A smiling President Xi as the new Great Helmsman
China is no friend to democracies.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) runs a strange mixture of social control and free enterprise. China is proof positive that a capitalist heart can be developed and set beating by top down authoritarian communist states operated by their party apparatchiks.
China can abandon central planned communist economic models to work out ways to enable capitalism and entrepreneurship to thrive as an integrated part of their totalitarian state. However social and political controls remain a CCP prerogative of its dictatorship. The bottom line is simply a police state can successfully practice free enterprise. China’s second goal is to gain more respect on the world stage.
However, lurking below the surface of economic savvy is the ongoing need for China to control its 1.3 billion citizens. The Covid-19 lock down demonstrates the power of this state over its citizens to impose social distancing using the police and even security units to achieve it.
The demonstrations like the recent US experiences to lift the social distancing rules for Covid-19 would not be tolerated in China. In fact, saying anything remotely negative about the state is not allowed. Hong Kong demonstrations for democracy are left in a limbo as propaganda. It costs them little to establish how reasonable the CPP can be when underneath they are as hard as nails.
Cell phone apps are geared to keeping Chinese citizens on the CCP strait and narrow. President Xi’s thoughts are expressed in the Study The Great Nation App which quizzes users daily about the Chairman’s and the Communist Party’s policies awarding points to cell users for having the approved correct views in quizzes. It has been established that this App is monitored by internal security services.
A recent paper from a German security software firm Cure+53 reports that the App is monitored for CCP social and political compliance by Chinese citizens. The App is the contemporary electronic version of Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book used during the 1960s Cultural Revolution.
The creation of economic zones for business and industry also creates a control need for populations outside these zones who want to get in them for work. This has created a them and us problem where all Chinese are supposed to be equal. Outside of these zones much of China is still living on the economic edge. Large numbers of Chinese remain in rural poverty compared to those living in the economic zones.
As industry expands and wealth is built in China many people outside of the economic zones have been moved so that hydro electric dams and other giant projects can be built on spaces where traditional rural life went on as it has for centuries, oblivious to CCP economic plans.
China has some big ideas about its status in the world. It wants to grow about eight percent each year. At the moment, and before Covid-19 it was on its way to generating $14.5 trillion GNP annually. The US has a $21+ trillion GNP before Covid-19. Clearly the Chinese are already in super power category. Of course the EU still generates $18 more trillion GNP. Japan has a $5 trillion GNP and Russia about $1.6 trillion. Canada about $1.7 trillion (all numbers in US dollars). The entire world GNP is $87 trillion each year.
China is determined to influence and be a major player in the world. The warfare is not a hot war but a propaganda and economic war. Strategically China is set to take the world stage with some economic muscle even with Covid-19 and its inevitable economic downturn. China is emphasizing integration with other economies such as India which is growing economically to a $3 trillion GNP. India as a democracy is important because it has also 1.3 billion people. The US and other Western countries should be working more with India with much more investment. The Chinese do better as former victims of Western and even Japanese colonialism. Anti imperialism propaganda that also works well for the Chinese in Africa.
Any hot war with India has now gone to back burner in favour of companies that work in both countries. By integrating economies with factories and software providers the Chinese are repeating what was done in North America and Europe they spread their influence. Now its Asia’s turn. This economic activity will build a giant GNP rivalling the US. Later they will restructure their activities in Africa to include industrialization rather than simply obtaining that continent’s natural resources.
Much of the industrial expansion planned by China will be done by their control of new technologies markets. Ultimately their internal and foreign subsidiary industries are beholding to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its control over everything. Chinese companies are required by regulation to report intelligence gathered abroad to the Chinese State. Chinese studying abroad are also subject to becoming part of the intelligence gathering apparatus. Good jobs come to those who cooperate with the objectives of the CCP when they return home.
China is ruthless in its pursuit of economic growth. It has been accused of intellectual property theft, unfair trade practices, providing subsidies to its industry, building trade barriers and keeping their currency at a low value. Their policy is to be aggressive and relentless. Information technology is a major thrust of China to achieve the goals of the CCP.
They want to install 5G and AI controls of this technology across the world. This network of installations that they plan for the world will enable them to extend their authoritarian systems from China outwards and bring in useful intelligence and knowledge from the world. They understand the Internet as a way to know what the rest of the world is doing and then they can fill the gaps taking control of the global economic agenda. -30-
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