Beast of the Month - August 2008

Robalini's Note: Still a little behind, but catching up...

Beast of the Month - August 2008
Hu Jintao, Chinese President

"I yam an anti-Christ..."
John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) of The Sex Pistols, "Anarchy in the UK"

"One World, One Dream"
Slogan of the 2008 Summer Olympics

On August 8, the Summer Olympics will be held in Beijing. It will begin at 8PM, which will make it the eighth hour of the eighth day of the eighth month of the eighth year of the century. (In case you didn't know, eight is considered the luckiest number in China, and the Chinese people are particularly superstitious about it.) When it is, it will be viewed in the korporate media as the final coronation of China as one of the few world superpowers. Like it actually needs one.

It's hard to believe it's been nine years since someone from China has won BOTM, and eleven since Jiang Zemin took home the trophy. Why that's particularly hard to believe is because in the past nine years, China has not gotten weaker, but rather frighteningly stronger.

Want the proof? Just walk down the aisle of your local Best Buy, Target or (of course) WalMart. Try to avoid buying products which aren't made in the People's Republic. Good luck. Freelance writer Sara Bongiorni did that a full year in 2005 with her family. Needless to say, it often turned shopping for even everyday products into an epic journey. Her four-year-old son, despondent over the cool toys and gadgets he was unable to obtain, had this to say about the end of the boycott: "When we can buy China things again, let's never stop." Ms. Bongiorni summed up her dilemma thusly:

"The funny thing about China's ascent is that we, as a nation, could shut the whole thing down in a week. Jump-start a 'Just Say No to Chinese Products Week,' and the empire will collapse amid the chaos of overloaded cargo ships in Long Beach harbor. I doubt we could pull it off. Americans may be famously patriotic, but look closely, and you'll see who makes the flag magnets on their car bumpers. These days China delivers every major holiday, Fourth of July included."

Of course, if China was merely destroying Team USA's manufacturing sector while poisoning kids with lead-filled toys, it would be bad enough. Currently, China is the number two holder of US Treasury securities, ahead of the UK and only trailing Japan. It is number two with a bullet. What this means is that increasingly China will have a major say in the decisions of our political establishment. It's hard to ignore that in the late 80s and early 90s, for all the hysteria that was directed at the evil Japanese empire, they were nowhere near the economic threat to America that China is now, and a fellow democracy to boot as compared to a communist dictatorship. So where are the panic-stricken pop novels like Michael Crichton's Rising Sun over China?

Okay, maybe that's a little over-the-top: China, after all, is no longer a communist dictatorship, it's a capitalist dictatorship. China has a $7 trillion a year GDP when measured in purchasing power parity, second only to the USA. Since 1978, when free market reforms were implemented, it has grown at an annual rate of over 8 percent. This growth has been aided over the last decade by the reacquisition of both Hong Kong in 1997 and Macau and 1999. Hong Kong long has been the world's shining example of free market economics (Milton Friedman gushed about it in his 1980 book Free to Choose) while Macau has surpassed Las Vegas as the world's largest gambling center, and now only Dubai exceeds it as an example of 21st century capitalism on steroids. Meanwhile, China's biggest oil producer PetroChina became the first trillion dollar company in value last November, and Shanghai has become the world's largest cargo port. With all this money flowing to China, talks of reunification with Taiwan can no longer be dismissed as merely a dream.

But China is definitely still an ugly dictatorship. The crackdown on Tiananmen Square may have happened nineteen years ago, but an environment toxic to freedom still is alive and well. When Hu Jintao (The Konformist Beast of the Month) was selected to take over China's presidency in 2002 from Jiang Zemin, there was widespread hope that he would become the nation's Gorbachev, that political freedom would be unleashed by what was suspected to be a closet liberal. This was aided by his close relationship with Premier Wen Jiabao, who is about as close to a populist figure that can be found in the Chinese establishment. Nearly six years later, this has been proven to be a bogus fantasy, a fantasy exposed most blatantly by the continuing suppression of the people of Tibet. Indeed, the recent crackdown on Tibetan followers of the exiled Dalai Lama has become so intense, there has been a heavy push for nations to boycott the Olympic opening ceremonies as protest. Other noted examples of China's continued repression are the persecution of the Falun Gong religious movement, the backing of a ruthless military junta in Burma and its ties to the bloodshed in Darfur via continued support of Sudan.

Some refer to the 2008 Games as the "Genocide Olympics" thanks to these crimes against humanity, and has led to further calls for a boycott, most notably from actress and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow, actor and Tibetan activist Richard Gere, director Steven Spielberg and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu. The most in-your-face example of China's continued autocratic style is the nation's crackdown on the Internet, which is already a major hurdle for journalist attempting to cover the Olympic Games. This is despite being lied to repeatedly by China that Internet censorship would be lifted on journalists during the games. (Hard to believe a dictatorship would use deception to land an esteemed multi-billion dollar reward.) According to an International Olympic Committee commissioner: "Had the I.O.C., and those vested with the decision to award the host city contract, known seven years ago that there would be severe restrictions on people being able to enter China simply to watch the Olympics, or that live broadcasting from Tiananmen Square would essentially be banned, or that reporters would be corralled at the whim of local security, then I seriously doubt whether Beijing would have been awarded the Olympics.” The climate of persecution that pervades the Summer Games has been so vast, criticisms of Beijing's toxic smog due to intense air pollution have been almost an afterthought. It appears that for all the talk of open markets leading to freedom, it's going to take longer to achieve Chinese democracy than it has taken Axl Rose to finish his GNR album of the same name.

Over the last eight years, two camps of the GOP have been divided over whether to continue treating China as a trading partner or turning them into an adversary for a Cold War sequel. (These two camps can be referred to as the "Shopping Mall Fascists" and the "War & Oil Fascists" for those keeping score at home.) This division is illustrated in the pro-China positions of both Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch and Christian televangelist Pat Robertson, both having normally anti-Communist views apparently trumped by their desire to profit in the untapped Chinese market. (Robertson's mammon is particularly telling, as he actually has defended China's forced abortion policy to control population, a step beyond the mere "pro-choice" position of American abortion activists he regularly bashes.) The general results of this debate has led the Bush Team to continue the plunge into transferring dollars into China's coffers while getting any dig into them whenever they can, no matter how petty. One noted example: the April Fools 2001 crash between a US spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet that led to the death of PLA pilot Wang Wei. Immediately, the Bush Administration insisted the incident happened in international airspace (a dubious claim) and demanded the release of the entire crew. (It's hard to imagine that if a Chinese spy plane near US borders caused the death of an American navy pilot, Team USA would immediately release the crew and their plane without investigation.) Ten days later, when the Bush Administration gave a belated and unconvincing apology after an increasingly shrill hysteria swept through the press, China released the crew, but by then the diplomatic damage had been unnecessarily done. Cut to 2006, when a visit by Jintao to the US was littered with snubs that showed a calculated pattern. Among the greatest hits: referring to China as “the Republic of China" (the actual title for Taiwan) during the official White House greeting. Perhaps even worse was granting a Falun Gong anti-China activist press credentials to a joint Bush-Jintao press conference. The press conference was interrupted for three minutes by an angry denunciation of Jintao and China by the activist, something which would've been halted immediately if it was an attack on Bush's failed War in Iraq. Normally, the granting of a press pass is so controlled, only right-wing closet gay prostitutes who sleep at the White House overnight can evade the tight scrutiny, which indicates the Falun Gong supporter's activities were sanctioned by the Bush Administration all along.

Of course, not all battles between China and the US are so minor. Both countries have used bogus excuses to use military weaponry in space, moves that indicate a "Star Wars" may eventually explode between the two nations for control of the Earth's skies. And as PetroChina's rise clearly shows, there is a huge battle already being covertly waged between the two countries over the vast Caspian Sea oil reserves. This covert war may go deeper than most suspect: while 9/11 conspiracy theories mainly focus on the US military, Israel, Saudi Arabia or the UK as the alternative culprit, Gordon Thomas makes the case in the book Seeds of Fire that the terrorist attack was actually a Chinese operation to punish the US and strengthen ties between China and Islamic nations. In particular, the book details the close financial relationship between China and the Taliban before 9/11. (Coincidentally, the Taliban was run from power almost immediately after China was voted into the WTO in November 2001.) That being the case, perhaps the tensions between the US and China will become increasingly overt as China continues to gain power without firing a single weapon.

In any case, we salute Hu Jintao as Beast of the Month. Congratulations, and keep up the great work, Hu!!!

Sources:

Barboza, David. "Macao Surpasses Las Vegas as Gambling Center." New York Times 23 January 2007 <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/business/worldbusiness/23cnd-macao.html>.

Bodeen, Christopher. "Under Hu, China Tightening Media Reins." Washington Post 21 April 2006 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/21/AR2006042100951.html>.

Bongiorni, Sara. "A Year Without 'Made in China'." Christian Science Monitor 20 December 2005 <http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1220/p09s01-coop.html>.

Bongiorni, Sara. A Year Without "Made in China": One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy. Hoboken: Wiley, 2007.

Chin, Larry. "Is the Anglo-American Empire Losing the 'Great Energy Game'?" Online Journal 8 January 2007 <http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1612.shtml>.

"China's Hu Vows to 'Purify' Internet." Reuters 24 January 2007 <http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSPEK9570520070124>.

"Dalai Lama: China Causing 'Cultural Genocide'." CNN 17 March 2008 <http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/16/tibet.unrest>.

Eimer, David. "China Earthquake: Superstition a Potent Force." London Telegraph 24 May 2008 <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/2021715/China-earthquake-Superstition-a-potent-force.html>.

"The Genocide Olympics?" Washington Post 14 December 2006.

Harnden, Toby. "Outrage as Preacher Refuses to Condemn Chinese Abortions." London Telegraph 20 July 2001 <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1316790/Outrage-as-preacher-refuses-to-condemn-Chinese-abortions.html>.

Hilton, Isabel. "China's One-party Monopoly of Power Is Coming to an End." London Guardian 12 July 2007 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/jul/12/comment.china>.

Kahn, Joseph. "China Confirms Test of Anti-Satellite Weapon." New York Times 23 January 2007 <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/world/asia/23cnd-china.html>.

Kluger, Jeffrey. "Was A Satellite Shootdown Necessary?" Time 20 February 2008 <http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1714811,00.html>.

Lou, Ying. "PetroChina's Value Tops $1 Trillion, Surpassing Exxon." Bloomberg November 2007 <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aQyRJI72Kor8>.

Marquand, Robert. "E.U. Weighs Olympic Boycott Over Tibet." Christian Science Monitor 27 March 2008.

Mone, Gregory. "Choking at the Olympics." Popular Science August 2007.

Musil, Steven. "Internet Censorship Plagues Journalists at Olympics." CNET News 29 July 2008 <http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10002097-93.html>.

Ritter, Peter. "The New Space Race: China vs. US." Time 13 February 2008 <http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1712812,00.html>.

"Shanghai Now the World's Largest Cargo Port." Asia Times Online 7 January 2006 <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/HA07Cb02.html>.

Stelter, Brian. "Networks Fight Shorter Olympic Leash." New York Times 21 July 2008 <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/sports/olympics/21nbc.html>.

Thomas, Gordon. Seeds of Fire: China And The Story Behind The Attack On America. Tempe: Dandelion Books, 2001.

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Chinese Democracy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2124176,00.html

China's one-party monopoly of power is coming to an end
Increasing numbers are speaking up against local tyrannies and corruption, and no longer can the state silence them

Isabel Hilton
Thursday July 12, 2007
The Guardian

The last month in China has seen a range of reactions to the rescue of several hundred slaves, including children, from Chinese brickyards. In the cities there was shock; in the villages, where the victims came from, people knew that kidnapping is neither a new nor an isolated phenomenon. In the government, there was embarrassment: the existence of slavery cast something of a shadow over the party's current promise of a "harmonious society".

There was another, more unexpected result: the Southern Metropolis Weekly published an interview with the writer Wu Si, who argued cogently that both local tyranny and slavery had a long history in China, and that neither would be eliminated without democracy and the rule of law. His argument was simple: historically these things happened because the good behaviour of officials had depended on the vigilance of their superiors. Today, he said, the core power structure remained unchanged. "It is," he said, "still an upwardly responsible pyramid." Just as in the Qing dynasty, slavery is illegal today, but the law is not just insufficiently specific, as the national lawyers' association pointed out this week, it is also ignored. And just as in the Qing dynasty, senior officials complained that subordinates took bribes to flout the law, lied to superiors and resorted to obfuscation and delay if ordered to enforce it.

Many village heads are now elected in China, but, as Wu pointed out, the more powerful figure of the party secretary is not. "Democracy may not solve this problem," he said, "but a lack of democracy has caused it ... throw the crooks out by casting votes. And separation of powers, too, so that one individual can no longer mislead the public. An independent disciplinary department, an independent judiciary, an independent legislature." It is a measure of the government's wider problem of legitimacy that the Southern Metropolitan Weekly has not yet been closed down for heresy against the Communist party. Indeed, as the party prepares for its 17th congress this autumn, the word democracy is on the lips of the party elite; the difficulty is to determine what they mean by it.

Two years ago, the Chinese government published a white paper on democracy that opened with the stirring proposition that "democracy is an outcome of the development of political civilisation of mankind. It is also the common desire of people all over the world". Earlier this year the prime minister, Wen Jiabao, announced that "democracy, law, freedom and human rights" were not exclusive to capitalism.

But the white paper went on to explain that "democracy with Chinese characteristics" had been the party's gift to the Chinese people and there is little sign that this has changed. On June 25, Hu Jintao, the party general secretary, told an audience at the Party School, the communists' most important thinktank, that "greater participation" by the people was desirable - as long as it did not jeopardise the party's rule.

In Hu's view, wider consultation and a slightly wider franchise within the party for senior posts should just about do it. "Chinese characteristics" seem set to remain firmly in force. But this is unlikely to satisfy the demands of a population that has seen the promise of prosperity falter as the wealth gap widens and the rich and powerful pillage the public good. Outside party circles, the democracy discussion is much more radical.

Nearly 25 years ago, Wei Jingsheng, an electrician from Beijing Zoo, shot to fame with his famous wall poster, the Fifth Modernisation, pasted on that briefly tolerated bulletin board of political debate, Democracy Wall. It was an open challenge to Deng Xiaoping, whose "four modernisations" announced his intention to liberalise China's socialist economy. When Wei argued that China would not be a modern country if it did not also modernise its political system, he paid for his temerity with many years in jail. Twenty-five years on, his argument is gaining ground.

Last year a conference paper called for the party to split into two factions and contest elections. The author of that paper escaped sanctions. The party's conservative approach is unlikely to silence the growing number of voices who, like Wu, point out that the ills that afflict the legitimacy of party rule - corruption, arbitrary local tyranny and a legal system that remains firmly under the thumb of the powerful - are unlikely to be fixed from above. Authoritarian, top-down systems do not allow information to reach the head of the dinosaur with the speed required to allow leadership to run an effective government, as the Qing emperors discovered. And even when news gets out, local officials are aware, as they always have been, that the emperor is far away.

The difference is that increasing numbers of citizens know better. They are organising themselves into a bewildering range of pressure groups and action committees, despite restrictions on civic organisation, learning how to take action and pressure officials to obey the law of the land. In a growing number of articles, writers and intellectuals are challenging the proposition that the party has a divine right to the monopoly of political power - and the government no longer feels able to silence them.

· Isabel Hilton is editor of chinadialogue.net