标题: 2021.12.08 一党制为何阻碍了国家的发展 [打印本页] 作者: shiyi18 时间: 2022-5-31 01:05 标题: 2021.12.08 一党制为何阻碍了国家的发展 The future of democracy
Cai Xia on why China’s one-party system holds back the country
Dictatorship undermines China’s development. It should move to a constitutional democracy, says a former member of the Chinese Communist Party
Dec 8th 2021
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The By-invitation section publishes commentaries by outside thinkers from a wide range of perspectives. For a view criticising liberal democracy and in favour of China’s governance, read a commentary by Eric Li. On the evil that comes from the absence of liberal democracy, read a commentary by Toomas Hendrik Ilves. More By-invitation pieces are here.
CHINA HAS “completed a process of industrialisation” that produced both economic growth and social stability, boasted the Chinese Communist Party in a “historical resolution” on November 11th. The party trumpeted that it was “pioneering a uniquely Chinese path to modernisation, creating a new model for human advancement”.
Although China’s economy is indeed impressive, people around the world should not be misled by its outward appearance. The reality is that Chinese society is fragile because of the country’s one-party dictatorship, and adopting democratic practices would strengthen it.
The “uniquely Chinese path”, as the party calls it, is nothing more than unfettered economic growth founded on little respect for human rights and lots of pollution. This predatory development has exhausted China’s resources, from its environment to its people. The economic miracle is only temporary, not sustainable. In the long run, the one-party system, by not allowing alternative views to be expressed openly, will be a disaster for China’s development and human society.
The party’s aim in developing the economy is not actually to benefit the people, but to use rapid growth to maintain internal stability. It grants favours and benefits to win over the public while enslaving it, in order to keep its grip on power. At the same time, the party has been beefing up its military capability and readiness for war, to compete with America for global hegemony and realise the ambitions of its leader, Xi Jinping.
The party and government have wantonly plundered private property. There is widespread corruption among party officials. It makes China one of the countries with the biggest gaps between rich and poor. All of this will lead to more tensions between the party and the people that will hold the country back.
Pathologies of one-party rule
After China launched its policy of reform and opening-up in the late 1970s, it received strong support from America, Japan, Europe and the four Asian tiger economies of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea. Many of their companies entered China, bringing advanced technology and sophisticated management practices, thus helping China cultivate the tech and talent it needed to modernise. The World Trade Organisation opened its door to China in 2001, providing easier access to a vast world market.
Future economic development, led by technology, requires China to strengthen friendly exchanges with countries around the world, especially developed ones. But the hegemonic nature of the one-party dictatorial system and its “wolf warrior” diplomacy, coupled with China’s unscrupulous theft of intellectual property, make many countries wary, pushing them to unite to resist the external expansion and bullying. It leaves China in a situation of being relatively isolated in the international community and lacking the external environment it needs for economic growth.
China’s growth itself has come at heavy social costs that democratic practices might have prevented. In order to develop quickly, the party did not hesitate to severely pollute the environment. This has caused “cancer villages” to appear in many parts of the country. The number of patients with serious diseases because of environmental degradation has risen sharply. Many people have become impoverished due to illness.
The party also used its governing powers to deprive Chinese labourers of their bargaining rights, resulting in a low cost of labour. This has been bad for people. Qin Hui, an outspoken Chinese historian, refers to this as a “‘comparative advantage’ [that] is not replicable without iron-fisted rule”. The interests of the vast majority of people in China have been seriously harmed, while the party has gained tremendous benefits.
Farmers go to cities for work leaving their children, resulting in more than 60m poor and helpless “left-behind children” in rural China. Their psychological and personality problems, as well as lack of healthy, normal lifestyles and good educational opportunities, cause huge difficulties. It makes it difficult to improve the young generation’s skills so they can meet the country’s needs.
Then there is innovation, the basis of future growth. An essential precondition for creativity is respect for human dignity, protection of basic human rights, and upholding freedom of thought and speech. For China’s economic development to continue, the country needs to follow the general trend of freedom and democracy in the world. However, the one-party system is fundamentally opposed to freedom and democracy. It is not only a huge obstacle to China’s development, but a catastrophe in terms of civil liberties.
The pillars of China’s one-party dictatorship are violence and terror, lies and deceit, coupled with strict surveillance. Since Mr Xi took office, he has made greater use of digital technologies to strengthen the party’s grip on the country. Officials have carried out a large-scale form of genocide in ethnic regions such as Xinjiang, the Tibetan plateau and Inner Mongolia.
In the rest of China, they have severely repressed citizens who resist totalitarian rule, sentencing them to imprisonment and torturing them. Under such violent terror, human free-will is suppressed and individual creativity is stifled. How can China succeed in the future if it crushes the spirit of its people today?
A need for democracy in China
In order to strengthen its control over society, intellectual life and culture, the party has strengthened the political and ideological standards that are required at every level of education, from elementary school to postgraduate work. As during the Qin dynasty, around 200 BC, today it enacts a modern version of book-burning and burying of scholars.
The party confiscates academic works published abroad, and forbids discussion of foreign academic ideas. Some universities do not even allow foreign-language departments to use foreign-language textbooks. This cutting off from the achievements of human civilisation will undoubtedly block the knowledge and intellectual horizons of Chinese youths, and make it harder to cultivate creative thinking. As a result, China will lack the talent it needs to lead in the future.
The one-party dictatorship is a major obstacle for China. It may even trigger unforeseen social or political disasters. Only by ending this totalitarian system of governance and moving towards a constitutional democracy will the country be on course for good and durable economic and social development.
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Cai Xia was a professor of political theory at the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing from 1998 to 2012. Since 2019 she has lived as in exile in America.
