Authoritarianism the Chinese Way
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Repeat after me: the People’s Republic of China is an
authoritarian country. Political leaders are not elected. Human
rights activists go to jail. Religious persecution is
real.
China is not free.
Yet to visit the PRC is to visit a nation that feels
free. It’s remarkably easy to get a visa. The consular
office in Washington, D.C. is always crowded; pay an extra $30
and get same-day service. It’s a lot harder for Chinese to get a
visa from the U.S. government.
Blacklisting presumably occurs, but most vetting must be
perfunctory. Given the time difference, the Washington consulate
is handing out visas while the Beijing Foreign Ministry is
sleeping. The PRC appears to have decided to err on the side of
collecting U.S. dollars.
Beijing’s spacious new airport has no forbidding security
presence. Exiting health check, immigration, and customs is no
more onerous than returning home to the U.S.
Most Chinese and foreigners saunter through the green
“nothing to declare” customs channel. No one appears to be
checked for anything. I could have carried in political or
religious literature without incident. (Heck, some people might
view the copies of two of my foreign policy books which I brought
on my most recent trip as subversive.)
Presumably some people are discovered smuggling, but this
isn’t North Korea, where my luggage was carefully searched and I
was questioned for bringing in a few copies of a benign volume on
the two Koreas. The Beijing regime apparently has decided that it
is worth accepting the risk of minor subversion in order to
encourage large-scale business and tourist travel.
Once through you can fly anywhere in China. Temporary
restrictions are imposed in crises, as during unrest in Tibet.
But most of the country is open: the domestic terminal is full of
Western passengers with no one in authority paying the slightest
attention.
I went to Shenyang, a large city in China’s northeast, for
an academic conference. The process was the same when I visited
other cities as part of official delegations and to play tourist.
Show up at the airport and you’re on your way. No security forces
demanding your papers or restricting your movements. No need to
get permission or sign in.
The economy is remarkably free and, in larger urban areas,
developed. Western franchises (think KFC and McDonald’s) sit on
the major thoroughfares. Luxury brands, such as Prada, populate
fashionable shopping districts. Big name hotels look and feel
like big name hotels everywhere.
Perhaps the most important test: supermarkets are full of
stuff. The campus store at the college where I was staying had
diet Coke and diet Pepsi — my traditional test for any economy
— as well as a wide range of chocolate bars. (Little else is
necessary for the good life!) Plus most other food items you
might want. Even rural China has choices only dreamed of a few
years ago. This is no longer an impoverished regimented society
in which everything is limited.
Western influences are hard to miss. In Shenyang I went to
dinner with the other conferees at a traditional Chinese
restaurant where all the waiters and waitresses were wearing
Santa caps and (secular) Christmas decorations covered the walls.
It could have been any of dozens of U.S. establishments.
The streets have the feel of freedom. Busy people going
about their affairs without much worry of government interference
— personally and commercially, anyway. Everyone seems to own a
cell phone. People have gone from bicycles to automobiles. It is
a population that isn’t easily monitored or controlled.
The government reportedly continues to strengthen the Great
Firewall of China. Restrictions on Chinese websites undoubtedly
are the broadest, and were impossible for me to assess. But I
found few problems getting on English-language sites, other than
all of my attempts to reach Google landing me on the German
language version. Still, I was able to use the Google-inspired
AOL search engine, which was no different in practice.
Western news sources from the Washington
Times to the New York Times
came up. So did blogs, unlike at times in the past. Even
The American Spectator online was
available! I’ve had far more trouble online on previous visits,
when several political sites and blogs were blocked.
Discussions at academic forums appear to be relatively
free, even though the official media might not cover such topics.
Without incident I noted in my paper the problems of inadequate
legal and political development as well as corruption in dealing
with American investment. One Chinese participant discussed the
rise of civil society in the democratization of South Korea,
which after decades of authoritarian rule has evolved into a
vibrant democracy — obviously not what the Beijing leadership
wants to encourage among its people. At previous forums
participants talked about encouraging the rule of law. People may
self-censor, but do not appear to fear that every word is being
monitored and passed along to political or security
officials.
Conversation at dinner was about normal life: academic
pursuits, family matters, business opportunities, personal
foibles. Politics no longer consumes Chinese society. The
university Communist Party secretary appeared at the conference
opening ceremony, but party imagery is largely absent from both
the campus and the city. There are no disquisitions about
revolution, no suggestions that the PRC and America represent
antagonistic systems.
All of this obviously is to the good.
OF COURSE, NOTHING DIMINISHES the magnitude and brutality
of present political restrictions, manifested in many different
ways. Or suggests that democracy is certain or soon to bloom. But
China also is not totalitarian Communist, at least in the sense
that we once understood totalitarian Communist to be. Rather, the
so-called “People’s Republic of China” is complex and ever
evolving. What the PRC will look like in one or two decades is
hard to predict.
Perhaps the Communist Party will be able to maintain
political control. Perhaps the country will evolve into some sort
of authoritarian nationalistic system. In either case China is
likely to be an important economic and political rival of
America. But then, even a democratic China is unlikely to accept
perpetual U.S. domination.
The Chinese I have met are patriots acutely aware of
China’s history and its recent humiliations. They strongly desire
to acquire a good education and learn English for themselves and
their nation.
They want to both cooperate and compete with America. The
Chinese people recognize that their country remains relatively
poor and faces substantial economic and social challenges. The
financial crisis and quick Chinese recovery have increased
Chinese confidence, but no one calls the U.S. a paper tiger. They
see greatness ahead for their nation. But that doesn’t mean they
expect conflict with the U.S.
Others may think differently, of course. There is an
ideological left in China, which opposes much of China’s market
shift. Suspicion of America is particularly strong in the
military. It is difficult to predict Beijing’s future
geopolitical ambitions. The perception that Washington is trying
to contain the PRC could spark antagonism. Much could go wrong
with the China-U.S. relationship.
We need to work to make sure it doesn’t.
Four decades ago the PRC was convulsed by the Cultural
Revolution — a bloody, xenophobic intra-party power struggle.
The U.S. and China had recently fought in Korea and had no
diplomatic relations. China was poor, totalitarian, and
aggressively subversive, and involved in an ongoing military
confrontation with U.S.-supported Taiwan. Few Americans visited
the PRC and even fewer Chinese visited America. Conflict was
easily imaginable.
Today the relationship continues to grow more
interdependent, relaxed, and familiar at both the personal and
national levels. After four visits Shenyang feels, if not exactly
like home, then homey. I recognize the airport, hotels,
restaurants, university, conference center, and especially
people.
The American and Chinese peoples are buying more things
from each other and seeing more of each other. The old days of
easily demonizing each other are over. Both nations have much at
stake in a prosperous and peaceful order. Though political
differences there will be many, there is no obvious reason the
present superpower and emerging superpower cannot get along
peacefully in coming years. But they need to work to make that
so.
The U.S. will be the most influential nation for years,
even decades, to come. It is, however, going to have to share the
world stage with a steadily more influential and assertive PRC.
China is nowhere close to pushing America aside — China’s
limitations and America’s strengths both are too great. Indeed,
it is possible that the PRC will crash and burn before attaining
international superstardom.
But some day, whether it comes in two, three, or four
decades, the two countries are likely to meet as global equals.
That will force the U.S. to operate very differently, especially
in Asia. It behooves Washington to prepare for what is coming,
and to begin thinking about how it should respond to that
day.
