Martin Jacques and Will Hutton on China

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiu9HtDxa-naDyLtxi1x0qb6k77XBTMYLySs4jc9bpi5dWgzAbyxh4N_tSAgH5p9EJWw7HHTZZX1XFmNCYIv7l01afxXQQWhcy49sXWPicoOJF6mINjJjUboTEM3W4rjkt5Ls7AaPBaKe6/s1600-h/china.jpeg"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 136px; height: 110px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiu9HtDxa-naDyLtxi1x0qb6k77XBTMYLySs4jc9bpi5dWgzAbyxh4N_tSAgH5p9EJWw7HHTZZX1XFmNCYIv7l01afxXQQWhcy49sXWPicoOJF6mINjJjUboTEM3W4rjkt5Ls7AaPBaKe6/s320/china.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350633770267047426" border="0" //abr /br /Martin Jacques and Will Hutton a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jun/22/china-asia-west-democracy" had a debate in the Guardian on China /a. Martin Jacques seems to think that China will find its own path to modernity, one that is different from the West. He also argues that the Chinese state is organic to Chinese society, in a way that Western states aren't. Jacques also talks of China as a 'civilization-state' rather than a nation-state. Hutton disagrees with him - he thinks China's political and economic model is dysfunctional and has to change.br /br /I tend to agree with Hutton on this. Although China's economy has grown rapidly in the last 20-30 years, it has done so on the basis of exporting manufactured goods. The room for growth in this direction is limited by the capacity of export markets to absorb Chinese imports. As other developing countries develop their export sectors, China may also lose market share in export markets to countries like Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria, India and so forth.br /br /And, politically, I agree with Hutton that China ought to democratise. Although democracy can take different forms in different societies, the current political set-up in China is not democratic. People can not vote for alternative candidates for president or prime minister. People can not elect a legislature in multi-party elections. Additionally, basic civil liberties often seem to be absent. There are restrictions on freedom of the press, freedom of movement and freedom of association. There are restrictions on the ability of free trade unions to organise.br /br /The key issue to me seems that a way needs to be found for opponents of the government there to get their views across to the public. That is what a free press and free media is about. And, when there is democratic discourse in the public arena, voters can make informed judgements as to who they wish to elect to power. This would be better for China than a rigid, single-party authoritarian set-up.br /br /Jacques talks of China as a 'civilization-state' rather than a nation-state. It is true that China has a long history of unity. It is also through that people often talk of 'Chinese civilization'. However, the countries of the West themselves talk of 'Western civilization'. Just because there are numerous nation-states that lay claim to Western civilization doesn't change the fact that there is a nuanced history of it going back centuries. The difference in China is that political unity has existed for the bulk of the time - whereas this has not been the case in Europe. This is not necessarily a good thing, though. The disunity of European states arguably caused competition between them that spurred innovation in technology and social institutions. Perhaps that did not happen to the same degree in China.br /br /Jacques also makes much of China's homogenity. He says 92% of the population would describe themselves as Han Chinese. It does seem that the historical tradition of being in the same country - and a common written language - has fostered a common ethnic identity among the majority of the inhabitants of China. However, in such a large country as China, there are plenty of national minorities as well. I would argue that, because it considers itself the guardian of a great tradition of Chinese civilization and Chinese culture, the regime is too contemptuous of the rights of national minorities. National minorities are not able to exercise their rights of self-expression and self-determination. This is particularly the case with Tibetans and Uighurs. A more powerful China would not be good news for Tibetans and Uighurs unless the country's government is reformed in such a way as to give them autonomy and a sense of belonging based on civic rather than ethnic nationalism. Jacques contracts himself when he talks of China being 92% homogenous and then talking of its diversity. I think the problem is that the rigid political system does not recognise the diversity of the country.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/38622711-6816177627795150762?l=vinospoliticalblog.blogspot.com'//div

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