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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: B Tate who wrote (2581)	3/8/1998 8:30:00 PM
From: Clarksterh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Summary opinion of someone who recently took a trip to China: exchange2000.com Clark

To: B Tate who wrote (2581)	3/8/1998 8:49:00 PM
From: Stitch	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9980

Morning Bernie, Just read your post re: "Face" as I was out last night. I agree with your observations. One interesting side line to all this is the Chinese Communist Party and their practice of enforcement called self criticism. In their ideological theory, "face" was a rightist reaction and could not be tolerated. As such party members who fell out of grace were often forced to write and publicly read "self confessions". These were often so intolerable that it drove the accused to suicide. Of course, they were just more often based on trumped up charges and bore no resemblance to truth, and were thus used extensively in political intrigues to rout one's personal or perceived enemy. It is interesting to note, however, that the CCP identified "face" as a force to be contended with in advancing their socialist cause. Officially no amount of egoism could be tolerated. In reality very large egos have always been the primary moving force behind all communist movements. One can't help but recognize the similarities between Mao and the "Old Bhudda" herself, the deadly Empress Dowager, Ci Xi. Intrigue against close associates, inability to tolerate any disagreement or criticism, brutality, self aggrandizement, all this and more. You could have had a clue to the great lie that was CCP ideology as early as 1949 when, at the end of the "Long March" and upon taking and occupying Peking (now Beijing), the entire party glitterati moved into Zhongnanhai, the compound of parks and palaces adjacent to the forbidden city, each in turn taking over a palace for his personal quarters and office. Heavily guarded and isolated from the rest of China, the party elite, from that moment on, became aloof from the people they so ranted about, elitist to an extreme. In Zhongnanhai they lived in palaces incredibly ornate and posh. It was here that Kublai Khan built his pleasure domes for example, and here where Mao had his indoor heated swimming pool built for his personal use. It was also here that he remained isolated for months at a time, sometimes not even seen by close associates Zhou Enlai, Chen Li, Liu Bocheng, and others. While Deng Xiaoping finished off the remaining KMT forces in the countryside, Mao lolled in an exquisite Qing dynasty palace called Yinantang, or "Hall of Respect for Elegance". Renamed the "Hall of Longevity" after Mao took it over, his personal quarters were set up in a wing called the "Study of Chrysanthemum Fragrance" which had been extensively renovated for his use. Here Mao read poetry, history, and wrote his own verse. Here also he entertained young girls provided by Kang Sheng, the sinister police chief who went on to become one of the "gang of four" of "Cultural Revolution" madness (along with Mao's wife who was introduced to Mao by Kang). Earlier on this thread there was a discussion of the top worse people in history. Kang Sheng and Madame Mao (Jiang Qing) would share equal billing in my list. IMHO the Communist movement is still a system used by elitist and exclusionary forces much like previous Chinese dynastys. They all fell eventually. Best, Stitch