The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers by Richard McGregor

[gambit]

It is not. It was a female reporter to expose a region leaders because of corruption, she was arrested, but because the networks and public opinion, the Chinese central government intervention, the local government had to release her.

By the way , what you said ? Can you give a connection ?

Aaahhh...So a reporter -- a 'nobody' -- exposed corruption by a bunch of 'somebody' and she was arrested. A bunch of other 'nobody' pick up the cause and they were also arrested.

OK...

Now...Is it true that Zeng Hongling, a retired professor, essentially a 'nobody', was charged with subversion because she exposed corruption by a bunch of 'somebody' in the CCP?

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

This has got to be no clearer evidence of a successful brainwashing.

Typical stereotyping from gambit here.

I don't know why I expected anything else.

OK gambit if you weren't just stereotyping... can you explain to me, how one sentence from one anonymous poster on the internet, is somehow "clear evidence" of brainwashing.

 

[huzihaidao12]

In fact , a lot of corruption in China after 1949, although far from now so serious, but there are many, until the Cultural Revolution. After the Cultural Revolution, little corruption, and then until the 80s, a great number.

 

[huzihaidao12]

Aaahhh...So a reporter -- a 'nobody' -- exposed corruption by a bunch of 'somebody' and she was arrested. A bunch of other 'nobody' pick up the cause and they were also arrested.

OK...

Now...Is it true that Zeng Hongling, a retired professor, essentially a 'nobody', was charged with subversion because she exposed corruption by a bunch of 'somebody' in the CCP?

You understand what I mean?

 

[huzihaidao12]

Or you give a link, or you give a Chinese name, that would be nice.

 

[huzihaidao12]

Well, any time you criticize the CCP, this party, you will not have any problems, but if you are specific to a particular officer, the officer will be worried about his own future, and will give you some trouble for his own interests. But this is not the overall interests of the CCP, so long as the media, more network, to expose, and then CCP will handle the officials. You think that that is an official issue or the CCP issue ? There is no simple answer, after all, the officials belong to CCP.

 

[Solomon2]

Through a series of anecdotes and interviews, largely drawn from his eight years in China as correspondent for 'The Financial Times', Richard McGregor illustrates 'the Party', a remarkable social organization which subordinates 1.3 billion people.

It is a journalist's treatment rather than academic, so instead of explicitly offering analysis, Richard McGregor lets his interviews and stories largely speak for themselves. This provides a range of interesting characters, quotes and anecdotes. However, a side-effect is that many remarkable insights are either buried innocuously in the text or left to the reader's inference. The story is no less fascinating for it.

The picture that emerges is of a creative, adaptable, self-aware and resilient social network. Made up of 75 million party members, one in twelve adult Chinese, this self-perpetuating elite has no legal form beyond a mention in the preamble to China's constitution. The party exists outside the regular state apparatus and operates like a controller chip grafted into China's governing structures through party cells throughout government, the military, public companies and even private firms.

Grounded in its near ubiquitous presence in the state, military, public and private spheres, the Party maintains its grip via a number of interconnected and synergistic processes. Its personnel system allows any individual to be replaced, transferred or expelled at the will of the organism. Party control of the military provides ultimate coercive sanction. The Party's discipline system places members above the law even as it strengthens Party control of the behaviour of its members. The propaganda department uses sophisticated story telling to sculpt the narrative around events to conform to the Party's best interests.

Few join the party for ideological reasons. Rather, achieving party status is to gain membership into an elite club which, provided you stay within its unwritten bounds and contribute to the goals of the organism, gives a member a form of immunity from the law and other powers and abilities not available to the average citizen. In the corruption that is endemic in the system, everyone is guilty of something serious - from taking bribes, to tax evasion to sexual impropriety to failing to get proper permits. Members that stray out of bounds need not be punished for the real fault, but instead for one of the many more routine transgressions that hang over the heads of almost all party members. Were one not able to normally get away with routine transgressions, there would be little benefit to party membership. Yet simply knowing that straying too far will result in being punished for something entirely different is enough to self-censor unwanted behaviours, in particular the unwritten ones.

Self-reflexive and analytic, the party is alert to the internal and external dangers it faces and has proven able to respond to challenge with remarkable agility, creativity and effectiveness.

Though the book is very much about the Party at present, in 2010, glimpses of party history serve to illustrate the nature of the organism and its ability to adapt and reinvent itself.

For example, Richard McGregor declares a historic milestone the Party's peaceful and administrative transfer of power in 2002 to a new top grouping of apparatchiks. For the first time in over 2000 years of Chinese history, China was no longer ruled by a single individual seen as a sort of a god. Instead, the apex of China became a committee atop an organism which permeates into the whole society, with the next shifting of interchangable personalities at the top scheduled for 2012.

In 1992, only ten years prior to the 2002 milestone, again demonstrating forward looking pragmatic realism, the party transformed itself on entrepreneurs - the most extreme enemies of communism - not just by allowing them to join the party, but by actively recruiting them. Binding China's rapidly emerging entrepreneurial elites to the party provided benefits to both sides, allowing entrepreneurs more freedom from the stultifying strictures of state apparatus while reinforcing and renewing Party control on an element of Chinese society that may have come to threaten the Party's very existence.

Prior to that, the shock of Tiananmen square and the fall of the former Soviet Bloc caused a wave of realistic threat assessment and self-reflection within the Party. This lead to further creative and pragmatic changes, though not in the ways that analysts in the west might have guessed or hoped for.

Given the importance of the Party in China and the growing importance of China in the world, it behooves us to better understand it. Richard McGregor's fascinating and informative book is recommended reading for those interested in understanding not just the Party, but the modern China within which it operates. link

 

[Solomon2]

It may be a good book, but it sure is a crummy title. When I read it I think, "Ooh, raunchy!" not "Oh, another organizational chart...."

 

[huzihaidao12]

I'll never deny that China also has some problems, then he is too far away from the West crazy distortion. If the information is not so crazy distorted by West, you think I have any interest to defend for the CCP? If you do not prevent the outside wolf, even if you deal with inside, what is the point? After all, home wolf have done some good.

 

[huzihaidao12]

Mostly accurate, but some did not catch the change now.

 

[huzihaidao12]

In short, if you say freedom of speech, not completely, but far more open than you think, even if you publicly criticize CCP, sometimes even leaders, without any problem. Complete freedom on the network even more, even though there are still about 10% the news is limited, but that is meaningless, you can get anything from the network. We can also use the software, CCP also know that, so we called him "Cover your ears to steal the bell." My personal idea is, that may be similar with the riot police, no action against you, but it can control you do not get too intense, personal thoughts.

Moreover, China's network is a clean environment without Western brainwashing, talking about the nature of the problem, not avoiding anything, far more than Western ordinary people , in this sense, China's network is the most freedom in the world, you have been too thoroughly brainwashed, and we do not, there is no one simple to believe. With a direct and nature understanding to China and the world.

 

[huzihaidao12]

I find the news on the "ZHEN HONG LING", seems to have this person.

1, the news was officially banned.

2, the network can be found in China, but not an official news.

ËÄ ´¨ Ò» Ãû ÍË ÐÝ ½Ì ʦ ¡° Òò ÑÔ »ñ ×ï ¡± - Éç»áÈËÎÄ - ËѺüȦ×Ó

I do not understand this thing, I said, there is no simple sure, but there may be true, because this is a special time during the earthquake disaster, the official thinking is that stability overrides everything else, in some time and some things will very strict. Moreover, he and overseas contact, so CCP rigorous action is possible. Of course, I do not know more specific, if have time i will to find more information.

Personal point, if the incident is true, then it is a blot on the CCP, however, Chinese society still has some problems, certainly need more development and progress, I agree, of course, still did not confirm, so now that everything is too early.

.

 

[gambit]

I find the news on the "ZHEN HONG LING", seems to have this person.

1, the news was officially banned.

2, the network can be found in China, but not an official news.

ËÄ ´¨ Ò» Ãû ÍË ÐÝ ½Ì ʦ ¡° Òò ÑÔ »ñ ×ï ¡± - Éç»áÈËÎÄ - ËѺüȦ×Ó

I do not understand this thing, I said, there is no simple sure, but there may be true, because this is a special time during the earthquake disaster, the official thinking is that stability overrides everything else, in some time and some things will very strict. Moreover, he and overseas contact, so CCP rigorous action is possible. Of course, I do not know more specific, if have time i will to find more information.

Personal point, if the incident is true, then it is a blot on the CCP, however, Chinese society still has some problems, certainly need more development and progress, I agree, of course, still did not confirm, so now that everything is too early.

.

Is it true that Li Zhi was charged with 'subversion' -- Article 105(1) -- after he criticized local party officials with corruption?

 

[huzihaidao12]

Is it true that Li Zhi was charged with 'subversion' -- Article 105(1) -- after he criticized local party officials with corruption?

Do you have a connection? Many people with the same name in Chinese, no event is difficult to find.

 

[huzihaidao12]

Too many LI ZHI, no one related to politics.