Bosco,
I attended a lecture a few months back, given by a China expert from UCSD. He named 10 major issues facing China. Two of them are somewhat related to the subject here.
Chinese history and, in a way, culture, demonstrate the reliance of god like leadership. You are probably aware that the emperor is known as the son of heaven. Other leaders like Confucious, famous warriors like Quon Yua, are all elevated to god like status. In the modern era, it was Mao and then, to a lessor degree, Deng. Now there is no one.
Along the same line, this expert opined that China never had a political system that allowed for a peaceful and orderly manner for her citizens to voice contradicting opinions. Under Zhao Ziyang, a relaxation of the old rules led to the disastrous Tiananmen incident. Well, I don't think China has any miraculous solution for this problem yet. All they know is what didn't work.
As for comparing China to the former USSR, what I meant to say is US policies are general comdemnations without solutions. Gorby and the poor Russians were duped into believing that democracy is the answer to all. With no new infrastructure to replace the old, what do you expect? I don't know how long it is going to take but Russia will eventually get their act together. How do you think they are going to get rid of the current fragmented mafia controlled society? Eventually, there is going to be one mother of a crack down, probably with the use of excessive force, for the new regime to stabilize the situation. What do you think is going to happen to this mythical human rights thing in Russia then?
No, I don't think China will go down that path. I am just frustrated by the idiots of our state department who dreamt up these totally fruitless strategies.
Ramsey |
