China does carry a strong case for not allowing its citizens political freedom. China has had a very long history of authoritarian rule. Its stretches back to the BC Centuries when Emperors of great Dynasties rule China. Even after the final emperor step down in 1912, dictators ruled China. With the early struggles on the 20th Century between the Guomindang and Yuan Shikai, further dictatorships were formed. China’s only taste of democratic life was during the short reign of the Guomindang. The foreign ideas of democracy brought in by San Yatsen, never succeeded. They began a terrible civil war, causing the peasants untold suffering. They also began the war while trying to fight the Japanese who had invaded. The Guomindang’s reputation never recovered, and the party was defeated by the CCP in 1949, and with this defeat the reputation of democracy was one of pain, unnecessary anguish and near defeat at the hands of foreign invaders.
The CCP have also been very successful, Mao Zedong saved China form the fighting and savage warlords. The Long March made the Red Army famous and boosted the Communists popularity to new heights. It stretched throughout China vast landscape and recruited many thousands of willing Chinese peasants all the way. Mao’s Communes also originally united the entire Chinese population, together into large groups working towards the goal of a Communist country. The large public projects also showed what incredible faith the Chinese had in Mao, willing to use their bare hands to help build the large projects. Mao’s charisma helped resort Chinese faith in authoritarian rule after the corruption of past years and democracy. His successor Deng also greatly improved Chinese life, he allowed for private enterprise and special economic zones to be set up. Maybe the single most important reason why democracy has not been introduced to Chinese people is because the average peasant simply does not want democracy, he is happy with his improved life under Deng, and fears the chaos which could take place were China to follow Russia’s example of becoming a democracy.
Nevertheless there have been resistance to the Chinese Communist Party; Tiananmen Square and Democracy Wall are a classic examples of resistance to the Communist ways, and how Communism dealt with protestors. Despite Deng’s economic reforms he stands firm on the one party system run in China.
In 1979 After Mao Zedong’s death people began to openly debate the political future of China, Democracy Wall formed where bold writers expressed their wishes for freedom and democracy. Deng quickly clamped down on this. Closing the wall to everyone and imprisoning the main writers. The Tiananmen Square massacre was possibly the most famous clamp down on political protests. Deng forcefully used the People Liberation Army to drive the students out of the square killing many as they went. These two actions are among the thousands Deng made to keep China under control, and shows very clearly the CCP’s reluctance to relinquish its large amount of power and control over the Chinese people. An even more recent and publicly witnessed event was the CCP’s reaction to the Falun Gong religious cult. The group had been peacefully demonstrating in Tiananmen Square, when in front of tourists the police, kick and beat the protestors while dragging them out of the square.
The economic changes that Deng made, such as the disbanding of the communes and the introduction of private enterprise only came about due to the dire state of the post “Mao” economy. The Open Door Policy opening China to outside investment has come about due to China’s feeling of rejection and the feeling of being overlooked by the other world powers due to China’s dated industry and closed markets. The special economic zones on the coast of China (near Hong Kong) have flourished. The urban dwellers there have the chance to experience life in a capitalist country, the GDP of China has skyrocketed. All these changes though were forced decisions; they were essential to the survival of China as a country. The decision of democracy is not a matter of survival, despite the slow-down in China’s economy there is still little danger of total collapse, and China is in no hurry to copy her sister (ex) Communist country Russia in collapsing into complete turmoil. So even with the success of Capitalists devices in China, the large question remains, what will China do in the next 10 years?
The one of the solutions is the “Singapore Solution”. This solution will allow the CCP to remain in power, the economic zones would continue as they are, but the rest of China’s economy would be converted to a capitalist system. This does however mean that the government will no longer have state owned businesses and that means that many businesses will be bought, and “streamlined” causing job loss and unemployment. The Iron Rice Bowl will be gone. However the free market system would entice many big businesses not already established in China to enter her markets, creating new and well paid jobs. This isn’t a permanent solution however, the Chinese Communist party will find it very difficult to remain popular and with the foreign influence of TV and the Internet, the reminders of democracy will be all to clear, it would only be a matter of time before further protests will occur, and another Tiananmen Square like incidence would create world-wide public outrage. I doubt with the following pressure China would be able to keep its Communist government.
So that would make some sort of change inevitable. There highly improbable solution is to revert to Mao Zedong’s pure Communist way, have everyone work for each other again, but I doubt any Chinese person would want to return to that after the entices of the big “capitalist” cities. So there remains only one viable option for China to turn in a democratic country. But this too carries risks, will corruption once again work its way into the political parties? Will China’s economy collapse like the Russian’s? Will people actually turn out and vote of elections? especially the rural dwellers who seem to care little about the political struggles which seem so far away. The only way these questions will be answered is if China changes. Only then will what is right for China be apparent.
