"Why China’s Political Model Is Superior" sez Shanghai "venture capitalist"
This from the NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/opinion/why-chinas-political-model-is-superior.html
A related version is at Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-x-li/globalization-20-democrac_b_1278784.html
The Wests current competition with China is therefore not a face-off between democracy and authoritarianism, but rather the clash of two fundamentally different political outlooks. The modern West sees democracy and human rights as the pinnacle of human development. It is a belief premised on an absolute faith. China is on a different path. Its leaders are prepared to allow greater popular participation in political decisions if and when it is conducive to economic development and favorable to the countrys national interests, as they have done in the past 10 years.
However, Chinas leaders would not hesitate to curtail those freedoms if the conditions and the needs of the nation changed. The 1980s were a time of expanding popular participation in the countrys politics that helped loosen the ideological shackles of the destructive Cultural Revolution. But it went too far and led to a vast rebellion at Tiananmen Square. That uprising was decisively put down on June 4, 1989. The Chinese nation paid a heavy price for that violent event, but the alternatives would have been far worse. The resulting stability ushered in a generation of growth and prosperity that propelled Chinas economy to its position as the second largest in the world.
The fundamental difference between Washingtons view and Beijings is whether political rights are considered God-given and therefore absolute or whether they should be seen as privileges to be negotiated based on the needs and conditions of the nation.
The West seems incapable of becoming less democratic even when its survival may depend on such a shift. In this sense, America today is similar to the old Soviet Union, which also viewed its political system as the ultimate end. History does not bode well for the American way. Indeed, faith-based ideological hubris may soon drive democracy over the cliff.
A couple of thoughts:
1) you are a "crony capitalist" pal. If you didn't have friends in high places in the Party, you couldn't do jack. Out of curiosity, what sort of kickback arrangements do you have?
2) The only thing heartening about such blind arrogance is the way it will walk right into its doom. The problem is they are going to cause a lot of misery and take a lot of people with them before they find out they were wrong.
3) Before you get too comfortable, just remember how many of Mao's little books are out there. Wasn't it required reading? China's been riding the post-Tiannanmen "stability" for a while now. All it takes is a bump or a downturn, and you can wind up with an unpleasant reminder that the "vast rebellion at Tiananmen Square" was just a mass protest, not a rebellion. Rebels shoot back. Just ask Mao. If you're a "venture capitalist", maybe it's in your interest to NOT make that route look like a good thing.
supernova
(39,345 posts)own BS.
New communist-flavored capitalist authoritarianism. Yum!
grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)The self-anointed ones?
JHB
(37,132 posts)...in your "negotiations."
applegrove
(118,022 posts)on Parliament Hill. I told him it was normal and orderly that he had nothing to fear. But he was afraid. And he lived about a mile from parliament hill. I think the Chinese government has done a good job at instilling fear of mob rule in the hearts and minds of all Chinese.
JHB
(37,132 posts)It always does. All that needs to happen is for them to fear the status quo more. A downturn or bubble-burst could do that. How many ghost cities can the government keep building?
ellisonz
(27,709 posts)...in America I can't be arrested in the middle of the night, held without trial, and put into a political re-education camp for simply expressing a desire to speak freely so long as I do not advocate violence.
FUCK THE PRC
MisterP
(23,730 posts)the world economy pumped up the "neo-Europes" of Argentina and Australia 1880-1920 and the U.S. 1680-1914 (when it became stronger than Europe); world position made the U.S. "hegemonic" again 1945-73; now we're exporting our jobs to China since 1988/95--though China and India have been word-class cultures for 7000 years (though interrupted by invasions and heavy turmoil)