China and Democracy
Following my most recent posting, I was taken to task for what were considered to be negative comments on democracy. Actually, I was lamenting the present state of American democracy, which I believe is being undermined by the Bush administration and the defense industry. I also pointed out that democracies and republics are fragile and eventually crumble - read your history. A criticism of democracy always brings the rejoinders: what is your alternative? Would you prefer the Chinese system? The first is a valid question. Not so, the second.
Although a democracy is fragile and ephemeral (in historical terms), nothing better comes to mind. If we have it, we must defend it. Its chief weakness is the apathy and lack of awareness of the voting public which was a concern of America's Founding Fathers. Inspired leaders are called for, but too often we see pedagogues of little merit but wide appeal. Bullshit passes for wisdom and is swallowed as such. But we live in hopes. There are no qualifications for politicians, no exams to pass, but if there were it would not be democracy. Some say that an apathetic and ignorant public doesn't deserve freedom, but I can't subscribe to that.
The leaders of China, from Mao on, have proclaimed a democratic republic. The People's Republic. Yeah, really. It sounds like Orwell's 1984. The Communist state has morphed into a capitalist one. Capitalistic Communism, a really neat term. In this guise, they are threatening to take over the world with money while the Americans threaten to take it over with guns. Money or guns, who wins? In the longer term, I would wager on money. America's colossal debt is largely funded by China who could whipsaw the Western economy at will, but are too wise to do it just yet. They may be waiting for our side (Canadians are part of it) to collapse in the same way the Soviet Union collapsed from its own weight. They are patient. I often wonder if they are still smarting from the humiliations of western domination during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Opium Wars where the Brits forced them to open the border to opium imports. The bloody suppression of the Boxer rebellion. Foreigners exempt from Chinese law. The famous sign, No Dogs or Chinese Allowed, widely believed but never documented, at the entrance to a Foreigners Only park. It must still rankle. How will we be treated when and if China becomes dominant in the world?
Meanwhile, repression is the order of the day. Beginning about 1978, the leadership under Deng Xiaoping started a series of political and economic reforms that led to a market economy and some political liberalization. But as we've seen with Gorbachev in Russia, attempting to liberalize a repressive regime is a slippery slope; Gorby got tossed and eventually they got Putin who is the new dictator. Russians like a strongman, we are told. The Chinese liberalization encouraged students and intellectuals to demand more. To avoid a long story, this eventually led to the massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989. To the leaders, to give another inch would have meant losing it all. They would have had a tiger by the tail. A revolution, maybe.
Revolutions in the name of the people have a bad reputation. Conditions for the French underclass in 1789 were deplorable. They stormed the Bastille, the regime collapsed and anarchy took over. La Terreur 0f 1793 bathed Paris and other cities in blood. La Guillotine was indiscriminate, chopping the heads of even Robespierre, her champion, and Dr. Guillotin, her inventor. The revolution eventually coughed up Napoleon, who was not averse to mowing down rebels in the street with cannon (it's always the guy with a new idea who gets ahead) and who then went on to bathe all Europe in blood. The apprehension of the Chinese leadership is understandable.
Would I care to live under the Chinese autocracy? That was the question. The answer is no. Would I care to live in China after a revolution routed this regime? I'd run for my life.
Although a democracy is fragile and ephemeral (in historical terms), nothing better comes to mind. If we have it, we must defend it. Its chief weakness is the apathy and lack of awareness of the voting public which was a concern of America's Founding Fathers. Inspired leaders are called for, but too often we see pedagogues of little merit but wide appeal. Bullshit passes for wisdom and is swallowed as such. But we live in hopes. There are no qualifications for politicians, no exams to pass, but if there were it would not be democracy. Some say that an apathetic and ignorant public doesn't deserve freedom, but I can't subscribe to that.
The leaders of China, from Mao on, have proclaimed a democratic republic. The People's Republic. Yeah, really. It sounds like Orwell's 1984. The Communist state has morphed into a capitalist one. Capitalistic Communism, a really neat term. In this guise, they are threatening to take over the world with money while the Americans threaten to take it over with guns. Money or guns, who wins? In the longer term, I would wager on money. America's colossal debt is largely funded by China who could whipsaw the Western economy at will, but are too wise to do it just yet. They may be waiting for our side (Canadians are part of it) to collapse in the same way the Soviet Union collapsed from its own weight. They are patient. I often wonder if they are still smarting from the humiliations of western domination during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Opium Wars where the Brits forced them to open the border to opium imports. The bloody suppression of the Boxer rebellion. Foreigners exempt from Chinese law. The famous sign, No Dogs or Chinese Allowed, widely believed but never documented, at the entrance to a Foreigners Only park. It must still rankle. How will we be treated when and if China becomes dominant in the world?
Meanwhile, repression is the order of the day. Beginning about 1978, the leadership under Deng Xiaoping started a series of political and economic reforms that led to a market economy and some political liberalization. But as we've seen with Gorbachev in Russia, attempting to liberalize a repressive regime is a slippery slope; Gorby got tossed and eventually they got Putin who is the new dictator. Russians like a strongman, we are told. The Chinese liberalization encouraged students and intellectuals to demand more. To avoid a long story, this eventually led to the massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989. To the leaders, to give another inch would have meant losing it all. They would have had a tiger by the tail. A revolution, maybe.
Revolutions in the name of the people have a bad reputation. Conditions for the French underclass in 1789 were deplorable. They stormed the Bastille, the regime collapsed and anarchy took over. La Terreur 0f 1793 bathed Paris and other cities in blood. La Guillotine was indiscriminate, chopping the heads of even Robespierre, her champion, and Dr. Guillotin, her inventor. The revolution eventually coughed up Napoleon, who was not averse to mowing down rebels in the street with cannon (it's always the guy with a new idea who gets ahead) and who then went on to bathe all Europe in blood. The apprehension of the Chinese leadership is understandable.
Would I care to live under the Chinese autocracy? That was the question. The answer is no. Would I care to live in China after a revolution routed this regime? I'd run for my life.
posted by puzzled @ 2:40 PM
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