Lloyd Lofthouse's Open Salon Blog

China in Transition, Part Three

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:10:47 -0400

On October 25, 2009, this Blog was moved. (There will be no new posts for the Blog on Open Salon) Learning China may be found at: http://learningchina.wordpress.com/

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Economy

Under Mao Zedong (1893 - 1976), China suffered for twenty-seven years. During Mao's Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, thirty-seven million died—many from starvation. Mao's form of communist socialism did not work.

On June 30, 1984, Deng Xiaoping said, "Given that China is still backward, what road can we take to develop the productive forces and raise the people's standard of living? … Capitalism can only enrich less than 10 per cent of the Chinese population; it can never enrich the remaining more than 90 per cent. But if we adhere to socialism and apply the principle of distribution to each according to his work, there will not be excessive disparities in wealth. Consequently, no polarization will occur as our productive forces become developed over the next 20 to 30 years."

Deng Xiaoping may have been right. Bruce Einhom writing for Business Week, Countries with the Biggest Gaps Between Rich and Poor, October 16, 2009, listed the top countries with the biggest gaps. America was number three on the list. China wasn't on the list—yet.

What does this mean for America? (CBS/AP) The Census Bureau reports that 12.5 percent of Americans, or 37.3 million people, were living in poverty in 2007, up from 36.5 million in 2006.

After 2000, the situation in America deteriorated quickly (with President George W. Bush in the White House)—all of the gains in middle-class economic security since WWII were erased within a few years.

PBS reported in "Middle Class Squeeze" (December 13, 2002), the shape of income distribution in America is changing and many are finding it increasingly difficult to afford housing while keeping up with necessities such as food, clothing, transportation, and health care."

What does capitalism, Chinese style, look like? Under Deng Xiaoping's economic policies, China became the world's factory floor.

Prior to 1979, the year China opened its economy to world trade, it was rare to find anything made in China. Since then, exports from China have increased 10,000%, and this year China's economy become the second largest in the world as Japan slipped to third place.

In the last decade, something happened in China that Mao thought he had destroyed. China grew a middle class with between one-hundred to one hundred-fifty-million people.

A middle-class family in China usually owns an apartment, a car, eats out and takes vacations. National Geographic in the May 2008 magazine, said, "they owe their well-being to the government's (Deng Xiaoping's) economic policies…"

Current estimates show China's growth will continue and grow between five and eight percent a year. China's real GDP growth accelerated on a year-over year basis by a full percentage point, rising from 7.9% in the second quarter to 8.9% in the third quarter (reported Oct. 22, 2009)

China in Transition, Part Two

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:10:44 -0400

On October 25, 2009, this Blog was moved to:
http://learningchina.wordpress.com/

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In 2012, the new rulers of China will "all" have been educated in the West. After Mao died and the gang of four, responsible for the horrors of the Cultural Revolution, went to prison, Deng Xiaoping and his supporters "rebuilt" the government. The party instituted term limits, two five-year terms for any political position and an age limit of sixty-seven, something we don't have in the United States.

These changes were implemented to avoid having another modern emperor like Mao. Those who spoke out against Mao usually were killed, went to prison or fell out of favor. Deng Xiaoping was one of those people. When his son was dropped from the top of a high rise and was paralyzed for life, the message to Deng was to "shut up or else".

A high-ranking, retired Communist that fought with Mao during World War II and the revolution told me that the seventy million party members (like America's Democrats and Republicans) do not always agree on issues. The difference is that the world hears little of what goes on behind the scenes in China. Doing business that way has little to do with the party. That type of behavior is classically Chinese—not to talk about the elephant in the room or to hang out your dirty laundry for everyone to see as the West does.

In addition, in America, the outcome for a Presidential Election is decided by the Electoral College, card-carrying members from the two major political parties. The popular vote does not elect the American president. The Communist Party acts similar to America's Electoral College without the hypocrisy of a popular vote. Critics argue the American Electoral College is inherently undemocratic.

Unlike Mao's time, today's Chinese leaders must answer to the seventy-million party members that are scattered throughout China. These people listen to the 1.3 billion Chinese that do not belong to the party. The result: if an elected official is not doing his or her job, that person usually isn't reelected.

Other changes took place after Mao. Under Deng Xiaoping, the People's Republic announced a policy of "socialism with Chinese characteristics." John Gittings in The Changing Face of China quoted Deng Xiaoping as saying, "Planning and market forces are not the essential difference between socialism and capitalism. A planned economy is not the definition of socialism, because there is planning under capitalism; the market economy happens under socialism, too. Planning and market forces are both ways of controlling economic activity."

Soon after Mao died in 1976, The Beijing Spring was introduced. This was a brief period lasting from 1977 into 1978. During that time, the public was allowed greater freedom to criticize the government, which wasn't allowed under Mao.

There was also a new Beijing Spring between 1997 to November 1998 where the Chinese government relaxed some control over political expression and organization. It was during this time that China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

China in Transition, Part One in a Series

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 19:10:16 -0400

On October 25, 2009, this Blog was moved to:
http://learningchina.wordpress.com/

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My wife landed in Seattle in 1984. She was born in China during the Cultural Revolution and was twenty-seven when she arrived in America. She came prepared for the worst with a suitcase full of toilet paper. The state controlled media in China fed the people twenty-seven years of propaganda saying the working class in America was treated like slaves by rich capitalists and were starving. When my wife saw overfed, brightly dressed Americans everywhere she went, she learned the truth.

Fast forward to 1999, my first trip to China. I expected to meet dour people dressed in dull, olive-green uniforms marching in lines like ants. To my surprise, I found the Chinese people as different as my wife found the Americans when she arrived in the United States fifteen years earlier.

Over time, I realized that the mass media in the West, including America, was not reporting an accurate picture of China. That's still true today. Westerners have been and still are being spoon-fed propaganda from a biased Western perspective.

Since 1999, I've traveled to China often. When in China, I don't hear much about the government there. Many Chinese don't watch government TV either. There are choices now. The Chinese people are connecting to the Worldwide Web and will soon outnumber the population of North America on the Internet if it hasn't already happened.

There are a few points to think about before you believe what you read or hear from our media.

1. America is considered the only super power on the earth today.

2. China was a super power for more than two thousand years. During the Han Dynasty, China was more powerful and technologically advanced than the Roman Empire at its strongest. It was the West and Japan that knocked China off its throne starting with the Opium Wars during the 19th century and ending with World War II.

3. This year, China moved past Japan to become the second biggest economy on earth.

4. China moved seven places this year to rank as the 92nd most developed country in the world due to improvements in education as well as income levels and life expectancy. This ranking comes from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) index that ranks 182 countries.

5. The United States dropped one rank to the 13th spot.

6. China has several hundred nuclear weapons and the largest army on earth close in size to that of the United States. They are modernizing their navy and air force and America is selling them advanced technology to do it.

7. China owns more than one trillion in U.S. debt, and is investing several hundred billion dollars in US companies annually.

8. China is considered the "factory floor of the world".

9. The Chinese tend to work harder, longer hours for less and save more than people from other countries do.

What is your image of China?

Part two next week.

Minority Treatment in China, Part 4

Fri, 2 Oct 2009 22:10:11 -0400

On October 25, 2009, this Blog was moved to:
http://learningchina.wordpress.com/

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Many similarities exist between the way the emperors of old treated minorities inside China and the way the Communist government treats minorities today.

The law now applies to all fifty-six minorities in two areas. The first law is that an elementary education is mandatory for all children. There are no exceptions, and children under sixteen are not allowed to work.

The Tibetan minority has problems with this. Many of the old leaders in exile don’t want mandatory education for Tibetan children, because it goes against the way the Buddhist Lamas ruled a feudal Tibet prior to 1951. The National Geographic Magazine for October 1912 does an excellent job showing life in Tibet was before Mao's reoccupation.

The second law is that all civil law must be obeyed. For example, you cannot destroy the forest or sell your children, which was once part of Chinese culture under the emperors.

China's government provides financial support to minorities under certain circumstances. Money goes toward developing the tourist potential in the minority areas and some minority people are paid a stipend to continue living in their traditional lifestyle as long as it does not violate Chinese civil laws. Tibet gets the biggest slice of this financial pie.

If a minority person decides to leave an autonomous region, he receives monthly food coupons to help maintain a decent lifestyle. If a minority person wants to attend college, she is allowed entry over better-qualified Han Chinese students and receives financial support to succeed.

The mainstream western media seldom reports these facts about China. We mostly hear bad news and accusations without much evidence to support the claims. A recent series of pieces in American magazines reveals the real China.

I suggest you read the May/June 2008 issue of Good magazine; the May/June 2008 issue of Poets and Writers Magazine’s "Beijing Book Report", and the May 2008 issue of National Geographic Magazine.

A recent book by American photojournalist Tom Carter, China: Portrait of a People, captures the heart and soul China. He spent two years walking thousands of miles through much of China to discover the real China—not what most in the West have heard.

It is always good to have the facts before jumping to conclusions.

Minority Treatment in China, Part 3

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:09:25 -0400

On October 25, 2009, this Blog was moved to:
http://learningchina.wordpress.com/

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China has a one-child policy due to a population of 1.3 billion people. What isn’t well known is that the one child policy applies only to the Han majority. That policy does not apply to the hundred million people that belong to the fifty-six minority groups in China. That means Tibetans may not be able to worship and maintain the feudal, nomadic lifestyle like they had before Mao’s brutal reoccupation of Tibet in 1951, but they can have as many children as they want without a penalty.

When emperors ruled China, the emperor wanted others to see him as a benevolent ruler embracing every kind of beauty under heaven. To do this, the emperor encouraged minorities to stay where they had always lived. No one forced them off their land with false promises. In China, if a minority king proposed a marriage alliance with the Emperor, the Emperor adopted a Chinese beauty as his daughter and sent her to the king of the minority. This is portrayed in the Dream of Red Mansions, a Chinese novel written in the 1800s.

If the minority king became powerful and caused unrest, the emperor proposed that this king marry the emperor's real daughter, as if to say, “You will be a member of my family so stop what you are doing. Since we are soon to be related through marriage, there is no need to fight.” This happened more than a thousand years ago with Tibet when the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty married his real daughter to the king of Tibet so the warlike Tibetans would stop raiding into China.

Under the rule of the emperor, minorities were not forced to pay taxes like the Han Chinese. It was believed that minorities were less fortunate and did not have the same advantages.

China's Zhuang & Yao ethnic people

Li River Minority area

Li River Minority area # 2