Quote:
Originally Posted by astralis
triple C,
i would argue this point differently. the resilience of the CCP post-6/4 is because it has- perhaps temporarily- won the backing of the people with its economic reforms. this is what is keeping it afloat, far more securely than their control of the PLA, PAP, etc etc.
by the way, CCP control of schools and media is not as iron-fisted as you name. there have been quite a few whistle-blowers within the media, for example. some of them get canned, some of them even get jailed; however, a few get through, and sometimes even influences official policy.
also, civil society doesn't necessarily need to include other parties. taiwan had a pretty good civil society prior to the KMT ceding power in the 80s. same with japan and its LDP. instead, civil society includes things such as community involvement and institutions. there has been evidence of the NPC and the chinese judicial branch being given greater say than in the past, with the once certain 100% support within the NPC for CCP decrees no longer so certain, and with the judicial branch sometimes slapping down the CCP.
obviously china's still an authoritarian country. but it's less authoritarian than it was 15 years ago. i personally do think if the CCP -does- go away, it probably WILL go with a whimper, KMT-style.
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Astralis,
Sorry for a belated response.
I would not underestimate CCP's control over state and society. The CCP's control over society, while definately weakened, is still going strong. A visiting professor to Taiwan told me that before he came the conference host and the invited Chinese scholars are warned not to discuss any issue in regard to cross-straight relations, or there will be consequences! Of course the party has its own representative to moniter the conference. This particular professor's field of expertise is Medieval Romances and was going to give a lecture on the Song of Roland. While the media is allowed to criticize the government in technical aspects of their policy, no open discussion of the party's legitimacy or the state of human rights in China is allowed. Relatively few Chinese media suffered crack down because they have been very diligent in self-censorship. Even so, arrests and disappearances of Chinese journalists and lawyers still occur. One lawyer who is the defendant of an imprisoned journalist just disappeared a month ago after returning to China from a conference abroad.
There is certainly plenty of community involvement and instituitions in China, but all of them had to be registered and monitered by a party representative. Furthermore, when the stakes are down the Chinese judiciary had opted to keep to themselves. They have been silent in the government's brutal crack down on Falung Gong, or more recently the Wai-Chuan (Rights Protection) movement. Just last year the PLA was mobalized to crack down on a village because its peasants had protested over local official corruption. CCP has certainly kept a tight lid over 6/4. It is virtually a non-event in offical Chinese history. It is not mentioned by any media. There is no anniversary memorial of any kind observed in Beijin last year or the year before that. The fact that 6/4 had ceased to exist in the public view testifies to the efficiency of the Chinese state. If some survivors still remebers 6/4, it seems that they are trying mighty hard to forget it.