This CCP is not the same as 1989, if you want to look at the past Mao also doomed China to poverty, is that a reflection on today's CCP? CCP is just a name, the leaders have changed three times since then, the new members are from a new era, so distant from those days that they may as well be a different race.
But this is only possible because the CCP intentionally chose this course of action as the best way to retain power. The moment that is no longer possible, nothing is stopping the CCP from reverting to its Mao-era hard-power stance.
P.S. Chinese leaders care about HK people as much as they care about the American people. For all intent and purposes, they are a colony of China, one country two system actually means, you are not Chinese, don't even pretend. The Chinese people are the ones they are more interested.
HK today, XYZ region of China the day after, all of China next week. That's precisely my point--nothing stops the CCP from not caring about the Chinese people, because even if the people try to revolt, they will be put down by military force. The CCP is unanswerable to the people.
I wonder if @
Chinese-Dragon is aware that the CCP and most Chinese regard HK as little more than a Chinese colony, not on the same level as other Chinese. If it's true, I pity HK, and believe the island portion should have been kept under the UK administration.
Also, you didn't answer my question, maybe I wasn't clear, what is the CCP? Is it an entity separate from the people? Chinese dynasties are always different to western ones, because we had the exam system that allows a common man to raise to the head of the government under the emperor. Your view of totalitarian is Western and social standing, birth dictates all, or Middle eastern and African where race dictate all. China is different talent dictates all.
Xi had help, but it was his talent that was the deal breaker, if you think people can make it based on their parents, yes, but only to a place where their talent can reach, otherwise crash and burn, see Buo.
This is where the cultural differences emerge, and the prism through which we each view the world dictates how we perceive the CCP. Perhaps age is also a factor, which could potentially anchor our views in different eras. You have focused on what the CCP is today. I focused on what the CCP has been, and could be again.
I agree that the CCP has remarkable mechanisms today to promote talent. Today. Yesterday, it did not. The CCP was not forged out of an exam system, or promotion by talent, it was forged out of war, and then succession by political maneuvering. The CCP "elevation" process is also not transparent (at least not to Westerners), so we don't know what factors go into deciding who is elevated and why. Does it not cause you to question the system at all that out of 1.3 billion people, so many princelings sit in positions of power? The CCP really could not find more qualified administrators out of such a large pool of talent? Or do you believe that the princelings have superior DNA, and thus the superior talent of the parent was passed down to the child? At least in the West, we recognize nepotism when we see it, and acknowledge that political families are a problem in our political system due to the way it's run. The first step in solving a problem is acknowledging that you have a problem.
Here is my proof that there's a problem: There wouldn't be corruption among the "tigers" today for Xi to combat if the system were as pure as you represent. If corruption can help a CCP member get rich, why can't corruption help a CCP member get promoted? Getting rich and getting promoted aren't mutually exclusive, either.
Lastly, the last 30 years wasn't a miracle, it was built with the blood, sweat and tears of the Chinese people, if anyone thinks they can repeat it they are wrong. Not unless they can go through the same ordeal.
I don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings, but Japan pioneered the investment-intensive, export-oriented model that all of the Asian Tigers and China have followed. The CCP isn't special in that it used this system to develop; the CCP is special in that it managed to turn around its purely dictatorial instincts and actually focused on development; otherwise, China would just be a larger version of North Korea today. China is to be congratulated, but the Chinese development model is provably repeatable.
49 percent certainly don't deserve to be crushed, or even one person, but is that the world we live in? Where we can have the best of both world? I don't know, and frankly, recent examples are not persuading me to think it is.
Also Chinese people does partake in politics, except in the West to partake you vote, in China you join the party. Guess which is more effective in terms of that person actually making a change, for better or worse.
But the alternative is poverty and irrelevance. I won't say it was the best or the only route, but I will say today we have what we have and I'm not 100% sure the alternative would provide better, and there are tons that are envious of our "success," can anyone be sure alternative would have been better?
If joining the CCP is the only way to effect change in China, then I choose democracy. The CCP only has what, 90 million members? That's less than 10% of the population given a voice to choose a future for 100% of the population.
Let's go further. What I am getting at with the 50.1%-49.9% remark is that while many here, and many analysts, have claimed that the CCP conducts polling in order to be responsive to the people, we can't verify that. Does the CCP publish the polls and the cross-tabs for public consumption and analysis? I don't know, but I doubt it. And then there is the biggest and most important poll of all, one which has never been taken. Meanwhile, we have to trust that 10% (and in reality, not even that, but rather the 7 members of the Standing Committee) are best placed to decide China's future.
I agree, what China achieved has been remarkable, but whereas you ascribe that success to the genius of the CCP, I ascribe that success to the genius of the Chinese people. I'm willing to bet that if China is provided with rule of law, strong and unbiased institutions, and stability, then it will continue to grow at a healthy pace, whether or not the CCP is in power. This has been the case in the Asian Tigers, when they transitioned from authoritarianism to democracy.
Why do I keep harping on democracy when China has turned out so well? To return to the beginning of this post, the CCP has not always been so benevolent, or focused on development (Mao being the worst example). You believe that the CCP rewards meritocracy and is best positioned to determine what is best for China; I do not trust the CCP, and posit that it's impossible for us to know whether the CCP is taking the best course of action for China, since there are no constraints on the party. When China makes mistakes, like the one child policy, or corruption, then all of China has to wait for the CCP to reform itself, and if it chooses not to reform itself, then there is no recourse.
Neither of us will know who is right unless or until China has democracy, but given Japan's long one-party rule with democracy, and Singapore's long one-party rule with democracy, and Sweden's long one-party rule with democracy, I don't think China has anything to fear from democracy. If you're right, and the CCP is the best option, the people will continue to choose the CCP, and all will be well. If I'm right, the people will choose something else; but in either case, the people would have the choice.