One thing about China which Westerners may not know or understand is that after a chaotic century (the Opium Wars, imposition of unequal treaties of ceding Hong Kong and Macau, intrusion and ransacking by the Eight-Nation Alliance, overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, Japanese invasion, civil wars among KMT warlords and between CCP and KMT, cultural revolution, etc) Chinese people are desperate for peace, stability and prosperity at whatever costs.
The economic miracle and relative peace, stability and prosperity has been made possible by Deng’s economic reform in the past decades. Arguably if we had followed the path of the ex-USSR (i.e. political reform preceding economic reform), China with a population of 1.3 billion would have been split by civil war again. The colour revolutions instigated by the US in the Middle East have borne testimony to the thesis that western style of democracy may not fit in all situations, at least not when the countries are still not ready (economically, educationally, as well as other things such as inter-racial harmony, etc).
Deng said “Never mind whether a cat is black or white. A cat that can catch mice is a good cat”. We call it pragmatism. Deng said “Let a part of the population get rich first.” This means capital has to be accumulated and centralized, as family businesses in the West have grown in size and strength over the past centuries. In the same vein, the accumulation of capital in State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) gives rise to the term “state capitalism”. This has proven to be exceptionally powerful as capital is centralized in the State. Given that China has lost many opportunities in the past century, it is catching up with all the time lost.
On the political front, back in the early 80’s there was much discussion on adopting the Singaporean model (namely, strong government built on meritocracy, a judicial system that will hand down severe punishment on “libel against the government”, etc.). When China will become a multi-party system, we shall wait and see.
While liberal democracy is founded on the principle of individual human rights, for thousands of years and even today, Chinese people (and many other Asians too) still value families, villages/communities and the State. We call it collectivism. Perhaps our experience tells us that unity is our key to survival after a chaotic century. Now that the East has met West, I believe we are somewhat in the middle, and need to strike a good balance.
On the issue of collectivism, Chinese people value Guanxi (the system of social networks and influential relationships which facilitate business and other dealings). This gives rise to collective strength, but also corruption and sometimes mediocrity if Guanxi is favored instead of excellence. Now that President Xi is confronting corruption at the Politburo level (highest level in China) and the highest ranks in the Army, any instability may neutralize all these efforts and bring the country into chaos again.
The Chinese government and intellectuals have done a lot of research and study on the rise of nations. One point is quite interesting. While the British Empire expanded with its gunboat policy (government efforts), its pirates also contributed in their own individual ways (private individuals with liberation of labour), in fact, very much in tune with the rise of capitalism.
As a joke, it appears that counterfeit goods (“pirated goods”) is a way of “catching up with time lost” in China, following the path of rise of other nations and the road to capitalism.
