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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Chinese General Declares Democracy The Ultimate Weapon |
| 2010-08-20 |
| Chinese Lieutenant General Yazhou Liu has been giving speeches to his fellow officers in which he insists that China must embrace democracy, or perish. Liu recently got promoted, and his speeches and published articles continue. What is going on here? Liu has been pushing his ideas for nearly a decade. Five years ago, he was ordered to shut up. So his public presentation of these seemingly heretical ideas ceased. But Liu kept talking to military and government officials in private. Now he has been allowed to go public again. The way he presents his ideas is compelling. He points out that the American military has continued to innovate, increasing the gap between Chinese and U.S. military capabilities. This, despite over a decade of intense reform and upgrades in the Chinese military. This gets the attention of Chinese generals and admirals. Earlier, the Chinese brass were appalled at how quickly the Americans demolished Iraqi forces (using weapons and tactics similar to what China has) in 1991 and 2003. The Chinese military leadership was also shocked at how much the American forces had improved between 1991 and 2003. The quick conquest of Afghanistan in 2001 was also an unpleasant surprise, as this was a very different war than the two in Iraq. Chinese commanders speak boldly, and publicly, of how they are developing methods to defeat all this American cleverness, but Liu knows better, and his private conversations with fellow generals has changed a lot of minds. Liu's backing of democracy is purely practical, and really has nothing to do with political beliefs. He describes American democracy as a system designed by a genius for effective use by stupid people. As Liu puts it, ''a bad system makes a good person behave badly while a good system makes a bad person behave well. Democracy is the most important reform for China, for without it there can be no sustainable growth.'' Liu has also been active in anti-corruption efforts, and points out that democracies tend to have far less corruption than non-democracies. This gets the attention of Communist Party officials, who have long believed that the Russians made a mistake by enacting economic reforms as well as political ones. Liu points out that the Russians had no choice, as the communists in Russia were completely discredited, and the economic reforms followed the political collapse. Liu points out that communists can compete in a democratic environment, especially since Chinese communists have abandoned the most destructive aspects of traditional communist doctrine (state control of the economy). But growing corruption, especially among communist officials, is crippling China and threatens the economy, as well as continued communist control of the country. Better to compete in a democratic environment, and risk losing national power, than to proceed with the current system and risk everything. Liu is being listened to by a lot of senior officials, both military and government, who back clean government. But the "dirty communists" are opposed, and that is a formidable opponent for someone like Liu. Liu is a special kind of officer. He's a political officer, a job invented by the Russians during the Soviet period. The political officer is assigned to units from company size on up, and is second in command of the unit. The political officer is responsible for the political loyalty of all the officers and troops in the unit. He also acts as a (non-religious) chaplain, morale officer and publicist for the unit. These days, political officers rarely say much about communist doctrine, as few Chinese care for it. Political officers do serve as a source of grassroots information on what's going on with the troops, and the word is that corruption is a big issue with military personnel as well. Change is in the air, whether communist officials want it or not. Liu offers a way out, but there's no guarantee that enough of these officials will take it. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #6 To paraphrase an old saying, THE GREATEST THREAT TO DEMOCRACY IS ITSELF. 1990's CLINTONISM > Among other, RIGHTISM IS THE "NEW LEFTISM" e.g. hence ARROGANT MALE BRUTE FASCIST = NATIONALIST/NATIONAL [Right-Socialist] AMERICA is leading the charge to establish motherly Femmez-vouz OWG-NWO = "GLOBALISM" = GLOBAL LEFTIST-SOCIALIST-GOVTIST COMMIE SOCIALIST WORLD ORDER. Dare we fergit POST-USSR/SOVIET, 1990's RUSS "COMMPITALISM" [Communist Capitalism] + GLOBORIALISM [Global Materialism]??? But i digress ... |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-08-20 18:58 |
| #5 "Political officer" - Liu's a commissar. Watch out for commissars talking "democracy". They're often "Lean and Hungry Cassius" on the make. Especially when they're also on an anti-corruption kick. That's how the new Maoists talked during the run-up to the Cultural Revolution. Is this guy talking sweet to the foreign press in English and talking up a purge of the cadres in Mandarin? |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2010-08-20 12:44 |
| #4 Democracies, real democracies not the fake ones like Saddam had, aren't interested much in conquest or wars of aggression. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2010-08-20 09:13 |
| #3 America was the original revolutionary nation. The concept that 'all men are created equal' while imperfectly implemented, none the less strikes a cord with most of humanity. Except, of course, the ruling elite both abroad and at home, who insist that they and only they are more equal than others. That concept is so revolutionary because it treats man as something more than just another species on the planet that struggles for base hierarchical dominance, again unlike the ruling elite which does. It is a powerful concept as reflected in the time resources directed against it. Yet, as imperfect it is executed, it has provided more benefits for more people, well beyond the usual tribal identification, than any other time in history. Liu has grasped what hundreds of thousands of 'educated' Americans have failed to understand. Then again, Liu compares America with the rest of the world. The 'educated' Americans compared America with their concepts of unattainable perfection. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2010-08-20 07:47 |
| #2 China will have democracy...eventually. They're big on long-term plans. It will take 50 years or so. China is afraid of chaos more than anything else, if they held elections today, Canton and Hong Kong would vote their own parties in to power (or even secede from PRC by popular demand), and the rest of the nation would fall apart. |
| Posted by: gromky 2010-08-20 03:31 |
| #1 Americans equate democracy with freedom and liberty, but in truth, these are side effects. The real value of democracy lies in efficiency at a low level. Beyond a few tiers, however, democracy requires republicanism to maintain this efficiency. And breakdowns can happen. Either through disenfranchisement of an important segment of the public, or a lack of discipline in selecting republican representatives. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-08-20 00:57 |