August 20, 2004
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China’s Glories
This rules: Some of China’s elder statesman are calling for more openness in media and politics. They’re using the 100th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping’s birthday on Sunday as their “policy peg.” Deng was the leader who really pushed China’s economic growth and opened the country up to all sorts of foreign economic involvement. His catch-phrase: “To get rich is glorious.”
So who’s going to be the Chinese leader to say, “To be open and accountable is glorious”? Not as catchy, I know, but…
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There was always a contradiction at the heart of Communist authoritarianism. Why maintain a death-grip on political power and crush out all dissent if it's ideologically impermissable to fleece the masses? Nobody's that pure.
China has solved this problem. Now the place is like a giant banana republic (soon to become a giant Banana Republic)* but with real economic and geopolitical power and in turn, a fair degree of ideological legitimacy. This makes China both more stable and more dangerous than any nation in the history of the world.
Oh, except us. We're some bad mo-fos in the USA ourselves.
* - apologies for the Maureen Dowd-worthy punning
Yeah, about that Deng Xiaoping quote...
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