China, export-country number one, joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, organized the Olympic Games in 2008 and hosted the World Exposition in 2010. Both within China itself, as in the rest of the world, people look with admiration at this process. But because of the relative unfamiliarity with China suspicious attitude and dislike of the country are quite common.
Different expectations lead to different opinions about China. On one side of the spectrum are the optimists who believe that the political situation in China is becoming less authoritarian. They welcome China as a new player on the world stage and would like to see Western countries engaging social and economic cooperation with it at all levels. Their poles are the pessimists who doubt whether the current regime is willing to flexible their control on the society. They see the rise of China as a potential threat to the West and want the Western countries to press China to improve their human rights.
Today, we see small changes occurring in the political situation in China. On one hand the government slowly gives some authority to the citizens. For example, the voting right that every citizen gets these months to vote for political positions at district and township levels. Last week, the first elections were held in the capital city, Beijing. The candidates are nominated by political parties, social organizations or 10 voters in their constituency. A video per candidate is available on the internet. The so called deputies will vote for the new lineup of local governments and have the responsibility to pass relevant information about the wants and needs of their area to the real political organ of the provinces. This of course is an offshoot of the China Communist Party (CCP) and government agencies selected by the CCP. Although the new authority of citizens is still small, we can say this is a big step for China.
On the other hand the Chinese authorities keep announcing new and stricter rules to "manage the spreading of orderly information". They do this by imposing restrictions on the spreading of rumors through social media, chat programs, internet and nowadays also by taking control of journalists. It is well-known that the government blocks certain websites that let people share their social status and, therefore, be more free at expressing their way of thinking and doing things. In order to maintain control over the information and possible group formation, they block this kind of “network”-programs. For example there was the rumor on the net last month that a politician had died. The government blocked the politician’s name on the net and if you wanted to type his name, there was just an error that occurred. In addition, a new rule regarding journalists’ freedom was imposed. According to it, everything that is published should be screened and confirmed by multiple sources beforehand. This ensures that there are no rumors or lies spread by anybody.
To my opinion, the optimists are the ones that will end up being right at the end. Slowly the government is being pushed to a more western and democratic way of organizing, controlling and managing the politics in the country. But the China Communist Party will not give up their control one day or another. They will not easily acknowledge this fact and will keep fighting to keep the complete authority in the country. We can see it in every way they are dealing with “the problems” these days. All this solutions by the government play into hands of the pessimists and indicate that the government is trying to keep its power.
Sources:
China daily, Shanghai daily, Wikipedia, Nu.nl
