Little by little, China opens up - and matures
Rocky Mountain News
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The tragedy of the Chinese earthquake has revealed positive changes in China's civil society. The response to that disaster shows how much prosperity, openness to the outside world and the revolution in communications has diluted the Communist Party's tight control.
The normal reaction of the leadership is to cover up or downplay national mishaps as it did with the 2002 SARS outbreak and, most egregiously, a 1976 earthquake that killed 240,000.
But the Sichuan earthquake and its growing death toll - at least 34,000 - have been aggressively and graphically covered nonstop by the state-controlled media. An order from the propaganda department not to send more reporters to the stricken region has simply been ignored. And what little can't be learned from TV and newspapers is available on the Internet.
Private organizations are banned or discouraged, but private relief groups have sprung up outside official channels to deliver aid to the afflicted region. The outpouring of generosity seems to have astonished even the Chinese themselves.
It's possible that this spontaneous instance of ignoring traditional party strictures might be only passing but there's another event coming in China that could depart from the party's script - the Summer Olympics in August.
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May 21, 2008
8:07 a.m.
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windbourne writes:
Well hank, little chance unless several changes come about. For starters, china needs to untie their yuan from the dollar. They have it rigged. In addition, they were suppose to have dropped their import barriers including tariffs. They have done so selectively. In particular, they have dropped it against countries that they want to control, while keeping their barriers against the west (includes EU, Canada, Australia, and US, though not japan).
May 21, 2008
8:31 a.m.
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jacka writes:
China is a one party communist organization, they are anti-worker choice and anti-citizen choice.
This will continue to hinder their growth - they have no freedom or liberty values.
Compulsary membership, hummmmmm AFL, SEIU, AFSME ... partners in deception.
May 21, 2008
3:20 p.m.
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mytwosense writes:
Kind of an ironic choice in titles for this editorial.
SASQUATCH: "Let's make sure we get more than our share of this rapidly growing pie."
Just because the pie is growing doesn't mean more people are going to get a slice of it.
May 21, 2008
9:05 p.m.
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Sweetpickle writes:
They need to quit working so hard on that earthquake. They're making FEMA look bad.