Changing China
There is the lightest breeze of change blowing from China’s ruling Communist Party. The ruling elite has decided to drop references to Mao Zedong Thought, standard in all party communiqués. This commissioned omission has been spotted at once as a broad hint that the Politburo will move towards reform as the time approaches for a generational leadership change.
The Politburo has said that it will discuss amending the party constitution at a November congress. It is not a great wind, the disturbance more like that of a butterfly flapping its wings. But it is a change.
But how does a state change mass thought? An ancient Pharoah attempted it, obliterating the very name of a predecessor from the human record. Is that the way China will go about it? The irony here is that change involving well over a billion people, unless impelled by the ruled, is possible only in an authoritarian state. Mao, despite his cruel excesses, is still revered by many in China as a unifier, his image forged in war. The question here is whether the Chinese leadership is really ready to slowly change or whether this is a facade behind which they will reinforce a legitimacy to which they have clung for the better part of a century.
China has changed since Deng Xiaoping began the market reforms that put it where the country stands today. Many sense change, especially with state-controlled media calling for reform. It would be impractical, however desirable, to expect a storm. But will a butterfly’s wings kick up more than a breeze?
Post new comment