The correct term here is "recommunizing". China was making apparent progress towards following a less-unfree market economy model, but any serious observer understood that their numbers were always a lot faker than the fakest American numbers. We're talking about a government that can order blue skies for a huge military parade by just forbidding people from using "their" cars, and forbid those same people from even looking at the parade from the windows of "their" homes to minimize security concerns.
If you watch a Chinese execution, it's instructive. They have three guys, two holding the condemned by the arms, and one at almost contact range with a rifle. Nobody else does this, because it's dangerous and stupid. So why do the Chinese? Because carrying out executions safely or humanely isn't the point, the point is to have three soldiers experience killing someone up close and personal as possible every time you have an excuse. Whether it works on the soldiers themselves is not yet fully tested, but it certainly works on the rest of the Chinese people. While we were saying "no more Waco's", Beijing was saying "not another Tankman."
The CCP once achieved miracles by preaching communism as the panacea for the suffering of the peasants. But that was a long time ago, and they certainly never shifted to basing their legitimacy on competing economically with America (and Japan, or even Korea and Taiwan). They base their claim to authority on narratives of defending China from foreign oppressors. It's not a strategy you can use forever without actually fighting a major war.
1 comment:
The correct term here is "recommunizing". China was making apparent progress towards following a less-unfree market economy model, but any serious observer understood that their numbers were always a lot faker than the fakest American numbers. We're talking about a government that can order blue skies for a huge military parade by just forbidding people from using "their" cars, and forbid those same people from even looking at the parade from the windows of "their" homes to minimize security concerns.
If you watch a Chinese execution, it's instructive. They have three guys, two holding the condemned by the arms, and one at almost contact range with a rifle. Nobody else does this, because it's dangerous and stupid. So why do the Chinese? Because carrying out executions safely or humanely isn't the point, the point is to have three soldiers experience killing someone up close and personal as possible every time you have an excuse. Whether it works on the soldiers themselves is not yet fully tested, but it certainly works on the rest of the Chinese people. While we were saying "no more Waco's", Beijing was saying "not another Tankman."
The CCP once achieved miracles by preaching communism as the panacea for the suffering of the peasants. But that was a long time ago, and they certainly never shifted to basing their legitimacy on competing economically with America (and Japan, or even Korea and Taiwan). They base their claim to authority on narratives of defending China from foreign oppressors. It's not a strategy you can use forever without actually fighting a major war.
Post a Comment