From Asia Times:
Used to widespread Western criticism on China’s human-rights record, lack of religious freedom, and Han chauvinism, and the inaccurate view that China’s ruling party is a monolithic entity obsessed exclusively with maintaining an unfair status quo, some fail to acknowledge the extent of China’s social pluralism and political opening-up.
In fact, the level of individual freedom enjoyed today by Chinese citizens has no equivalent in China’s past. Beijing’s elites are gradually engineering political adjustments, and a process of managed democratization is reinforcing China’s economic re-emergence and will ensure the renaissance of the Chinese world. To understand current socio-political dynamics, one has to remember the long and tortuous post-imperial and post-colonial transition, to reflect on Chinese traditional values and their links with modernity, and to discuss some of the factors that will determine the nature of China’s future political system. [Full Text]
