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The economic growth of China in the past decade has been phenomenal; it has completely weathered the downturn and is comprehensively on its way to usurping the USA as the world’s biggest superpower within the not too distant future. In fact, some will have you believe that the so called improving social side of China is also making the country highly liveable and developed. If you stay on the right side of the law, you can apparently achieve huge success through low to non-existent taxes, entrepreneurial opportunities around every corner and a quality of living that is shooting through the roof.
However, living on the right side of the extremely strict Communist Party law has always been fairly difficult in China, and it seems to be getting worse as the country has announced that it is soon to pass a bill which will make it perfectly legal and in the ‘national interests’ to arrest people for free speech and other banned activities, and not have to inform anybody, including their families, of their whereabouts.
The famed rebel artist Ai Weiwei has recently been released from his latest ‘disappearance’, and has already spoken out over the nightmare of abuse he has endured. This is despite his knowing full well that he is subsequently highly likely to be violently arrested yet again by Chinese authorities for the remarks.
Another high profile ‘disappearance’ is that of Gao Zhisheng, a former lawyer and rights campaigner. He was brutally captured by more than a dozen secret police officers a few years ago, and despite a brief reappearance early last year, has now spent just shy of 1,000 days reportedly being abused, tortured, starved and threatened in prison. This is, of course, by international standards, completely unjust and illegal activity by the Chinese authorities, although this new law will make such ‘disappearances’ completely legal and commonplace in China. It is also worth mentioning the many hundreds, or potentially even thousands of other people who are in a similar situation in the country, simply because they have attempted to air their views in public or take it upon themselves to live a life of freedom.
Whilst we are always thinking of our own right to civil liberties, free speech and personal responsibility, it is sometimes worth reflecting on the situation in other countries such as China. The Communist Party of China (CPC) needs to, but unfortunately probably never will, realise that real development and progress needs to involve a positive and free society, not solely overseas investors and flashy building developments.
Luke Douglas
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Nice article, although from my time in China, there’s two points you made that need qualifying. Firstly, staying on the right side of the law is fairly easy in China if you avoid political or religious activity. Generally, it’s a fairly anarchic society in day-to-day life and most state laws are ignored much of the time. The police are very unwilling to make arrests for crimes like assault or dangerous driving, though sadly they are more willing to adopt bullying tactics and commit violent acts themselves.
The other point is to highlight the word ‘apparently’ when talking about the entrepreneurial opportunities is a very sensible word to include. Besides the deeply complex bureaucratic hoops entrepreneurs are made to jump through, corruption, human resource issues, intellectual theft and political interference is the brutal reality that most Chinese entrepreneurs face. When businesses do become successful, the founder is often forced to give up a large degree of control to a political patron or their better connected rivals will run their business to the ground.
Mark Kitto’s ‘China Cuckoo’ is well-worth reading to understand the true politics of doing business in China – the author once turned up to work to find himself locked out of his magazine and his business partners being told he was a spy supporting the Xinjiang separatist movement. He lost millions overnight. (http://www.danwei.org/china_books/mark_kittos_china_cuckoo.php)