China's Politics And Stuff

[Lxxx]

Although having said that I can foresee a situation in the middle east which has the potential to escalate (or Pakistan) which may indirectly draw in the US and China on opposing sides, so may get a mexican standoff via proxy as opposed to any direct confrontation.

[La_Dolce_Vita]

You can speculate all you like about future possibilities but too early to tell on Chinese and US antagonism. Have you factored in India? What about US and Chinese agreement on foreign policy issues or economic integration? Bit simplistic to just think a Cold War situation will occur because you have a single superpower and another power that will soon be a military superpower.

[Lxxx]

You can speculate all you like about future possibilities but too early to tell on Chinese and US antagonism. Have you factored in India? What about US and Chinese agreement on foreign policy issues or economic integration? Bit simplistic to just think a Cold War situation will occur because you have a single superpower and another power that will soon be a military superpower.

 

For f*cks sake calm down la...this is a discussion forum not a patronising lecture forum for anally retentive inbreds. 'You can speculate all you like....' well yes I can, and I will, so get a life sunshine.

[La_Dolce_Vita]

You seem to be one getting in a flap. I was referring to the fact that it seems rather pointless speculating on such matters when there are no indicators to show it would pan out that way. It is a possibilities but then possibilities are many. Presumably you think the one you mentioned is likely, but why?

[Lxxx]

You seem to be one getting in a flap. I was referring to the fact that it seems rather pointless speculating on such matters when there are no indicators to show it would pan out that way. It is a possibilities but then possibilities are many. Presumably you think the one you mentioned is likely, but why?

 

In my opinion, China is being built up to be the boogeyman of the west, just as Russia was, just as 'Islamic terrorists' are at present. History has shown us throughout the western world that the best way to keep the populace on their toes is to make them fixated on an enemy, real or otherwise, in order to maintain tighter social control, justify exorbitant military spending and to keep the illusion going that they live in a democracy while the 'enemy' is the one who who lives in a repressive society. Maybe I'm wriong, but just my thoughts.

[La_Dolce_Vita]

I absolutely agree with what you say about the creation about the enemy. Although I am not so sure China is being portrayed as such.

 

History hasn't shown all of us, because most people aren't interested in history. But it is so much that enemies are created for the purpose of diverting attention from what matters and to maintain social control, rather that the enemies of the State and enemies of private business are portrayed as enemies of the people and threats are accentuated for the reasons you have mentioned. The media often do the job better than governments could hope do, especially in the States.

 

Anyway, what political ideological or background do you have? These aren't just your thoughts. You haven't commented on social control based entirely on your considerations of the world.

[Lxxx]

I absolutely agree with what you say about the creation about the enemy. Although I am not so sure China is being portrayed as such.

 

History hasn't shown all of us, because most people aren't interested in history. But it is so much that enemies are created for the purpose of diverting attention from what matters and to maintain social control, rather that the enemies of the State and enemies of private business are portrayed as enemies of the people and threats are accentuated for the reasons you have mentioned. The media often do the job better than governments could hope do, especially in the States.

 

Anyway, what political ideological or background do you have? These aren't just your thoughts. You haven't commented on social control based entirely on your considerations of the world.

 

Whether people are interested in history or not, the truth will always be the truth, and the facts remain.

 

I don't consider myself to have any political ideology. I have just liked to read a hell of a lot over the years, right across the spectrum, and when you look at things with an open mind and use critical thought, instead of picking an ideology off the shelf and adapting your thinking to it, I certainly think you can see through all the bullshit into what's really going on around us, and what has been going on for centuries.

[La_Dolce_Vita]

Do you not have any views in respect of how society should be, on the basis of your comments on revolution and the issue of social control? You may not. Though you seem to have criticised of western government, corporate power and control of society.

[ScotsAlan]

Do you not have any views in respect of how society should be, on the basis of your comments on revolution and the issue of social control? You may not. Though you seem to have criticised of western government, corporate power and control of society.

 

But China is a strange place regarding revolution.

 

It has had it's revolution but needs to work hard to prevent another one.

 

You seem to be a revolutionary LDV. What do you think? Can a revolutionary government ever become the establishment? And if it does, is another revolution needed?

 

The Chinese peasants are still waiting for what Chairman Mao promised them. Democracy, free healthcare, free education etc etc.

 

But Cuba on the other hand...

[La_Dolce_Vita]

I don't know what you mean about China and revolution.

 

I have anarchist sympathies, but I am not a Marxist, which would be what you seem to imply by A revolutionary government.

 

If the Chinese are waiting for anything like communism or a democratic society then they were sold out decades ago by the Communist Party and they certainly won't get democracy under the economic system that exists in China today.

 

Cuba?

[Chinahand]

I've posted about this theme alot, but sadly it continues.

 

China has got increasingly repressive over people attempting to hold the Chinese Communist Party to account. It basically doesn't matter if you wish to do it peacefully and via the existing system - if you call for reform in China at the moment you'll face a security apparatus uninterested in the rule of law or humanitarian treatment.

 

I am frankly awed by the bravery of the people who continue to call for reform - just as Cold War disidents like Sakharov, Solzhenitsyn and Havel endured the misery of an authoritarian state trying to crush their aspirations for more democracy, so people like Liu Xiaobo, Ai Weiwei, Chen Guangcheng etc have been brutalized for wanting the Chinese government to better represent its citizens.

 

Here are another two examples:

 

A prominent Chinese writer close to Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo has described "inhumane treatment" that forced him to leave.

 

Speaking in Washington, Yu Jie said he was harassed by police, then abducted and severely beaten.

 

He said that after Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "illegal house arrests, torture, surveillance and tracking, and being taken on 'trips' became part of my daily life".

 

Mr Yu said he was picked up by plainclothes officers on 9 December 2010, the day before the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, hooded and and taken to an undisclosed location.

 

There he said he was stripped of his clothes, beaten for hours and told that his naked photos would be posted online. He said he also suffered cigarette burns.

 

"They verbally abused me non-stop with vulgar language, calling me a traitor to the state and to the Chinese people, and trash," he wrote in the statement.

 

He was eventually taken to hospital for treatment and released on 13 December.

 

...

 

Meanwhile, another writer and activist has been sentenced in China for "subversion of state power", according to media reports.

 

The Wuhan Intermediate People's Court in Wuhan, central China, sentenced Li Tei to 10 years on Tuesday, making him the third dissident to be jailed in less than a month.

 

Mr Li, 52, was punished for writing online articles encouraging people to defend their rights, an unidentified relative of his told Reuters news agency.

 

Torture, repression and people being imprisioned for 10 years for calling on people to defend their rights. It's not easy to see how China can reform itself peacefully.

 

The current regime stifles any attempts and so keeps increasing the pressure until it explodes in scenes like the recent Wukan demostratons.

 

I hope China can continue to improve its political situation, but social tensions are high, and if economic growth slows down and significant numbers of people become unemployed then the anger of those left behind in China's boom could become uncontrollable.

[Chinahand]

China is one fascinating place and it is changing so rapidly it is hard to know where it is heading.

 

The cartoonist Hexie Farm gives quite an insight to how a young, internet savy person views his country and international politics. Most of his cartoons are in Chinese, but some have a translation.

 

The cartoonist is anonymous, doesn't post his cartoons onto Chinese servers and if you try to search for him in China you won't get a hit - (ScotsAlan fancy checking this out? - use the Chinese name 蟹农场 though you may get different results from a domestic connection or an internet cafe where most Chinese surf), but his work has generted quite a stir within the anarchic, dissident community which evades China's internet restrictions.

 

I think his cartoons are really striking and provide quite a perspective on the abuses of power and violence practiced in the world.

 

Firstly Internationally

 

 

Susan E. Rice: The courageous people of #Syria can now clearly see who supports them, and who does not.

[China and Russia protecting Assad in Syria]

 

The Death of Dictator

“Don’t shoot! I’m like your father!”

 

Corruption

 

Supreme Instruction: Never forget the anti-corruption/corrosion struggle！

 

Big Brother infiltrated the territory of Western hostile power…

Cartoon text: Hey, where is the Swiss Bank?

 

State Thuggery

 

Ask not what [a famous Beijing Fried Duck Resturant] can do for you, ask what you can do for [the famous Beijing Fried Duck Resturant]

 

All those who disagree raise your right hand

 

In China even Edvard Munch's The Scream would be "harmonized" - negative internet postings censored or edited to make them positive.

 

The Panda is not necessarily cuddly

[Chinahand]

China is currently undergoing quite a political rollercoaster.

 

The main cause has been the fall out from the scandals around Bo Xilai- a provincial governor from Chongqing. He was the son of a Communist Party Immortal- a long marcher who was an ally of Mao and then Deng and held enormous influence over the party.

 

With such a pedigree Bo went up the Party hierachy and was a strong contender to a seat on the Standing Committee of the CPC- the 9 or so most powerful people in China.

 

Bo started a campaign in Chengdu to remember the "good old days" popularizing patriotic, red songs looking back to a nostalgic era when everyone was poor, but led simple lives and the Communist Party portrayed itself as incorruptable with a duty to help the people - this glosses over mass terror, struggle sessions against class enemies and the massive destruction of life and property caused by such movements as the Great Leap Forward and the Anti-Rightest Campaigns.

 

Part of Bo's campaign was a crack down on what he called Mafias controlling crime and corruption in the city. There were big show trials and assets and such like were seized by the state.

 

This looks to have been Bo's downfall as it became simply a grab for power with businesses appropriated in the name of the state and handed on to flunkies and allies. Bo built a huge spy network - which even had the audacity to spy in on the phone calls of the Chinese President Hu Jintao- and used its power to enrich.

 

The end seems to have come with the murder/death in suspicious circumstances of a Briton, Neil Heywood. It seems that he fell out with Bo's wife over a business deal, and she is now a suspect in his murder.

 

Bo's police chief, Wang Lijun, discovered this, and took his concerns to Bo, but Bo turned against him. Fearing for his life he tried to defect and fled to the US consulate in Chengdu, the capital of nearby Sichuan province.

 

The Yanks weren't willing to give him asylum (WSJ Video), but allowed him to contact Beijing - he clearly saw his chances as being better with the central authorities than being left to the provincial thugs controlled by Bo.

 

The result is a huge purge as Bo's allies are turned on by their rivals. There have been rumours of coups and China's netizens are trying to find all sorts of ways of finding out what is going on in the censored environment.

 

As ever China fascinates!

[Lxxx]

China is currently undergoing quite a political rollercoaster.

 

The main cause has been the fall out from the scandals around Bo Xilai- a provincial governor from Chongqing. He was the son of a Communist Party Immortal- a long marcher who was an ally of Mao and then Deng and held enormous influence over the party.

 

With such a pedigree Bo went up the Party hierachy and was a strong contender to a seat on the Standing Committee of the CPC- the 9 or so most powerful people in China.

 

Bo started a campaign in Chengdu to remember the "good old days" popularizing patriotic, red songs looking back to a nostalgic era when everyone was poor, but led simple lives and the Communist Party portrayed itself as incorruptable with a duty to help the people - this glosses over mass terror, struggle sessions against class enemies and the massive destruction of life and property caused by such movements as the Great Leap Forward and the Anti-Rightest Campaigns.

 

Part of Bo's campaign was a crack down on what he called Mafias controlling crime and corruption in the city. There were big show trials and assets and such like were seized by the state.

 

This looks to have been Bo's downfall as it became simply a grab for power with businesses appropriated in the name of the state and handed on to flunkies and allies. Bo built a huge spy network - which even had the audacity to spy in on the phone calls of the Chinese President Hu Jintao- and used its power to enrich.

 

The end seems to have come with the murder/death in suspicious circumstances of a Briton, Neil Heywood. It seems that he fell out with Bo's wife over a business deal, and she is now a suspect in his murder.

 

Bo's police chief, Wang Lijun, discovered this, and took his concerns to Bo, but Bo turned against him. Fearing for his life he tried to defect and fled to the US consulate in Chengdu, the capital of nearby Sichuan province.

 

The Yanks weren't willing to give him asylum (WSJ Video), but allowed him to contact Beijing - he clearly saw his chances as being better with the central authorities than being left to the provincial thugs controlled by Bo.

 

The result is a huge purge as Bo's allies are turned on by their rivals. There have been rumours of coups and China's netizensare trying to find all sorts of ways of finding out what is going on in the censored environment.

 

As ever China fascinates!

 

Yep, read about this. Fascinating stuff. I'm sure the western influence, as ever, is in there somewhere destabilising things.

[Chinahand]

I haven't had time to post on Chen Guangcheng, the blind lawyer who was illegally detained under house arrest by local government thugs. His escape and asylum bid in the US embassy nearly upset US/China relations last month. He's now in the US, ostentiably studying law, but still trying to get the CPC loosen its grip on power. Listen to this podcast for a bit of background.

 

Here is a profile of another dissident lawyer who has fought for freedom of speech in China. Such people are incredibly brave in the face of an overpowering state. The piece gives a good flavour why students who got caught up in Tiananmen have continued to work for political freedoms and the consequences of that in lost jobs, surveilance, prison and worse.