4 ms·

China had several changes of power since Mao. It's probably fair to say it's at risk of becoming a dictatorship, but you can't take it as a given without at lea

China had several changes of power since Mao. It's probably fair to say it's at risk of becoming a dictatorship, but you can't take it as a given without at least adding some arguments.

Yizahi 4y ago
Yes, I read that they had an interesting and it seems effective tradition of appointing successors who bring new teams into high ranking posts. The issue is that Xi is on the verge of breaking that tradition as far as I understand. And stagnation and gentrification of country government always ends badly. Sometimes very badly. We will get a change to observe China's course in real time so to say.
- trasz 4y ago
  Not “appointing”, but voting. Just like in US. Unless you want to maintain that eg displacing Gang of Four was Mao’s idea. But yes, if Xi held power despite losing support that would be… fairly bad.
  - AnimalMuppet 4y ago
    > Not “appointing”, but voting. Just like in US. No, not like in the US. When someone is allowed to run who is not a member of the CCP (and who is running against the CCP), then that's getting close. When the chairman loses an election and has to leave office, replaced by someone who is not from the CCP, then that's elections like the US.
    - trasz 4y ago
      Your response suggests you either don’t have a clue about US and their presidential requirements (from official, like being born in US, to de facto, like belonging to one of two approved parties), or about China, in particular what what CPC is and how the “party” here is essentially a mistranslation.
      - AnimalMuppet 4y ago
        So, rather than speculate about my level of ignorance, maybe you could bother to supply some information? For the record: Yes, I absolutely have a clue about US presidential requirements.
        trasz 4y ago
        Okay. It is a bit hard, because on one hand there isn’t anything similar to CCP in the western world, on the other hand my understanding of all this is quite poor, and on the third hand China, being some five times the population of US, is adequately more complicated. There are parties in China other than CCP (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_China https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in...), and those are kind of like parties in the west. CCP is different though - it’s less of a party and more part of the government, with “sub parties” inside it. This means that on one side it’s privileged - as described in the constitution - but on the other hand, being part of the government, it’s controlled by govt mechanisms, unlike the “do whatever you wish” western parties. You could draw analogies with what the Church used to be in Middle Ages - except Church ended up being fundamentalist, while CCP keeps adjusting to society’s preferences. It’s a part of government, essentially. Expecting China to be ruled by someone outside is like expecting US to be ruled by someone who’s not a citizen - both are fundamentally arbitrary rules, but both exist for complicated historical reasons. Of course in US there are also hard rules that aren’t in constitution, eg you need to be a member of one of two ruling parties, you must not have left-wing views, and you have to be wealthy and Christian. But I’m pretty sure there are similar quirks in China too.
        AnimalMuppet 4y ago
        Good reply, thanks. But I notice the very first sentence of that link: "The People's Republic of China is a one-party state ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)." So, yes, there are other parties that are allowed to exist. (If you want one that doesn't include "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" as part of the platform, you're out of luck, though.) But some of those parties actually have people who have won elections and have seats, which is more than I thought was the case. That's slightly less "one-party state" than I thought. Still... there's also a list of banned parties. I'm trying to remember when the last time was that the US banned a political party. So China lets there be alternate parties, as long as they don't stray very far from the CCP orthodoxy. That's more than I thought, but it's considerably less than political freedom.

China had several changes of power since Mao. It's probably fair to say it's at risk of becoming a dictatorship, but you can't take it as a given without at least adding some arguments.

Yizahi 4y ago

Yes, I read that they had an interesting and it seems effective tradition of appointing successors who bring new teams into high ranking posts. The issue is that Xi is on the verge of breaking that tradition as far as I understand. And stagnation and gentrification of country government always ends badly. Sometimes very badly. We will get a change to observe China's course in real time so to say.

trasz 4y ago
Not “appointing”, but voting. Just like in US. Unless you want to maintain that eg displacing Gang of Four was Mao’s idea. But yes, if Xi held power despite losing support that would be… fairly bad.
- AnimalMuppet 4y ago
  > Not “appointing”, but voting. Just like in US. No, not like in the US. When someone is allowed to run who is not a member of the CCP (and who is running against the CCP), then that's getting close. When the chairman loses an election and has to leave office, replaced by someone who is not from the CCP, then that's elections like the US.
  - trasz 4y ago
    Your response suggests you either don’t have a clue about US and their presidential requirements (from official, like being born in US, to de facto, like belonging to one of two approved parties), or about China, in particular what what CPC is and how the “party” here is essentially a mistranslation.
    - AnimalMuppet 4y ago
      So, rather than speculate about my level of ignorance, maybe you could bother to supply some information? For the record: Yes, I absolutely have a clue about US presidential requirements.
      - trasz 4y ago
        Okay. It is a bit hard, because on one hand there isn’t anything similar to CCP in the western world, on the other hand my understanding of all this is quite poor, and on the third hand China, being some five times the population of US, is adequately more complicated. There are parties in China other than CCP (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_China https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in...), and those are kind of like parties in the west. CCP is different though - it’s less of a party and more part of the government, with “sub parties” inside it. This means that on one side it’s privileged - as described in the constitution - but on the other hand, being part of the government, it’s controlled by govt mechanisms, unlike the “do whatever you wish” western parties. You could draw analogies with what the Church used to be in Middle Ages - except Church ended up being fundamentalist, while CCP keeps adjusting to society’s preferences. It’s a part of government, essentially. Expecting China to be ruled by someone outside is like expecting US to be ruled by someone who’s not a citizen - both are fundamentally arbitrary rules, but both exist for complicated historical reasons. Of course in US there are also hard rules that aren’t in constitution, eg you need to be a member of one of two ruling parties, you must not have left-wing views, and you have to be wealthy and Christian. But I’m pretty sure there are similar quirks in China too.
        AnimalMuppet 4y ago
        Good reply, thanks. But I notice the very first sentence of that link: "The People's Republic of China is a one-party state ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)." So, yes, there are other parties that are allowed to exist. (If you want one that doesn't include "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" as part of the platform, you're out of luck, though.) But some of those parties actually have people who have won elections and have seats, which is more than I thought was the case. That's slightly less "one-party state" than I thought. Still... there's also a list of banned parties. I'm trying to remember when the last time was that the US banned a political party. So China lets there be alternate parties, as long as they don't stray very far from the CCP orthodoxy. That's more than I thought, but it's considerably less than political freedom.