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Officials Accumulating Wealth, People in Poverty
Professor Li Dong
CCP officials have set a new record of personal wealth accumulation at the expense of the people. A study undertaken by Chinese researchers two years ago reveals that the income of Party and government officials is 8 to 25 times that of urban dwellers, and 25 to 85 times that of rural people.
Of the 3,200 super-rich in mainland China whose personal wealth exceeds 100 million Chinese Yuan (US$14.6 million), 2,932, or over 90 percent, are adult children of top Chinese leaders. At the same time, 400 to 500 million rural Chinese, almost 35 percent of the population still live under US$2 a day, or at subsistence level.
The CCP today has abandoned its communist ideals of public ownership and egalitarian distribution of wealth, and it keeps scoffing at the universal values of democracy, human rights and rule of law. It is singularly devoid of values. Its actions are guided by a crude form of social Darwinism.
Social Darwinism began to enjoy enormous influence among the Chinese intelligentsia in early 20th century. It was used to explain why Western powers were able to subjugate other lands (like China), and at the same time it was a wake-up call for the Chinese people to do whatever they could to make their country strong so as to survive and thrive.
‘Kill or Be Killed’
China’s experiences in the 20th century reinforced the national consensus of the importance of ruthless competition for economic and military power. Every Chinese child is taught Mao Zedong’s admonition “If you’re backward, you’ll be beaten up.” and it follows that if you’re beaten up that’s probably because you’re weak and useless (and therefore have only got yourself to blame).
Conversely if you are strong and powerful you can legitimately beat up others. Mao also taught his followers that, confronted with an adversary, it was a matter of killing or being killed. It is only zero-sum games that the CCP plays. It is in this social Darwinist spirit that Deng Xiaoping instructed “[Economic] development overrides everything else.” That means economic growth at any cost, even if it has brought about a yawning and worsening gap between rich and poor and irreversible environmental degradation.
Today social Darwinian sentiment is mixed with a popular nationalism—a nationalist sentiment based on the belief in survival of the fittest and resulting from the ambition to replace the United States as the dominant power—first in Asia and subsequently in the world. Nationalism is increasingly used to fill the vacuum created by the CCP’s abandonment of communist ideology.
Ross Terrill, a leading Australian-born China expert in the world, says, “In tacit acknowledgment of the weakness of its belief system, the Party-state, to stave off its death, added the gaudy mask of nationalism.” (The New Chinese Empire, page 154). Now patriotism is rated as the No. 1 virtue in the CCP book. Over 200 hundred years ago Dr Samuel Johnson said, “Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.” How true!
The Real Holders of Power
The legislature is called the People’s Congress, which Western journalists obligingly call “China’s parliament”. The members of this so-called “parliament”, or delegate to the People’s Congress, however, are not elected by the people. In fact they are not elected at all. Next time you meet a visiting Chinese person, ask him or her who is their delegate in the People’s Congress.
Ask them to name that person. I can assure you you’ll see a blank look on their face, as if you had asked them to name their banker on the moon, or on mars. All the delegates are carefully selected by the CCP on behalf of the people, without bothering to consult the people, and most people are sensible enough to know it is none of their business who the delegates are.
Professor Li Dong is a retired Chinese academic, having taught at universities in China, the UK, USA and New Zealand.
Last Updated
Oct 12, 2009
Professor Li Dong
CCP officials have set a new record of personal wealth accumulation at the expense of the people. A study undertaken by Chinese researchers two years ago reveals that the income of Party and government officials is 8 to 25 times that of urban dwellers, and 25 to 85 times that of rural people.
Of the 3,200 super-rich in mainland China whose personal wealth exceeds 100 million Chinese Yuan (US$14.6 million), 2,932, or over 90 percent, are adult children of top Chinese leaders. At the same time, 400 to 500 million rural Chinese, almost 35 percent of the population still live under US$2 a day, or at subsistence level.
The CCP today has abandoned its communist ideals of public ownership and egalitarian distribution of wealth, and it keeps scoffing at the universal values of democracy, human rights and rule of law. It is singularly devoid of values. Its actions are guided by a crude form of social Darwinism.
Social Darwinism began to enjoy enormous influence among the Chinese intelligentsia in early 20th century. It was used to explain why Western powers were able to subjugate other lands (like China), and at the same time it was a wake-up call for the Chinese people to do whatever they could to make their country strong so as to survive and thrive.
‘Kill or Be Killed’
China’s experiences in the 20th century reinforced the national consensus of the importance of ruthless competition for economic and military power. Every Chinese child is taught Mao Zedong’s admonition “If you’re backward, you’ll be beaten up.” and it follows that if you’re beaten up that’s probably because you’re weak and useless (and therefore have only got yourself to blame).
Conversely if you are strong and powerful you can legitimately beat up others. Mao also taught his followers that, confronted with an adversary, it was a matter of killing or being killed. It is only zero-sum games that the CCP plays. It is in this social Darwinist spirit that Deng Xiaoping instructed “[Economic] development overrides everything else.” That means economic growth at any cost, even if it has brought about a yawning and worsening gap between rich and poor and irreversible environmental degradation.
Today social Darwinian sentiment is mixed with a popular nationalism—a nationalist sentiment based on the belief in survival of the fittest and resulting from the ambition to replace the United States as the dominant power—first in Asia and subsequently in the world. Nationalism is increasingly used to fill the vacuum created by the CCP’s abandonment of communist ideology.
Ross Terrill, a leading Australian-born China expert in the world, says, “In tacit acknowledgment of the weakness of its belief system, the Party-state, to stave off its death, added the gaudy mask of nationalism.” (The New Chinese Empire, page 154). Now patriotism is rated as the No. 1 virtue in the CCP book. Over 200 hundred years ago Dr Samuel Johnson said, “Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.” How true!
The Real Holders of Power
The legislature is called the People’s Congress, which Western journalists obligingly call “China’s parliament”. The members of this so-called “parliament”, or delegate to the People’s Congress, however, are not elected by the people. In fact they are not elected at all. Next time you meet a visiting Chinese person, ask him or her who is their delegate in the People’s Congress.
Ask them to name that person. I can assure you you’ll see a blank look on their face, as if you had asked them to name their banker on the moon, or on mars. All the delegates are carefully selected by the CCP on behalf of the people, without bothering to consult the people, and most people are sensible enough to know it is none of their business who the delegates are.
Professor Li Dong is a retired Chinese academic, having taught at universities in China, the UK, USA and New Zealand.
Last Updated
Oct 12, 2009
