Is there a tiger on the loose?

[wombat_socho]

Among the other important news that the MSM never seems to pay attention to comes word of the Nine Commentaries on the (Chinese) Communist Party, originally published in Chinese in the Epoch Times and later distributed on the Internet. The commentaries, a critical review of the CCP's history, have triggered massive numbers of resignations from the Party - according to a speech by Canadian MP Stockwell Day, over 1.3 million as of May 10th this year. Many of those resigning are people with quite a bit at stake: public officials, teachers, and professionals.

The conventional wisdom is that the CCP has allowed increased economic freedom while managing to keep a tight rein on political freedom. Conservative and libertarian political theory says that can't last, and that sooner or later free markets are going to make people want to be completely, politically free. If even half of what Day is claiming is true, the Communists in China may be staring into their future and getting a real good look at the ash heap of history. It could make Tienanmen Square look like small potatoes...or like the opening shots in the Fourth Revolution that finally brings freedom to China after nearly a century of chaos and tyranny. We can hope.

Via Small Dead Animals.

Comments

[hyperblaster.livejournal.com]

I have quite a few chinese friends, all with varying opinions about communism. A lot are surprisingly apathetic. They've never experienced democracy, and don't set much store by it. Others bitterly mention Tienanmen. Those from Hong Kong are especially very concerned about the political future of their country. Some though, put forward valid reasons to support communism.

I agree it is difficult to predict whether the current political/economic scenario in china is stable. But then it seems to be doing phenomenally well for the last few decades... with no signs of slowing down.

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

I agree it is difficult to predict whether the current political/economic scenario in china is stable. But then it seems to be doing phenomenally well for the last few decades... with no signs of slowing down.

Yeah, the economy definitely seems to be going great guns, but then all we really have to go on is the official figures, and it's not like Communist regimes haven't routinely lied about that sort of thing in the past. Still, it's hard to argue with the massive quantity of trade flowing through their ports.

I'm hoping Hong Kong manages to hang on to their autonomy and what's left of their democratic heritage...still hard to believe the UK sold them down the river like they did, but again there's nothing new about that either.

[kawaii-shoujo.livejournal.com]

Besides Hong Kong, there's also the issue of Communist China threatening to use military force against Taiwan. (I haven't read the Nine Commentaries, but I intend to, so my comments aren't based on them.) Then there was China's "liberation" of Tibet. A former co-worker is Tibetan by ethnicity, but was born and raised in India after his parents fled Tibet in 1959. The one child policy allows the government to force any woman with an unauthorized pregnancy to have an abortion, no matter how far along she is, even if she's only days away from delivery.

I hope those who are predicting the fall of communism in China are right.

Fa Mulan, come back and save China again!

[hyperblaster.livejournal.com]

Oooo, Mulan icon!!
My only quarrel with disney is that none of the Mulan characters look even remotely chinese.

Aside from that, there is more horror in the one child policy. I was in my early teens when I read an article about it in the Reader's Digest. At that time, I knew very little about China. It was the story of a nurse who refused to murder an illegal baby. The upshot was that she was fired, and another nurse murdered the newborn child anyway. I was shocked speechless when I read that, I couldn't believe any one could actually murder newborn babies like this.

[kawaii-shoujo.livejournal.com]

I've heard that the one-child policy includes non-biological children. For instance, a couple who already their one child would not be allowed to adopt a second child. If parents who already had one child would be allowed to adopt another, I've heard it said that China's child welfare institutes would be empty in days.

[kawaii-shoujo.livejournal.com]

Oh, forgot to add about the murdering of babies. Mother themselves have killed their babies if their one child was a daughter and not a son. Many abandon the girl baby in order to try again for a son. That's why most of the children in the child welfare institutes are girls and not boys.

[hyperblaster.livejournal.com]

How could a mother murder her own baby daughter?
I cannot understand why. Even if she wanted a son, what kind of mother would do this?

I wonder what Chinese families must be like. Every one is an only child, spoilt and indulged. Children need siblings to grow up properly.