La Debilidad De China

THE DOMESTIC WEAKNESS IN CHINA



“A tight grip is actually a sign of a weak hand” this is the observation that President Clinton observed in 1999 about China (China: Fragile Superpower Pg 256). China has a strong image of its economic superpower but their domestic challenges make the Chinese government extremely weak. After twenty-five years of reforms and opening to the world economy theChinese society have transformed radically. Over one hundred million farmers have move to the cities, three quarters of the workforce is employed outside the state with little political supervision from the CCP. Nationalism in China is deteriorating faster than ever, health care and education has fallen apart now that China is a market economy, and protests by workers are a daily occurrence.Globalization quickly takes over the Chinese people, every year 30 million people go abroad, 90% of students access information thought the Internet, whenever the CCP party censor the media it is a sign to its citizens of how nervous they are. These was the case LinkedIn, the social business network was disrupted after the increasing movements of gatherings inspired by the protests in the Middle East.The CCP anxiety is rising after the “Jasmine Revolution” protests, the tighter censorship and rash of detentions can trigger pro democracy gathering against the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese government seems to boxed themselves into a dangerous corner, if the CCP do not act on their domestic problems they will soon face a political crisis that will have a global effect.

Chinese leadersare struggling to keep control over their citizens; they have become their own worst enemy. Chinese foreign policy has two faces that is linked to its nation internal fragility. They want to be a responsible power to avoid international reactions that could disrupt its economic growth, throw millions of workers out of their jobs and create urban and rural unrest. On the other side Chinasometimes give hard responses to Japan, Taiwan, and the US so they can prove to the public, military, and internal agencies that they are strong defenders of there national pride. In China nationalism is the emotional platform that can gather social discontent and create revolutionary movements. As China moves towards a market economy today the gap between the extravagant rich lifestyles and thestruggles of the poor who can afford their medical expenses or basic education is making people very mad. Any large-scale social or environmental disaster could generate mass protests and a potential revolution towards the CCP. Chinese leaders are aware of their domestic fragility and are constantly finding solutions to increase their power and legitimacy, but their actions and policies are insufficientto control the arising problems. The CCP want to concentrate on their economic development and don’t want to repeat the mistakes made by Germany and Japan when they were rising powers. The Chinese leaders attitude towards international confrontation is conservative; the priority is to continue their development. The future of China is in question with the next generation and the increasing domesticproblems, as Singapore former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said “ I worry whether the next generation will stay on this course. We know the mind of the leaders but the mind on the people on the ground is another matter. Because there is no communist ideology that hold the people together”. The Chinese government needs to start changing their policies so they can keep citizens, military, and theoligarchy unified. New policies will prevent widespread protests, revolutionary movements and most important it will give a stable environment for China to continue its economic development.

Shirk mentions in “China: Fragile power” a set of steps that will help the CCP manage crisis better without changing their authoritarian political system. One of these steps is decentralizing the media,...