Let me show you what I suggest is a really great change - then I'll explain the reason for my opinion.
China Changes- Is this the biggest change?
by fulltimestudent 4 Replies latest social current
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Sapphy
Looks like a standard politician claiming to be 'a man of the people' during campaign time.
China isn't a democracy so their leaders don't need to publically campaign. Do you think they may make a small step towards democracy?
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fulltimestudent
Sapphy:
Looks like a standard politician claiming to be 'a man of the people' during campaign time.
Indeed Sapphy! Compared to the past - this is a major change. The leadership in China has been much more likely to sweep past a food store, in an escorted motor cavalcade with traffic lights turned to green ahead, than to stop in for lunch at a street diner. Also, there seems to have been a complete lack of security.
It's a major change - what it means (if anything) we have to wait and see.
China isn't a democracy so their leaders don't need to publically campaign. Do you think they may make a small step towards democracy?
Its difficult to compare, Sapphy.
Democracy in the west still has many problems, not least that the vote of the (theoretically) wisest person who carefully considers all issues facing a nation, has the same value as the most stupid person who never thinks of more than Miley Cyrus' twerking (but its OK to think about both-grin). Another problem is that of representational democracy. You vote for (in the USA and OZ) one of two self-perpetuating oligarchies (A bit like the Jws, GB) who prepare lists of candidates for you to vote for. Because of the high cost of electioneering, members of parliament (congress) are susceptible to the financial lures of lobbyists.
In contrast, China from 1949 was subject to standard communist theory of the dictatorship of the proleteriat. But since Mao's death, China has moved steadily toward greater personal freedom and less censorship (lots of reasons for that).
And contrary to usual western thinking, the more than half of Chinese people who live in rural areas do ELECT their village governments.
Another aspect to consider is the size and reach of the CPC - with a national membership of over 88 million, it is possible for the CPC to tap into national thought and concerns (one CPC member for every (approx) 16 Chinese. If you leave out the young and the very old - you may have one CPC member for every 10 adults.
Every CPC member is encouraged to undertake study. The party has it's own University to train cadres.
Of all political entities on earth the CPC most closely resembles Plato's "Guardians" (Republic). No-one gets tlo the top in the CPC (today) without rigorous education and experience starting at the most basic level.
However, I would not want to guess the future. One only has to look at Russia - the high ideals of the revolution wilted when western ideological opposition led to attempted military intervention and internally a perceived need to root out opposition.
Maybe the process was similar in China. I think its fair to say that the USA still had enormous goodwill in China in 1945. The US commanding officer in China (General Joe Stillwell) had been to Yanan and met Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai and expressed his admiration. Mao and Zhou let it be known that they were prepared to visit Washington and discuss their political goals. If Washignton (Truman, by this time) had extended an invitation the world may have been spared so many dificulties and deaths.
Reference: If Mao had met Roosevelt: An alternative view of US-China relations ( http://www.johngittings.com/id31.html )
If Mao Had Come to Washington: An Essay in Alternatives - ( Foreign Affairs: http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/24374/barbara-w-tuchman/if-mao-had-come-to-washington-an-essay-in-alternatives )
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nonjwspouse
um THIS Mao? The Kuomintang regime was in control before 1949.
"In most cases the party knew very well that it was starving its own people to death." Mao was quoted as saying in Shanghai in 1959: “When there is not enough to eat people starve to death. It is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat their fill.”
there were 45 million premature deaths, not 30 million as previously estimated. Some two to three million of these were victims of political repression, beaten or tortured to death or summarily executed for political reasons, often for the slightest infraction.
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fulltimestudent
Hmmm ! We've had this conversation before - but, here goes:
nonjwspouse:
um THIS Mao? The Kuomintang regime was in control before 1949.
Let's clear this point first. If this comment is meant to dispute the point of the essay, If Mao Had Come to Washington: An Essay in Alternatives, or its companion essay, let me assure you that the CPC did indeed control a large part of the northwest, an area that increased after the Soviet Red Army swept across Japanese held Manchukuo (Manchuria) in the closing days of WW2. (Of which I've posted previously).
But perhaps I should recapitulate a more extensive view Prior to 1949 the Guomindang (GMD/KMT) formed the national government, centred during WW2 in Chongqing (Chungking). That government had started to achieve national power during the time of Sun Yatsen, who toward the end pf his life had turned to Russian Communism as the best hope for modernising China. Sun had also encouraged the newly formed Chinese Communist Party to unite with his GMD/KMT. At Sun's death, Chiang Kai Shek won the ensuing power struggle, and then attempted to eliminate the Communist opposition through military attacks. Unable to match Chiang's military force, various Communist groups decided to seek refuge in the north west. Mao's forces finished up in control and headed the base in Yanan in Shaanxi Province.
Parts of China were also controlled by warlords who may have given some lip service acknowledgement to the GMD/KMT National Government, but held the real political authority in their locality. The Japanese had also taken control of Manchuria in 1931 and established a puppet state with the former emperor Pu Yi as emperor. The Japanese extended their control of large sections of China before and during WW2.
Generally there was a kind of truce between the CPC and the GMD/KMT during the long war against the Japanese, but hostility between the two competing entities was never far from the surface.
The US appointed General Joseph Stillwell to be in charge of their anti-japanese war in East Asia. Stillwell was nicknamed 'Vinegar Joe' because of his ascerbic personality. For Stillwell, winning the war was the only thing that mattered, and like Deng Xiaoping thought common sense was the best guide
I need to try to cut some things short, or else this post will become a 5000 word essay. So let's jump to Stillwell's attempt to assess the usefulness of the CPC in Yanan. In July 1944 he established the 'Dixie Mission' to liaise with Yanan. He sent Colonel David Barrett to Yanan for talks with the communist forces:
Here's Barrett and Mao together in Yanan:
And here's the complete team dressed in suits produced by communist forces:
The first two teams of the Dixie Mission to Yan'an, 1944. Dressed in Communist produced "Chung-shan" suits. From left to right: Ludden, Jones, Stelle, Gress, Domke, Nakamura, Cromley, Barrett, Dole, Service, Peterkin, Remeneh, Hitch, Whittlesey, Colling, Dolan. (Not present are Cromberg and Foss).
Scanned and cropped from David Barrett's Mission to Yenan. Photograph taken by military personnel on the mission.
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The leaders of that team ( Barrett and John Service) were ill served by their nation (the USA) as the wiki entry on the 'Dixie mission' observes:
In addition to establishing relations, the goal was to investigate the Communist Party politically and militarily, and determine if the U.S. would benefit from establishing liaison. John S. Service , of the United States Department of State , was responsible for political analysis, and Colonel David D. Barrett of the United States Army performed the military analysis. Initially, they reported that the Chinese Communists might be useful wartime and post-war ally, and that the atmosphere in Yan'an was more energetic and less corrupt than in Nationalist areas. After the war, the Dixie Mission's reports, and Service and Barrett, were condemned by pro- Chinese Nationalist factions in the American government and fell victim to McCarthyism . Service was fired from his position at the State Department, and Barrett was denied a promotion to brigadier general.
Ideologically based decisions sometime seem more common in the USA, than in China.
It was against that background that the offer made by Mao and Zhou, to visit Washington, seems to have been made.
OK- in my next post, I'll re-visit the topic of Mao's 'Great Leap Forward' and the claims made about Mao.
