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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| In Graft Inquiry, Chinese See a Shake-Up Coming |
| 2006-10-04 |
| When ShanghaiÂ’s party boss was detained in an anticorruption probe last week, Chinese were rattled by news of the first purge of a high-ranking Communist Party leader since 1995. But the investigationÂ’s scope and its ultimate goals are wider, as the partyÂ’s two most powerful officials aim to shake up the leadership and wipe out resistance to their policy agenda, party officials and analysts say. The investigation, the largest of its kind since China first pursued market-style changes to its economy more than a quarter-century ago, was planned and supervised by Zeng Qinghong, ChinaÂ’s vice president and the day-to-day manager of Communist Party affairs, people informed about the operation said. They said Mr. Zeng had used the investigation to force provincial leaders to heed BeijingÂ’s economic directives, sideline officials loyal to the former top leader, Jiang Zemin, and strengthen Mr. ZengÂ’s own hand as well as that of his current master, President Hu Jintao. |
| Posted by:.com |
| #8 Ayn Rand's book, "Capitalism, The Unknown Ideal" absolves it of all origins and previous uses. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-10-04 23:14 |
| #7 IIRC, "capitalism" was coined by Marx. That alone makes the term suspect. |
| Posted by: Jackal 2006-10-04 12:37 |
| #6 Don't use the term capitalism, use the term "economic freedom" |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles in Blairistan 2006-10-04 08:12 |
| #5 market-style "Free-market", "enterprise-driven", "market-style", the "three representations", any-damned-fucking-thing but the dreaded "C" word. It's CAPITALISM you stupid megalomaniac Mandarin fucks. C-A-P-I-T-A-L-I-S-M with a capital "C" you idiotic moron shits. Go cram your imbecilic communist autocracy with (honey glazed) walnuts. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-10-04 06:13 |
| #4 gromky: Corrupt local officials plundering the citizenry is an old story in China. The Emperor's men trying to control the provinces is an equally old story. It actually goes both ways, but China's history writers - in the interests of national unity* - typically focus on the idea of a benevolent emperor. The reality is a little more complex - central government officials looted the national treasury while demanding more and more from the provinces. The Great Leap Forward, which caused the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese, involved central government officials demanding the entire grain harvests for certain areas, meaning that they starved to death. Say what you will about corrupt local officials, but their edicts have never starved tens of millions of Chinese to death, individually or collectively. Why was this so? Because local officials have to live where they govern. Officials in Beijing don't really care about the kind of damage they do to the locals - they neither know the people impacted nor have to see the results of their depredations. * Chinese histories always praise the central government. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2006-10-04 04:44 |
| #3 gromky: Corrupt local officials plundering the citizenry is an old story in China. The Emperor's men trying to control the provinces is an equally old story. It actually goes both ways, but China's history writers - in the interests of national unity - typically focus on the idea of a benevolent emperor. The reality is a little more complex - central government officials looted the national treasury while demanding more and more from the provinces. The Great Leap Forward, which caused the deaths of tens of millions of Chinese, involved central government officials demanding the entire grain harvests for certain areas, meaning that they starved to death. Say what you will about corrupt local officials, but their edicts have never starved tens of millions of Chinese to death, individually or collectively. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2006-10-04 04:41 |
| #2 Corrupt local officials plundering the citizenry is an old story in China. The Emperor's men trying to control the provinces is an equally old story. Shanghai is the economic center of China in so many ways...imagine NYC, LA, and Houston all rolled up into one unit. |
| Posted by: gromky 2006-10-04 04:17 |
| #1 Foreign investors are about to get royally screwed. Several days ago, a central government edict required Ebay to sell a 1/3 interest in its Paypal unit to a Chinese company to continue operating in China. Basically, the provincial governments have been ignoring imbecilic (and simultaneously arrogant) central government edicts (which are ultimately responsible for China being one of East Asia's poorest nations) for years now. This is bad for China's economy, and bad for the foreign investors who will have wasted money putting up large operations in China. But it is ultimately good for China's neighbors, whose economies will become more competitive relative to China. If Hu sticks at it, a weaker China will result - something that should cause military planners everywhere to heave a sigh of relief. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2006-10-04 03:39 |