Nanjing-based blogger Tian Shewong (田舍翁) writes, translated by CDT:
Today Sohu carried an essay with the topic “Experts have stated the ‘Chinese Model’ is facing a life and death trial, and cannot boast of flourishing.” This essay can still be considered fair; the author calls on us to do some introspection, because our own problems are still many, and we are still in this crisis, and cannot assert that the Chinese model is a success.
Compared to the essays that wildly boast and say the West is wrong, and that the world should look to China for deliverance, this essay is much stronger. There are no guarantees we can save ourselves; as for saving others, that is just an outrageous lie.
Let some officials, hired experts and scholars happily discuss the so-called “Chinese Model,” but so far nobody has explained specifics of the “Chinese Model”; there’s not even a simple definition. Saying “Chinese Model” just means high-speed development, a stable society, improvement of international status, independent initiative, not relying on the West, etcetera. Simply put, the feeling is positive, but the rhetoric empty.
According to my understanding, here is our Chinese Model: the economics include high-speed development, but development is deformed, it’s out of balance, it has bubbles. On the one hand, the poor are poorer, the rich more concentrated; on the other hand, the structure of power and economic capital have deepened, and it’s quite possible the bigwigs have become power-elite-capitalists. In this international financial crisis, we are not that immune. Many businesses have gone bankrupt, peasants have returned home to the countryside, and college students cannot find work. I really don’t know where the good in the Chinese Model is, or how it will spread throughout the world.
As for politics, we are still very totalitarian, and corruption is more and more serious. Though democracy has cried out dozens of times, not even a village leader has been elected, “the people” have been stranded as nothing and are easily rejected as “not understanding the truth.”. This has reached such a level that essays posted online receive close examination, and many can’t be published. The people don’t even have a place to speak the truth, what kind of democratic model is this? How can it spread throughout the world?
This is the “Chinese Model” I know; my dear reader, if you don’t agree, can you tell me what is this “Chinese Model”? As it is, how can it charm the world into admiration?
