From the Notebook

About China

blogqz01 | 25 January, 2010 18:21

I found this tiny photo of me when I was a young girl in China. I grew up and came to United States and have not been back, but I believe that just as I am still the same person, China did not change as such as most have thought (but just as well has potential to change). So, I think I can still say something about China that might be relevant.

Like many other countries in history (including US in the earlier time), China’s growth has a lot to do with low labor cost. But like many other countries, growth will lead to the rise of labor cost. However, US in history had been an exception for this rule. Due to vast usable land, and lack of established social residual, the price of land had not rise significantly due to growth, so people would more likely to live comfortably without raising the labor cost too much for a long time. This would not be true for China.

Chairman Mao had said something like "you can paint the newest and the most beautiful picture on a blank sheet". This seems to described the social development in US. As for China, it is not exactly the case. China is one of the few countries has the longest history. Tradition is a sword with two edges, it often help to maintain stability, but it may often provide limitations that can hinder new developments. A blank space can be used to lead to many possibilities, social and culture establishment may often eliminate some possibilities. More over, a society is like a living organism that it often will age with time, it often reflected on the people that their sentiments are more likely to be pessimistic, lack of wild eye wondering, and more of wise men’s skeptical.

Personally, I think Mao is a very troublesome person as I believe he seemed to have full understanding of the dark side or weakness of human nature and used the knowledge for his own benefit. But I think Mao did something that have positively impacted the development of China. To some extend Mao had break the tradition of China. In addition, Mao's public persona present the confidence and new found hope that inspired optimism in the nation.

The most sweeping disruption to tradition of China is the "Cultural Revolution". But it not only broke the tradition, it also fundamentally undermined Mao's own regime. Inconsistency often invites reflection. After near twenty years of the establishment of the Communist China, "Cultural Revolution" basically turned its own establishment upside down. You can that the communist ideology and the Mao’s system developed based on it are introduced to people in China in some what brain wash type of process, and brain wash is similar to hypothesis. But this type process requires consistency. When significant inconsistency and disruption occurred, people will wake up, and start analyzing and judgment process of their own.

"Cultural Revolution" woke up more and more people, and by the time Mao died, people started to question the legitimacy of his regime (which was accepted by many people without any question). Accordingly, the "Reform and Open Up" led by Ding Xiaoping is less of a choice, but more of necessity in order to keep the regime intact, that he basically need to give people better life in order to prevent people from asking too many questions.

Up to now, the so-called communist regime or socialist regime is pretty much an empty shell. What the leader in China so carefully hold on to is a government that insisting on its absolute power while how to define this government is not clear. Ideologically, many principles of communism or socialism are abandoned. If it was never the case that absolute equality existed, at this time absolute public ownership is gone. As far as class struggle, it is the communist party and people in the party that have the money and power (I heard people saying that if you are not a party member, you would not even get funds for research projects), who are the people supposed to raise against?

I am not happy about a lot of things in China, but I am not an opposition against the regime either. The question is what would the leadership do next. The policies of the leaderships after "Reform and Open up" had lead to economic development, but it seems that it is time for reforms that are more fundamental. Whether they can do it and whether they will be successful has historical importance in China.

Reforms are inevitable in order to solve many problems in China. I will just list some of them:

Inconsistency or illegitimacy of the government. As I mentioned earlier, it is obvious the communist regime or the socialist system only existed in name now. This means that the regime could face pressure from both sides. It is conceivable that not only there will be people that push for more reform and freedom, there will be people that want to go back to the old days.
The reform did bring many financial benefits for many people. But it also took away the "iron bowl" from many people, it is obvious many would not be happy about it. As many government owned factories are closed down, or down sized, and as gap of income and wealth becomes bigger, there are support base for people wanting to go back.

The June 4 event certainly started with the push for more reform, but there was rumors that the crack down was not actually in fear of the students, but to prevent power struggle within the party from those that wanted to go back from the reform. I don’t know if the rumor is true, but from the known facts, it did seem that there was a power struggle surrounding the event.

Internal structural conflicts. If Mao ruled with iron fist, the grip of the current leader in China is much loose. Economy reform presented many opportunities for operatives in the system to persue personal financial gains. As any one and every one is grabbing the stake, there are more and more incidents that local governments are in conflicts with the central government.

Corruptions. The most obvious problem in China is corruption, and it is nothing new. When Mao broke the tradition, it is more cosmetic than substance. The corruption that are on going in China is not much different from history. Obviously it is due to the long lasting tradition of "governance of individuals", not "governing by the law", it is the tradition that Mao did not break. As the people in power do as they wish, the ordinary people will not only lose the faith about government, they will lose hope, become cynical and lawless. Essentially, it is moral corruption of the society.

Ideological development as the result of "Reform and Opening Up". The intellectuals under Mao’s governance essentially were lack of the ability for critical thinking. But after the "Cultural Revolution", it is impossible for at least some of the new generation not to pick up this ability. In the beginning of the "Reform and Open up", science and technology were elevated to important spot of national conscious. But science is based on rational thinking that respect facts and established rules developed based on the facts. Natural development of critical thinking will lead to more and more people demand governing under the rule of law, and the freedom of the society.

There are many discussions about whether China will become leader or even dominating force in the world. I think it is too early to ask this question. Although from the outside, it seems that China enjoys economic prosperity , the foundation that can maintain stability thus sustain the prosperity is not present. From economic perspective, because of the system of "governing by individual" not only is not be able to provide clear rules to rely on, it also lacks consistency. As the leadership changes, there could be sweeping changes to the economic system. Without consistency and stability in economic system, prosperity would not be reliable. The prosperity China experienced now is not much different from those times in history, it can become a burst bubble at time.

I believe that the leaderships in China have to face the fact of ideological inconsistency of the government now. The answer is not to go back, but to provide new ideology foundation of the government. They ought to make systematic changes, that is to convert governing by individuals under the hollow form of communism to governing by the rule of law. Rule of law and rational, critical thinking have often been seen as the tradition of western culture, but there are roots in Chinese tradition as well. People often emphasized on the mysterious elements of Taoism's teaching, but the essence of Taoism is reason (it is not a coincident that the name Tao means reason.) Actually, before Confucius was packaged as doctrines and rigid tradition, Confucius arrived to his thoughts based on critical thinking and reasons. The leadership in China ought to realize that rule of law is not another doctrine that can be established by the will of the leaders, it ought to be based on the solid foundation of rational and critical thinking. The foundation is solid because in the end, everyone is and could be subject to and in acceptance of reasons, and it is also because changes made based on reasons can be gradual, and systematic, while the results are certainly be the mostly acceptable.

Unlike many people, I don't view communism as evil in principle. It seems that all ideologies are based on principles that are good or even noble. The basic principle of communism is that everyone should be treated equal, which is basically exact the same as the principle of democracy. What is wrong about communism and socialism is that they take the wrong road on how to get there, and it is evidenced by the Chinese experience along with experiences of other socialist countries It is obvious that the Chinese government already abandoned the practice of communism and socialism method that led to despair, what the leader of Chinese government need is official transformation in ideology following the practice.

The conflicts between central government and local governments are basically power struggles. Under the frame work established based on rule of law, the conflicts can be solved case by case in benign ways. In fact, under certain mechanism, the conflicts may be part of the force for providing check and balance of the governing system, especially in dealing with issues such as corruptions.

Looking back in the history of China, corruption is a persistent disease that cause most of the ill fates, which is a clear indication about fundamental flaws of the established political system and cultural tradition of China. Lack of systematic establishment for governing under the rule of law is the reflection of actual condition, lack of mechanism of check and balance is possibly one of the underline reason for this system. One of the immediate results of corruption is that there is not an independent force of business interests that can be part of the mechanism for check and balance in the society level. Lack of rule of law, lack of check and balance, corruption will only accelerate which will inevitable result in a lawless system until the point of break, then the same process will repeat under the new system. In the end, social disruption due to instability results from the claps of old system often will wipe out economic development, only the cycle of deterioration and destruction repeat.

Economically, the leadership of China insisted on the grip of iron fist under the surface of economic reform. If no business can exist without "mountain to lay back on", there is no chance the independent business interest can survive under the current system. In the end, the system that cannot self correct can only grow worse, until to the tipping point.

What would happen in China in the next several decades could be critical in China’s history. It appears that it will need a "cultural evolution" from the society level that will built common consensus on the importance of rules of law and rational thinking. Based on this cultural transformation, political reforms can be conducted. There might be different possibilities for how to conduct the political reform. But reforms need to be built on common consensus, respect for rule of law that based on reasons and facts can provides solid foundation for this.

In order to build this common consensus, art and entertainment can provide useful means as they are far reach, and the effect is lasting. In this, there should be more artistic freedom that could precede political freedom. Not only pieces from western world should be introduced to more people, original works that reflect independent thinking that contemplate the problems of China should be encouraged here.

If there is ever a rule about how some nation can prosper more than others, it is the rule that culture must be open, more freedom should be enjoyed by the people. The Chinese leadership had been asking the question of how to foster creativity, the answer is the same, i.e., openness and freedom (I like to think that I have provided important inventions, which I could never dreamed of, and the road to get where I am now is completely unpredictable. It is very obvious to me that if I stayed in China, I would not be able to get what I got now. So, I like to think I myself is a testimony for the advantage of the freedom in the United State). In the end, what is good for China is also what is good for the world.

**Please look for my other posts regarding the modern life, politics and democracy, about discussions related to issues in this post.