{"id":11783,"date":"2011-12-29T02:12:50","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T02:12:50","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-12-29T04:12:42","modified_gmt":"2011-12-29T04:12:42","slug":"Blogger-Ignites-Debate-Over-Chinese-Revolution-","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=11783","title":{"rendered":"Blogger Ignites Debate Over Chinese \u2018Revolution\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

China which has long suppressed any challenge to the supremacy of the ruling Communist Party \u2013 appears to be tolerating a spirited online discussion over whether the nation should have a revolution. Days after residents from the southern Guangdong village of Wukan drew headlines by throwing officials and police out of town and electing their own government, popular Chinese blogger Han Han published several provocative posts examining the prospects for revolution, democracy and \u201cfreedom\u201d in China. The pop intellectual, race car driver and general heartthrob argues China won\u2019t witness a Velvet Revolution \u2013 a reference to the former Czechoslovakia\u2019s peaceful revolt in 1989 \u2013 and that democracy won\u2019t appear in the world\u2019s most populous country anytime soon. Instead, activists should push for smaller, tangible reforms as a means to bring change. (The Chinese versions of the essays are available here and English translations are available here.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Han\u2019s posts in some regards stick to the Communist Party\u2019s line: China isn\u2019t ready democracy and that a revolution in China would more than likely be a bloody one. \u201cWhen Chinese car drivers know to turn off their high beam lights when they pass each other, we can safely proceed with the revolution,\u201d he writes in a post called \u201cOn Revolution.\u201d Adding that the middle class would likely suffer, he says, \u201cif you own an Apple iPhone, or you drive a motorcycle, or you know how to use the Internet, or you read newspapers regularly, or you eat at KFC, you are the rich criminal who will be the target of the revolution.\u201d He argues in another post called \u201cOn Democracy\u201d that the Communist Party has grown so large that its overthrow would not necessarily cure the country\u2019s ills either.<\/strong> \u201cWhen the party organization reaches a particular size, it is just the people itself,\u201d he writes. \u201cSo the issue is not at all how to deal with the Communist Party. The Communist Party is just a name. The system is just a name.\u201d <\/p>\n

Perhaps Mr. Han\u2019s views are unsurprising given the growing pressure writers, artists and others in China have come under in recent months. Over the past week, two veteran dissident writers were sentenced roughly a decade in prison each. Mr. Han confronts these concerns toward the end of his final post, \u201cOn Freedom,\u201d where he suggests greater freedom of expression is an area where activists could target reform as opposed to overthrowing the entire system.<\/strong> The posts, which weren\u2019t blocked by Internet censors as of Wednesday, come at an unusual time.<\/strong> In addition to the Wukan revolt, officials are grappling with wide-ranging citizen concerns, from rampant local corruption to air and water pollution. Beijing at the same time is struggling to quell a wildly dissonant online conversation. Microblogs and other new media have given people across China a bullhorn for their concerns, and Beijing worries how local disputes can galvanize national attention online sometimes in a matter of hours.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s difficult to divine what China\u2019s top leaders are thinking, the reaction to Wukan suggests high-ranking Communist Party leaders were concerned. In particular, it has drawn attention from ranking officials in Guangdong, including Zhu Mingguo, the province\u2019s deputy party secretary. Mr. Zhu works closely with party secretary Wang Yang, a relative liberal in Chinese politics. Mr. Wang is vying for a spot on party\u2019s all powerful Politburo Standing Committee during a once-a-decade leadership swap next year, and party leaders in Beijing are no doubt watching how he resolves the Wukan crisis among other bubbling disputes across the feisty province of Guangdong. Mr. Han\u2019s posts have spurred a wide, and relatively rare, discussion online about the benefits and pitfalls of a revolution in China. The debate is particularly unusual given the increasing pressure faced by writers in recent months. A crackdown against writers, lawyers, artists and others perceived as a threat to the state began in February following anonymous online calls for an overthrow of the Communist Party. The crackdown continues alongside ongoing unrest across the Arab world and, more recently in Russia.
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SOURCE<\/a>
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