidnapping.

The Party is still in charge. What is there not to get with this argument? It is also debatable that China has had its darkest years. One could argue that with the Party now having access to technology only dreamt of by totalitarian regimes 30 years ago, the darkest years are now.

I'm not so sure. I think the vast majority would prefer Hu Jintao over Mao Zedong.

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