|
It's an interesting time in the PRC - with
somehow reminds me of that old Chinese curse: May you live in interesting
times.
The party is at least still
nominally communist, which means that it ostensibly stands for the agrarian
peasants and industrial proletariat. Who apparently, aren't having any of
it:
"The (factory) riot, on the morning
of June 3, had its roots in the refusal of China's government to permit the
establishment of any independent organization, including nongovernment labor
unions, as a reliable, independent channel for workers' grievances. It was a
shocking first for Xizhou, a raw industrial zone on the northeastern edge of the
city of Guangzhou, in southern China's muggy Pearl River Delta. But across China
there are thousands of such explosions every year -- by farmers who lose their
land, workers who get laid off and villagers who feel cheated by corrupt
officials."
While the ideological background of the regime
remains static, in practice China has liberalized its economy, enabling an
expanded private sector. This in turn has created pools of new wealth - and new
inequality. Mass migrations from the rural outlands to rapidly burgeoning cities
also tears at the social fabric of Chinese society.
It's worth keeping in mind that revolutions
typically don't occur spontaneously from the depths of oppression, but rather in
an environment of risen expectations, frustrated reform and regime reaction.
From the French revolution, through the Russian and, in more modern times, the
fall of the Shah of Iran, in each case the masses had recently experienced
better living conditions than they had previously known, but saw further
progress stymied by governments that could go no further while maintaining their
own ontology.
Schooled in Marxist/Leninist thought, the regime
in China is no doubt aware of these precedents, as well as the tactics that
previously threatened governments have commonly used as a finger in the dyke to
maintain control over their restless populations: Nationalism.
To define oneself on the basis of nationalism is
to require an "other" to contrast oneself against. This other does not have to
be contradistinguished so vigorously as to define it as an "enemy," but very
often ends up that way anyway, regardless of regime intent.
Another ancient Chinese proverb comes to mind:
Something about riding the tiger.
|
