The great China power change
**As I write this, the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China begins. That is, seven new members of the Politburo Standing Committee will be ushered in, including a new President. When you pick up this paper, China’s leadership for the next decade will be known.
Normally with these kinds of articles, the Boar prefers not to print something that may be outdated at the time of print; preferring not to publish predictions when the outcomes can be gleaned from other sources. While this is a good policy for, say, the US election, it is pretty much certain that Xi Jinping will take China’s reins, with Li Keqiang as his second. I know what you’re thinking: “These are huge names, right? I’m sure everyone’s got an opinion about the new recruits!”**
After the veritable orgy of publicity during the US election, I’m a little bit unused to being out of the loop. I usually know loads. For instance, I was heartbroken finding out that Obama’s kids won’t get a second puppy. I still find myself dreamily aroused imagining Romney’s binders full of women.
Whilst America exposes itself like a naked lunatic, China’s new leaders seem austerely opaque.
It’s no surprise that Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese Politics at the University of Sydney, says that “we are dealing with an elite from another planet.” This is, of course, the result of non-democratic leadership—a formal consequence of authoritarian Communism. Jinping’s ascendency had already been decided during months of backroom politicking.
It would be fair to say that the Western mind is undoubtedly perturbed. This is largely due to history: secret documents signed in the dark haunt our collective memory, and we fight against any power taking it upon themselves to think for us. And whilst this is a noble instinct, it also causes us to fetishise scandal; to take great pleasure in poking politicians, and watching them—inevitably—squirm. I needn’t cite any more examples from the US elections to prove this. We take pleasure in politics because we enjoy our perceived power over politicians. We are uneasy about China because we have no access—it is a dark and unknown Other.
Romney said that, if he beat Obama, he would stop trading with China as a protest against corruption of currency. His statement seemed to echo certain Cold War discourses. In building an economic Iron Curtain, the Other is left to darken; to grow and swell in our imaginations. And so the tension rises. The world divides.
Strong words from the US about China rarely translate into firm actions. It is highly unlikely that America will hang any Iron Curtains in the near future. Indeed, the general atmosphere in China during the US elections was rather indifferent. Shen Dingli, Director for the Centre of American Studies at Fudan University, put it like this: “It’s a joke. Romney will be China’s best friend because he will not honour his threats.”
The Chinese population has been focusing its political concerns inwards. Since 2008, the percentage who deem corrupt Party officials a problem rose from 40% to 50%, and the Party is desperate to polish their reputation.
Live television shows where officials face up to a stream of complaints from the ‘Chinese people’ were broadcast; authorities claim over 600,000 corrupt officials have been punished.
Democracy this is not. One is desperate to find out what the word ‘punished’ means in the Party’s dictionary. One may wonder who actually listens to these complaints, and how many of them are staged (the topic of birth control, revealingly, did not come up). In a best-case scenario, these television shows serve as a sort of political market research. Or, in Mao’s words: “from the masses, to the masses.”
We are right to mistrust this; the modern China sure won’t swallow it unquestioningly. We cannot let an opaque government put us off talking about its politics. In other words, we owe the Chinese shift in power the same attention we poured over Mitt Romney’s fake tan, or Barack Obama’s choice in pets.
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