Thank you for the chance to write to you. My name is Wang and I live in Beijing, China. Beijing is where I have lived all of my life. I have been wondering many things about your government, events, leaders, and how you are treated. I know I do not have any freedoms as a child in my country. Many laws apply to me as well as the Adults in China. There are many restrictions on child birth. If you have more than one child in our country, you have to pay the government back all of the money they paid for your first child since they pay for all of its expenses. Do you have freedoms as an American child? Are your expenses paid for? Is there a child birth limit? I would like to know the answers to these questions since we are not well informed on American cultures and politics.
These questions will require research or prior knowledge you have on these topics. How does your government work anyway and how is it run? How are the citizens treated? What kind of events happen in your country that show what kind of government you have? Who or what group leads your nation? I would be very much obliged if you would answer these few questions I have asked.
Your friend, Wang Chang
Dear Chang,
There are many differences between your country and ours. Differences other than child birth come in the fields of events, leaders, and treatment of people.
First we will express the differences we think are most important in our governments. In America we have a form of government called a democracy. Our law is surrounded and upheld by our mother law, The Constitution. It lists all of our rights and freedoms as a citizen of the United States. We have written laws that all must follow and we are led by 3 branches of government plus governments at local levels. The local governments control local affairs and the state controls and handles the local government and the national government controls the whole country. And to control the powers held by these governments, we have a system to make sure that one part of the government does not have more power than the other. This system it is called the Checks and Balances system.
Another difference between American and Chinese government is the way that they treat their people. Here in America we have a say in our government, and every four years we get to have an election that lets us vote for a new president if we want one. It appears you have restricted rights and you do not really have a say in government. I remember hearing about when college students did try to protested pro-democracy demonstrations against your government at Tiananmen Square it 1989. But on order of the Communist Leadership your army came in and killed a lot of people. Not that kind of thing does never happens here. It just doesn't happen as often. One example of this use of force by our government happened at Kent State University in Ohio during protests during the 1960's. The army moved in and killed 4 people. But that's not even close to the 400 killed at Tiananmen Square.
One of the restricted rights that you have that we do not is that your government tells your parents that they are only allowed to have one child. We are allowed to have as many as we want. I guess your government says this because they pay for all of the child's expenses. Our country's parents have to pay the expenses of every child they have. Most families do not have a whole lot of children but some do. These are only a few ways China's government treats its people differently then America.
In closing we would like to say thank you for your time reading our letter. It was our pleasure responding to your questions and we loved learning about your country.
Take care,
Your American Friends,
Matt, Sarah, Tim, and Crystal C.
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