Local power in a unitary system
The example in this story from the Washington Post is much less important than the processes it illustrates about how China's political system works. Local authorities, in that unitary regime, have a great deal of power. That power fuels economic development, creates environmental hazards, and protects local elites through a wide range of bureaucratic orders and economic enticements.China's Local Censors Muffle an Explosion
"By 9 p.m., the Tianying karaoke bar was jumping...
"More than 400 pounds of nitrate-based explosives, used in nearby coal mines, ripped through the Tianying compound, reducing it to debris. Many of those partying inside were killed, along with several passersby...
"What happened that sultry evening of July 4 seemed to be news by anybody's definition. It was the worst disaster in ages to hit Tian Shifu, a raw town of 40,000 residents in the wooded hills of Liaoning province... But local Communist Party censors decided otherwise. They blacked out news of the explosion, barring papers and television stations here in Benxi county and the nearby provincial capital of Shenyang from investigating what had happened and telling the public about it."The party's vast propaganda and censorship bureaucracy, although best known for curbing national media, has long exercised its most drastic controls in the newsrooms of China's provincial papers and television stations... Unfavorable news -- information that could put local leaders in a bad light in Beijing -- is routinely suppressed by multiple layers of party propaganda officials in towns, counties, cities and provinces.
"As a result, Chinese who live in towns or in the countryside -- the majority of China's 1.3 billion inhabitants -- have grown used to living largely in ignorance of what goes on around them... This tight control of information has long been an effective tool for the Communist Party to maintain its monopoly on power. It has become even more important in the last two decades as corruption has spread through the party hierarchy, with many city, county and provincial officials eager to hide their association with local entrepreneurs..."
Labels: China, federalism
posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:16 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home