A First-Hand Report from a ‘Jasmine Rally’ in Shanghai
In reality, the CCP not only is not now, but never was, indispensable to China. The historical record shows clearly that China would have been much better off under almost any conceivable alternative government, starting with the rival Kuomintang, which managed to develop Taiwan 25 years faster than the mainland and without any government-manufactured famines or mass political psychosis. The Qing dynasty was backward and corrupt, but certainly lacked the creativity or murderous ruthlessness to produce a “Great Leap Forward” catastrophe. And putting the British in charge would have created an environment far more amenable to prosperity for the ordinary Wang on the street, as Hong Kong’s gold-plated success has irrefutably proved. In fact, so extreme was the murderous incompetence of Mao and his vile cronies, like Kang Sheng and Lin Biao, that the Shanghai Green Gang probably could have run China better than they did.
The Beijing regime’s Qaddafi-like disconnect with reality was very apparent in the recent statements of CCP officials like Chen Jiping, deputy secretary general of the party’s Political and Legal Affairs Committee, who told a journalist: “the schemes of some hostile Western forces attempting to Western[ize] and split us are intensifying, and they are waving the banner of defending rights to meddle in domestic conflicts and maliciously create all kinds of incidents.” In actuality, leaving aside the obviously indigenous origins of the Jasmine Rallies and the many other anti-regime movements of recent years, there is no Western government that could possibly hope to damage China as much as depraved CCP officials like Lin Jiaxiang, who attempted to molest an 11-year-old girl in a restaurant in late 2008, then threatened bystanders when he was caught, screaming, “Do you know who I am? I was sent here by the Beijing Ministry of Transportation, my level is the same as your mayor. … You dare f**k with me? Just watch how I am going to deal with you!”
Although the Lin case is extreme, basically similar incidents are not rare; this writer has lived in several countries and visited many more, but has never seen one where government officials, at every level, are as despised by ordinary people as they are in mainland China. There are tens of millions of Chinese, maybe hundreds of millions, who silently bear a deep, bitter hostility towards the CCP that, if it is ever unleashed, could create a convulsion that would make Libya’s pale into insignificance.
One noteworthy manifestation of these sentiments was a rapidly banned poem called “You, Us” that appeared online sometime in 2009 (the following is a translated excerpt):
You needn’t struggle to find work, nor live under high real estate prices,
You needn’t pay for your medical expenses, nor piteously rush about.
You eat at banquets, live in villas, drive nice cars, receive plush benefits, and travel abroad.
You spend our money and monopolize our dreams with power,
Daily you curse us uncultured, implacable commoners.
You have cannons and bayonets, but develop our waters with others,
And you use them [weapons] only against your own people who give birth to and raise you.
You have high walls and iron fences, yet evil-doers remain far outside the law,
Those who speak loudly in the name of justice are put in prison.
…
Our housing resembles that of slaves,
Our cars must yield to yours,
We are busier and busier at work,
Our pay is unchanging year after year.
Our doctor’s fees are more and more expensive,
Our food is filthier and filthier,
Our taxes are heavier and heavier,
Our days pass tenser and tenser.
Our injustices have already nowhere to appeal,
Our power has already been forgotten.
…
Your policies pay our assertions no mind,
Your lives are unlike our[s]!
Can a party that evokes such bone-deep loathing really remain in power forever? Perhaps CCP leaders, as they tremble in their fortified compounds, are fortunate that the Jasmine Rally movement has repeatedly stressed nonviolence, saying, for example, “We do not support violent revolution; we continue to support non-violent non-cooperation.” As the Jasmine Rallies are suppressed, and the CCP sinks ever deeper into political quicksand of its own making, will every future opposition group be so generous?
“Daily you curse us uncultured, implacable commoners.”
And all this time I thought it was only us dumb Americans clinging to our guns and religion who were unworthy of our Brahmans.
I had the good fortune to spend 10 days in China for business, some 4 years ago. The Chinese folks I met were rather cheerful and extrovert by disposition, and it was clear that they profoundly despise their government.
I knew about the old Chinese tradition of large extended families, but I finally understood the reason for this during my trip. There does not seem to be any collective memory of a government ever concerned in the least with their welfare, and they know how to rely first (and possibly last?) on a well-established loyalty of family-based mutual support. I felt that when they decide that enough is enough, their determination will be unstoppable, because they are so wonderfully resourceful and self-reliant.
No wonder the CCP is nervous!
The first thing that any outsider must factor into an analysis of China, is that it is the most consistently chauvinist culture on the planet. Let’s begin with the name: China, essentially meaning “Middle Kingdom”. Have you ever stopped to consider what “middle” they are referring to? It is NOT a geographical middle, instead it is a philosophical concept that firmly states China is between heaven at the top, and the barbarians in all the rest of the world at the bottom, with China as the only intercessor. Does this give you a clue that China and the Chinese have a somewhat ingrained and very different viewpoint from you and me, and that it is never going to change? Start factoring that into your thinking, and THEN perform an analysis of any so-called ‘Jasmine Revolution’.
>The first thing that any outsider must factor into an analysis of China, is that it is the most consistently chauvinist culture on the planet.
Chauvinist, yes. Most chauvinist on the planet – that’s debatable. Even limiting the discussion to East Asian countries that I have personal experience with, I think Korea and Japan are both more nationalistic than the PRC.
Let’s begin with the name: China, essentially meaning “Middle Kingdom”. Have you ever stopped to consider what “middle” they are referring to? It is NOT a geographical middle, instead it is a philosophical concept that firmly states China is between heaven at the top, and the barbarians in all the rest of the world at the bottom, with China as the only intercessor.
I haven’t heard this, and always understood the “middle” as being geographical. What’s your source?
Does this give you a clue that China and the Chinese have a somewhat ingrained and very different viewpoint from you and me, and that it is never going to change? Start factoring that into your thinking, and THEN perform an analysis of any so-called ‘Jasmine Revolution’.
Of course Chinese people have a different viewpoint. But saying “it is never going to change” is obviously false, and reflects the “cultural stasis” fallacy. All cultures change over time. For example, in China, Chinese people no longer wear queues, or bind women’s feet. The political culture has also changed (for example, there were drastic changes in 1949, 1962, 1976, 1978, and 1989, to name just a few turning points), and will continue to do so. The question is how it will change, to what extent, and how quickly. Perhaps you might factor this into YOUR thinking.
…. in just the last few decades China has gone from being a country with the smallest gap between the rich and the poor to one with the largest ….
And around a billion slaves, many of them brutally colonized foreigners, whose living standards are little different from those their ancestors enjoyed.
Three thousand years ago.
Seems that the first thing that all dictatorships or oligarchies do today to stamp out a revolution or an uprising is shut down the Internet so as to silence all of the social network sites on it. Do NOT give this power to our elected representatives here in the United States. The Internet is the last bastion of free speech in this country that is easily accessible by everyone. It should NOT be shut down under any circumstances. If you can’t win on the battlefield of ideas, something is definitely wrong with your political position. We should be encouraging free speech, not trying to shut it down as they do in China. Even with the Wikileaks scandal, if something illegal is done or a crime is committed, go after the people responsible for it. But you go down a very slippery slope when you decide to just shut down this fountain of information down.
There will never be an uprising that will topple the Chinese govt..
Why, the Chinese army will crush any opposition, and unlike other world uprisings, no country( EU, US etc ) will ever call China to task or support the people.
There needs to be movement from within.
I don’t know why but I kept seeing Michelle Obama and the ONE as I read this article. Any chance the birth certificate is in China? Where does Soros get his backing again?
Will the wave of change sweeping the Middle East spread to the Far East and hasten political reform in the world’s largest unelected dictatorship?
NO
Linking to the site for the first time, I can see immediately the writers and readers of the propaganda house are extremely aberrant and abhorrent. John Parker’s opinion column is such a wild lunatic ranting of lies that it doesn’t merit a response. The internet should leave room for these sites for crazies, I agree, but I’m not one of them.
One of the 50 cent-ers appears to do the bidding of Beijing. Not very literate in English
(50 cent-ers are a group of people paid by the Chinese propaganda ministry to attack anyone they want)
You are correct, Larry, “First Advisor” indeed seems to be a 50-center. AFAIK, this is the first time one has attempted to rebut one of my pieces – it’s actually rather flattering, and proves my point – the CCP must be on thin ice indeed if they feel threatened by the likes of little old me.
I won’t argue with him directly, because inasmuch as he is a government employee, there would be no point. It is interesting to note, though, the element of projection in his language (“propaganda house”) – because the Chinese media is filled with state propaganda and devoid of individual voices, “First Advisor” ignorantly assumes that media in the rest of the world must also be government propaganda, and could not possibly reflect the opinions of real individuals. Also, it’s amusing to note that he apparently never made it past the letter “A” in his English vocabulary book – as shown by using “aberrant” and “abhorrent” in the same sentence.
Very interesting article, thanks. Personally, I think it’s easy to overstate how much all the regular people in China hate the CCP. I don’t disagree that it’s a bad government; it’s just that in my years living in China, I heard a wide range of opinions on the government (I’m fluent in Mandarin and got into this conversation a lot, with everyone from my friends to cab drivers). It’s not remotely surprising to me that in a country as large and diverse as China, there’d be a large diversity of opinion on politics.
I’ve talked to people who hate the CCP and who were party members (though sometimes just for connections, not due to philosophy). The two things I heard most often were that a.) China has too many people (it’s almost impossible to get people to stop telling you this) and b.) that China is not ready for democracy, that it would be too chaotic and that there is too big a gap on education for it to result in a stable government. And right now, at least, stability seems to be more important to most of the people I’ve talked to than serious efforts to reform or revolt against the government. College students are worried about jobs, homes, when and if to get married, and maybe when the next Zhou Jielun concert tour starts; many aren’t that political outside the abstract.
Personally, I’m quite curious about the origin of the calls for a “jasmine revolution” in China – if it really was made anonymously on boxun and twitter, it could be coming from outside of China – maybe overseas dissidents, though I suppose technically it would not even have to be from a Chinese national. If the CCP is cracking down on the basis of a rumor, people could be turning out curious about the same thing but not necessarily prepared to protest. That said, there’s no shortage of uprisings within China that are truly indigenous (what’s the current figure, 100,000 a year?), but none of these appear have had real potential to lead to anything like mass uprisings. Not yet, anyway.
Who would have guessed that the events in Tunisia would spread and threaten so many of the rulers in the Middle East? The Chinese have similar conditions throughout much of their country. I wouldn’t bet that they would have a similar uprising, but it cannot be discounted.
First of all, the CCP is a drag on humanity and will fall, sooner than later. But it won’t be because of the “opinion” enumerated above.
There’s so much wrong in this poorly researched, poorly thought-out, just plain wrong op-ed piece, I don’t know where to begin. I get the hate for the CCP, but it’s simply preposterous to claim that China would have been better off with the KMT or the British (!). C’mon. A KMT China would not have followed the US-imposed economic and political liberalization, but would have gone for Leninist party state (people too often forget that the KMT was fascist dictatorship that borrowed liberally from both Hitler and Stalin). It followed what turned out to be the correct way only because it was under twin blackmail from the US and China. At best, KMT China would look like today’s India; at worst, today’s Venezuela or Zimbabwe; most likely, today’s Brazil or Mexico.
If the CCP were to fall, it would not be because of this “Jasmine” BS, but because the Chinese economy tanked. And therein lies the key to changing China. If you want to stop this obscene grotesquery of a fascist dictatorship lording over 1.4 bil people, stop buying Chinese goods and make our government demand fair play, which should kill Chinese competitiveness in the short term and cause political unrest that should bring about a real change.
I’ve lived in China for the last 8 years, and this is a fantastic analysis. This is what’s really going on, and it is how people feel about things here.