Democracy in China

It was with some interest that I read a rather naive article on China, "Democracy in China: Fact or Fiction?" by a Thomas Riggens; the url has been given at the bottom of this post. I say naive because of the silly conclusion where he says, "My own view is that the party is still committed to the socialist project (or why fear a Gorbachev), which is inherently democratic, and that the level of democratic rights is steadily increasing for the people of China: the increase being directly proportional to the material well being of the population and the ability of the CPC and its leadership to build a society committed to socialist construction." What poppycock, the party is largely concerned with holding onto power and developing mechanisms to hold onto this power and while a show might be made of "being more democratic", "more open" etc in Beijing, the very nature of the party ensures that the reality on the ground will be very different. A reality, which sees very real abuses of position and very real oppression. The party in my opinion was never particularly interested in a socialist project or if it was, the country and the party were never ready for that socialist experiment. If there is a general law in history, it might be the history of human stupidity. If there is a general law in Chinese history, post and pre-1949, it is the history of man's abuse of man. Today in China some 900 million people, or about 65% of the population, are second class citizens in their own country; the rural population and the migrant workers have either no or very few rights. To suggest that there is equality even in front of that one institution that should be above legislative control, namely, the law, is a nonsense. The government in Beijing might make noises, might try to address a situation that can get out of control and threaten the very centre of power, might publicly, on occassion, even take the side of the underdog. However, the size of China along with centralised rule means that the local party bosses in the provinces cannot be brought under control and that they are in fact the product of a political system that ensures that they continue to abuse their power without being accountable to anyone and, very often, without being noticed in Beijing.

There is growing dissent and voices are making themselves heard. There is a struggle going on. However, this is not a struggle that will necessarily be won. The party is still firmly entrenched in power and it is not voluntarily going to give up that power. The party is not interested in socialist ideals and, indeed, it might very well be that it never really was. The evidence would seem to suggest that first and foremost it was always about power and as we all know, if power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Having said that, there are a lot of good people in the Chinese Communist Party but the only conclusion for them has to be that if China is to develop into a society where all of the citizens have rights, there must be a gradual sharing of power and ultimately a transition to a truely democratic society. Perhaps, if this happens, there might ultimately be that transition to a real socialist democracy.

England is becoming a treat because of the number of books that you can access and consume here. Today, I finished Philip Pan's book and then went out and bought Ma Jian's 'Beijing Coma', Rob Gifford's 'China Road' and Mark Leonard's 'What Does China Think?'

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/04/democracy-in-china-fact-of-fiction/