Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Friday, October 19, 2007

Harmonious, party-dominated society

Melissa Chan's report for Al Jazeera is not news. You might have a better article on the growing disparities between rich and poor and between city and countryside. But Chan's article makes relevant links betweeen the current Party Congress and President Hu's "harmonious society."

China society far from harmonious

"China's president and delegates at the 17th Party Congress this week have been repeating the slogan that China must build 'a harmonious society'.

"Hu Jintao has said that a harmonious society should 'include democracy ... the rule of law … equality and justice'...

"But on the ground, Hu's socio-economic ideology and contribution to Communist thought is a long way off from being realised...

"The fact is that while there may be a new middle-class, most Chinese remain very poor and very left behind by the economic juggernaut.

"The widening income gap, experts say, partly explains the increase in crime and peasant riots, as well as the mass movement of migrant workers seeking jobs across the country.

"In fact, everywhere one goes in China, it is a disharmonious society that one sees...

"Even the opportunity for desperate, ordinary Chinese to come to the capital to beg officials for help - a tradition going back hundreds of years to the time of emperors – has been snuffed out.

"In recent times, people from across the country, travelling sometimes thousands of kilometres to the capital to petition the centre of power to redress injustices back home, have congregated at the Tong Zhuang "petitioners' village" on the outskirts of Beijing.

"There they waited for a chance to bring their cases before officials.

"But the same government that calls for a harmonious society demolished the village days before the start of this week's Communist party congress, saying it needed to build a train station for a high speed link between Shanghai and the capital...

"Many Chinese do believe – at least conceptually – that a harmonious society is important for a dynamic, changing, and potentially unstable China.

"But, of course, a harmonious society means political harmony and stability, stability means no political change and what that means, is a Communist party ever harmoniously in power."

There are also links to other Al Jazeera stories