China and Democracy - Speech or Presentation Example

?Running Head: China & Democracy China & Democracy [Institute’s China & Democracy It is a dire truth that China has seen communism for the past several decades so much so that the rulers of the Republic have great influences over the lives of the individuals in many aspects. The dependence that the subjects of the country show towards their government is a living evidence of how the phenomenon of communism is inculcated in their hearts and minds and how the people have even stopped to have an opinion just because the venue to vent those feelings is not and has never been accessible to them. To have a literal meaning of the phenomenon, we might say that the word democracy entails two connotations. Firstly, it means implementation of a political idea that the government should be by the people and for the people (Mosley, pp.5, 2003). Second definition is rather difficult to implement. It means that despite all the distinctive ideas and interest of the subjects, implementation of things contends all kinds of ‘people’. In reality, this is undoubtedly not possible (Mosley, pp.5-6, 2003) Giving a thorough analysis to the phenomenon of democracy and the theories of democratization, we come to realize that democracy is something when the individual comes to realize his basic rights to think and feel free to express the same (Zhao, pp.9, 1998). Precisely, it means to have an opinion without any form of influence and suppression. Moreover, in a broader perspective, it means to follow an election procedure though which a consensus is created upon the election of a particular leader. However, in an otherwise case, the people with feudal mindsets have a selection process and the position and title are shared and passed on to the same family members. Following are some of the major points endorsing the fact that China cannot achieve democracy in the next ten years or so: As it is, democracy starts with speaking about the truth publicly and having your voice heard by others. This job is foremost performed the media practitioners or journalists who act as a watchdog to expose the injustice or wrongdoings of the state and the lawmakers. However, seeing China’s situation we can evidently make a thorough analysis of the fact that Chinese journalism never received freedom to any extent. In the mid-1980s, for the first time Chinese journalists thought to register their collective voice to the government to give them rights to speak the truth so that the countrywide corruption that has taken an official form could be suppressed (Zhao, pp.1-2, 1998). On the contrary, not only was their movement not heard but also they faced violent circumstances and torture and the streets of Beijing that turned into bloodshed in 1989 is a clear-cut example of this. Speaking about the same restrictions over press, it is notable to mention that when America’s Newsweek magazine used to come to China, articles and stories that reported China’s internal situation, either political or social, were torn out so that none of the citizen could have access to what is going on within the bureaucracy (Zhao, pp.2-4, 1998). The major hold of the Communist Party over China, nevertheless, keeps on boosting about their governance and wants to endorse that media is working as their mouthpiece while secretly suppressing them. In short, Chinese media willingly or unwillingly works to cater to the increasing demands of its authoritarian rulers to propagate their ideas and instill the doctrines that they want their subjects to follow. Secondly, the centralization of power in China is the result of once decentralized China a few decades ago, that becomes one more reason for the country not able to make itself democratic in the next few years. In 1978, China’s economic reforms began to take place that started from the rural areas and expanded to urban areas. It all started with private trading of farming and agricultural products in the countryside and then taking alongside the urban businesses with more production with the help of machineries and other technologies. This began to give rise to private retailers and manufacturers to enter the market and start competing that gradually became so strong that the World Bank declared China as the third fastest expanding economy staring form the year 1980 to 1987 (Ogden, Hartford, Sullivan & Zweig, pp,5, 1992). As soon as the commoners started expanding more than expected on consumer products, the imports began to outshine the exports, the economy fell down heavily, and government had to take a measure. The measure was none other than centralizing of powers and directing people on how they would lead their economic, social, and marital lives to as to bring back the country to development (Ogden, Hartford, Sullivan & Zweig, pp.9, 1992). This was the Maoist era after which the lives of the individuals subsequent to which, many groups of individuals like the students’ movement tried to bring political reform but the social order failed to be reconstructed and changed (Ogden, Hartford, Sullivan & Zweig, pp. 10-11, 1992). Thirdly, Chinese culture is deeply rooted in traditional norms and practices embraced, followed, and passed on from generations to generations. The term that signifies this is feudal despotism (Ogden, Hartford, Sullivan & Zweig, pp.27, 1992). People keep cultural values and ideologies given by their ancestors, alive, so that a lifestyle that is tried and tested remains carried out in the society for successful outcomes. A Chinese society believes in myths and stereotypes and such a phenomenon has next to none possibilities to have wide arms to for democracy and freedom of speech (Perry, pp.7-9. 2007). Fourthly, whoever comes in power in the Republic of China comes with a prescribed notion that progress of China is synonymous to the country’s development and survival. What they lack to understand is that survival of the country greatly depends upon survival of its people. Moreover, people survive when they have advantage to lead their lives according to their own norms and priorities; they cannot survive with a bureaucratic authority ascribing their priorities and directing their moves (Cheng, pp.15-18 2011). Finally, the huge number of minority existence is also an issue that will not help China’s democratization. There are almost fifty-five recognized ethnic minorities in the country (Cheng, pp.249, 2011). The discriminating attitude of government to almost 9 per cent of the people living in the country explains the fact that China would face problems in bring a democratic state in the next few years. These minorities do not enjoy equal rights and autonomy and since they have separate beliefs and ideas, no one is ready to hear them out. Furthermore, belonging to separate cultural and moral values, these people have distinct interests and thus following a democratic pattern might have clash of ideas and might give rise to an unforeseen national conflict. Since the ideology of authority and communism has been instilled so deeply in Chinese citizen, it is almost next to impossible that the Chinese people can even manage to follow a democratic code of conduct among them. China is sure to face great implications and challenges if it had to bring democracy to the country. Some could be: The era of the authoritarian leader Mao Zedong has been filled with great suppression and restrictions (Perry, pp.2-5, 2007). The extreme form of rules and exercising of punishments engulfed the minds of Chinese people and they made themselves dependable upon the ideology of nationalism. Just like Marxism and Leninism, the ideology that Mao helped in spreading made the people fearful about the outcomes if they went astray from the orders of their rulers. So much so that, they became used to the dependability upon the rulers for directing even their personal and social lives rather than leading their lives on their self-made policies (Zhao, pp.5-8, 1998). Linking to that, if the existing government already does not want to have an opposition party to stand against it (Ogden, Hartford, Sullivan & Zweig, pp.350-351, 1992), democracy is unachievable. Thus, the existing government itself is a big obstacle. As discussed in length about the suppression on free media in China, if the country had to have democracy in the near future, one more important aspect would be to abolish the monopoly of the national television of China. For several years, the monopoly has had its roots that are fixed by now and it is not a piece of cake to cut that root off. The position that CCTV enjoys within the country does not have any match (Zhao, pp-166-168, 1998) and it is surely a challenge to bring about a free press to give the monopoly an equal competition. Finally, the most crucial yet unavoidable factor that stands in the line of democratization of China is its exploding population. To have democracy, one needs to understand the concept with its full comprehension and to make that understand to such a massive population, which has never seen its manifestation in its surroundings is the most challenging part. The exploding population is undoubtedly leading the country to lack of education and growing unemployment (Cheng, pp.10-15, 2011). With such circumstances on the rise, providing them with freedom to think and make their lives better is worse than dictating them because that huge number of people would otherwise ruin their social and cultural lives. A comparison of China’s political system to that of other countries’ political system would produce a great deal of differentiation between the two. Foremost, both the stable and developing countries try to maintain bonds with those other countries, which are politically, economically, and socially strong. China’s ties with the United State of America seems to be influencing owing to the increasing disability of the former to manage its social affairs with respect to giving freedom to its internal media agencies or common subjects. Neighboring countries tend to bond with other according to their stakes since no country would like to link it up with an already created fuss within other’s territory. As the Soviet Union faced segmentation, the regional republics immediately formed their own constitutions, having their own flags, policies, and national anthems. Nothing remained centralized and the particular leaders of that time had and exercised their powers to do so. When the then financial minister of Russia, Boris Fyodorov called the financial arena as financial asphyxiation, none of the state leaders felt it a mandate to remit tax and rationalized it with the fact that their states did not have that fiscal capacity to meet following the segmentation. In the same context, in China’s authoritarian regime, the local elites that tried to challenge the existing political leaders to fight for reformation did so without any concrete open opposition (Sinha, pp.254-256, 2005). It was not a so-called open revolt. Actually a movement that gradually did not turn out to be successful. Comparing that with Russia. It would not be wrong to say that the open opposition and public revolt happening in the formerly mentioned country actually helped the commoners to register their voices with international forces helping them to bring about a change since its media enjoys freedom that helps to spread the news internationally. A comparison with Brazil and its political working would further differentiate the political arena working in China with other parts of the world. The governor of Minas Gerais, Brazil’s second most populous state was facing a marked amount of debt to be paid by the state budget in the early 1980s. In 1999, when the state had a new governor, he foresaw a financial crisis in case the debt was not cleared and he took his own decision without the consent of the federal government and repaid all the debts (Sinha, pp.257-258, 2005). The theories of democratization suggest that it is significant to take science and democracy side by side and both collectively owes to the emergence of modernization. Modernization is impossible to achieve in the absence of either of the two. The notable leaders of China like Wei, Hu and Yan (He, pp. 70, 1996), they all have one thing or the other in common with regard to theory of democratization out of which, one notable aspect was to assume democracy as changes in procedure of making constitutions and improving it with every passing year. This, they also referred to modernization in the broader sense, however, they failed to comprehend the very idea of democracy and how it leads to modernization and a collective development. Thoroughly analyzing the facts and figures mentioned above, it is quite right to say that China cannot become a democratic republic in the next ten or fifteen years. References Cheng, J. Y. 2011. Whither China’s Democracy? Democratization in China since the Tiananmen Incident. City University of Hong Kong Press. He. B. 1996. The Democratization of China. Routledge. Mosley, Ivo. 2003. Democracy, Fascism, and the New World Order. Imprint Academic. Ogden, S., Hartford, K., Sullivan, L. & Zweig, D. 1992. China’s Search for Democracy: The Student and the Mass Movement of 1989. M. E. Sharpe, Inc. Perry, E. 2007. “Studying Chinese Politics: Farewell to Revolution.” The China Journal. Volume 57, pp.2-22. Sinha, A. 2005. The Regional Roots of Developmental Politics in India: A Divided Leviathan. Indiana University Press. Zhao, Y. 1998. Media, Market, and Democracy in China: Between the Party Line and the Bottom Line. University of Illinois Press. Read More