(Another
politically-incorrect rant by Chris Harry)
In his recent article, Jeremy Goldkorn gives a very good analysis of the
so-called "China Dream", which is every bit as empty as the endless
barrage of vacuous rhetoric spewing forth from the “brains” behind the regime's
latest propaganda offensive (double entendre intended). On closer inspection,
however, I would argue that there is a clear and consistent message embedded
within the party's code which may be far more sinister than its seemingly
upbeat title suggests. When you place the pieces of the "China Dream"
puzzle together in the right sequence, it starts to look a little less
optimistic and inspiring.
The government is sort of hinting at what the so-called “Chinese Dream” is all
about: “the great revival of the Chinese Peoples” (also trying to include its
repressed minorities), “ensuring the Chinese army can fight winning battles”,
and what Jeremy Goldkorn refers to as being “self-confident in the Chinese
path, theories and system”.
In other words, the dream is a collective concept which calls for the whole
Chinese nation to unite fully under the “correct leadership” of the party to
make China strong so that every citizen can feel proud of China’s spaceships,
jet fighters, and its refurbished Russian aircraft carrier, and to ensure that
no foreigner will ever insult the Chinese ever again.
In this dream, there are
no guarantees of food safety, environmental protection, no statements of
respect for the constitution, nor any announcements about the implementation of
an independent judiciary, rule of law, freedom of speech or political rights.
It’s just about giving the Chinese people face, which makes it a very cheap and
simplistic DPRK style dream.
There is a gigantic billboard at the gate of Beijing’s Capital Airport on which
is printed the three characters for "China Dream", in which a woman in
a traditional Beijing Opera outfit is featured on a plain white background;
suggesting that the so-called “Chinese Dream” is also about the renaissance of
China’s traditional culture.
Another giant “China Dream” poster appeals to the
ideals and aspirations of children which depicts a young girl in a traditional red dress and hairstyle reminiscent of Tang dynasty China.The same poster girl is now featured on smaller propaganda murals plastered around construction sites in Beijing with the caption, "China dream - My dream". If I were to guess, I believe it may well be implying that the future will be
brighter for China’s youth, perhaps indirectly imploring the population to
suffer and sacrifice further for the sake of the next generation. While this is subjective speculation, such an explanation is consistent
with the CCP’s martyr-worship and self-sacrifice culture, whereby
communist heroes suffer and die gloriously merely for the sake of the party's
honour.On the other hand,all of these cute cartoon murals and simplistic slogans may simply be just a lame attempt to project a kinder, more positive albeit empty message to shore up the party's image.
"Beautiful China": Deluded and Fanciful
Party Reverie
Superficially speaking, you might say there is at least one positive element
about the Chinese dream, which refers to “Beautiful China” and this is part of
the government push for a so-called “ecological civilisation”, although efforts
toward environmental protection and renewal are vital and unavoidable to ensure
the future stability and sustainability of China, so this aspect of the dream
has far more to do with a meek and belated attempt by China’s rulers to mask
the ugly reality of decades of massive environmental degradation and devastation.
Far from what most human beings would qualify as a dream.
Instead of facing the
harsh reality of toxic rivers, smog-filled skies and ubiquitous piles of
rubbish strewn across many of the suburbs of its mega-cities,
townships, and farmlands across a vast nation which has already begun
to erode the quality of the environment well beyond its borders, the
government childishly proclaims China "beautiful".
What is more, if
you deign to take issue with this specious description, you are by definition a
traitor to the Chinese people and a lackey of the West as defined
by the boundaries of officially-sanctioned discussion and the monolithic
construct of omnipotent thought coercion that is so innocuously referred to merely
as propaganda in the English
language.
The motive and strategy behind the "beautiful" aspect
of the Chinese Dream is identical to the previous leadership's emphasis on
"harmonious society". Instead of acknowledging a problem and dealing
with it through reform and substantive measures, the party simply pretends
that black is white; brushing over the reality of a host of
crises on many different levels with idyllic and abstract strokes
of denial.
Based on precedence and on pragmatic analysis of spurious
phrases like "Beautiful China" and "Harmonious Society" ,
which are not backed by concrete steps toward their eventual attainment, they should
be taken as a warning signal that the party is still not committed to
undertaking responsibility for the future of China, nor is it
exhibiting any real concern for an increasingly denuded land or the
drastic consequences of its consistently harmful approach, even though it
is fully aware that delaying action can only increase the financial and human
costs that will inescapably translate into a political deficit.
"Beautiful
China" is a bit of feeble daydreaming concocted by a gang of
deluded and unimaginative despots with an enormous lack of
sympathy for enhancing the quality of life for its people. "Beautiful
China" simultaneously offends the intellect while revealing
a vertiginous chasm where wisdom is most desperately and urgently
required.
The “Party Dream”: Follow the Party Forever
The “Chinese Dream” is not at all about reform or eventual democracy. It’s as
if the party went back forty years in time to reinforce the idea that the sole
purpose of existence for Chinese people is to work tirelessly for the eventual
victory of Chinese communism over the world and for the total and utter
supremacy of China in every sphere of human endeavour.
One of the latest phrases rolled out by the regime since Xi Jinping’s rise to
the throne could not be more point-blank: “Follow the party forever.” Once
again, it displays an inability of the party to look or think beyond the
confines of its sterile and stultifying dogma.
Personally, I believe the government was pathetically overreaching when they
came up with this slogan in 2013. Doubtless, the majority of
independent-thinking Chinese citizens would find this statement inappropriate
and an insult to their intelligence.
One young Chinese lady I spoke to last night in a convenience store as she was complaining to a shopkeeper here in Beijing about the ridiculous pronouncements of the government said adamantly, “Why the hell do we have to follow the party forever?”
This is one of many signs indicating the
increasing ideological gap between the government and the people. It is
shocking, distressing and embarrassing that the government is dredging up
ancient slogans from the failed Mao era such as the “Mass Line” and is still
trying to sell “Lei Feng” as the selfless party member who should stand as the
model for all Chinese citizens. In this sense, the “Chinese Dream” is an unconvincing
and uninspiring plea from the regime to retain absolute power.
From this perspective, it would actually be far more appropriate to refer to it
as the “Party Dream” and the government is simply trying to ram this party
dream down the peoples’ throats through the same-old repetitive, moribund
technique of mass media propaganda blitzes. Unfortunately for the party, the average person on the street here in China has grown cynical of the party's motives and its
slogans more often than not become the butt of an endless stream of sarcastic jokes appearing on China's social media platforms.
Nevertheless, the fact that the Western media even refers to the “Chinese
Dream” and tries to ask what it is all about shows that people around the world
are yearning to see some sort of positive development in China’s political
culture. This is equally true of Chinese citizens, so there is some sort of
weak logic behind the “Chinese Dream” in terms of inspiring a degree of
misplaced hope in the future of China’s current system of governance which
continues to hemorrhage credibility by the day, especially at the
beginning of this new dynastic cycle.
As a proactive
and positive approach, the "Chinese Dream" also represents a wider
attempt by Emperor Xi to genuinely rejuvenate and consolidate the regime from
within, in order to save it from self-induced collapse. It is an attempt to put
a more human and optimistic face on Xi's mainly draconian approach to ruling
the party by calling for more austerity, less ostentatious abuse of power and
other obvious forms of corruption, and through his main governance strategy of applying
a vigorous and ongoing anti-corruption campaign to destroy political rivals and
consolidate his grip on power. However, the remarkable emptiness of the
“Chinese Dream” concept itself is compelling evidence of the “ideological
bankruptcy” of the Chinese state.
Nationalism, Xenophobia and the “Chinese Dream”
In expounding upon the "Chinese Dream", Xi Jinping also makes
reference to a “Strong Army Dream” and this gives a collective, nationalistic
“Chinese dream” an obviously aggressive and militant tone. Notice that little
or no mention has been made of China’s “peaceful rise” since Xi took over the
reins of power.
Long before Xi Jinping sat on the throne as the new head of the
regime, my biggest worry about the future direction of China was that, once
Chinese people felt confident and wealthy enough, they might tend to start
looking down on other nations and become more nationalistic, which could then lead
to the potential for large-scale military conflict.
Painstakingly cultivated
nationalism and xenophobia is really one of the last aces up the sleeve of the government
when trying to bond with its own populace, yet it is admittedly still a very
strong ace card, because it has absolute control of all official media and the
entire education system. For this reason, one of the few things that a fair
proportion of Chinese people and the government share is a certain degree of
xenophobia and distrust toward outside powers, particularly the United States,
and most especially, Japan. To an extent, there are some legitimate historical
reasons for these sentiments, but the fact remains that xenophobia is patently
and blatantly promoted throughout China’s media and its educational system.
Xenophobia and the promotion of anti-Western, anti-Japanese sentiment is a
core government policy in China.
I first noticed a trend or current of nationalism back in the nineties when
Chinese people began to look down on Russians as being poor, despite the fact
that Russians still have a higher level of per capita income, a higher level of
education and more advanced technology than China, even today. Decades earlier,
the Chinese leadership was so enthralled with Russia’s leaders they even tried
to boil their eggs in the same manner as their dear comrades. This can only be
described as an emotional, illogical form of nationalism which swings wildly
from one end of the pendulum to the other without a solid basis for such huge
discrepancies in attitudes toward the world at large.
My point is that there is a very distinct way of thinking prevalent throughout
Chinese society which places face, wealth, winning and success far above most
other goals in life. It is a selfish, zero-sum gain mentality that, to some
extent, influences behavior in China from a very early age. This is not meant
to show any disrespect toward Chinese people; rather it is a statement of an
existing mentality that is quite common in Chinese society. Such a mentality is
also understandable given that there are 1.4 billion people all
fiercely competing for a better life for themselves and their families, in a
country with limited financial and natural resources where the government
offers very limited welfare and assistance.
The “Chinese Dream”
serves as a “spiritual victory” for the Chinese people to placate feelings of
inadequacy or inferiority toward more advanced and wealthier nations. By the same token, incessant smear campaigns against "vile and immoral" foreign powers makes China look more positive and upright by comparison. This is where "fighting and winning battles", a "strong army dream", unity through xenophobia and the "Chinese Dream" intersect with the real motives behind the dream campaign--keeping the party in total control by preying on an under-informed population already suffering from a severe inferiority-superiority complex cultivated by decades of propaganda.
China’s Preeminence and the Chinese Dream
There is undoubtedly a strong element of competition, hero worship and a clear
sense of hierarchy in all levels of Chinese society - from the regime’s own
ambitions to achieve the most number of Olympic medals and which, incidentally,
recently described its athletic contingent to the London Games as an army,
right on down to the pedestrian who stubbornly refuses to yield to oncoming
traffic even at the risk of bodily harm or the nouveau riche who frequently act
in an aggressive, rude and violent manner toward those in Chinese society who
are poorer than themselves.
There is very much a strong desire to be number one instilled in the schooling
system and in the family, which is why Chinese people took it personally when
the national soccer team recently lost to Thailand 5 to 1. Chinese refuse to
accept that Thai people can be better than China at anything and this sense of
competition is most obvious with Japan.
Probably the one thing that Chinese hate, or at least envy the most about
Japan, is that what they perceive to be as this small “student or copycat of
China’s magnificent civilization” is so much more advanced, wealthy and successful
than they are -- all the while retaining their own culture and many aspects of China’s Tang
culture even better than the Chinese themselves. This is extremely vexing and
does not fit with the Chinese perception of their rightful position in the
world. It is this hierarchical feeling of superiority that is being promoted by
the government day and night across all forms of media.
The most alarming
example of this was last year’s destructive anti-Japanese riots that were condoned or
even encouraged by the government, and which led to the injury of Chinese
people and damage wrought to Chinese citizens’ cars and
properties, not to mention likely further convincing the Japanese not
to try to making friends with China.
Chinese feel shame at being lower or less
successful than others and this can easily be converted into jealously or
hatred toward others in a higher position or, in this case, into hatred of
other countries. Add to this an elevated boost in pride and arrogance stemming
from propaganda which constructs an artificial sense of Chinese preeminence and
you have the dark elements of the party’s vengeful, anti-foreign, and nationalistic “Chinese Dream”.
Confidence instilled through economic success in China often quickly leads to
arrogance and disrespect toward those whom they have "surpassed",
whether we are speaking from an individual, societal or international
standpoint. The government is constantly seeking to channel this complex and
potent mixture of pride and shame amongst the people and turn it into a
political force for the long-term strength of party rule by concentrating
negative emotions such as jealousy, fear, mistrust and a sense of superiority
against foreign powers; as well as by stoking the flames of nationalism and
convincing the population of the existence of an international anti-China
conspiracy that constantly seeks to humiliate, divide and weaken China.
The
most obvious examples of sowing distrust and hatred toward other countries can
be found in the government's nationalistic rag, The Global Times, and the
Chinese version of this paper is even more intense and explicit in its patriotic
efforts than the English one, because they are assuming that almost no
foreigners are capable of or even interested in reading it.
The Chinese Dream is a late-stage attempt at mass brainwashing that is out of
all proportion in an era of instant, global, open and omnipresent
communication. Nevertheless, if the party is successful in manipulating the minds of the majority
in China by carefully nurturing these very powerful, illogical and negative
emotions away from the party and toward Japan and the West, it will be able to
work toward its “Party Dream” of permanent control.
A Chinese artist once told me that the Chinese are a very “emotional” people
and his pronouncement made me rethink my perceptions of China.
Perhaps it is this “emotional” element of Chinese people that the government is
banking on to persuade them that something as illogical as permanent
dictatorship is somehow uniquely suited to China, and that the only respect
Chinese people can expect is the face gained through the collective success of
the nation’s economic and military power or its Olympic medal count, rather
than through the peaceful and gradual development of democracy, political
freedoms and the rule of law.
It as if the party is saying that it can exact
revenge on the western powers and Japan that humiliated China in the past
through its sheer dominance and that this should somehow be enough to make the
people feel content and proud to remain under party rule in perpetuity. This is
perhaps the party's ultimate, albeit inexplicitly stated dream.
However, even
if China were to become the world's dominant power, why would anyone want
to settle for nepotism, politically-based hierarchy and dictatorship?
Xi’s Hollow Dream
It is Xi Jinping’s all-consuming passion to rescue the party from political
oblivion. He undoubtedly does not wish to go down in the history books as the
last emperor of a withering communist dynasty and the “Chinese Dream” is
symptomatic of Xi’s form-over-substance approach thus far. He seems to actually
believe that propaganda over real change, and that campaigns
over the rule of law, are the path forward for the party’s salvation In
short, the "Chinese Dream" may be extrapolated to infer the
likelihood of a failed presidency, which will likely only shorten the lifespan of
party rule. The emptiness and abstract nature of the "Chinese Dream"
may very well come to define Xi's career as a paradoxically ambitious yet
irresolute leader.
The “Chinese People's Dream”: Democracy, Freedom and a Higher Quality of
Life
The outspoken Zhang Xin, President of China's real estate giant Soho, was asked
about the “Chinese Dream” recently in an interview with the BBC, in which she
said that she didn't really know what the government meant by the term, but
that the "Chinese Dream" of the average person in China was about
increasing their quality of life and being able to live more freely. She also
stated that she felt Chinese people are the same as any other people in the
world in the sense that they also want freedom and democracy.
As Zhang Xin mentioned in the interview, she believed that the trend toward
democracy is spreading across the world and that it is unstoppable.
It is
certainly true that it is easier to come by an increasing number of Chinese
from all walks of life who have lost faith in the government and tend to share
an increasingly similar view of China with the wider world in terms of
rejecting the current regime and embracing the universal values of human and
political rights. The other side of this phenomenon is that more Chinese people
are more willing to admit to holding such views and less bound by an invisible
boundary which once exerted a much stronger and self-imposed mental barrier to reflecting on and accepting a diversity
of opinions and debate which contradict the party’s narrow and xenophobic world
view. To paraphase Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese have slowly begun to "liberate their own thinking" .
In other words, the regime’s latest propaganda campaign appears to be
losing the war for the hearts and minds of the Chinese people. That is why I am
also confidently predicting China’s true dream is not the “Party Dream” but
rather a “Democratic Dream”.
After all, Taiwan has proven without a shadow of a doubt that a peaceful and
relatively orderly transition to democracy is perfectly compatible with Chinese
society and culture. In doing so, it has presented an alternative "Chinese Dream" which embraces the world and promotes universal human values.
On July 1st of 2013, 430 thousand people in Hong Kong also
reminded Beijing, through peaceful and public demonstrations, that they are
quite content with the rule of law and are eager for China’s central government
to fulfill its promise of full democratic elections in Hong Kong by 2017. If
the Chinese government can actually keep this promise, granted highly unlikely,
then at least one region of China will have democracy within 4 years time.
Imagine how disrespected and second-class the Mainland populace will feel
should Hong Kong citizens be granted full democratic rights whilst
they have none!
Meanwhile, the party continues to dream on....
In terms of historical seniority, arguably considered to be a very important criterion in defining Chinese culture among Chinese who are proud of their long history, it is not unreasonable to assert that Christianity is more Chinese than Communism, as its history can be traced all the way back to the 19th century missionaries. Technically speaking, Christians were frst allowed to establish a foothold in China as early as the 7th century. The rulers of the sect called the Kingdom of Heavenly Peace who rebelled against and nearly toppled the Qing Dynasty in the 19th century (a foreign Manchu dynasty that had invaded and conquered China in 1644) were a quasi-Christian force whose leader, Hong Xiuquan, claimed to be the brother of Jesus Christ. Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Republic of China (and considered by the Communist Party of China as the father of the nation) who helped to finally end foreign Manchu rule in 1911, was both a Confucian and a Christian. His successor and subsequent leader of China in the Nationalist era, Chiang Kai-shek, also converted to Christianity. All of this Chinese destiny with Christianity happened before the Chinese Communists ever took power in China. 
