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The Chinese government, like the US government or any other large national government, is not monolithic. In what meaningful way does one part of the Chinese g
by nova22033 3y ago
The Chinese government, like the US government or any other large national government, is not monolithic.
In what meaningful way does one part of the Chinese government differ from another part of the Chinese government? Isn't Xi basically the supreme leader for life now?
- orbz 3y agoEven assuming he is the supreme leader, he can’t be everywhere, know everything and oversee all aspects of the regime. Every sufficiently large organization, such as a government, has delegated areas of responsibility to various sub organizations. Those scopes will have varying overlap with other sub organizations, where it will result in political battles. It is more like competing microservices than monolith.
- junofan 3y agoNah they a couple different factions. Shanghai is different from Beijing for example.
- quandrum 3y agoXi is head of state as president, but not head of government (like King of England). Li Qiang is head of government as premier and is chief executive of the Chinese government. If you ask a Chinese citizen what their biggest problem is, many of them would say too much federalism. Individual provinces have more individual authority than even US States and most controversial policies (1 child, social credit, lockdowns) you hear about are provincial and not federal policies.
- muglug 3y ago> If you ask a Chinese citizen what their biggest problem is, many of them would say too much federalism. Presumably that’s because protesting against the central government endangers not just your own livelihood but also the livelihoods of your relatives. Much safer to criticise the region next door.
- janalsncm 3y agoThis logic doesn’t pass the smell test. It’s not any less illegal to protest your regional government than the central Chinese government.
- roywiggins 3y agoThere was (is?) a whole thing where local governments would kidnap people trying to petition the central government to crack down on some local government wrongdoing. https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/08/world/asia/chinese-petitioners-suffer-regular-abuse-group-says.html https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/08/world/asia/chinese-petiti...
- krainboltgreene 3y agoIt's weird to read pieces like this from the NY Times when I watched it happen in Portland and the same media basically brushed it off.
- muglug 3y agoYeah, but it's easier to complain about a different region's government.
- whitemary 3y ago> Presumably I for one appreciate the self-awareness
- hsjqllzlfkf 3y ago> If you ask a Chinese citizen what their biggest problem is, many of them would say too much federalism That's also what Xi would say.
- EntrePrescott 3y ago> Xi is head of state as president, but not head of government (like King of England). Uhm: the king of England (which incidentally happens to be king of quite a number of other territories that have yet to fully emancipate themselves from monarchy) is NOT the head of government in any of the the territories he is king of, but merely the head of state… which in constitutional monarchies is a rather formal show pomp role with very little political power. Conversely, the head of government in the UK with actual executive power is the Prime Minister, not the king.
- School-Cotton 3y agoThat’s exactly what they said.
- pessimizer 3y agoIsn't that something that would be better to look up than to make up?