Genesis
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It's a long read, but I think I captured some key points in the discussion for it and while obviously not 100% right, and it is just my view, I'm thinking this is a very important and I feel misunderstood question.
My daily job is not political at all, and very technical, unless you count office politics, that's why I like writing these things.
Lately a lot of people has been talking about Democracy in China, while I don't necessarily disagree with the principles of democracy, and what it brings, I am however critical of whether China would in fact adopt one.
Now let me get this out of the way, I am in no way saying no to freedom, equality, and prosperity, but I don't think it's set in stone American democracy will make its way here. I am not for oppression of the people, I am not for unequal treated for the privileged, and I am certainly not for irresponsible governance.
But many people in their pursuit of American dream, has forgotten the good aspects of the Chinese model, and the current development state of the Chinese nation. China is one of the safest countries in the world, it is also one of the best nations in terms of consistency of public services, we bring progress far faster than anyone could predict, and we have a far faster and better system for tackling new problems like pollution, corruption, and other threats.
To expand on that, one of the lowest in crime rates is obvious in China, anyone's been here would know that. In terms of public service, what's lacking in some areas are more to do with excessive population and lack of funding due to still being a developing nation.
We have used our system to bring betterment of life for people from the poorest to the richest. Our system has made better the worst off people in China, maybe not to the extent of first world, but their need for food, water, and basic medical service as well as a right to education, to public safety. to earn a living based on hard work and merit instead of birth and race/religion and basic living supplies has been satisfied. That may not sound a lot, but considering non of this has been present just 15 years ago, and most of the world's population still lack these amenities, despite being possibly better off just 20 years ago.
The right to better governance is a key in the appeal of democracy, but reforms in the judicial system is happening to make the process more fair and transparent, the anti-corruption charge has been everywhere and today many including my relatives and me can feel a clear difference in terms of the government. For example restaurants are now changing to deal with a non-existent dining using public funds, luxury service industries are also scaling back.
The government interference either for bribes or otherwise are now rare and few and far between, this is from personal experience in three cities and another four from relatives. But problems still persist in some areas, and will be dealt with, but not in a way that you would think. A lot of the corruption that still happens are actually created by the people. People who want to get around the law for some small things, like public displays of ads or signs, keeping cars on the road, getting faster medical services and such or cannot keep up with the good business standards.
But with an improved and more educated work force and corporate leadership, more and more of these things won't be necessary, a lot of these are stemmed from an inability to actually implement standards, for example, one of my relatives used bribes for his sign outside his business because he has no idea how to make it within a price that he can afford. This will take time, for the service industry to mature even further.
As to the other small things, with better health care, more regulations on drugs and medical service, greater earning potential of the people to always use the safest equipment, and much more, these smaller bribes can be completely eliminated not by democracy, but simply a better living standard, and earning ability. No one would take the risk of bribes or just give his own money to someone else if he can be sure of the quality of service and product.
In terms of freedom, I believe that is key for China, but like anything you actually need to go to China to experience life and than make this judgement. Press freedom, obviously that would take a hit no matter how you look at it, however it won't stay the same forever also. Even today more reporting on corruption, and illegal practices are also common, Chinese people knows very well the social injustices, the social problems, and much more that would have been pretty serious just a few years back.
Internet freedom, is also key, but with the advances of Weibo, and other social media and mobile devices, it's increasingly harder and pretty much down right impossible to stop anything.
All the news of China censoring that and this is not a reflection on the situation on the ground as those censored are very specific and hardly disrupt the daily use of such systems.
With advances in disaster relief, in speed and spread of mobile devices and social media, better living standards, and the changing of the next generation of leaders, China won't completely be like the West, but we can be similar.
With all disadvantages we also have advantages, for example, we have more or less calmed the Diaoyu island dispute and the SCS dispute that anger the public so, and in the future it can really curb racism, like our Xinjiang situation.
A more controlled media in some ways is a more organized, more goal oriented, and less sensationalism, and straight up crazy nationalism.
The key is to strike a balance between the two.
In terms of personal freedom, a lot of the restrictions on that have to do with on the ground realities and other factors that doesn't stem from simply I have control over you and I want to see you struggle.
Hukou reform is critical today, but 10 years ago it would have been crazy, Shanghai and Beijing would have been overwhelmed with people who the government there have no money to provide for.
Even with such control these places must have license plate lotteries, auctions, and just straight up large upfront payment. Just imagine if we didn't control the population of these places.
These are the realities of China then, but with a growing national wealth we are more and more able to provide things to the people, and thus a relax of the Hukou system to go with the one child policy. Imagine a China with 1.8 billion people, not pretty brother, not pretty.
People need to remember realities are harsh and unforgiving, nobody is inherently mean or wants to see people suffer, but if I got 8 dollars a day and one meal cost 2 I can only support 3 people and myself, that's just the way it is. Good intentions don't feed people.
In terms of other freedoms, like assembly and other things these needs to improve and really a relic of the old times. They probably won't be changed right now due to the things Xi is trying to do and the number of interest groups he's going to have to piss off if not out right destroy.
Progress or poor freedom, we chose progress, it's why our HSR roam the country while others can't get normal trains working properly or even have them.
Remember we were worse than sub saharan Africa just 30 years ago. Look at us all grown up tits and all.
Lastly to touch on religious rights, immigrants rights, minority rights and all that, we respect religion to a degree, mostly we don't really care, what we care about is separatism and militants. Remember China is one of the safest countries and we the people don't accept our government allowing terror to happen within our borders. All muslim activities by the Hui and other minorities are not only respected but trips to Mecca and religious studies are sponsored by the state, as to regular people we don't really care about religion one way or the next.
Immigrants rights, including but not limited to refugees, and right to workers, and to people who wish to reside needs to be reformed, but this is one of the places that we need experience and frankly a stronger national wealth level to accommodate. This is a work in progress I won't lie.
Minorities rights are actually respected, but the thing about culture is, they can't stand in the way of economic development and education, sure we teach kids mandarin, but without a language skill they can't even be an army officer or NCO, most of the Chengdu region minority NCO and officers spent a lot of time learning mandarin and a lot of them wished that the education when they were young would have better incorporated mandarin for them to have a easier time in the start.
Excluding the minorities from Chinese society is far worse in my opinion than to teach them necessary science, and language skills that pretty much the rest of the country uses, we just don't want them to be a foreigner in their own country, that's not so bad is it.
I have talked a lot about the ins and outs of both of our systems, the main point I want to convey is that most of the problems stems from a couple of sources, the realities on the ground in terms of land, resources, and population, old habits that needs to be reformed, a need for further reforms that needs to happen and can't see opposition, progress, and just the simple fact we are a developing nation and much needs to change before we can be consider developed.
Now onto the main topic, democracy in China. China now and when considered semi-developed in 10 years will be a beacon for another ideology, reasonable authoritarian for the lack of a better term. Meritocracy.
The way I see it, even the Soviets didn't offer a good alternative to American freedom and democracy. Soviets had purges, that made people fear their lives, and the Soviet people were not particularly rich, the old fashioned ideas of plain clothing, and slogan of communism wasn't exactly that enticing to the masses.
In the end, Communism itself doesn't really offers and alternative, and the authoritarian nature was more due to the leaders and realities than say what communism was about.
I believe China offers more than the Soviets did. Our entertainment industry has hot women in not so much clothing, fast cars, and everything else that people desire.
Our value system is all about the betterment of living standards, high rises, beautiful mansions, cars for every family and delicious food at every home, vacations, and schools, health care and social services.
Security in one's well being, and safety from government purges, which has not happened again since Tiananmen, a very different time. Safety from ethnic cleansing, from wars, from any and other sources that would damage a person's well being and property.
The Chinese way of life is already very attractive to a lot of people in the developing world and in the future it can only be more so. How many can honestly say they wanted a Soviet way of life......I mean except us, but to be fair we had no food back then and anyone who had food was living in heaven, if we had known the American life, it wouldn't compare.
So to sum up again, China's problem has a lot to do with our status as a developing nation rather than a straight up failure of the system like many developing nations that are not actually improving, China isn't the Soviets and is offering a way of life that is very desirable to America and thus could hold our own against America's ideology of liberal democracy.
Now to the final part of this, what does China's direction depend on? The next 10-20 years is critical. What does this mean? We will see what China's system brings to the people in terms of living standards and social justice, and how far up the ladder we can satisfy in terms of the Maslow's hierarchy.
Why the American system worked so well and is so popular?
Living standard but more importantly prestige. Roman empire had prestige even though it was an empire, that prestige made even America follow it. Don't say it was republican principles, there are tribes and even Greek states with far more democratic principles than Rome, in fact Rome wasn't even a democracy really when it became an empire.
But Rome still reign supreme in people's minds because of Prestige.
Democracy has about as many failed cases as did dictatorships, yet it is still preferred why? American prestige of power and wealth. If all Americans had was freedom like Argentinians, you think people would follow it?
Thus China's military supremacy, economic powers, and place in the world is of vital importance, if and when we control the South China Sea, the East China Sea, achieve absolute dominance in East and South East Asia, maybe even a victory or two, prestige will be the least of our worries.
With economic development and further show of Chinese economic power in all corners of the globe, I be more than surprised if our system isn't talked about as a good alternative.
If and when we achieve these successes, why would any Chinese wish for an American system that we in fact had pushed out of Asia. Why would people in China to adapt a system in favor of a system that had proven it self.
There's a lot of ifs in terms of improvements, and prestige, and this isn't the thread to talk about that, but you would be a fool to bet against us in any of the above category, and if you do, I think Gordon Chang may retire soon and they need a person to replace him, so suit up and get in line for that job.
My daily job is not political at all, and very technical, unless you count office politics, that's why I like writing these things.
Lately a lot of people has been talking about Democracy in China, while I don't necessarily disagree with the principles of democracy, and what it brings, I am however critical of whether China would in fact adopt one.
Now let me get this out of the way, I am in no way saying no to freedom, equality, and prosperity, but I don't think it's set in stone American democracy will make its way here. I am not for oppression of the people, I am not for unequal treated for the privileged, and I am certainly not for irresponsible governance.
But many people in their pursuit of American dream, has forgotten the good aspects of the Chinese model, and the current development state of the Chinese nation. China is one of the safest countries in the world, it is also one of the best nations in terms of consistency of public services, we bring progress far faster than anyone could predict, and we have a far faster and better system for tackling new problems like pollution, corruption, and other threats.
To expand on that, one of the lowest in crime rates is obvious in China, anyone's been here would know that. In terms of public service, what's lacking in some areas are more to do with excessive population and lack of funding due to still being a developing nation.
We have used our system to bring betterment of life for people from the poorest to the richest. Our system has made better the worst off people in China, maybe not to the extent of first world, but their need for food, water, and basic medical service as well as a right to education, to public safety. to earn a living based on hard work and merit instead of birth and race/religion and basic living supplies has been satisfied. That may not sound a lot, but considering non of this has been present just 15 years ago, and most of the world's population still lack these amenities, despite being possibly better off just 20 years ago.
The right to better governance is a key in the appeal of democracy, but reforms in the judicial system is happening to make the process more fair and transparent, the anti-corruption charge has been everywhere and today many including my relatives and me can feel a clear difference in terms of the government. For example restaurants are now changing to deal with a non-existent dining using public funds, luxury service industries are also scaling back.
The government interference either for bribes or otherwise are now rare and few and far between, this is from personal experience in three cities and another four from relatives. But problems still persist in some areas, and will be dealt with, but not in a way that you would think. A lot of the corruption that still happens are actually created by the people. People who want to get around the law for some small things, like public displays of ads or signs, keeping cars on the road, getting faster medical services and such or cannot keep up with the good business standards.
But with an improved and more educated work force and corporate leadership, more and more of these things won't be necessary, a lot of these are stemmed from an inability to actually implement standards, for example, one of my relatives used bribes for his sign outside his business because he has no idea how to make it within a price that he can afford. This will take time, for the service industry to mature even further.
As to the other small things, with better health care, more regulations on drugs and medical service, greater earning potential of the people to always use the safest equipment, and much more, these smaller bribes can be completely eliminated not by democracy, but simply a better living standard, and earning ability. No one would take the risk of bribes or just give his own money to someone else if he can be sure of the quality of service and product.
In terms of freedom, I believe that is key for China, but like anything you actually need to go to China to experience life and than make this judgement. Press freedom, obviously that would take a hit no matter how you look at it, however it won't stay the same forever also. Even today more reporting on corruption, and illegal practices are also common, Chinese people knows very well the social injustices, the social problems, and much more that would have been pretty serious just a few years back.
Internet freedom, is also key, but with the advances of Weibo, and other social media and mobile devices, it's increasingly harder and pretty much down right impossible to stop anything.
All the news of China censoring that and this is not a reflection on the situation on the ground as those censored are very specific and hardly disrupt the daily use of such systems.
With advances in disaster relief, in speed and spread of mobile devices and social media, better living standards, and the changing of the next generation of leaders, China won't completely be like the West, but we can be similar.
With all disadvantages we also have advantages, for example, we have more or less calmed the Diaoyu island dispute and the SCS dispute that anger the public so, and in the future it can really curb racism, like our Xinjiang situation.
A more controlled media in some ways is a more organized, more goal oriented, and less sensationalism, and straight up crazy nationalism.
The key is to strike a balance between the two.
In terms of personal freedom, a lot of the restrictions on that have to do with on the ground realities and other factors that doesn't stem from simply I have control over you and I want to see you struggle.
Hukou reform is critical today, but 10 years ago it would have been crazy, Shanghai and Beijing would have been overwhelmed with people who the government there have no money to provide for.
Even with such control these places must have license plate lotteries, auctions, and just straight up large upfront payment. Just imagine if we didn't control the population of these places.
These are the realities of China then, but with a growing national wealth we are more and more able to provide things to the people, and thus a relax of the Hukou system to go with the one child policy. Imagine a China with 1.8 billion people, not pretty brother, not pretty.
People need to remember realities are harsh and unforgiving, nobody is inherently mean or wants to see people suffer, but if I got 8 dollars a day and one meal cost 2 I can only support 3 people and myself, that's just the way it is. Good intentions don't feed people.
In terms of other freedoms, like assembly and other things these needs to improve and really a relic of the old times. They probably won't be changed right now due to the things Xi is trying to do and the number of interest groups he's going to have to piss off if not out right destroy.
Progress or poor freedom, we chose progress, it's why our HSR roam the country while others can't get normal trains working properly or even have them.
Remember we were worse than sub saharan Africa just 30 years ago. Look at us all grown up tits and all.
Lastly to touch on religious rights, immigrants rights, minority rights and all that, we respect religion to a degree, mostly we don't really care, what we care about is separatism and militants. Remember China is one of the safest countries and we the people don't accept our government allowing terror to happen within our borders. All muslim activities by the Hui and other minorities are not only respected but trips to Mecca and religious studies are sponsored by the state, as to regular people we don't really care about religion one way or the next.
Immigrants rights, including but not limited to refugees, and right to workers, and to people who wish to reside needs to be reformed, but this is one of the places that we need experience and frankly a stronger national wealth level to accommodate. This is a work in progress I won't lie.
Minorities rights are actually respected, but the thing about culture is, they can't stand in the way of economic development and education, sure we teach kids mandarin, but without a language skill they can't even be an army officer or NCO, most of the Chengdu region minority NCO and officers spent a lot of time learning mandarin and a lot of them wished that the education when they were young would have better incorporated mandarin for them to have a easier time in the start.
Excluding the minorities from Chinese society is far worse in my opinion than to teach them necessary science, and language skills that pretty much the rest of the country uses, we just don't want them to be a foreigner in their own country, that's not so bad is it.
I have talked a lot about the ins and outs of both of our systems, the main point I want to convey is that most of the problems stems from a couple of sources, the realities on the ground in terms of land, resources, and population, old habits that needs to be reformed, a need for further reforms that needs to happen and can't see opposition, progress, and just the simple fact we are a developing nation and much needs to change before we can be consider developed.
Now onto the main topic, democracy in China. China now and when considered semi-developed in 10 years will be a beacon for another ideology, reasonable authoritarian for the lack of a better term. Meritocracy.
The way I see it, even the Soviets didn't offer a good alternative to American freedom and democracy. Soviets had purges, that made people fear their lives, and the Soviet people were not particularly rich, the old fashioned ideas of plain clothing, and slogan of communism wasn't exactly that enticing to the masses.
In the end, Communism itself doesn't really offers and alternative, and the authoritarian nature was more due to the leaders and realities than say what communism was about.
I believe China offers more than the Soviets did. Our entertainment industry has hot women in not so much clothing, fast cars, and everything else that people desire.
Our value system is all about the betterment of living standards, high rises, beautiful mansions, cars for every family and delicious food at every home, vacations, and schools, health care and social services.
Security in one's well being, and safety from government purges, which has not happened again since Tiananmen, a very different time. Safety from ethnic cleansing, from wars, from any and other sources that would damage a person's well being and property.
The Chinese way of life is already very attractive to a lot of people in the developing world and in the future it can only be more so. How many can honestly say they wanted a Soviet way of life......I mean except us, but to be fair we had no food back then and anyone who had food was living in heaven, if we had known the American life, it wouldn't compare.
So to sum up again, China's problem has a lot to do with our status as a developing nation rather than a straight up failure of the system like many developing nations that are not actually improving, China isn't the Soviets and is offering a way of life that is very desirable to America and thus could hold our own against America's ideology of liberal democracy.
Now to the final part of this, what does China's direction depend on? The next 10-20 years is critical. What does this mean? We will see what China's system brings to the people in terms of living standards and social justice, and how far up the ladder we can satisfy in terms of the Maslow's hierarchy.
Why the American system worked so well and is so popular?
Living standard but more importantly prestige. Roman empire had prestige even though it was an empire, that prestige made even America follow it. Don't say it was republican principles, there are tribes and even Greek states with far more democratic principles than Rome, in fact Rome wasn't even a democracy really when it became an empire.
But Rome still reign supreme in people's minds because of Prestige.
Democracy has about as many failed cases as did dictatorships, yet it is still preferred why? American prestige of power and wealth. If all Americans had was freedom like Argentinians, you think people would follow it?
Thus China's military supremacy, economic powers, and place in the world is of vital importance, if and when we control the South China Sea, the East China Sea, achieve absolute dominance in East and South East Asia, maybe even a victory or two, prestige will be the least of our worries.
With economic development and further show of Chinese economic power in all corners of the globe, I be more than surprised if our system isn't talked about as a good alternative.
If and when we achieve these successes, why would any Chinese wish for an American system that we in fact had pushed out of Asia. Why would people in China to adapt a system in favor of a system that had proven it self.
There's a lot of ifs in terms of improvements, and prestige, and this isn't the thread to talk about that, but you would be a fool to bet against us in any of the above category, and if you do, I think Gordon Chang may retire soon and they need a person to replace him, so suit up and get in line for that job.
