What should be the direction for Chinese democracy? Seeing the current cry for reform in the middle east, I cannot stop wondering where should China head to. I think at the top level of the Chinese government, there is a desire to implement some changes. However, the fear of chaos that may bring stopped any real progress. Certainly a large number of the government official would also be interested in keeping the communist party in power, but I see a lot of them are not really that loyal to the party, instead, they are more interested about the personal power they acquired through the communist party.
Many of the loud defenders of the CCP would probably quit the CCP when they the end is near. Just look at Russia today, a lot of their top people were ex-communists.
I am for gradual change in China, but at the same time I am worried about none existing progress in the area of political reform. There are some signs that the people's assembly proposed and discussed about new laws. That is good, at least not all ideas are from the top tier of the CCP leadership. But most of the issues they discussed were not really that important at the national level. I can't remember some of the examples, but there were some pretty crazy ideas out of some representatives. Definitely no one dared to propose a change in national policy.
But the other option is equally bad, which is a revolution end up with complete chaos. The difference between USSR and PRC is that China has many different local cultures and many rivalries between different places. This is even beyond the hot spots like Tibet and Xinjiang. Many provinces had been independent in some point of time in history, so some warlords or local strong man could take advantage of the chaos and declare an isolated state. Provincial power is good in a way to decentralize the government and put more power in the hands of people, but it would be even worse if a local dictator emerges. USSR is republics were more recent in history and Russia is by far the most dominate part of it. So even after the USSR broke apart, national identity is clear. Of course, the fighting in the Caucuses is worrisome, still, but majority of Russian is intact. If China broke apart, there is really no dominate part.
Democracy is such a beautiful goal, getting there without a big short term pain is very hard. On the other hand, if gradual change does not happen and the internal frictions increase without a way for people to release the frustration and feel some hope of change, the resulting revolution may be inevitable and more violent. Just compare British and French revolution in the 17th and 18th century, France held onto the feudalism longer than Britain, but at the end, it was a lot more bloody and took a much longer time to get true democracy.
In the meantime, people still have to live on and worry about day to day problems. I just hope when the change comes, fewer lives would be lost and China eventually can get a system that is more stable in the long term.
Many of the loud defenders of the CCP would probably quit the CCP when they the end is near. Just look at Russia today, a lot of their top people were ex-communists.
I am for gradual change in China, but at the same time I am worried about none existing progress in the area of political reform. There are some signs that the people's assembly proposed and discussed about new laws. That is good, at least not all ideas are from the top tier of the CCP leadership. But most of the issues they discussed were not really that important at the national level. I can't remember some of the examples, but there were some pretty crazy ideas out of some representatives. Definitely no one dared to propose a change in national policy.
But the other option is equally bad, which is a revolution end up with complete chaos. The difference between USSR and PRC is that China has many different local cultures and many rivalries between different places. This is even beyond the hot spots like Tibet and Xinjiang. Many provinces had been independent in some point of time in history, so some warlords or local strong man could take advantage of the chaos and declare an isolated state. Provincial power is good in a way to decentralize the government and put more power in the hands of people, but it would be even worse if a local dictator emerges. USSR is republics were more recent in history and Russia is by far the most dominate part of it. So even after the USSR broke apart, national identity is clear. Of course, the fighting in the Caucuses is worrisome, still, but majority of Russian is intact. If China broke apart, there is really no dominate part.
Democracy is such a beautiful goal, getting there without a big short term pain is very hard. On the other hand, if gradual change does not happen and the internal frictions increase without a way for people to release the frustration and feel some hope of change, the resulting revolution may be inevitable and more violent. Just compare British and French revolution in the 17th and 18th century, France held onto the feudalism longer than Britain, but at the end, it was a lot more bloody and took a much longer time to get true democracy.
In the meantime, people still have to live on and worry about day to day problems. I just hope when the change comes, fewer lives would be lost and China eventually can get a system that is more stable in the long term.
-- Sent from my phone
posted by Mosquito at 10:48 上午
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