Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
We have all heard that China is not really a Communist country, but quite democratic, which trades with the West and is opening up to a capitalist consumer-based economy.
But what is democracy, when lust for capitalist development prevails and basic human rights are trampled upon?
Sky News reports:
"Increasing numbers of people are being killed, beaten and harassed in China as part of a local government land-grab."
According to Amnesty International, local governments in China have borrowed huge sums of money from state banks and are relying on land sales to cover the payments.
People both in towns and the countryside are being attacked, beaten and even killed in order to force them from their homes or from farmland.
Amnesty International states: "local officials continue to sanction or turn a blind eye to the harassment of residents by developers using ruthless tactics to force people out of their homes."
The report also concludes that the police rarely investigate such incidents.
Incidents include the hiring of thugs wielding steel rods and knives, dragging away women and beating them.
In one case, a woman was buried alive in her home as it was knocked down, in another, a woman who had petitioned the local authorities was beaten and forced to undergo sterilisation, while other residents who had accompanied her in handing in the petition were taken and beaten up.
And so we may ask ourselves, what propaganda are we being fed on, when we hear that China is a great economic partner and a democratic state?
Where does democracy end and when does the law of private capitalist speculation take control and rule supreme?
We must never sacrifice democracy and we should not turn a blind eye to what goes on in China, lest we too one day should fall victim to ruthless speculators, perhaps acting on behalf of authorities.
For now, let's not accept that "China is a democratic country".
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
There is nothing democratic about China.
It is opening up and it has adopted a free enterprise system that is bringing them wealth and economic success, but democratic far from it.
The demands for democracy and freedom from the Chinese people will build over time and it will come but it has a long way to go on that front.
For now it remains a totalitarian oppressive regime.
A thread started based on a totally false premise.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
The thread's title says nothing about China.
What kind of Democracy can the West boast of when it's 'economies' rely so heavily on such wholesale oppression?
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
It is economic development driven by free enterprise and free trade that will increase the pressure on China for political reform.
The title may not have mentioned China but the whole first post is all about China and based on a false premise.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
Political reform?
Do you mean that the Chinese people will learn to vote for oppression rather than have it thrust upon them, as the acme of Democracy is, as played out here?
China's economic explosion came about through the systematic abandonment of the economies of the West of their (our) own Democratic responsibilities in favour of a fast-buck. Soul-free enterprise?
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
democracy is what yo make of it,and there is many variations of it.
Guest 1694- Registered: 24 Feb 2016
- Posts: 1,087
I've lived there and no one has ever suggested that China is a free democracy, least of all anyone that lives there. People vote in China, but not for representatives of different political parties There is only one political party in China and I have yet to hear anyone suggest that China is a modern democracy.
China is a Capitalist Command Economy ruled by a Single Party Hegemony. I think we all know that.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
There is nothing 'soul free' about free enterprise Tom. It forms the basis and is the driver of all the most successful economies and provides all the wealth we have. Get rid of free enterprise and all you get is economic misery.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
"economic misery"
This must be so much worse than what Alexander describes.
It IS because so many are fixated upon money for it's own sake that the home-workforce is abandoned in favour of pressed labour abroad. With no thought given as to 'where' the wherewithal shall come from in the home market devoid of earners.
Your only answer is to adopt the working practices of a far-flung Command Economy that you helped to create.
"Free enterprise", joins 'fairness' in the wilderness of the 'f' word.
IF!!! one is set to rely upon the spending power of one's domestic market, one best ensure the presence of spending-power within that market. To do otherwise is to adopt the marvel of the Midas Touch, and you know what happened to him?
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/m/midas.htmlIgnorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
Alex, democracy is merely a term for a system of government by which the people elect their own leaders and empower them to govern. It has nothing whatever to do with the economic systems with which many people seem to confuse it.
To answer your question: what is democracy worth? Millions have died fighting for it, the nation which spectacularly squandered it in 1933 but regained it after 1945 would regard it as most precious.
China may be turning into a mixed economy after generations of being a command economy but that is nothing to do with communism or democracy. Although China's self-perpetuating elite is communist in name only, it still rules through a totalitarian system of repression, and true democracy, or even a degree of political freedom, is light-years away.
Tom, your last sentence elevates fatuity to an art form.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
Term it 'confusion' if you will. I would rather it was known as a matter of Priority.
If there is confusion it is between, Plutocracy and Democracy.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
1/6 in old money.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
1/- 6d. As I recall Brian.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
yep thats the one tom.
