Re: Two Important Developments

On 3 Feb 2006 13:05:38 -0800, bmoore@xxxxxxx wrote:


There are many things wrong with LT Lee's assertion that having a
government sponsored press is better than having a press that operates
as a business. I will just mention one. A business may answer to its
stockholders, but not only to its stockholders. It also answers to its
customers, i.e. the public in the case of the press. A business that
does not satisfy its customers doesn't last long.

On the other hand, a press that answers to the government need only
satify the government.



Let us be thankful for the real improvements we get. This is the
first few steps to a better system that will lead China into a better
future. If the official press has a mandated role in checking
government conduct one can be assured that the private press will be
bolder to expose misconduct ahead of the officially sanctioned
criticisms. The official press will also develop the rules from which
private media can work from. If the private press is right they will
be heroes. If they are wrong it will not be fatal for them, as in
being jailed for long terms on vague charges. Unless if it is
outright slander or libel. Then ordinary tort can take care of that.

It is heartening that China's leaders is taking carefully measured
steps in many areas, in this case, to develop lower and preferably
non-government institutions function independently in the role of
Checks and Balances. Admittedly they are probably not fully
independent now. But should the experiment succeed it is likely that
the heavy hand of government supervision will be lightened gradually
to a time when it will disappear.

I had always wanted to comment on the recent and unusually open
admission and publication of peasant protests in China. (74,000
reported events in 2005?) Taken in the light of the latest mandate
for the media to act as the country's watchdog that openness makes a
lot of sense. It is both impossible and very undesirable for Beijing
to be responsible for everything that happens in China. By reporting
the troubles in the media this exposes the local authorities to their
shortcomings. If the local authorities adopt illegal methods in land
seizure for example, the complaints of the victims will be broadcast
all over the country. Then the victims won't need to sue in court to
redress. Countrywide public opinion will check them. The open
evidence will also make it easy for the higher level of jurisdiction
to correct their excesses. Other local authorities will take note and
not try something similar. This method is more effective than at
first glance for conduct based on social conformity and acceptance is
still a very potent force in Chinese society.

When I praised the Beijing government for taking measured steps in
building institutions to improve China my observation is that Beijing
first accepts the overall goal then, instead of grand gesture
promising heaven immediately, it experiments with a few modest steps
first and fine tune it along the way. There isn't the necessity for
Beijing to win a popularity contest for votes. Take for example, under
the distraction of the Spring Festival quite a few major policy
initiatives had been issued of late. A week ago it was the conduct of
managers of state owned enterprises. Then it was the law forbidding
contractors from having a state in the projects they work on. There
are probably a few that slipped my memory. And for sure I expect a
few more to be announced soon. (Suggestions? Wishful thinking is
acceptable)

One central idea I had always maintained in all my posts is that
conditions in China require that China develops its own solutions to
its problems. While the West provides many useful models to adopt
Western development models will be ruinous to China. Therefore the
arguments about western style democracy being superior to communism
are a futile and pointless exercise. The philosophical arguments
about political systems had been settled during the Cultural
Revolution. Mao's version of socialism won. Along the way
pragmatism is paramount. What China has now is not Marxism and barely
Maoism. Tomorrow it will be something different and it won't be
capitalism either. But it will work and it will be unique.

.

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