by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog
2018 China: the envy of the world – just check the scoreboard.
The Chinese communists kicked out the the Japanese, then the Europeans, held off the American neo-imperialists at Korea and then Vietnam, provided spectacular economic growth during all that time, ended rampant drug abuse, forbid ethnic quarrelling, and is the economic envy of the world in 2018.
Maybe you don’t want to live there, but you certainly wish your country was doing as well for itself as China is.
Every Third-Worlder would agree with that in a nanosecond, and only a French-style superiority/inferiority complex could cause a Westerner to deny it (or perhaps total ignorance of modern politics).
How did we get here? Divine intervention? Cultural superiority? The dumb luck of an electron’s random path?
Somebody is running political-economic policy on this earth, and the West European (bourgeois) system and socialist-inspired Chinese system answer that question quite clearly in their parts of the world. This is the 7th part in an 8-part series which essentially compares the two systems via comparing two leading English-language literary lights of either one.
And if you’ve read this far you know all that already, so I’ll spare you the preambles and get right down to the nitty gritty.
So who’s your Daddy?
Everybody got a vanguard party. Democracy is not perfect (only God is), but this does not mean there are not varying degrees of perfection which we can analyse and attain.
In the West, your modern-era vanguard – after decades of money-grubbing, back-stabbing, standing on daddy’s rich shoulders, and exploiting those who work for them – is the economic 1%.
To add journalistic balance: they also got to be the vanguard via the admirable, ethical business practices of Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, the genius of people like Warren Buffett to support the growth of private, abusive monopolies, and the incredible skills of being phony in public by actors like Ronald Reagan…these are whom have been chosen in the West – via both informal and formal democratic consensus – as their vanguard party.
According to the author of the top English-language university textbook on China, John King Fairbank and his China: A New History, China has always been culturally predisposed towards rejecting that type of a vanguard.
“Once the literati who set the tone of ruling class opinion became convinced that the dynasty had lost its moral claim to the throne, little could save it. This is a factor in Chinese politics today.”
If I said that Chinese literati ran China I’d be called “romantic”, but that’s the view from a pair of Western eyes, which can usually only imagine the army, money, or an only-negative, reactionary clergy to be the the deciding factor in politics.
However, we can say that there certainly was a literati in charge in Revolutionary War-era America – it was bourgeois and slave-owning, but they often talked the right anti-imperialist talk and walked it, too. But nobody can say that about America’s leadership today: I don’t know what the 9th century Chinese theatre equivalent of Bedtime for Bonzo was, but I don’t think the lead actor got very high on their political ladder.
In France, every politician must write at least one book, but…c’mon – they are imperialists, cultural chauvinists and fake-leftists, or somehow all three at the same time quite often. However, at least France is not American, eh?
China may or may not have a “literati” in charge today…but you certainly cannot possibly rise in the Communist Party without being literate in modern political and economic theory. You can call me “Confucian”, but the best way to lead is by example – so what example does their current vanguard party give us?
Just how good is China’s economic planning? There’s a reason we aren’t told.
At 7 parts I’m starting to feel bad for my readers, even though you have paid me nothing, and 98% of you not even paid me a comment compliment!
Regardless of your shameless taking advantage of my labor, I’m going to put the juicier section – China’s economic planning – ahead of the “as painless as possible” very quick recap of the Chinese political structures which permit such a juicy economic policy.
The reality is that people are right to fear rule by the Party – it’s radically new. In human history it has been the 1%, 99% of the time. Even in aboriginal societies, how often were women and the disabled allowed to make major decisions? Therefore, we have almost no data to rely on regarding what happens when an 99%-inspired Party rules.
Common sense tells us that public opinion can’t rule 100% of the time….but just once every 4 years? The scientific method tells us that data and testing are important – we should use them in politics and not just the chemistry lab, no?
A great thing about Jeff J. Brown’s China is Communist, Dammit!, just released last year, is that he gives us plenty of evidence which leaves no doubt that China’s system uses data on what the People think: it is a People’s democratic dictatorship, after all, and they absolutely cannot have democracy without compiling data on what the people say they need, want and generally opine on important subjects.
The reality is that China compiles and actually draws from this “Peoples’ data” hugely impressively. It is also a reality that Western parliaments care very little about public opinion on seemingly all policy making, and certainly Western executive branches are not constrained by it either, nor is the European Union or Eurogroup (which runs the Eurozone).
The disparity between China’s reality and image is startling: a “5 year plan” is portrayed as pure dictatorship, but here’s how it’s actually compiled:
“These five-year plans are not done in a vacuum. A vast hierarchy of information speeds up from village committees to county, district, provincial and then national levels. These statistics are based on surveys and polls of the masses. The Communist Party of China is one of the largest polling organizations in the world, obsessively interested in what citizens think about, the good, the bad and the ugly, from garbage services, to medical care, to the ability to buy food or a car.
Computers have made a huge improvement in collecting and analyzing all this information but still thousands of statisticians, actuaries, database experts and technicians who studied at university in urban, rural, agricultural, environmental and economic planning, hundreds of thousands of collective work hours to interpret and analyze this soon army of data statistics and information….Needless to say, for a continent-sized country with over 1 billion citizens, it takes hundreds of thousands of people involved to develop each five-year plan.”
It is not “needless to say”, however, because such facts about China’s governmental and economic process are never uttered in the West. They must fear that we would be contaminated by such democratic common sense. “China is an unfeeling totalitarian system…and they’re capitalist, too. End of story!!!”
This is where new China scholarship by Brown should revolutionise the conceptions of China for those who are honest; Brown has lived there for nearly two decades and is involved in normal, everyday life as an active immigrant-citizen, as his book repeatedly demonstrates. He relates how he knows that polls of all types, and of all demographics, are taking place because he sees constant flyers for them in his regular-class neighborhood. Fairbank will always be “Harvard’s first China scholar”, but he can never outclass Brown on “new”, living China scholarship, though he probably does outclass Brown on old, outdated, scholarship of dead Chinese.
In the West public opinion is polled just one time: during election time, and then is totally ignored. French President Emmanuel Macron and others pride themselves on not listening to public opinion once reaching office, and he is steadfastly implementing whatever the hell he wants; during election campaigns candidates like Hillary bend anyway the latest poll is blowing. Among the People of the West there is abundant proof of support for leftism, and certainly majority support for many socialist-inspired policies, but they are totally ignored because they are unable to play a role in their money-centered, 1%-created and supported, bourgeois, individualistic political process.
Not so socialist China….
“Compared to Western countries, what is amazing is the lack of serious influence that China’s private sector has on the process of developing each five-year plan and budget. The idea of having thousands of lobby and special interest groups, let’s be honest, with hundreds of millions of dollars and euros in hand to essentially buy legislation for their direct benefit, is alien to Chinese governance.
Do various, aforementioned government entities contact the offices of Jack Ma (Alibaba), Robin Li (Baidu), Wang Jianlin (Dalian Wanda Group), and others among China’s elite business world? Of course. But the idea that any of these CEOs or their companies go to the state planning commission or National People’s Congress, with checkbook in hand, to write and buy their own laws, which is standard practice in Eurangloland (European Union, NATO plus Australia, New Zealand and Israel), is unthinkable in Communist China. Their wishes and suggestions are surely known by everyone concerned, but they are trumped by Baba Beijing’s overriding priority of maintaining social stability, called wending in Chinese, and keeping the Heavenly Mandate for the long term. And these Chinese movers and shakers in the business world are in total agreement. No wending is very bad for business, unless you sell arms and weapons, and almost all of these in China are state-owned.”
Brown clearly does not have red-colored glasses about the increased access of China’s 1%, but he demonstrates that the real project of modern socialism is to not to destroy capitalism 100% but to limit it and harness it for the benefit of the 99%.
“Suppose Baba Beijing declared a serious funding issue or the masses began to turn on their superrich 1% class, which is now looked upon with a certain amount of national pride? The National People’s Congress might feel compelled to pass a law requiring all fortunes over $1 billion dollars to pay a 10% or 25% wealth tax to the state treasury. China’s 1% may grumble and complain, but the checkbooks would necessarily be whipped out. They know the only reason they have accumulated the wealth they possess is due to the Communist Party of China’s strategic, long-term, five-, and now essentially 10-year economic plans, and all the well-thought out strategies, subsidies, targeted tax cuts, etc., that were bestowed upon them. There is no sense of thankfulness on the part of Western capitalists for what their governments do for them, because they now they own the process in the first place. How can you be thankful for something which you already consider yours by right?”
The key is that, when it comes to economic planning, socialist-inspired countries have huge leverage to force their economic direction in a way which guarantees – guarantees – to be pointed in a way which is at least primarily intended to help the 99%. Nobody can guarantee economic growth, perhaps, but central planning is a far, far more secure system than trickle-down economics and the boom-bust cycle of capitalist democracies.
Undoubtedly, what the above quote demonstrates is how China is able to end to “individually planned” economies – like Macron’s France or the Eurogroup for the Eurozone – which are a clear betrayal of the ideals of Western democracy and certainly socialist democracy, which insists on some equality instead of unrestrained individualist rights.
“In the West, the politicians and policymakers owe their allegiance and existence to the one percent, with their vast sums of money. In China, it’s one percent owes its allegiance, existence and vast sums of money to the Communist Party of China, its politicians and policymakers.”
That is socialism – it is the opposite of individualism; greatly undermining rampant individualism – not all individualism – is the only way to socialism.
It would be nice to reach the ideal of no private property and total equality among citizens – that is communism – but, to paraphrase Fidel: we must change today that which can be changed.
But that is what the experience of the Chinese Communist Party has done: to insist on the unity and brotherhood of all peoples by cutting off at the knees the false idea of the self-made man. Truly, anywhere, everywhere and at all times in history people have made fortunes thanks to help – subsidies, protectionist policies, corruption, favourable loans, favourably-frothing electrons, etc. We are all connected, whether mighty yang CEOs or soft housewife yins.
This acknowledgement – inherent in socialism – is why the Chinese are winning, economically.
Even though I have quoted him liberally, Brown goes into these vital insights in far greater detail, making his book a tremendously valuable read. Governments DO change – all systems are NOT alike – China’s system and practices are stunningly effective, obviously, and stunningly modern as well.
Document and Parliament – Both are shinier, newer and more reflective
But to get so stunningly stunning, there must be a legal foundation to promote and protect such stunningness.
There is a hugely important mistake many people commonly make about life: People in the past were younger (and thus stupider) – those of who are living today are actually older, and thus the repositories of more experiences, maturity and human intelligence.
So why on earth would anyone think a country with a constitution 200 years younger (the US, written 1787) than China’s (written 1982) is somehow “more modern”? The world was so much younger and stupider then?
Part of the problem is the use of the phrase “the people’s dictatorship” – whoever sired it, dictatorship is always undesirable to modern ears. However only the Western media uses this two-word phrase! It is truly foreign to Chinese ears – the preamble of the Chinese constitution uses a very different term: “the people’s democratic dictatorship”. This is not a small nuance at all.
China is not really totally ruled by the Party: You never hear this in the West, but there are eight other political parties known as the “Democratic Front”. As their name implies (democracy currently being more associated with personal freedom than equality, for some reason) they are more capitalist and personal freedom-oriented. Far from being a token, they account for some 30% of seats in the largest national legislative body or parliament – the National People’s Congress.
Just as I always say Iran’s PressTV is more diverse and open than Western media – because even though our editorial line is clear we have rabid pro-Zionist analysts all the time, whereas the West doesn’t even have Arab analysts when they are talking about Palestine, (much less Palestinian analysts, LOL) – China’s top legislature has far more ideological balance than the English-speaking world does. The 30% is not in charge – by law – but they are there, and they do make a difference.
There is no such ideological political tolerance in the English-language world, where Hillary passes for a leftist; Corbyn is a very new phenomenon; Canada and Australia have totally lost their sense of self and are US-apers, and I would not have written that 30 years ago.
Continental Europe does not merit being lumped in with them..but not by much, as their non-mainstream / true leftist parties have dwindled greatly.
My overall point is: There IS ideological balance in China’s top legislative body, but it is not a perfect balance NOR should it be. The West has 50-50 balance between left and right regularly…and it produces total gridlock. Probably because it’s a balance of “bad” and “worse”, ideologically!
China also outdoes socialist Cuba in this area: In Cuba’s brand-new parliament – just the 2nd female-majority parliament globally, and with 40% Black or Mestizo members – only 10% of members are not members of the Communist Party. I’m sure that’s never reported either….
But, socialist fanatic that I am repeatedly imagined to be, both China and Cuba (and Iran and Vietnam) have succeeded because they allow more ideological balance at the top then is given credit for. We socialist fanatics like to remember that those horrid souls called “the opposition” do have some valid ideas to implement.
Lobbies are not really democratic – China puts those pigs in a pen
Why should you have more influence just because you are rich and well-connected? You should not be able to “pay” for more free speech just because you have the money to do so. If this is considered a lamentable inevitability, then structures are needed to limit it.
That’s why China has another national body which is designed to formally harness an uncontrollable force in the West: special interest groups. Indeed, if you find any nonsensical legislation in the West – the root cause is always a lobby.
Thus, parallel to their parliament, China has the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which contains all the different types of lobbies – private industry, farmers, youth, pensioners, etc. This body meets at the same time as China’s Congress (Parliament), so they are democratically present at the key time and can do their best to influence opinion.
And I think I have been able to explain – quickly and without boring you – China’s top legislative bodies and how they work. Clearly it is superior in conception, composition and practice to West European (bourgeois) democracy…and if you can just hang in there a tiny bit longer I can sum up China’s modern advantages in the other two branches of government.
China had enough of warlords, but the West loves ‘liberal warlord judge’ Macron
China also differs in the executive branch: in the West it is personified by Emmanuel Macron, the new “liberal (free market / non-racist) strongman”. Macron rules by decree even though his Party has an absolute majority in Parliament! That’s because the open debate of his far-right economic policies would inspire a lot of bad press. Truly, an emperor in the old Chinese mould…minus the conscience-pricking Heavenly Mandate, of course.
China’s system, instead, spreads out the power of the executive branch in order to safeguard the control of the vanguard party – the Communist Party – which has been democratically installed by their 1949 popular revolution. This decentralisation of individual power to preserve the power of an entire Party is what socialism is all about: no more strongmen (and certainly not during non-wartime).
Thus the 300-member Central Committee (of the Communist Party) is the first step above the Congress, but the members are voted for by Congress. That is indirect election, and the US has this (electoral college), as does France (500 mayors are required to sign your petition to run for president). Cuba just elected Canel-Diaz and their Central Committee via the same system. You can call it “not democratic”, and the socialists can call the capitalist system “not democratic”, and that will allow me to move on with this analysis….
The Central Committee elects the members of the Politburo, Military Commission (Party control over army) and General Secretary (leader of Politburo and the top post in China). The Politburo is often described as an “executive cabinet” but it’s much more powerful: of course, in Western cabinets they all serve the will and at the consent of the king. Macron’s cabinet has absolutely no real individual power; Hollande had four prime ministers in 5 years.
There is no public debate within a cabinet and there is no public debate with the Politburo, but the latter’s members are undoubtedly known to wield much more power than Western cabinet members. France’s Prime Minister actually was known for having significant power in shaping domestic policy, historically, but Macron has changed that drastically.
Within the Politburo is the Politburo Standing Committee, which is chosen by Politburo members, and which is best described as similar to a West cabinet, as it includes the president, premier and the nation’s top 5 to 9 advisors. And that’s it.
To sum up: The people vote for Congress, and then you have these committed Party members winnowing themselves down democratically via three smaller rings.
The key is: there is tremendous democratic discussion within these rings, though it is not public. This is something which Western media either cannot or will not understand. But this is why most of the decisions are unanimous – consensus is agreed upon before a vote via discussion. Why on earth should public policy be a “winner take all” situation – China’s solution is clearly more democratic because it actually produces more compromise.
Brown goes into Chinese “face saving” as a reason for not publicly filibustering like a blowhard, and it makes sense, but Cuba’s negotiations are private as well because, again, it actually produces compromise. Yes, odd gadflies cannot pore over every word, but the proof is in the pudding of China and Cuba’s long-term success amid decades of Western blockades.
Back down at the local level, China has the inhabitants of one million villages vote by secret ballot for mayors and city councils. This is the exact same in the West. It differs above this in that China switches from direct to indirect representation after the municipal level: those directly elected at the municipal level vote for township, in turn for county, in turn for province, and then province votes for national assembly.
So we see the same principles of direct and indirect democracy are undoubtedly at play – as they are in Cuba, Iran, etc. – and are at play at different levels. But both principles are used and accepted in both the capitalist and socialist democratic systems.
The major difference is that decades of freedom-fighting and leadership caused the Chinese people to insist on a single vanguard party to oversee the country in order to preserve democracy, and not to hand it to one liberal strongman warlord.
Iran is the same way: our vanguard party, which provided decades of freedom-fighting and leadership – which is the only way such a party can possibly have the credibility and influence needed to mobilise the masses – was the clergy.
To sum up this recap of the structure of Chinese socialist democracy – a quick note about the judicial branch:
China’s judicial history is longer than anyone’s, and is pretty interestingly rendered by Brown. It had explicit civil and penal codes predating not just the Magna Carta but Jesus Christ; has an informal/communal justice system which is the same as the one being hailed as groundbreaking in Northern Syria; and has notes of French and German civil law.
Undoubtedly there are Muslim influences as well, given that many Khans were Muslim and were favoured by the Ming dynasty. This is an area which merits further scholarship, as it is certainly a mine which will produce. It would also provide counter-illumination for self-understanding in many Muslim countries, because countries like Iran were controlled by the Mongols for quite a long era and thus have many “Chinese”-origin policies, thought they may not know it.
The main difference between China and West in the judicial branch is quite simply: the judicial branch is explicitly under the leadership of the Communist Party – a group is the ultimate judge.
In places like the US and France: The ultimate judge is the president. State of emergency or not, they routinely subvert justice simply by claiming “terrorism”. This is not new: before that it was by claiming “communism”. Before that it was by claiming “White superiority”.
So, from Chinese eyes, someone like Macron has made himself into a “liberal warlord judge” even more than previous French warlords.
There is another vital difference: In the West, the inhabitants are encouraged to believe a fiction that their judiciary is completely unaffected by politics, wealth, religion or ethnicity. The West also believes in Santa Claus, but that’s mainly their children.
The same policy of: “A claim of objectivity is laughably unmodern, and also cannot be more important than our overall Party principles” applies to China’s fourth estate – the press. The West also believes their press achieves objectivity, but that is not only among their children.
What have you done for me lately, or let me do?
German, French and English leaders have spent the last 150 years leading horrifically bloody battles against each other. Therefore, is it any wonder that the current European leadership – exemplified by the corrupt, undemocratic Eurogroup – is so reactionary, and so unable to provide the standard of living their people deserve: Europe is perhaps only at the tail end, or perhaps even still in the midst, of a major era of warlordism?
This is probably why there are so many protests in the age of austerity in France. China thinks that’s great, and surely encourages France’s very cute, very comparatively petite efforts at modern democracy.
Protests are good because they let a government know about urgent problems which need to be resolved. These are problems which have not been headed off beforehand, say, by…I don’t know…public polling?
Protests are important to the Chinese Communist Party because they care about corruption, to the point of execution (like Iran), and protests let the public and the Party know which officials are corrupt / inept, and which companies are not following labor laws.
Thus the Communist Party actually encourages pubic protests, which is how China has an average of 3-500 daily protests. That’s a mind-blowing statistic, and I’ve used it before, but this is how new scholarship blows apart previous paradigms, thankfully. France has 10, and they are considered the most protest-happy Western country – proportionally, France has half as many protests as China. I also doubt Chinese protests feature as much alcohol and scatalogical protest signs.
The US has essentially no protests, and the ones I have seen on Youtube have been thwarted by two cops on bicycles, LOL.
Protests in Iran are far, far more common than Westerners think. There is no way for Western media to cover every Iranian protest with the breathless anticipation of the fall of the Iranian Revolution like last January. Protests need permits, just like in France, and I’m not sure what if the US requires a permit or not before some 130-kilo once-a-month National Guard member gets to don $100,000 of equipment before stepping into his assault vehicle. Iran is not China, nor is it France, but it is also not Cuba.
Cuba, does not have any protests other than the Ladies in White. Cuba, being so close to the United States, simply can’t afford to mess around – not with protests, not with the media, not with drugs, not with crime, not with corruption, not with focusing your meager tourist dollars on anything but food, housing, education and medical care (and that’s for the medicines which are not part of the embargo). They have no oil, have a pack of rabidly capitalist Scarfaces glaring at them from Miami, and yet are a helluva lot more successful societally than any non-socialist inspired government.
France, which is assumed to be so very, very socially successful, keeps putting tear gas in my eye. I am not crying tears of liberation, and I have narrowly avoided worse. They also have a delusion that one day of protest does anything to an uncaring government, although maybe that is changing in France’s currently ongoing: “May ’68, 50 years later”.
I just found this protest stuff interesting, and I’m down to just one more part – I’ll wrap this up.
The excellent news is that the 1% has no chance against the Party…any Party
Brown reads off the tale of the tape simply and perfectly:
“Xi commandeers a centrally-planned state-owned economy being guided by the Communist Party of China, all of whom are planning years and decades into the future, with a clear vision and solemn mission statement. Meanwhile, Obama has packs of rabid hyenas circling him, the spydom pack, the military pack, corporate pack, bankster pack, not to mention the Zionist pack. Then he has to deal with a huge flock of vulture legislators on Capitol Hill, venal, fatted and corrupt to the core.”
That is the 1% in a nation of any colour or of any religion which is capitalist and multi-party.
And if you believe THAT is superior to an enlightened vanguard Party working to enforce the People’s will, then…your problem is structural; your blindness is cultural; your individualism is grating to me.
The idea that what Brown has failed to report is that: in China there is a 1% and Deep State-guided industrial-military-banking-media Complex on the exact same model of the West is…absurd. But I can see why the West would think that: humans often project their own experiences onto others, as it is far easier than seeing others as individuals.
Beyond not having this Complex burden, another reality is that the West’s 1% is not burdened by any mandate of good governance or equality, either cultural or found int the structures of their 200-year old founding documents.
Furthermore, the idea that in the modern era of capitalism known as neoliberalism, the West’s 1% has any solidarity with even their own government runs directly contrary to their vision of globalisation.
These last three points are all rather enormous issues, no?
Not the Party’s problem….
It is lazy stereotyping to say that China has this superior leadership because of the Confucian focus on correct, virtuous conduct of the ruler, of which there is nothing like in the West. Islamic Socialist Iran certainly has this ideal omnipresent in their government. However, this idea denies Westerners the chance to see that China’s socialism is both modern and open to all for adoption – it is not culturally predicated, but is a political choice.
Trump just pulled out of the JCPOA on Iran’s nuclear energy program, but all he will do is cause short-term economic pain: Iran, like China, has a modern government which has 5-year plans and can actually act in the long term. I hope Iranian officials are reading Brown’s book and adopting certain Chinese strategies, of course, but Iran has a People’s Democratic Dictatorship Under God, and I am truly comfortable with our long-term success (Inshallah). Anybody who loves socialism, Islamic or not, and the right of People to choose, should be pleased to hear that I and many Iranians actually feel secure in our future despite Trump’s decision, which is quite in keeping with the aggressive policies of Obama, the Bushes, Clinton and Reagan.
In the short-term…well, the US making problems and killing people with blockades -there is nothing new about this, nor does this make Iran special, sadly.
All the West can do is threaten to invade – to repeat their warlordism – but I am not worried at all for places like China and Iran. They can never invade (much less hold) either of these two – they haven’t even been able to invade far, far, far poorer Cuba!
And also: for all the reasons so superbly enumerated by Brown, socialism’s victory is deserved and assured, if not expected right today.
The success of the Chinese Communist Party – and the socialist vanguard parties in places like Cuba, Iran, Vietnam, etc. – are an acknowledgment of their People’s modern refusal to reject the self-aggrandizing nonsense of bourgeois West European political thought. That will bring success, as much as humans can determine it for themselves.
The inherent truths of this statement is clear to any observer, and is the reason why Western media is so against any victory of socialism anywhere in the world, and why they have no choice but to try and falsely claim the credit for China’s success despite have two economic plans which have tremendously few parallel structures.
Brown has some pretty fascinating passages when it comes to the interplay between China’s government and its economics, and I really must stress that I have only given a sample. His debunking of the Western propaganda theme of “ghost cities” makes such propaganda pretty laughable.
Or rather, I’m laughing…and then I’m left rather envious!
You should be too. Certainly, any thinking person starts responding to the question posed by this article’s headline with: “Well I sure don’t want the 1%….”
***********************************
This is the 7th article in an 8-part series which compares old versus new Western scholarship on China.
Here is the list of articles slated to be published, and I hope you will find them useful in your leftist struggle!
Old vs. new scholarship on the continent of China – an 8-part series
Daring to go beyond Western propaganda on the Great Leap Forward’s famine
When Chinese Trash saved the world: Western lies about the Cultural Revolution
Mao’s legacy defended, and famous swim decoded, for clueless academics
The Cultural Revolution’s solving of the urban-rural divide
Once China got off drugs: The ideological path from opium to ‘liberal strongman’ Macron
Prefer the 1% or the Party? Or: Why China wins
China’s only danger: A ‘Generation X’ who thinks they aren’t communist
Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for PressTV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. His work has appeared in various journals, magazines and websites, as well as on radio and television. He can be reached on Facebook.
“without boring you…”
Are you kidding? Rather than arguing over which anonymous back-seat driver can outwit VVP in the global arena? Your pieces are passionate and superb, and turn the tables on the “democracy” mantras the west throws in China’s face. We need you here!
LOL…. for once I’m part of the 2%. I’m pretty sure I’ve said “Thank you” earlier in this series.
And I’m quite glad The Saker website is making it easy for me to read your writings. Although, to be fair, in looking at the list of the 8 pieces that compose this series, The Saker has published 6 of the 8. That of course puts them far ahead of the corporate media which I’m sure has published 0 of 8. Not that I read them at all anymore, a practice I highly recommend.
I know I’ve said Thank You, because you always make me think in your articles. That’s the highest compliment I can pay, and I gladly give it to Mr. Mazaheri. I know I’ve said Thank you because when I think, I usually write. And most of the time I’m polite enough to say “Thank you” before I take off writing my own thoughts. :)
Agree
“At 7 parts I’m starting to feel bad for my readers”
You shouldn’t. I, and many others here I’m sure, read all your articles with great pleasure.
Personally I value your work for the sheer amount of information/knowledge previously unknown to me, and your writing style.
Keep up your invaluable contributions to this blog my friend.
Kent
Ramin,
Fear not dear friend ( I have never met you but believe I would be glad to be in you company and admire your spirited defence of socialism, especially the Iranian flavour) there are many people who quietly read your informative and uplifting articles and do not comment on them. I have not, until now: this is just to let you know that I believe there is a ‘silent majority’ out there which, like myself, loves to read your work. So, keep it up – you are treasured by many… I look forward to your concluding article,
Best wishes
from
rainy Liverpool
Democracy simply means that the sovereign power resides with the people. Democracy can come with or without elections. Every dictator has elections, so having elections does not mean you live in a democracy. The key is whether the power resides with the people. That’s what defines a democracy.
This can happen in various ways. The old New England towns had a ‘town hall meeting democracy’. Decisions were taking in a big meeting which everyone could attend and have a voice in the decision. There were no elected officials, the town met and decided what needed deciding. The term ‘soviet’ refers to something quite similar. The key is that democracy is when the citizens of the country all have a voice in how the country is ruled. That’s what defines a democracy.
America’s attempt at a democracy has instead become an oligarchy. Ivy League political scientists who’ve studied this have reached that conclusion, and the fact is plainly obvious really.
Since America’s attempt at democracy has plainly failed, it has a lot of gall trying to lecture others on how they should attempt democracy.
The Ivy League Scientists ….
“Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens” by Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page … https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B
By it being plainly obvious, I refer to the fact that there are many issues where the population of America believes one thing, but the elites who run the country want something different. One of these is in the area where The Saker does a good bit of his writing, which is the expediture of money for massive military forces and maintaining a massive worldwide empire. They’ve told pollsters that they want the wars to end for at least a decade. Donald Trump touched on this in his campaign in creating his electoral college majority. And yet, the policy never changes, the defense budget keeps going up, and America keeps starting new wars. A plain example of America being a country where the government responds to the needs and wishes of the few while ignoring the many. And that’s just one example, IIRC, the Ivy League scientists studied thousands.
The CCP definitely doesn’t have the Mandate of Heaven (too many tortured and murdered Tibetans, Uighur, Falun Gong etc). As for the Chinese Social Credit System (combined with facial recognition software) it doesn’t seem particularly egalitarian or socialist?
http://uk.businessinsider.com/china-social-credit-system-things-you-can-do-wrong-and-punishments-2018-4/#blocking-the-sidewalk-1
So I have no preference for the 1% or their Chinese equivalent; they are equally sinister and tyrannical.
Where I live, we are forced to live under the watchful eye of Facial Recognition, but we don’t get no credit.
Anon, Let me paraphrase what someone said: “Stalin would have loved to have what the West is “pleased to give it’s citizens for”their safety””
Nonsense.
CCP definitely has the Mandate of Heaven since it serves the interest of people in China. Those separatists and troublemakers funded by western countries led by USA are only capable of making troubles and terrorizing people.
Quoting a baseless article from another western propaganda media does not give any credibility to your statement. It’s empty, hollow, devoid of truth.
Yep, it seems some of those who don’t want to kowtow to the 1% would rather kowtow to the Chinese, yet both routes lead to the same place, the NWO One World Government. I’d rather not kowtow at all, there must be a place on this planet for those of us not kowtow capable.
Face the Fact…you really have no idea what the Mandate of Heaven is do you? In brief, it accrues to those who possess righteousness, so naturally this excludes torturers and murderers. Tibetans are ‘separatists and troublemakers’ for wanting their country back? hahaha
gT..if you find that kowtow-free zone place please let us know about it…I want to go there too :-)
Hajduk…pray tell, which Tibetans is it exactly that want their country back? The feudal overlords, sold to us Westerners as paragons of Budhist virtue and spirituality, or their long-sufering subjects/peasants/serfs who, until the Chinese communists stopped these practices, could still be punished by the loss of a hand for having transgressed against the ruling nobility.
Amputation was actually from the Imperial Chinese law codes. At various times Ambans had tried to persuade the Tibetan government to use it, but never successfully as it was considered non-Buddhist. I recommend ‘The Golden Yoke: The Legal Cosmology of Buddhist Tibet’ by Rebecca Redwood French.
Your points are just a regurgitation of propaganda used by the PRC since 1950 to justify their invasion and occupation. The fact that they are so flimsy and that they are in reality derived from Chinese history shows how desperate they were at the time.
In reply to your question please post the name of a single Tibetan person in the world who actually supports the occupation of Tibet by China (and the ongoing genocide of the Tibetan people)?
Yeah, the killing and skinning the Tibetan slaves and then using their skulls and skins for sacrifice and drums were Chinese style, who were and are secular for thousands of years? Go read Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth and listen Tibet: Friendly Fuedalism? and Michael Parenti – Dalai Lama is not all he’s cracked up to be?
……a member of the Dalai Lama’s lay Cabinet, who owned 4,000 square kilometers of land and 3,500 serfs.
The majority of the rural population were serfs. Treated little better than slaves, the serfs went without schooling or medical care, They were under a lifetime bond to work the lord’s land–or the monastery’s land–without pay, to repair the lord’s houses, transport his crops, and collect his firewood. They were also expected to provide carrying animals and transportation on demand.16 Their masters told them what crops to grow and what animals to raise. They could not get married without the consent of their lord or lama. And they might easily be separated from their families should their owners lease them out to work in a distant location.”
CCP abolished this dehuman slavery system in Tibet, yet it is amazing to see how wholeheartedly the democracy-love Westerners support such a feudalism theocracy in Tibet? Will you jump on the wagen IF I say let’s suppor to revert the Western back to pristine Dark Middle Age theocracy?
Recommend you read A History of Modern Tibet, 1913-1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State by Professor Melvyn C. Goldstein.
Take a good look at the video made by US Government in 1940s to see in which borders Tibet was located Why We Fight: The Battle of China (starting from 3:27)
Do you know that CIA Tibetan program? Are you aware that Dalai Lama and exile Tibetans have been on CIA and NED (CIA front) payrollAnnual Salary $180,000 for the Dalai Lama? Have you ever heard Dalai Lama befriended with Heinrich Harrer, a life-long unrepentant Nazi? 1938 Nazi Expedition to Tibet Nazis Praise Tibet as Their Model for a Perfect Nazi Society?
“So I have no preference for the 1% or their Chinese equivalent; they are equally sinister and tyrannical.”
And this from the same person who absolved China’s British tormentors who, given their strong, altruistic instincts had no interest in poisoning the Chinese with opium as that was detrimental to Indian agriculture, LOL.
Hajduk, you forgot to mention the Tiananmen ‘massacre’ — the colour revolution stunt that failed.
A reply worth reading would be something like…’I have checked the text on which your standpoint is based and discovered flaws in the research.’ Although I have studied this subject for decades I am always grateful for new information, the only proviso being that it must be based on evidence or experience. The fact that your opinions are strongly held does not make them any more credible.
According to one of the most important Chinese philosopher Mencius (372–289 BC), the key of Mandate of Heaven:
Since the Zhou Dynasty (1046–256 BC), the political legitimacy of any Chinese ruler and government was derived from the Mandate of Heaven aka to serve the poeple properly and to conduct itself morally, and unjust rulers who lost said mandate therefore lost the right to rule the people.
Contrary to Western rulers who derived its legitimacy from the devine or the legally proper process, this has been the foundation of legitimacy for any Chinese governments that ruled and is ruling China. Similar moral and political philosophy didn’t come into existance and practice in Western till Enlightenment.
In the eyes of ordinary Chinese, CCP definitely have the Mandate of Heaven:
– It has saved and united the country by driving out the imperialist Western and Japanese invaders who wanted to totally colonise China; It repelled US and its 17-Nation allied army from Chinese border during Korean War and safeguards the country and provides the peaceful living environment for its peple;
– It has totally industralised the country, transferring it from a fractured, backwater agriculture society into world No. 2 leading economy; GDP per capita jumps from $54 (1952) to $8,123 and Int’l $15,417 according to PPP (2016)
– It has increased the life expectancy from under 40 (in 1950 when CCP came to power) to 76.1 (2015); Mortality rate under 5 per 1000 from 200 (1950) to 12.9 (2011); literacy rate from 20% (1949/1950) to 96.4% (2015).
Compared to China, you can see the development of the “world-largest-democracy” India’s life expectancy, mortality rate and literacy rate: Life Expectancy at Birth in China, Europe, USA and India: 1950-2050 (Both Sexes) ; Under-Five Mortality in China, Europe, USA and India: 1950-2100 (Both Sexes)
Both Tibetan and Uighur populations have doubled under the CCP rules, and they have been enjoying the bullet trains and all sorts of “super-national” bonuses, such as free education, subsidised housing and affirmative actions to get preferred treatments in getting government jobs and university education. Western MSM doesn’t want you to know it.
Get yourself some information about Tibet MSM Does Not Tell You.
If the CIA trained, NED funded Tibetan guerilla and Turkey-supported Uighur jihads as well as the cult Falun Gong are determined to stir up unrests in China, then they should be dealt with firm hands because ordinary Chinese do not wish to live through the Western “democratic hell” that the Iraqi, Syrian, Libyans and Afghans have been through.
Ever since October 1917 the Western 0.0001 per centers have suffered a severe case of sphincteritis and aversion to the color Red and have used neuro-linguistic programming to put their peasants and serfs under deep mind-control trances concerning Russia, China, Iran and Cuba.
Many of these peasants and serfs, glassy-eyed with fear of Bolshevism and Maoism went to Vietnam and are still trying to sort it all out.
But a good number of them have become “red-pilled” and now realize that freedom today is only possible because of the commitment to a Multi-Polar World….especially by Russia, and the breaking of especially Russia and China would mean the completion of their own consignment to slavery at the hands of their AZ “Masters” of Discourse……and, in the minds of those masters, The Universe.
The Luciferian Cabal blue-pilled their victim populations quite successfully…..but not the Vietnamese….the clearest example of defeat of the absurd imperialism of the parasitic “elites”….disguised as “a fight for Freedom and Democracy and Human Rights.”
Exactly. Their “rights” to pack bags of Golden Crescent Heroin into the body bags and corpses of their returning dead slaves and dupes. New Opium War, dumbells!
I agree, “It’s Time (tight-assed conservatives, Liberals and Libertarians) to Celebrate What We’ve Learned the Hard Way and have a REAL Party, not the fake Rep/Dem Cons/Lib profiling dialectic that was designed for the estupidos by London’s Tavistock Institute.
I doubt it should have “Communist” or even “Socialist” in its name, but it sure ought to have True Care of Humanity in its essential nature instead of the same old same old slavish dog-like grubbing on the floor for little economic crumbs falling off the tables of the Swinish Gluttonous “Elite” of a Luciferian Empire of Garbage Can Morals.
Terms like “communist”, “socialist”, or “anarchist” are heavily propagandized against. Probably in the entire “west”, and certainly in America. This begins at a very early age. It certainly is taught in the schools. Quite likely, even some of the earliest cartoons and children’s programming teach messages of Capitalism = Good, Socialism = Bad.
As such, these are very difficult names and terms to use. Each comes with a lot of required “de-programming” of ordinary people who now have to disavow what they’ve been told their entire life and what they are still told as adults on a regular basis in ‘entertainment’ sponsered by banks. That can happen in individuals, but its very hard to pull off on a mass basis. Especially since the largest propaganda machine in the history of man is fighting every step of the way.
It was interesting the 2016 campaign that Bernie Sanders ran a fake-Socialist campaign that took what used to be mainline Democrat policies from the 1970’s and openly called them Socialist. The interesting effect of this was that something like 50% of young people started telling pollsters that they liked Socialism. The campaign was fake-Socialist, but I wonder if they did some interesting de-programming that might show results later on.
Unfortunately most “young people” do not have the faintest idea what socialism is about.
slogans of democracy …..
“People over Profits”
“For the many, not the few”
slogans of oligarchy
“Profits over People”
“For the few, not the many”
Is it not wonderful that truth can be felt when one writes from the informed heart. All power to you Ramin.
Ramin,
I read sll your recent articles; I even want to get the book from I Ching you
Recommended ( which inspired Mao’s swimm; continue bring light to us on fondamental human experience and hopefully learning throught history
Harfang67(JeanMarie)
Ramin, I lived in communism. The Party is less than 1%.
Actually, I do not agree with you. It seems that in most Ex-Peoples Democracy/Socialist countries they held about 9%-16% support. They called it “majority” rule. But, I must add, I think that today after they have lived in the glorious “Western Democratic System” many more are “sentimental” towards the System. Now they recognize what they have lost and want it back.
I don’t think anyone reading this can fail to be impressed by both your knowledge of the subject as well as the huge amount of work required to compile the series.
These are simply the best articles I have ever read about China.
That statement whilst a compliment to you, is a damning inditement of the profound state of ignorance, misinformation and outright lies we are subject to in the west where trying to get honest facts about China is impossible.
One small point – you say there is a 50/50 left right balance in the west causing gridlock.
It has seemed to me that actually all the political parties running in elections in the west became identical long ago and they all follow the same agenda of taking their orders from the Zionist banking cabal.
We can see from your article that while the Chinese government is deeply interested in the concerns of the population in a process you describe so well, we in the west have governments which do not give a twopenny damn about the people at all other than to tax them and fill their heads with trivia and garbage through the privately owned corporate media – all the while poisoning us with American genetically modified toxic “food”, raining chemicals down on us daily from the skies and dosing us with ever increasing amounts of microwave radiation causing horrendous levels of cancers amongst the population, especially the young.
And while we are all doped with celebrity tv and it’s mindlessness our masters can get on with their own agenda of looting the country’s publically owned assets, running their pedophile rings, drug trafficking, financial crimes and planning wars for profit.
Unlike China we in the west have a ruling class who are completely above the law.
How did we allow this to happen?
They call this democracy. I call it fascism.
So, anyway, a great big thanks Ramin and long may your writing continue. I hope many, many people read your work.
Excellent article and useful review! Many thanks!!
Ramin,
Thank you for your labor, provided to us for free here on the Saker blog. I appreciate your work very much.
A few quibbles from a realist:
First,
“the Chinese Communists kicked out the the Japanese, then the Europeans, held off the American neo-imperialists at Korea and then Vietnam”
This is quite a statement, and I’m not disagreeing with it completely, but there were certainly other contributing factors to the Japanese (their defeat by the US in WWII) and the Europeans (the Japanese colonization of China) leaving. The predicate has to be taken to task:
“provided spectacular economic growth during all that time”
The Chinese Communists certainly did NOT provide spectacular economic growth during the time that these powers were driven out of China. You should not use “all that time”
Next,
“Maybe you don’t want to live there,”
Thanks for adding the “maybe” here. I live in Taiwan, have lived here for decades, and I am sure that I could find happiness and peace living in China; to be entirely honest, I would not choose to live in a big city with terrible air and water quality, unfortunately the case in most big cities in China, but I would find a nice place and be happy. I am able to communicate effectively in spoken Chinese, and Chinese people tend to have a great appreciation for people who have taken the time to learn some of their language.
Ramin, you should be more honest about the situation in China. The central planning of the Communist Party is proving successful for the nation as a whole, even down to the individual level. Calling it “socialism” and “communism” is a grave error. An authoritarian umbrella held above a rampantly capitalistic and growingly consumer driven economy is not socialism or communism. The iron rice bowl is no more. You will work if you want to eat. The barefoot doctors are gone, and excellent health care is available for those with money. If you don’t have money, don’t expect health care.
I agree with you totally that the current system in China is better than the corporatocracy/financial system swindle currently destroying the western world. We should describe it correctly; it is not a group of ideological socialists, although they still pay lip service to the ideals of socialism. It is a group of competent bureaucrats, funtionaries, and civil servants, headed of course by a smaller group of capable politicians. These bureaucrats and politicians are very much driven by civilizational and nationalistic ideas; China is and has been a great civilization and culture, and it will now take its place at the forefront of the world. There are NO remnants of the Cultural Revolution’s war on traditional Chinese culture! On the contrary, Chinese culture is held up as something to be celebrated and proud of, from Confucianism on to the present. I agree with this; China will succeed by having leaders that continue to make decisions to benefit the people of China. There is absolutely NO hint of the Trotsyite ideas of international proletariats and such.
Countries need to take care of their people; the world will take care of itself.
Frankie P
Franke P says it very well.
It’s the Chinese people, not socialism nor communism or other “isms” of western 19/20th century philosophers that will see China rise.
I look forward to the return of real, vibrant and authentic Chinese civilization. Not just I Ching. All of it.
The author tried to argue according to his ideological point, which is his perogative, but that ideological blindness to reality keeps the truth at bay.
The Chinese Communists certainly did NOT provide spectacular economic growth during the time that these powers were driven out of China. You should not use “all that time”
China grew by 6% a year, on average, under Mao. Since a year with 3% growth is considered outstanding in the U.S., I would consider Mao’s six percent average spectacular. Especially since Mao achieved that in spite of heavy sanctions from the U.S. and the rest of the world.
The problem with your reply is that China was NOT under Mao during the time that the Japanese and the Europeans were driven out of China. The Japanese left China after their defeat by the Americans in the Pacific Theater and the home islands. The Soviet attack on Manchuria also facilitated the surrender. In no way was China under Mao during this period. The Europeans were primarily driven out of China by the Japanese during their ever-growing occupation of China in WWII. In no way was China under Mao during this period.
You compare apples and oranges when spouting figures about economic growth; the size of China’s economy during the early years of Mao’s rule was tiny. The figures for 1952 were a total economy of US$30 billion dollars! It might be wiser to point out that the growth SINCE Mao’s death has been much greater than during his life.
Frankie P
According to ROC and PRC data, there were about 7 million Chinese soliders at peak time fought the war agaisnt Japan between 07.07.1937 and 15.08.1945, there were 3,800,000–10,600,000+, 500,000 captured, 266,800–1,000,000 POWs dead.
Chinese civilian deaths were17,000,000–22,000,000.
Japanese suffered 2,500,000+ military casualties in China (excluding Burma campaign and Manchuria) during the same period of time.
From December 1941 till April 1945, there were also 100,000 soldiers of Chinese Expeditionary Force joined Britain and American fighting Japanese in Burma, South-East Asian theatre of the Second World War.
Indeed, Japan finally withdrew from its last grip of Northeast China (Manchuria) after US atomic bombs and Russia went in Northeast China in August 1945, but the war against Japanese were mainly fought by Chinese. By holding 2 million Japanese soldiers in China and 400K in Burma, China helped Soviet and US in their respective Eastern frontline and the Pacific Theater.
Actually it was the communist soldiers under Mao started its offensive in Northern China(华北+陕北山西), Northeast China (Manchuria) , Shandong and part of Jiansu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Henan. KMT fought most in the big cities and but the country side were mostly under communist guerilla and army.
There was no way the Westerners would leave China voluntarily. The British and Americans all tried to control China to secure their interests by poping up the corrupt Chiang Kai-shek, whose army killed 500k Chinese by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1938_Yellow_River_flood.
– Britain sent in his navy in the name of protecting its embassy and interests.
– In order to exchange for US’ support, the Americans forced KMT government signed Sino US friendship and mutual assistance treaty in 1946, which basically put China as protectorate of US.
– Soviet in fact initially also planned that Chiang Kai-shek would rule the south part Yantze River and Mao on the north.
Mao smashed the imperilists’ dreams by firing on HMS Amethyst, which went to patrol Yantze River despite warning from PLA in April 1949, and grounded it for three month, nullified traitorous Sino-US treaty and brushed aside Soviet’s advice by driving KMT to Taiwan.
Without the foundations laid down by Mao, China could not be able to grow this fast in a peaceful environment, by which I mean:
– With the successul holding US off Chinese border through hard-foought Korean War and development of nuclear weapons, Mao made sure that the imperialists would never dare to use the same old gun-boats to subjugate China again as they had done since Opium War.
Can you image what US & Co would do with the huge surplus China has against them IF China did not have nuclear weapons? One of the key reasons that Britain started the Opium War was because it accumulated 20 million tael silver deficit to China.
– Under Mao, the life expectancy and literacy rate increased dramatically, which provide the educated workers for the later take-off under Deng Xiao Ping.
– Actually, GDP per capital was $30.55 in 1952 and increased to $153.9 in 1976 by five time, though still peanut compared to today’s figure.
People tend to underestimate or ignore what Mao did to China’s economic take off while overestimate Deng’s contribution.
Totally agreee with you “Countries need to take care of their people; the world will take care of itself.”
I like it. Good article. Plus I always thought the 5 year 10 year plan was a good idea, even on an individual level.
This series of articles is one of my all time favorite. Thank you for sharing this. The silent majority of the world should read these articles to understand what the true meaning of “democracy” really is. Democracy is the measurement of how a government regardless of whatever form of government it adopted, serves its people. That’s why officials are called “public servants”. “Democracy” in the west and western subservient countries has its true meaning distorted, being confined to a particular western system of government to demonize any other alternatives.
Chinese communists did not defeat Japan. They hid out in North West supplied by American OSS until the US forced Japan’s surrender then were allowed to take control of the country.
As for Korea and Vietnam, shall we discount the assistance not the USSR, which was the decisive factor, not China.
As for how they are doing, yes living standards have improved. But pollution is immense. Ground water contamination. Huge debt at multiple levels. Activity traps that create jobs but produce goods and services no one buys, e.g.the unused cities.
Jeff J Brown is high on rhetoric and short on facts backed up by data. He is less an academic than a propagandist. I have bought his books and read them. You don’t get anything concrete like you do when reading Saker or Scott. With those two you can tell truth and insight as it shines through in their works.
No doubt President Xi knows his country’s weaknesses better than I and he will no doubt find many solutions to those problems. But his intelligence and the industriousness of the Chinese people will succeed despite the communists and communist rhetoric, not because of it.
Another great article, Ramin. Don’t worry, I’m sure your work is much appreciated here.
Your almost off-hand revelations of how Iran works have been eye-opening to me. Information on what China is like internally is very scarce in the West, and I thank you and Jeff Brown for the lessons. However, information on Iran is nearly nonexistent; I’m like a man dying of thirst who has finally found a source of water. Thank you so much.
Mr. Mazaheri, I really like you and your articles. I just stumbled upon this article. Since I was traveling China the last few months, were sites like this are blocked, I wasn’t aware that you posted a whole series on China. Though I have to disagree. I agree more with “Frankie P”, who seems to be less biased than Mr. Brown.
One thing I noticed and I’m not too fond of, people want to fight against the empire and thus romantice the countries which seem to be a counterweight towards the empire. But as much as I like China, it is not some kind of social paradise. Actually during my last travels – I visited many cities, and I’m relatively fluent in Chinese so I also spoke with many locals – I grew more and more sceptical or rather disappointed. I really grew to love the Chinese people, but the government is not as positive a force as you or Mr. Brown make it out to be.
In fact, China is a technocratic, totalitarian state. I’m not saying that because I read it on the NYT, that was the impression I got during my travels. The things that we fear the west is becoming, China has already implemented or is implementing.
For example we bemoan that in the west the internet is being censored etc., that’s already completely implemented ik China. After a series of false flags we got the TSA in the US, but in China you have to get your bags scanned every time you want to use the metro. And they will also take your bottle to check whether there’s *really* water inside. But the “social credit system” will top it all… if that’s not Orwell’s Big Brother, I don’t know what is!
Of course they say it’s ALL for YOUR safety … I mean, we don’t believe in the west that it’s for our safety, it’s a pretext, but in China we’re supposed to believe that, because The Party says so?
And the thing with the daily protests must be a joke! I saw spontaneous protests every time I was in Hong Kong, but in China, never. I know, China is much bigger, but Mr. Mazaheri, I don’t know whether you’ve been to China, the atmosphere wouldn’t even permit protests. Everywhere is uniformed police to check whether things are “orderly”. You should see the Chengguan, when the discover some 70+ year old man on the street selling things ilegally, when suddenly 20-30 uniformed men come to get him and his things as if he was posing a great danger.
And you really like to stress the “democratic” part. Just watch current Chinese series / movies, they make them all 100% apolitical (I’m not talking about “historical” flicks) in the sense that, entertain the people but about things like politics / government they shouldn’t think *at all*.
Only because they say something is democratic doesn’t make it so. Just like North Koreas Democratic Party or the Democrats in the US … what’s in a name?
So, yes, it’s nice there might be a multipolar world, but we shouldn’t put on any blinders. As bad as the west is… it is increasingly becoming an Orwellian state (but still with a smiley face), with all it’s disgusting propaganda, we wouldn’t want to live in a state like China where Orwells 1984 is being realized even faster and more directly than in the west.
“But the “social credit system” will top it all… if that’s not Orwell’s Big Brother, I don’t know what is!”
This is a typical Westerner’s reaction to China’s attempt to foster a harmonious society. What you don’t understand, you immediately label as evil. China is not the West where gung-ho individualism rules the day. It is a Confucius society where family and one’s role in a hierarchical system are established and reinforced from the day you are born. Confucius believed that mankind would be in harmony with the universe if everyone understood their rank in society and were taught the proper behaviors of their rank. That is why family members are addressed by their rankings, i.e. eldest brother, 3rd sister, 2nd uncle, etc., and by their professions, i.e., Teacher Wang, CEO Liu, Manager Zee, etc. At least, unlike the West (as we seen with the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica fiasco), the “social credit system” is transparent and democratically installed.
@Jun Kee
Very true, only with a need to somewhat clarify the ”gung-ho individualism” that supposedly rules the West. It is, in fact, totally phoney — the West’s rugged ”individualists” are grovelling before their superiors like very few other people do. Small wonder this kind of ”individualism” is promoted accordingly.
“China’s attempt to foster a harmonious society”
China explains everything in this way – all is for the harmony of society. Just as in the West all measures are explained away by “we’re doing it because of terrorism”. People have realized that the Western governments claims are not truthful, but when dealing with countries perceived as counterweights to the West, we seem to lose our skepticism. In China we couldn’t even have this discussion, it would be, as Chinese netizens call it, “harmonized”.
“What you don’t understand, you immediately label as evil”
I understand it, and that’s exactly why I label it evil. China is trying to become a full-blown technocratic state, where every single movement of every citizen is monitored and evaluated. That is like something from a dystopian novel! It has little to do with Confucianism. Yes, Confucianism is closely linked with obedience, but I think the technocratic totalitarian tendencies we see in China shouldn’t be explained away by saying “this is their culture”.
“democratically installed”
That is such a joke. So you mean, millions of Chinese people petitioned their government “please, watch our every move, we want to become more harmonized!”, just as the Chinese people democratically pleaded their government to install strict controls at all subway stations?
What Chinese people need is safe water and clean air, not absolute surveillance and control of their every movement.
Even if everything you claim were true, China would still be a better option than the West, due to the simple reason that they do not try to impose their ways on others.And if the Chinese people are not pleased with the current state of affairs in China then it is up to them to change it, as they have done before – on the other hand if the Chinese are fine with the current state of affairs in China, even if it displeases you(or me), then what is the problem?After all, an essential aspect of a multi-polar world is the fact each nation is free to do things in their own way.
Confucius hahaha….the PRC obliterated Chinese traditional culture. I don’t deny that they regretted it later, but the Cultural Revolution was a complete success. Almost nothing is left to build on. As for the ‘Social Credit System’ one can feel secure that no matter how dissenting one may be one always has at least some value to the party…
http://www.chinauncensored.tv/execution-vans/
That’s true, the West likes to impose it’s will by might, China does not.
“if the Chinese people are not pleased with the current state of affairs in China then it is up to them to change it”
That’s the problem – there is absolutely no way. When I was in China, I could really see all these measures which are there to prevent any potential uprisings or protests. You go to a normal metro and you have all these controls like in an airport (actually I sometimes found the controls in some airports more relaxed than in Chinese metro stations), with riot gear on display, etc.
You say it’s up to them to change it – but they’re not even allowed to discuss it. If you would write a post like this on the Chinese internet it would be deleted *very* quickly (within minutes), even if it was written very level-headedly.
This is also why China is blocking all apps / programs which offer at least some sort of encryption, they’re afraid of what they cannot see or control.
Theoretically you can petition, but please, I doubt that ever has changed anything. I’m also highly suspicious of Western media, but if they’re to believed on this, people who petition are abducted and imprisoned. There is a Human Rights Watch report on this from 2009 (when they were still half decent) called “An Alleyway in Hell”.
So they have no venues to discuss this, and if they try to change something they may be abused … the Chinese state is doing everything it can to stay in power – by force – and for whatever positive role they may have in BRICS or in Africa, I just can’t ignore their internal tyrannical tendencies.
But you’re right, I spoke with some Chinese people about this and they seemed content. Though the thing is, they have been 100% de-politicized. They know “their place”, they know they shouldn’t think about government etc. and just focus on their daily life. Some people like Jun Kee like to romanticize this and talk about Confucianism, but these dystopian tendencies are not Confucianism. Also, there is a fair share of “individualism” in China. I met my fair share of the noveau riche who mostly think about how to show of their wealth, or the whole selfie-culture which is so strong there.
This is my general problem, the black & white thinking on this topic.
The West = Individualism / Asia (China) = Collectivism, or
The West = Imperialism, Tyranny / Asia (China) = The Alternative Way
I detest the imperialism of the West, but I’m sure we would be also very unhappy to have a Chinese-style technocratic, (openly) totalitarian state here. We may be very well on our way there, but China will have become such a state well before us.
DV,
My five cents on your comments. I am just going to comment on your take of Socialist System, by generally speaking calling it “Chinese-style technocratic, (openly) totalitarian state”. You are just repeating generally accepted MSM Socialism bashing, as if there is not totalitarian system in the West. Lets look at the meaning of “technocratic” from Greek “Techniko => technical Kratos => Country”. Now this implies that the country is ruled by people with technical background, hence engineers? Many of economists in Western countries, but not engineers. Oh yes, I can think of Ahmadinejad who is Dr. of Civil engineering, but this is not West. Now, lawyers who really infest the governments on both sides of the divide do not fall in this category, nor do economists.
Totalitarian? Let me sidestep here, when I was growing up I used to ride a bike while I did not require any “safety crap”, so when I fell I would deal with my wounds and get on with my life. My father had a motorcycle, and I was sitting (I was little then) on the gas tank of his motorcycle in front of him. No helmets, or other safety crap, basically no problem. How about doing the same today in the so called non-totalitarian states of the West?
Sorry final thought, Chinese Totalitarianism => Order, as opposed to anarchy? I’ll take the first one any time.
I rest my case here. you think about it.
DifferentView did not deny that the West is increasingly totalitarian, he simply pointed out that China is much further along this dystopian road. Technocracy is literally the strength/power of skill/craft τέχνη-κρᾰ́τος. So it has little or nothing to do with engineers, unless they are personally involved in maintaining the technology that supports state power. As for choosing ‘order’ it is clear that you have never actually lived in a totalitarian state yourself. Lastly, in relation to ‘socialism bashing’ you should know that ‘anarchism’ is not the same as ‘disorder’.
Hajduk,
I appreciate what you are saying, but in Greek τεχνοκρατία means just that “the rule of technical people” it’s hard to explain but in English proper meaning would be “the rule professionals” if you insist on details. And αναρχία means this “an” means something opposite, arkhi means the beginning, but it also means order so to make it simple it anarchy means disorder. We can play word games til tomorrow, but this is what it means in original Greek.
Sorry my friend for insulting your anarchic feelings.
No problem friend :-) You are right I am a Kropotkin fanboy so I would never use ‘anarchy’ to refer to chaos and disorder. I would argue that the prefix a- is a simple negative so that anarchy means ‘not (the) order’ but as you say we could play word games til tomorrow. Of more importance is the reason why I am anti-authoritarian. I have actually lived in a police state, which I fought tooth and nail against. Even thirty-five years later I instinctively turn away when a photograph is being taken. You would not talk about choosing totalitarianism if you had experience of it. In the words of William Wallace (Mel Gibson) ‘Freedom!’
Hajduk,
I am back and I must say that what I am going to post is not because I am Marxist, but simply my Greek sense of Order cringes on the thought of Anarchical Disorder.
So, first I quote my Greek dictionary:
αναρχία η έλλειψη νόμιμης εξουσίας = ακαταστασία = ανυπακοή
anarchy the lack of legal power = clutter = disobedience
αναρχισμός = η ιδεολογία των αναρχικών η άρνηση κάθε εξουσίας.
anarchism = the anarchist ideology or denial of all power.
Here is what someone wrote:
Αναρχισμός: Μια μαρξιστική κριτική
από John Molyneux
Οι ιδέες του αναρχισμού πάντοτε είχαν απήχηση ιδιαίτερα τους νέους που εξεγείρονται ενάντια σε αυτό το σάπιο σύστημα.
Ζητήματα που πάντα βρίσκονταν στο κέντρο της διαμάχης ανάμεσα στον αναρχισμό και τον μαρξισμό, τίθενται τώρα με άμεσο τρόπο μέσα στους αγώνες εκατομμυρίων ανθρώπων: Πού βρίσκεται η πραγματική εξουσία μέσα στην ιεραρχική κοινωνία που ζούμε; Τι σημαίνει πραγματική δημοκρατία; Πώς οργανώνουμε αποτελεσματικά την αντίσταση από τα κάτω; Τι τύπου οργάνωση και τι τύπου “δράση” χρειαζόμαστε για να ανατρέψουμε τον καπιταλισμό; Ποιοι μπορούν να φέρουν σε πέρας μια τέτοια πραγματική αλλαγή; Ο John Molyneux σε αυτό το βιβλίο επιχειρεί να δείξει ότι οι βασικές ιδέες του αναρχισμού και της αυτονομίας είναι σημαντικά λανθασμένες και συνεπάγονται τρόπους δράσης που δεν μπορούν να οδηγήσουν τον αγώνα για την ανθρώπινη χειραφέτηση σε νικηφόρα κατάληξη. Ξεκινώντας από τον Μπακούνιν και φτάνοντας μέχρι σήμερα, παρουσιάζει μια κριτική της αναρχικής θεωρίας και πρακτικής από τη σκοπιά του κλασικού μαρξισμού των Μαρξ, Λένιν, Τρότσκι και όχι του σταλινισμού, και υποστηρίζει ότι μόνο ο μαρξισμός δείχνει το δρόμο για την αταξική ελεύθερη κοινωνία του μέλλοντος, που μοιράζονται από κοινού μαρξιστές και αναρχικοί σαν απώτερο σκοπό.
Anarchism: A Marxist Critique
by John Molyneux
Ideas of anarchism have always had a resonance especially among young people revolted against this rotten system.
Issues that have always been at the center of the controversy between anarchism and Marxism are now set forth by direct way in the struggles of millions of people: Where is the real power within the hierarchical society we live? What does real democracy mean? How do we effectively organize the resistance from below? What type of organization and what kind of “action” do we need to overthrow capitalism? Who can do that?
real change? John Molyneux in this book attempts to show that the basic ideas of anarchism and
autonomy are significantly wrong and involve modes of action that can not lead the struggle for it
human emancipation to victory. Beginning with Bakunin and arriving to date, he presents one
critique of anarchist theory and practice from the point of view of Marx, Lenin, Trotsky and not of
Stalinism, and argues that only Marxism shows the way for the classless free society of the future,
share Marxists and anarchists together as a ultimate goal.
More at: https://athens.indymedia.org/post/1586949/
BTW,
It’s “an-” that denotes an opposite (in this case, an “a-” is used in some other cases but not here), which often translates to “dis-” in English. So here I call it Dis-Order.
My regards
The Greeks have always compartmentalised…some discussing logic and order in schools of philosophy and others running around the mountains drugged and naked, attacking random shepherds. However, anarchism is about more than just ‘young people revolting’. It is not about a lack of order, but rather it is about a very grass roots level of order based on cooperation rather than authority. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors were anarchists without knowing it. There is no argument from me about the primacy of socialism or the importance of Karl Marx. I would simply argue that Pyotr Kropotkin is of equal importance. My personal ideal is similar to Tolstoy’s Christian anarchism/asceticism but since this is a very long way from the present world, I fly the flag of Socialism as a step in the right direction. Marxists and anarchists share common aims and they are natural allies (although it must be noted that communists have betrayed anarchists in both Spain and the Ukraine). As for my schoolboy Greek, I’m certainly not going to pit it against an actual Greek philosopher :-) Best wishes to you.
Do you know when and why the metro stations in China started to impose so strict inspections/controls?
Beijing metro went into operation in 1969, there had never been any inpection apart from random control during big events, such as 1990 Asian Game and 2008 Olympics. Metro started to carry out strict passager+ bag/lugage control in 2014, because of the 5 terrorists dove a jeep into the tourists on Jin Shui Qiao (Golden River Bridge) in front of Tiananmen on 25.10.2013 killing 5 (3 terroirst in the car, 1 Chinese and 1 Philipine tourist), injured 42 people. 10·28暴力恐怖袭击案
Before and after this terror attack in Beijing, Uighui Islamic jihads, who, as usual, were praised as “freedom fighter” in Western MSM, carried out a series of terror attacks in Southwest and Northwest China. Since you say you understand Chinese, I just list some of the terror attacks for you:
– July 5th, 2009 Urumuqi Terror Attack: 195 killed (134 Han Chinese, 11 Muslim Chinese, 10 Uighui, 1 Manchu), 1700 injured. Urumuqi Terror Attack
CNN, NYT & Co shamelessly misinformed and manipulated its viewers by portraiting dead and injured Han Chinese as Uighui brutalised by “authoritarian police,” just like what they are calling the terrorists in Syria as “moderate rebels” and AQ helphands White Helmet as “humanitarian heros”.
– March 1, 2014, Kun Ming Railway Station Terror Attack: 8 Uighui (6 men, 2 women, one of them was as young as16) Jihadi-Want-to-be, who wanted to join ISIS by escaping to Turkey via Thailand/Indoneisa/Malasia and could not cross the border, killed 29 and injured 143 with swords and knives . Kun Ming Railway Station Terror Attack.
September 2014, 9 Uighui suspects related to this terror attack were found by Indonesian police, 4 arrested, 3 ran away, 3 ran to Malaysia.
Unlike US police, Chines police did not carry weapons, which explained why there were such a huge number of death and injured both in Kun Ming and Urumuqi.
French and American Embassy refused to condemned it as “terror attack.”
– April 30, 2014 Urumuqi Railway Station Terror Attack,two Uighui terrorists used suicide-belt and knives killed 1 and injured 79. Urumuqi Railway Station Terror Attack
The Eastern Turkistan Islamic Party (now Turkistan Islamic Party, active in Syria with thousands of Uighui jihads) claimed in video it was responsible for this attack.
– July 28th, 2014 Yarkant Terror Attack: 58 Uighui terrorists killed 37, injured 13 and burnt 31 trucks and cars in Yarkant Terror Attack:
If you want to know more about terror attacks in China, please go to baidu.com to serch for yourself.
China has huge population, for example, 21 million people live in Beijing, excluding millions of tourists pass through Beijing’s metro. The government has the responsibility to safeguard its citizens. I don’t like the tight control, but, comparing the danger to be killed by terrorists, I don’t mind the tight safety control at all. Most Chinese hold the same opinion.
To relate tight metro safty control to prevent “potential uprisings or protests” is simply laughable, sterotyped reaction from someone who had too much MSM brainwashing propoganda.
Do you know when and why the metro stations in China started to impose so strict inspections/controls?
Beijing metro went into operation in 1969, there had never been any inpection apart from random control during big events, such as 1990 Asian Game and 2008 Olympics. Metro started to carry out strict passager+ bag/lugage control in 2014, because of the 5 terrorists dove a jeep into the tourists on Jin Shui Qiao (Golden River Bridge) in front of Tiananmen on 25.10.2013 killing 5 (3 terroirst in the car, 1 Chinese and 1 Philipine tourist), injured 42 people. 10·28暴力恐怖袭击案
Before and after this terror attack in Beijing, Uighui Islamic jihads, who, as usual, were praised as “freedom fighter” in Western MSM, carried out a series of terror attacks in Southwest and Northwest China. Since you say you understand Chinese, I just list some of the terror attacks for you:
– July 5th, 2009 Urumuqi Terror Attack: 195 killed (134 Han Chinese, 11 Muslim Chinese, 10 Uighui, 1 Manchu), 1700 injured. Urumuqi Terror Attack
CNN, NYT & Co shamelessly misinformed and manipulated its viewers by portraiting dead and injured Han Chinese as Uighui brutalised by “authoritarian police,” just like what they are calling the terrorists in Syria as “moderate rebels” and AQ helphands White Helmet as “humanitarian heros”.
– March 1, 2014, Kun Ming Railway Station Terror Attack: 8 Uighui (6 men, 2 women, one of them was as young as16) Jihadi-Want-to-be, who wanted to join ISIS by escaping to Turkey via Thailand/Indoneisa/Malasia and could not cross the border, killed 29 and injured 143 with swords and knives . Kun Ming Railway Station Terror Attack.
September 2014, 9 Uighui suspects related to this terror attack were found by Indonesian police, 4 arrested, 3 ran away, 3 ran to Malaysia.
Unlike US police, Chines police did not carry weapons, which explained why there were such a huge number of death and injured both in Kun Ming and Urumuqi.
French and American Embassy refused to condemned it as “terror attack.”
– April 30, 2014 Urumuqi Railway Station Terror Attack,two Uighui terrorists used suicide-belt and knives killed 1 and injured 79. Urumuqi Railway Station Terror Attack
The Eastern Turkistan Islamic Party (now Turkistan Islamic Party, active in Syria with thousands of Uighui jihads) claimed in video it was responsible for this attack.
– July 28th, 2014 Yarkant Terror Attack: 58 Uighui terrorists killed 37, injured 13 and burnt 31 trucks and cars in Yarkant Terror Attack:
If you want to know more about terror attacks in China, please go to baidu.com to serch for yourself.
There is 21 million people live in Beijing, excluding millions of tourists pass through Beijing’s metro. The government has the responsibility to safeguard its citizens. I don’t like the tight control, but, comparing the danger to be killed by terrorists, I don’t mind the tight safety control at all. Most Chinese hold the same opinion.
To relate tight metro safty control to prevent “potential uprisings or protests” is simply laughable, sterotyped reaction from someone who had too much MSM brainwashing propoganda.
Thank you for the articles, they are wonderfully long and insightful!
There is no such thing as autocracy, there is only revolutionary democracy (the Duke’s Mandate of Heaven, which Mao grasped), and evolutionary democracy.
Representative democracy borders these, because in the spirit of the law it is evolutionary, but in the letter – as only representatives write or strike laws – it is revolutionary. The letter does seem more important than the spirit, otherwise we are in the territory of ideology over practicality!
China, as villages get to vote, is a half-representative vertically meritocratic democracy really. I wonder what the author thinks of Swiss semi-direct democracy though, in that it is less about polling your 99%, but instead about giving them direct power to influence all law. Imo it is not much different from the Chinese system, maybe more socializing even, as the only risk to public opinion being snuffed out is constitutional change, which is unlikely given the masses can strike it down directly.
There is an interesting physics paper that correlates inequality with economic complexity, https://phys.org/news/2017-03-physics-wealth-inequality.html , I feel the Chinese, maybe through millenia of trial and error, have built a system better understands this.. though I always wondered about an outright and automatic countercyclical wealth policy: if your nation hits 0.6 or whatnot on the gini coefficient (not an absolute measure granted), the government must then implement some wealth tax to lower the number to some pre-agreed level. Automatic socialism at the extreme.
Ramin, yet another great article.
Actually the gang that controls the West is really less than 1%. The scheme is pyramid. At the very top we have a handful of people (families if you will). Than we have the tools (the 1%) who are doing the heavy lifting, which is buying the votes and and controlling the so called “parties”. Is there any difference between them and the Party? Not really, but we through the history know that even Party can be infiltrated by the agents of the pyramid, as exemplified by the events in the Socialist club (Soviet Union, and the others). As well as the so called communist/socialist parties in the West.
Back to the Party. I believe that you actually have more democracy with the Party. Why? Here is why: Party has a rule book, which all people can read. People can act on any infractions during party meetings. I am sure, that correct critical points can be and are addressed, as long as the critics are not sent to the “Siberia”. Even, Solzhenitsyn admitted in the end, that the Soviet system although quite imperfect was better than what the West was duping people into believing including himself.
The problem is “people’s believes” or how much have they been brainwashed by the “pyramid”. Here comes the brainwashing machine: the Hollywood. Every country and the Party falls into this trap by allowing people to spend their hard earned money to let themselves be brainwashed.
This brings me to the words of a Greek comedian “Dzimis Panousis”, who as he said had 8 Communist members in his family, who either died fighting for the communist cause or spent years in “Greek gulags” and he referred to himself as a real communist. He claimed that the communist party in Greece called “KKE” is nothing but a sham. Most, if not all, high level members of that party are “shipping magnates” and other type of oligarchs. He said many other things about his party, which I am not going to repeat here. I do not doubt that the same can be said about other parties, for example Syriza. While on the subject of Syriza, he made a comment about Tsipras: “the poor kid never did a real day’s work in his life”.
So, to end my rant, there is an endemic problem with all Parties, not just in Greece.
The Iron Law of Oligarchy
http://www.softpanorama.org/Skeptics/Political_skeptic/Elite_theory/iron_law_of_oligarchy.shtml
Thanks, it looks like a great read. And I thought Oligarchy was something else. Let me rephrase it then: “Rich f-in bastards”.
In his Report of an Investigation into the Peasant Movement in Hunan (1927), Mao admitted that the coming revolution would not be socialist: ‘To overthrow these feudal forces is the real objective of the revolution’.
State capitalist China has over 100 billionaires who together have wealth equal to twice Ireland’s GDP and, according to a Peking University report from 2016, its income disparity is getting worse with the top 1 percent owning a third of the country’s wealth and the bottom 25 percent of the population just 1 percent.
In his Report of an Investigation into the Peasant Movement in Hunan (1927), Mao admitted that the coming revolution would not be socialist: ‘To overthrow these feudal forces is the real objective of the revolution’.
Mao may not have been primarily socialist, but he was still quite strongly socialist and egalitarian. For example, he sent his son to the Korean War (in the 1950s); the young Mao Anying died there.
It is rather interesting to see how desperately the Western propaganda tries to deprecate Mao’s achievements.
Mao is reported to have told a US diplomat in 1945: ‘China needs to build up light industries to supply her own market and raise the living standards of her own people. Eventually she can supply these goods to other countries in the Far East. To help pay for this foreign trade and investment, she has raw materials and agricultural products. America is not only the most suitable country to assist this economic development of China: she is also the only country fully able to participate. ‘
Mao, like Lenin before him, hastened the development of capitalism. Lenin wrote of Russia in 1918: ‘reality says that State capitalism would be a step forward for us; if we were able to bring about State capitalism in a short time it would be a victory for us’ (The Chief Task of Our Time).
No denial of inequality of wealth gap increases in China. However, there is some big difference between the free-maket capitalist Western and CCP China:
In the Western, the moneyed capitalists aka the 1% controls the government, the political systems, the economy and the media, while in China, the government, be it Emperors, be it CCP, controls the economy, the political systems and the media.
When the CCP sees the inequality of wealth gap is too big, the government can take steps to try to correct it and to redistribute some of the wealth trhough political and economical measures because it is the Master in the game, and this is what Xi is doing to eliminate poverty and provide better service to the ordinary Chinese; how much he can achieve his goals is open to see.
At the same time, you simply can’t expect the money 1% in the Western would be willing to take some cut of his huge economic gains to redistribute to the poor. In fact, they just get another tax cut from Trump adminstration, right?!
That’s why you see increasing angry deplorables in Western, for they see the system does not function properly any more and no party is capable to solve it.
Not for domestic consumption…
‘Always Stay Professional’. Inside China’s Booming Butler Schools, Nothing But the Best Will Do’ (Time, 1 November 2017). Here we learn that some of China’s 1,590,000 millionaires wish to live the life of Riley Downtown Abbey style! ‘Students pay 50,000 rmb ($7,500) for a six-week course on food presentation, how to iron shirts the proper way, and maintaining serene decorum at all times…. Students learn how to choose fine wine but also good Chinese liquor, teach tai chi, perform a tea ceremony and caddy on the golf course. For many, it’s another world.’ Indeed. ‘…15-hour days and endless drilling. How to clean a toilet, iron a tablecloth, use tape-measures and plastic blocks to get table placings perfectly aligned. It’s a regimen of burns, blisters and bottomless cups of coffee’.
The Ju/’hoansi people work only 15 hours a week.
Boring…you are not! A refreshing alternative (for us westerners) voíce, eloquent and clear. Well done, Ramin!
”Therefore, is it any wonder that the current European leadership – exemplified by the corrupt, undemocratic Eurogroup – is so reactionary, and so unable to provide the standard of living their people deserve”
Beg to differ here, Ramin. What’s happening is actually that the parasitic 1% is ditching their huge social prop of equally reactionary, deluded middle classes and labour aristocracies who, consequently, are in a state of fury and/or self-pity. Western imperialist rape and war-mongering used to be so lovely, but now they have turned to instant curses as they are deliberately waged to break up Whitey’s Heimat with torrents of refugees.
I think the Euro-trash and the Eurogroup deserve each other.
”Meanwhile, Obama has packs of rabid hyenas circling him, the spydom pack, the military pack, corporate pack, bankster pack, not to mention the Zionist pack. Then he has to deal with a huge flock of vulture legislators on Capitol Hill, venal, fatted and corrupt to the core.”
Thanks Ramin for including the above assessment by Jeff J. Brown; it’s a hard-hitting, highly perceptive outline of ”Western Democracy at its very finest”. But, of course, our impressive anti-authoritarians left, right, and center will take this power configuration over China any day.
you made me curious abt China and Irans “systems”. Thnx for writing these exellent articles.
Hi
love this series – well done and keep it up.
also bought and devoured Jeff’s book – as you say – a masterpiece of truth re modern china which will really lift the scales from people’s eyes – highy recommended.
one question though – in light of your 100% accurate analyses of western european so-calld democracies, what is your opinion of Switzerland?
they don’t actually fit that mold so much.
many thanks again
Mark
China will win because China has a government.
Instead of a government, “The West” has a 4-5 year game of musical chairs, awards the prize to highest bidder and calls it “democracy.”
No way in China can anyone achieve a top dog position without having a lifetime of (successful) political experience behind him. Even when there said top dog can’t just go around making arbitrary decrees – like he’s a Saudi king or something.
.. And that makes good sense.
At 7 parts I’m starting to feel bad for my readers, even though you have paid me nothing, and 98% of you not even paid me a comment compliment!
In an effort to shift from the position of 98% unspoken gratitude to 2% spoken – here is my comment compliment…. ♥♥♥
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this series, it has been a pleasure to read and at times, a real eye-opener.
If you’d like to continue past number 8, please feel free, you will have an avid reader in me – and many more, I’m sure. …I’m especially interested in China’s reaching out to the broader world, with special reference to Africa?
:-)
——————-
This bit – added to their extensive “public opinion polling” is IMO the real key to their governance success….
It’s what ensures the vast, real and successful political experience in the national assembly, ie., in governance. There is no previously unknown, second rate actor, ‘reality’ TV celebrity or otherwise unpleasant surprise governing by diktat in China and while never is long time, there never will be. …You don’t get the job without first doing the time.
Many thanks to all for all the very kind words!
Really much, nmuch appreciated. I’m thrilled that some people really enjoyed this series and my work. I have fun doing it!
Best wishes to all the kind well-wishers,
Ramin
I am a Maoist from Peru and I have some serious criticisms. First I must show appreciation for your eloquent words about Mao Tsetung. As for myself I have not heard anybody defending Mao for more than a decade. And words like: “Mao was a socialist genius” are really great.
But if you talk about Socialism, if you want to be a genuine Marxist, then you must understand class struggle, and that a socialist revolution means a radical transformation from a capitalist society. A complete change in the way a society operates. And it is not a quantitative change. Marx’s philosophy understands change as qualitative change instead of just changes in numbers.
So I agree that it is a good thing when you say that Mao took away resources from the cities and gave them to the countryside. But that does not constitute the essence of eliminating the urban-rural divide. Not in the socialist sense. You say that this problem is one concerning politics, OK. But a cultural one??? But Mr, the real problem is about economics, because in a semi-feudal or capitalist society the countryside is usted or abused as a tool to serve the cities. Therefore the countryside is exploited so that the people there are poor and hungry. The solution is a socialist solution. And first you must have a socialist revolution.
A socialist revolution is about aiming toward communism. A mortal struggle with the bourgeoisie. I really don’t understand that you people claim to be Marxists but you limit the Cultural Revolution to a fight against corruption.
Socialism is not about fair distribution. A five year plan is not about distribution. Marx said socialism is when the bourgeoisie slowly disappears, and they won´t do it without a fight. So the fightining intensifies. I don’t want to bore you, but I can only laugh when you say that in China today the very very rich tends to act in a moderate way and makes concesions to the poor. Hell! When in the whole history did the rich ever made concessions to the poor?
Socialism means the working class is in power. In socialist China Mao let the workers and peasants sit in the people’s assembly, So today’s China, with their superrich, is not socialist. And you know very well that Deng lied when he said that Mao was 70% correct. They are fans of Confucious.
Ramin, what’s the problem of the West with the protest at Tinanmen Square?
Is it a kind of egalitarian theory? Putting the CCP as dictatorial?