The current Chinese society is one characterised by huge wealth gaps, urban prosperity, lack of rule of law, corruption and an incredibly fast development.
The Chinese civilisation, its richness of cultural and philosophical traditions, the high esteem for education, the prudence and diligence of the people have enabled a transformation surprising and shocking the West, foreseen by Napoleon to whom the quote is attributed, “Let China sleep. For when China wakes, it will shake the world.”
The same China is riddled by corruption, injustice and heart-breaking poverty (there where no tourist goes, that is everywhere apart from the large cities). I cannot not suppress the impression that ironically Marxist dialectic is unfolding its full ugliness in China. In the eternal class struggle, it seems to me that the socialist society that is propagated by the communist cardre is nothing more than a tyranny supported by the intellectual middle and upper classes who need the party and its apparatus to exploit the poor countrymen and migrant workers and to maintain their urban glitter. The exploited now became the exploiters. Who would ever verify Marx other than the Marxists?
People in the West are shouting democracy as if it is the all-solving pill. I do not doubt that after thirty years, democracy, or at least some kind of power-sharing mechanisms will gradually arise in China. As the growing property-owning middle-class will demand means to defend their own rights in form of rule of law, independent legislatives and supervised executives. However, it will not happen immediately, and I doubt it will be in a form resembling the Western political systems.
What will happen, if China has to become a democracy all of a sudden? Well, it will fracture. It is for certain, that China that contains an ethnic diversity comparable to Europe will balkanise. You might then ask: So what?
Well, I doubt it will be the best solution for everyone. The east coast might build up a stable economy and even profit from the deregulation and self-governing. The hinterland will be worse off, it cannot guaranty the political stability that Beijing’s central government is giving to foreign investors. Nominally being democracies, some of the new formed countries might factually become autocracies or theocracies. Deportation and genocide as it happened during the separation of Pakistan and India and is happening in Sri Lanka will take place, concerning the vast number of Han-Chinese that are minorities in many regions, like Tibet, Xinjiang etc. As symbol of a former oppressive regime, these innocent people will be persecuted. And if I may prognose the reaction of the Western media: these crimes against humanity will either be ignored like the treatment of the Neapalese in Bhutan or relativised. It is a fact that the media, that is liberal biased (and no, I don’t think so because of the O’Reilly Factor), is sympathetic to the “weak” and small, which I guess is an evolutionary vestige from the Age of Enlightenment when the new-forming independent press was the means of opposing the powerful ruling elites.
Conclusion: Although I am no fan of the or any communist regime, I can’t think of anything better. And I prefer a united China in a stable and steady transformation to a fractured China struck by the Shock Doctrine.
You might say I am offering intellectual support to China’s ruling class. Well, I am a conservative. What do you expect?
Post scriptum. Napolean had some great quotes:
In politics stupidity is not a handicap.
I hope the time is not far off when I shall be able to unite all the wise and educated men of all the countries and establish a uniform regime based on the principles of the Quran which alone are true and which alone can lead men to happiness.
The barbarous custom of having men beaten who are suspected of having important secrets to reveal must be abolished. It has always been recognized that this way of interrogating men, by putting them to torture, produces nothing worthwhile. The poor wretches say anything that comes into their mind and what they think the interrogator wishes to know.
On one hand, he certainly makes good statements about politics. On the other hand, he appreciates theocracy and critised torture. How sane can such a man be, you wonder.
