Ray

So, in the end, nothing changes!!

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"Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination."

I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.

HAKUNA MATATA

Everyan

Grave news, isn't it? Fortunately, the reality is quite different. Well, at least in China (I have no idea of Russians).

The author is right about the fade of ideology. CCP has evolved into a pragmatic authority, with the main goal to protect their continued rule. They had success in the economic reform, but it also leads to less effective propagandas, individual intellectual thinkings and inevitably social and political awareness.

Being pragmatic, CCP has to make numerous compromise in order to keep its rule, shaping the current Chinese society. Among the most prominent ones are: free speech, the evolution of education, admission of Capitalists and mid-class into the party, and the legislation of private property protection.

Details inc... has to work for the moment

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天下兴亡，匹夫有责

Ray

It still is Party reign over Individual aspirations!

lwarmonger

The Communist Party has gone for a softer form of domination than existed in Mao's day, with the goal of shaping the newfound nationalist sentiment of the Chinese population to the Communist Parties ends... much the way Bismark and the autocracy of the Kaisers did in Germany.

China is controlling the information and spin that reaches the Chinese population in order to produce a desired result... over the long term, that is a much more effective way to rule than the old Stalinist and Maoist models.

tiskew

Yes, they are trying to creat a more open environment not only ecnomonical-wise also political-wise. And actually to free the media and thoughts is not as horrible as they expected, you still can create propaganda and lead the mainstreams of thoughts, and this takes time to learn.

Everyan

This is true, but I would say CCP is forced to do these rather than a well planed shrift. They are reluctant to change and the political change always lag behind the economic development.

Say the evolution of text books I have gone through. they were pretty the same propaganda as it was 50 years ago when I was in the primary school, full of stuff about Soviet leaders and war heroes of PLA, even in math problems. That is already in the 90's. Of course as a kit, I don't even know what they are talking about, but it really amuses me now.

Then came the middle school, after several revise of the text books, these ridiculous stories finally went away. However, political and historical classes are still dominated by propagandas. But guess what? Most schools focuses on math, physics, English class, so that their students can be competitive in the infamous National College Entrance Exams. No one were serious learning these propagandas, and those who actually did, were usually mocked by others (me, for one , damn free speech, I was just curious).

By the time of college, propaganda classes are so under presented that the lecturers themselves got embarrassed. These didn't get replaced after the complains went public for many years. And the new softer versions, although a lot better, are still apparently biased. The result? CCP has lost trust among the young, failing to recruit a single member in my class.

Controlling the information and spin that reaches the Chinese population in order to produce a desired result? A miserable failure domestically, well at least seems to me. You may be alarmed by the national emotions all over the world lately, but if you look closely those are actually more free minded Chinese who has been living in the west, even Taiwanese. The reactions of "brain-washed" domestics are actually milder. CCP even attempts to pacify the anger in the fear of foreign relationship by heavy censoring of any "anit-French" content. They are run by capitalists nowadays who cares more about their own wallets.

The whole point is, CCP is now actually driven by the free market rather than drive it as they had hoped.

Officer of Engineers

My read is a lot different. The CCP is absolutely terrified of its population. There has been NO government sponsored parade, protest, nor rally. The Han-Chinese reaction is genuine and without government involvement. Beijing is now trying to avoid what happened during the Belgrade Embassy bombing and the EP-3 incident. You will all note that the police were in front of the French Embassy the day after the Paris torch incident.

It's very easy to stir up Han-Chinese nationalism. It's also very easy to lose control of Han-Chinese nationalism and the first group that Han-Chinese nationalism will demand answers from is the CCP ... and they have no answers.

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Chimo

Everyan

Exactly, and I have a deep concern over this issue. Blind nationalism can be very dangerous. CCP has long been employing nationalism in their propaganda, especially after the fade of Communist ideologies. They hope to get more acknowledgement by riding the tiger.

The result has not been what they hoped. The strong "anti-west" emotion gives no credit to Communist, which is western ideas in the first place. It also leads to unfriendly reaction to the west, who are the biggest trading partners of China. Terrified of this consequence, CCP has been adopting "harmonious" propagandas advocating "Rational Nationalism", international peace and communication. Domestically, CCP is trying hard to change its identity into "Chinese" instead of "Communist", which has been proven difficult given its nature.

Nationalism plus anti-west emotions, no wonders the strong reaction of Han Chinese all over the world. Strong nationalism has been helpful in South Korea's development, but I wonders what it would bring to the world if its a country of 13 billion. Personally I support CCP's attempt in pacifying the resentment to the west, even though you can call it "suppression". They played a role causing it, they should take the responsibility to remedy the issue.