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My wife is Chinese, from the mainland, and keeps in touch with several friends there. They have talked about how the Chinese economy has been expanding quickly, people have better food and housing, more money to spend etc. People she knows in the TV and book-publishing industry (senior directors) have long said that the govt there is loosening up – they can broadcast or publish whatever they want, even if it’s critical of government. This has been going on since Chairman Mao died and Deng Xiaoping became the top leader in 1978-1989. Apparently many Chinese citizens give Deng credit for introducing more capitalism and economic freedom, something China has not known in living memory.
But now in the last few years, that is changing, they say. China is no longer a good place to live. The govt is cracking down on all media, putting overseers in each section to monitor what gets printed or broadcast. The internet gets cut off regularly, sometimes locally, sometimes nationwide. No one is allowed to print anything that is the least critical of government, and regular messages praising the govt are “encouraged”.
The newest Chairman, Xi Jinping, who took power in Nov. 2012, said at first he wanted to get rid of corruption in government. Much of that is done (a good thing), but now Xi is returning to the philosophy of Chairman Mao Zedong, who died in 1976. Now the govt wants no influence from anyone outside China. No one is allowed to bring currency exceeding US$10,000 outside the country, even major businessmen for whom that is a pittance. Chinese citizens are guessing that Xi delayed in this agenda because he wanted to get control of the Armed Forces – something that does not happen automatically in China with the introduction of a new leader, but must be negotiated over long periods, several years. Now that Xi finally has control of theArmy, he is starting to crack down.
Western styles, western music, and western ideas are no longer welcome. Businesses that try to practice them, are shut down with little or no notice.
Chairman Xi recently (Oct. 18, 2017) gave a speech at the ceremonial meeting of the Chinese Communist Party Congress in Beijing, three hours long, in which he said that China must grow from within, emphasizing Chinese values and plans over western ones, exerting much closer govt control over what Chinese citizens do and say, and many other things. It’s starting to look for-real.
Does anyone on this forum, have regular contact with people from China? What do your acquaintances say about this? I have heard most of it from essentially one source, and would like to hear what others have to say.
If Westeners themselves are conflicted at the direction Western Civilization is heading, you can't be surprised when outsiders want to control the flow of Western culture and social norms.
I doubt that western countries' internal problems are the reason China is trying to cut off information from outside their country.
Rather, my guess is that westerners' freedom to criticize (and change) their governments, is what the Chinese government is afraid of.
The more that Chinese citizens find how prosperous they can become when their government slacks off its iron-handed control, the more the citizens will come to realize they don't need that iron-handed Big Government at all. That is the reason the Chinese govt is trying to keep outside information from reaching them, and trying to punish anyone who criticizes the Chinese government.
It is no secret China has tried to infiltrate Western universities in the US, Europe and Australia in order to sow discord and shut down any kind of discussion that might be critical of of China, its history, or its politics. I witnessed myself the insanely bitter shouting matches and vitriol mainland Chinese students and Taiwanese students get into when the topic of oh say 'Taiwan should be independent' comes up for discussion solely as an academic thought exercise and of course its always fun when mainland Chinese students have to take a class that might discuss different view points of say South China Sea maritime security from the viewpoint of ASEAN nations - again bitter, bitter shouting matches during simply what is supposed to be a simple academic freedom of thought exercise.
Then there's the whole campaign to infiltrate and subvert western democracies China has been recently trying:
Yes, Xi is tightening the grip on China. He is going back to the Mao philosophy of an independent and powerful China that bullies the world and an all-powerful leader leading the charge with absolutely loyalty from his subjects and citizens. The irony is that Mao never came close, but Xi may actually get there.
There are loud whispers that Xi is positioning himself to serve beyond his term limit, something that used to be unthinkable but is a very real possibility now.
China kidnapped several businessmen and brought them to China to face authorities for selling books critical of China. One was a naturalized Swedish citizen that China claimed because he was of Chinese decent and therefore subject to Chinese laws and order. They said anyone of Chinese decent is a citizen of China and subject to Chinese rules, even if they are citizens of other countries. Mate, that includes your wife and children (if you have any) and they have the right to come to your house and drag them away to a Chinese court if the Chinese authorities deem it necessary.
But with that said, I think Xi's ambition is of economic, not military. He is going to propel China through a strong economy, and there is nothing wrong with that. It probably won't make much of a difference to us in US. Those inside the border may be a different story.
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It's how all dictators who want people to be like them but know they won't do it of their own accord operate. That's why the US is great because of all our crazy opinions we have, because we are allowed to express them at all... the instant speech gets banned for whatever reason, you know you have a bunch of statist authoritarian types trying to get power.
My wife is Chinese, from the mainland, and keeps in touch with several friends there. They have talked about how the Chinese economy has been expanding quickly, people have better food and housing, more money to spend etc. People she knows in the TV and book-publishing industry (senior directors) have long said that the govt there is loosening up – they can broadcast or publish whatever they want, even if it’s critical of government. This has been going on since Chairman Mao died and Deng Xiaoping became the top leader in 1978-1989. Apparently many Chinese citizens give Deng credit for introducing more capitalism and economic freedom, something China has not known in living memory.
But now in the last few years, that is changing, they say. China is no longer a good place to live. The govt is cracking down on all media, putting overseers in each section to monitor what gets printed or broadcast. The internet gets cut off regularly, sometimes locally, sometimes nationwide. No one is allowed to print anything that is the least critical of government, and regular messages praising the govt are “encouraged”.
The newest Chairman, Xi Jinping, who took power in Nov. 2012, said at first he wanted to get rid of corruption in government. Much of that is done (a good thing), but now Xi is returning to the philosophy of Chairman Mao Zedong, who died in 1976. Now the govt wants no influence from anyone outside China. No one is allowed to bring currency exceeding US$10,000 outside the country, even major businessmen for whom that is a pittance. Chinese citizens are guessing that Xi delayed in this agenda because he wanted to get control of the Armed Forces – something that does not happen automatically in China with the introduction of a new leader, but must be negotiated over long periods, several years. Now that Xi finally has control of theArmy, he is starting to crack down.
Western styles, western music, and western ideas are no longer welcome. Businesses that try to practice them, are shut down with little or no notice.
Chairman Xi recently (Oct. 18, 2017) gave a speech at the ceremonial meeting of the Chinese Communist Party Congress in Beijing, three hours long, in which he said that China must grow from within, emphasizing Chinese values and plans over western ones, exerting much closer govt control over what Chinese citizens do and say, and many other things. It’s starting to look for-real.
Does anyone on this forum, have regular contact with people from China? What do your acquaintances say about this? I have heard most of it from essentially one source, and would like to hear what others have to say.
Do you think the Communist hardliners tolerated Deng's reforms because they saw the error of their ways?
This was the plan all along: engage the West economically to tool up competitively, then re-engage politically as a competitor with enhanced productive capacity.
My wife is Chinese, from the mainland, and keeps in touch with several friends there. They have talked about how the Chinese economy has been expanding quickly, people have better food and housing, more money to spend etc. People she knows in the TV and book-publishing industry (senior directors) have long said that the govt there is loosening up – they can broadcast or publish whatever they want, even if it’s critical of government. This has been going on since Chairman Mao died and Deng Xiaoping became the top leader in 1978-1989. Apparently many Chinese citizens give Deng credit for introducing more capitalism and economic freedom, something China has not known in living memory.
But now in the last few years, that is changing, they say. China is no longer a good place to live. The govt is cracking down on all media, putting overseers in each section to monitor what gets printed or broadcast. The internet gets cut off regularly, sometimes locally, sometimes nationwide. No one is allowed to print anything that is the least critical of government, and regular messages praising the govt are “encouraged”.
The newest Chairman, Xi Jinping, who took power in Nov. 2012, said at first he wanted to get rid of corruption in government. Much of that is done (a good thing), but now Xi is returning to the philosophy of Chairman Mao Zedong, who died in 1976. Now the govt wants no influence from anyone outside China. No one is allowed to bring currency exceeding US$10,000 outside the country, even major businessmen for whom that is a pittance. Chinese citizens are guessing that Xi delayed in this agenda because he wanted to get control of the Armed Forces – something that does not happen automatically in China with the introduction of a new leader, but must be negotiated over long periods, several years. Now that Xi finally has control of theArmy, he is starting to crack down.
Western styles, western music, and western ideas are no longer welcome. Businesses that try to practice them, are shut down with little or no notice.
Chairman Xi recently (Oct. 18, 2017) gave a speech at the ceremonial meeting of the Chinese Communist Party Congress in Beijing, three hours long, in which he said that China must grow from within, emphasizing Chinese values and plans over western ones, exerting much closer govt control over what Chinese citizens do and say, and many other things. It’s starting to look for-real.
Does anyone on this forum, have regular contact with people from China? What do your acquaintances say about this? I have heard most of it from essentially one source, and would like to hear what others have to say.
I live in China part time and I think there is some truth in most of it, but that’s how propaganda works, you take a kernel of truth and make it look bigger then it is. China has always had a mob mentality, that is part of their culture and sadly they will follow the government and mainstream thought almost like sheep.
China has seen major social and economic reforms since Deng, the country has come a long way in the last few decades. China has no plans on returning to communism, but the government is worried the reforms are happening to quickly and that could destabilize the country. As far as economic reforms towards free enterprise, I haven’t seen any rollbacks, but the pace towards the free market has slowed. China has strong protectionist policies when it comes to internet and technology. They say it is necessary to help bring up local companies. That is their excuse for blocking websites like Facebook, google, YouTube, etc. Their homegrown companies like Baidu, Wechat, QQ, and YouKu are all pretty good actually, and while censoring exists, it’s really overstated. Heck even Wikipedia isn’t blocked. I do think those internet companies will be unblocked eventually, Facebook will probably lead the charge.
China is and has seen a huge exodus of money from their county, wealthy Chinese and corrupt government officials have been taking huge amounts of money out of china for at least the last decade. They leave to protect their money and to get a better quality life, China’s overall quality of life is still much lower then any western nation. This is why China is now restricting removing $10,000+ from the country at a time when traveling via airplane, a lot of it is dirty money from corrupt officials. One can still legally wire as much money as one wants out of the country.
Western culture, music, movies, and influence is still on the rise in China and can be seen and heard everywhere, the number of foreign movies allowed in the box offices has been restricted for decades, but in recent years that has loosened greatly. English dominates as a second language (but is still obviously a minor language) and all Federal signs are in Chinese and English, all federal documents like drivers license tests are required to be in Chinese and English. Like many other countries right now, China is experiencing a growing protectionist and nationalistic movement, sometimes it can be a little bizarre how much influence the government seems to have on the thoughts of the average citizen, but I don’t see or experience anything to extreme. If we compare the US to China, just imagine what Trump could do if he had no opposition. Well that is what Xi has in China.
To some up my opinion, China is an authoritarian country and that’s not going away in our lifetime, but it’s not getting worse, it’s getting better, Chinese people are simply having greater expections for life and are seeing more and more how the world works. They will take a step backwards here and there, but the pattern toward a freer society is clear. China is continuing to open up its markets, social laws, immigration, etc. China will become the superpower of the world in the next few decades and the spotlight is on them, opposition to China is going to try to find every little problem, and that won’t be hard. China’s economic strength comes through numbers, 1.5 billion people. The US has just over 1/5 the number of people.
My wife is Chinese, from the mainland, and keeps in touch with several friends there. They have talked about how the Chinese economy has been expanding quickly, people have better food and housing, more money to spend etc. People she knows in the TV and book-publishing industry (senior directors) have long said that the govt there is loosening up – they can broadcast or publish whatever they want, even if it’s critical of government. This has been going on since Chairman Mao died and Deng Xiaoping became the top leader in 1978-1989. Apparently many Chinese citizens give Deng credit for introducing more capitalism and economic freedom, something China has not known in living memory.
That would be true.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roboteer
But now in the last few years, that is changing, they say. China is no longer a good place to live. The govt is cracking down on all media, putting overseers in each section to monitor what gets printed or broadcast. The internet gets cut off regularly, sometimes locally, sometimes nationwide. No one is allowed to print anything that is the least critical of government, and regular messages praising the govt are “encouraged”.
That is not new.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roboteer
The newest Chairman, Xi Jinping, who took power in Nov. 2012, said at first he wanted to get rid of corruption in government. Much of that is done (a good thing), but now Xi is returning to the philosophy of Chairman Mao Zedong, who died in 1976. Now the govt wants no influence from anyone outside China. No one is allowed to bring currency exceeding US$10,000 outside the country, even major businessmen for whom that is a pittance. Chinese citizens are guessing that Xi delayed in this agenda because he wanted to get control of the Armed Forces – something that does not happen automatically in China with the introduction of a new leader, but must be negotiated over long periods, several years. Now that Xi finally has control of the Army, he is starting to crack down.
...
Chairman Xi recently (Oct. 18, 2017) gave a speech at the ceremonial meeting of the Chinese Communist Party Congress in Beijing, three hours long, in which he said that China must grow from within, emphasizing Chinese values and plans over western ones, exerting much closer govt control over what Chinese citizens do and say, and many other things. It’s starting to look for-real.
Does anyone on this forum, have regular contact with people from China? What do your acquaintances say about this? I have heard most of it from essentially one source, and would like to hear what others have to say.
I have not heard of things being any more negative now than before. I will ask.
China is aware that their economy has matured and they can not expect to grow only on cheaper exports. They must generate wealth from within, that is what happens as an economy develops. The cheaper exports will be produced increasingly in countries like Malaysia and Bangladesh, sometimes in Chinese companies which have moved there.
The party will not brook any competition, from anyone, but it is not ideological any longer, it lacks a firm mission. Xi may be trying to address this.
The internet and the media have been experiencing stricter controls in some areas. The government shuts down social media forms like twitter in provinces that have local unrest. This is because the people protesting are using these means to coordinate their activities. Xīzàng (Tibet) would be one of those areas, Xīnjiāng is another, with a very active separatist movement.
Otherwise, the internet is filtered much like most commercial firms in the USA do on their own internal networks. It is all I have ever known from there, I don't know that it has changed.
Corruption is a serious problem. Many businesses depend upon it. For example, a few years ago I visited a high end furniture store where everything was exquisite, the market was for government officials, but the officials were not purchasing the items, it was business people who were buying these items for the officials as gifts. The recent crackdown on corruption has targeted this type of graft and affected the pocketbooks of people involved in the trade.
The party is not the 'Red Menace' people in the USA think it is. The party is more like the Young Republicans than anything else, the focus is on business growth and opportunities and people with business plans or career goals networking through party connections. This is why anti-pollution laws (as just one example) are unenforceable in many cases, the polluters are politically connected. Activists get arrested on unrelated charges to silence them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roboteer
Western styles, western music, and western ideas are no longer welcome. Businesses that try to practice them, are shut down with little or no notice.
Have never heard of this. I don't honestly believe that is correct. That sounds like a story straight out of the 1960's being repeated.
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