However, it is up the citizens of China to develop whatever social contract they want, as long as they don't force me to live under their norms. To some extent, this is also what many other countries tell the US, right--that we should stop forcing everybody on the planet to use the US Constitution?
In my graduate school days, every once in a while I engaged my fellow-students from China on their social contract. They were all not unhappy about it. Some of them recognized the flaws, and yet seemed to prefer that over the structure here in the US, for instance, or what India has. In a postmodernist world in which I intellectually understand that paradigms do not easily lend themselves to comparisons, I simply had to think in my mind that I couldn't live there, even if hundreds of millions are ok with that system.
Ramesh, who is no stranger to this blog, lived in China for three-plus years. An ardent fan of capitalism, as even the title of his blog suggests, he writes, with perhaps a few more to come, that China and its politics are way more complex than the simplistic ways in which most of the rest of the world thinks about them:
Mention the words Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the popular impression is that of an evil organisation, suppressing its people with an iron hand and bent on tyranny. The Party, like every other organisation in the world, has the good, the bad and the ugly. The bad and the ugly gets a lot of coverage and is well known. There is lot that is awful, even bordering on evil—like when it comes to Tibet and Xinjiang— and these have been well documented by the media all around the world . But, there is also the good that is seldom known.
The CCP is for large parts, a meritocracy resembling a corporate culture, more than a political party. It recruits the best talent, does careful career planning, imparts a lot of training—including at foreign universities—promotes the best talent, rotates them across different responsibilities and lets the best rise. It probably has the largest HR department in the world. Sure there is dirty politics of lobbying and incompetence, as with any corporate outfit. There are clear goals, objectives, targets and their performance appraisal system would shame even a well run company. By and large merit works. How many political parties can say that (ask Sonia Gandhi!)
In the CCP in its current format, another dictator like Mao is unlikely to arise. Senior leaders have a retirement age (India, US, are you listening?) There is no hereditary politics—Mao’s children and Deng’s children are political nobodies. In fact there is a generational change in leadership coming this autumn. Peaceful handover of power, which was hitherto the preserve of mature democracies, is now a fact in China.
The Party actually listens to the people. It may not be well known, but there are about 500 protests that happen in China every day. Not every protestor is jailed and beaten (although some are.) While there is brutal censorship of news, public opinion triggers action. The milk scandal, discontent over rising prices, house prices bubble, etc., have all seen responses that would actually make a democracy proud. As in most other countries, there is cover up (easier because there is no free press), but when the issue comes out, action is usually swift. The way the CCP listens to people and reacts is very different from democracies, but there is no denying that strong public opinion elicits a response.
There are no inter‐state disputes (again, are you listening, India?) Polarisation, which we increasingly see in democracies, is not a factor in China.
The ultimate test of any political party is this: can it win public support in an election. In this, the CCP comes out with flying colours. If there was a completely free and fair election in China today, the CCP will probably win a 90% majority. Almost nobody who knows China will dispute that.
As with all things in life, things are not black and white. There are only shades of grey—well, shades of red, in China!
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