Chinese Awakening?

Max Fisher - The Atlantic

Last week, riots broke out in Guangdong province, the country's most populous as well as its industrial base. Coastal, ethnic Han, and economically essential, Guangdong province matters for China. In the violence end ensuing crackdown, protesters burned out cars, ransacked shops, and rained bricks on police. CNN's Eunice Yoon, arriving here not long after the protesters, wrote, "for the first time since I started reporting in China years ago, workers approached us unfazed by our cameras. They were unafraid to vent their grievances to foreign TV journalists even as the police looked on." Police soon commanded her to leave.

What has worried me for sometime now is the example that China has set for the world. The fact that China has achieved extraordinary economic growth over the past thirty years while still maintaining an autocratic system has fascinated the world. Many columnists have even expressed envy at this model and have pondered why the American political system can't achieve the focus of the Chinese political system. I've always felt uneasy about these arguments because it undermines the virtue of democracy and fails to paint a complete picture. As an outsider looking in its easy to point to the cold, technocratic, one-party system that has successfully achieved break-neck economic growth and say it works. China indeed should be lauded for recovering from the backwardness under Mao to become the superpower they are today. They've transformed from a largely peasant agrarian society to a modern capitalist juggernaut in little over 50 years. 


But what doesn't get talked about is the fact that China leads the world in executions by a wide margin. Human rights abuses? Ignored. Lack of Labor standards? Overlooked even praised in some circles. Persecution of ethnic minorities such as Tibetans and Uighurs? Barely talked about. Total disregard for the environment? Not even on the radar. Outside of Fareed Zakaria, no one in the mainstream media brings up these issues. Only those that pay close attention know that China is basically recolonizing Africa. The American political system has its long list of faults, I'm not even going to go there, but its problems pale in comparison to China's. I would wager that there isn't a single American, Briton, German, Frenchman, or Canadian in their right minds that would trade their lives for that of a Chinese. 


It was widely believed that the acquiescence of the Chinese population was essentially bought in exchange for economic growth. But that assumption is quickly being debunked. Chinese citizens are increasingly taking to the streets to air out their grievances in the face of overwhelming force. It isn't clear how much the Arab Spring has influenced this "Chinese Summer"; but you'd have to be blind not to the connection. The Chinese government was afraid of this which is why it increased its electronic monitoring recently. Will this lead to meaningful political reforms or will it lead to another Tiananmen Square? No one knows. But its worth keeping an eye on going forward.