The Real Face of China

The stunning rise of The People’s Republic of China over the past three decades has caused many observers to focus their gaze on this Red Dragon with a mingled sense of awe and trepidation.

Who could have imagined in the 1960s or 70s that a country viewed as primitive, agrarian and packed to the brim with humble peasant-folk could, within the space of a few short decades, become a serious global player and an economic powerhouse of the modern world?

China’s meteoric ascension is truly unprecedented, for they managed to accomplish in 30 odd years what the old powers took centuries to achieve and, with a quiet, steady hand, they have shifted the poles of hegemony toward the East for the first time in an age.

This transition to economic supremacy has not gone unnoticed by the former colonial empires of Europe nor the current hegemonic sovereign of the United States, who now watch, envious and fearful, as the country they once treated with derision has come to challenge their privileged positions on the world stage and their dominance over global markets.

Trump’s trade war on China was a revelatory move which, in many respects, exposed the threat Western countries are beginning to feel from their Eastern counterpart. It represented, in essence, a feeble attempt to blacklist a perceived rival and stymie their growth, in spite of the fact that it was the very flight of the corporate factories from the US to China that initiated their industrial surge in the first place.

The reality is that China’s expansion is now way too late to stop or even slow down. It has essentially become a runaway train and all the trade wars, and embargoes, and threatening comments in the world from its enemies is not going to derail it.

But what do we really know about China? What do we know about its people, its culture, its objectives?

Unnerving as it may seem, it is vital to make an unbiased examination of the modern Chinese state, devoid of terror, suspicion or jealousy, so that we may come to understand this mysterious and somewhat opaque creature better.

It is, after all, a state which may come to shape the very future of humanity and the course our species is destined, in the end, to take.

The Chinese Government

The Chinese Communist Party has controlled mainland China since October 1949 and is now led by Xi Jinping who, in 2018, declared himself “president for life” after a two term limit for presidents was overturned.

In 1997, Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty and 2020 saw a further consolidation of the CCP’s power when Bejing decided to play a more central role in the governance of that city and jurisdiction over its citizens.

As reported in the New York Times, ‘the establishment has struggled to balance Beijing’s desire for control with residents’ demands to preserve the autonomy that has shielded them from the mainland’s feared security services and opaque, often harsh legal system.’

Protests erupted that immediately sparked outrage across the world when images of the brutality of the police in Hong Kong were disseminated and it became glaringly apparent how far the CCP would go to capture full autonomy over the city.

On the 30th of June 2020, the CCP got its way and the Security Law was finally passed. The most important provisions of this new law included, but are not limited to, the following:

• Crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces are punishable by a maximum sentence of life in prison.
• Damaging public transport facilities can be considered terrorism.
• Those found guilty will not be allowed to stand for public office.
• Beijing will establish a new security office in Hong Kong, with its own law enforcement personnel — neither of which would come under the local authority’s jurisdiction
• This office can send some cases to be tried in mainland China — but Beijing has said it will only have that power over a “tiny number” of cases
• In addition, Hong Kong will have to establish its own national security commission to enforce the laws, with a Beijing-appointed adviser
• Importantly, Beijing will have power over how the law should be interpreted, not any Hong Kong judicial or policy body. If the law conflicts with any Hong Kong law, the Beijing law takes priority
• Some trials will be heard behind closed doors.
• People suspected of breaking the law can be wire-tapped and put under surveillance
• Management of foreign non-governmental organisations and news agencies will be strengthened.

Source: BBC News, June 2020

This law is an obvious power-grab and represents a serious consolidation of power by the CCP, who now control almost every aspect of life in China; from the businesses that can operate there, to the amount of children families can have (now 2), to the media and propaganda machines, to the websites people use (Facebook is banned among many other sites), to who can leave the country, to where a person can live, to the level of education a person can attain — the list goes on and on, and covers pretty much every aspect of social, political and economic life.

Wealth Inequality

Many people find it difficult to understand how a state which identifies itself as communist could possibly suffer such an extreme level of inequality, with new millionaires being minted everyday against the backdrop of severe deprivation, which the vast majority of this colossal country of 1.3 billion people face on a daily basis.

Cities across China now harbour both the super-rich and the slum-dwelling factory workers who toil in intolerable conditions to make just about enough to eat, yet have no real share in the public wealth to speak of. This is because China is not really communist in the true sense of that word — there is no pretense of equality, no more than there is of political freedom or democracy.

China is, at its core, a capitalist state with a centrally planned economy. It implements a form of state-controlled capitalism, just like its Soviet cousin, and is communistic only in the sense that the government decides who can or cannot play the game.

Its political structure uses the communist title to legitimize the individual sacrifices people must make to drive their country toward collective progress and to deflect from the reality of its totalitarian nature.

It is utilitarian and, at the same time, a dictatorship of the wealthy and the politically connected. Those close to Xi and the CCP, and those who do what they are told, are rewarded, while those unconnected or in any way in defiance of the party’s policies are left out in the cold and ordered to work hard (and die if necessary) for China — it really is as simple as that.

Mass Surveillance

China has become a notorious surveillance state set to rival (and even out-do) any dystopia of Orwell’s nightmares. Indeed, Orwell’s concept of Big Brother pales in comparison to the all-seeing eye that hovers over the citizenry of the Chinese state.

Not only is the population kept in a state of semi-ignorance behind the internet firewall, but they are monitored and controlled by a surveillance apparatus that defies the imagination.

Every and any form of political dissent is targeted and crushed before it can spread and that is only among the general population. As the Human Rights Commission and United Nations have recently sounded alarm bells over, surveillance in China is ramped up to an even more insane degree when it comes to the Uighur minority.

Reports have emerged over the past year of Uighurs being confined to detention centres and so-called “re-education camps”, as well as the continuous degradation and abuse inflicted upon their communities by Chinese security forces.

These Muslim minorities are subject to constant scrutiny, monitoring and surveillance and are imprisoned for even the most minor “religious or political transgressions.”

As reported by The Guardian,

‘the digital footprint of unauthorised Islamic practice, or even a connection to someone who had committed one of these vague violations, is enough to land Uighurs in a detention centre.’

The apparent motivation of imprisoning Uighurs is to force them to disavow their Islamic faith and to instruct them in Mandarin language and the secular ways of the Chinese state.

Though this may be true, it seems equally valid to suggest that the Uighur community has become a microcosm of hyper surveillance — a small-scale experiment to determine how more severe forms of surveillance may be rolled out en masse to the rest of the Chinese citizenry.

Everyday, the Chinese government are perfecting their expertise in data collection, and digital tracking, and retaining a minority group to experiment without the scrutiny of the wider public is aiding them in this endeavour.

As further elucidated by The Guardian,

The power — and potential profitability — of the predictive technologies that purport to keep Xinjiang safe derive from their unfettered access to Uighurs’ digital lives and physical movements. From the perspective of China’s security-industrial establishment, the principal purpose of Uighur life is to generate data, which can then be used to further refine these systems of surveillance and control.

The dictatorial style of government that dominates the political sphere in China has shown time and again that they are committed to deepening and expanding the control of their citizens vis-à-vis a surveillance apparatus which will soon determine the every right and privilege of the domestic population, Uighur or otherwise.

Social Relations

The “Social Credit” system in China does unfortunately seem like the way of the future for nations both ends of the Silk Road.

Like a fictional nightmare or a Dark Mirror episode, this system of social domination appears too fantastical to be real, yet it is very real and advancing further and further by the day.

Central to the CCP’s mission of total control, this digital platform is presented as a fun form of social media with very real consequences.

According to the South China Morning Post (2020),

China’s social credit system is a set of databases and initiatives that monitor and assess the trustworthiness of individuals, companies and government entities.

A good rating could offer priority health care or deposit-free renting of public housing, while a negative rating could see individuals banned from flights and trains.

Each entry into the database from primary sources such as financial, governmental or criminal records raises or lowers a person’s score. Secondary sources are also being considered, such as items purchased at supermarkets, camera surveillance and digital media.

As it is said to establish a person’s level of “trustworthiness”, it then, by implication can determine who has access to bank loans, who is allowed to travel and to which regions of the country or abroad, who has access to which universities and who is allowed to work in which field.

Seen as there are over 40million more men of marrying age than there are women, the social credit system is also being said to be used by protective parents who wish their daughters to marry well. This social platform is also therefore coming to decide who is able to get married and who will remain forever single; denied the god given right to fall in love and have a family

The system was supposed to be completed and ready nation-wide in 2020, but that dream (or nightmare) has not yet come to fruition. It is still in its developmental phase and highly fragmented between the regions of this enormous state.

The target, eventually, is that the government system will be country wide, with businesses given a “unified social credit code” and citizens an identity number, all linked to permanent record..

As the implications of forcing every citizen to engage with a platform like this suggests full-spectrum dominance of the Chinese population, I feel confident in saying that it is something the CCP must be eager to accomplish.

International Relations

Although China is not known for large-scale foreign ventures against its rivals, like its US counterpart, the nation has been embroiled in several disputes with neighbours over the supremacy of the South China Sea and has demonstrated over the past number of years its military preparedness for foreign enemies who would attempt to challenge it.

Unlike the Western powers, the Chinese state does not seem to wish to engage in direct battles with self-proclaimed adversaries, but has instead made a mission of nourishing and nurturing its soft power across the globe.

Their booming economy enables them to wheel and deal on various continents — building infrastructure in West Africa, buying ports in Greece, consolidating allies among the fellow BRICS nations and working ever harder on their famous Belt and Road Intiative: an infrastructure project set to span over 70 countries from East Asia to Europe to Africa and the Middle East — an outrageously ambitious project that some have called the “New Silk Road.”

The Council on Foreign Relations referred to Belt and Road almost fearfully, stating that “some analysts view the project as a disturbing expansion of Chinese power” and “the United States has struggled to offer a competing vision.”

As the US bumbles and blunders across the world in stagnant, stalemated, unpopular wars that cost the taxpayer billions each year, China gathers its strength and, with a patient eye towards the future, moves its next piece on the chess board.

And what would a Sino-centric world look like moving forward? I guess we will just have to wait and see.