China and the end of meta-narratives
- By Eric X. Li
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E-mail China.org.cn, July 19, 2013
After the Ju level, the best few move up several more ranks and eventually make it to the Central Committee. The entire process takes two to three decades. Does patronage play a role? Yes, of course. But by and large, merit is the underlying driver. In essence, the Organization Department runs a modernized version of China's centuries-old Mandarin system.
China's new president, Xi Jinping is son of a former Chinese leader – which is very unusual, the first of his kind to get the top job. Even for him, the career path took 30 years. He started as a village manager and when he entered the Politburo he had managed areas with total populations of over 150 million and combined GDPs of more than US$1.5 trillion.
Please don't get me wrong. This is not a put-down of anyone but merely a statement of fact. George W. Bush (again, please, this is not a put-down) before becoming governor of Texas, or Barack Obama before running for president, would not make a small county chief in China's system.
Winston Churchill once said, "Democracy is a terrible system except for all the rest". Well, apparently he hadn't heard of the Organization Department.
Legitimacy
Westerners assume that multiparty election with universal suffrage is the only source of legitimacy. I was asked once, "the Party was not voted in by election, where is its source of legitimacy?" I said, "how about competency?"
We know the facts: In 1949 when the Party took over, China was mired in civil wars and dismembered by foreign aggressions; average life expectancy was 41. Today, it is the second largest economy in the world, an industrial powerhouse, and its people live in increasing prosperity.
Pew Research polls Chinese public attitudes. These are the numbers in recent years, and they have been largely consistent in the last couple of decades:
Satisfaction with the general direction of the country – 85%
Those who report significant progress in their lives in the past five years – 70%
Those who expect the future to be better – a whopping 82%
Financial Times survey just released:
93% of China's generation Y are optimistic about their country's future!
If this is not legitimacy, I'm not sure what is.
In contrast, most electoral democracies around the world are suffering from dismal performance. I don't need to elaborate for this audience how dysfunctional it is from America to Europe. With a few exceptions, the vast number of developing countries who adopted electoral regimes are still mired in poverty and civil strife. Governments get elected and then fall below 50% approval a few months later and stay there or get worse till the next election. Democracy is becoming a perpetual cycle of "elect and regret". At this rate, I'm afraid democracy itself, not China's one-party system, is in danger of losing legitimacy.
Now, I don't want to create the misimpression that China is hunky dory on way to superpower-dom. China is not a superpower and probably will never be one. The country faces enormous challenges. Economic and social problems that come with such drastic changes are mind-boggling: pollution, food safety, population issues.
On the political front, the biggest challenge is corruption.
Corruption is widespread and undermines the system and its moral legitimacy. But most commentators misdiagnose the disease. They say corruption is a result of the one-party system and to cure it you have to do away with the entire system. A more careful look would tell us otherwise.
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