OUT OF QUAKE'S RUBBLE, THE PROSPECT OF CHANGE
Howard W. French
International Herald Tribune, May 29, 2008
SHANGHAI: This has been a good month for China's government, and especially for its ruling Communist Party.
That may sound like an odd thing to say after an earthquake whose final death toll could reach 80,000 or more, but to say so is neither flip nor insensitive. Rather, it is giving political reality its due.
China entered the month of May riding a head-spinning streak of bad political news and even poorer political judgment. The uprising by Tibetans and rumblings among Uighurs in the country's vast far west simultaneously had brought severe damage to the "China brand" internationally, while raising serious questions about the fragility of what even most Chinese forget is still very much a patchwork nation.
Seemingly overinvested in the prestige value of hosting the Olympics, Beijing responded to the gathering crises with rhetorical excess, officially elevating the ersatz event of the global Olympic torch rally to a "sacred cause."
Despite lots of recent nationalist sentiment against perceived unfair criticism from the West, day in and day out many Chinese feel alienation and cynicism about their country's political system and its leaders.
It was against this backdrop that the test of the earthquake arrived. In the words of the China expert David Shambaugh, in his new book, "China's Communist Party, Atrophy and Adaptation": "The challenges the CCP faces in maintaining its power and legitimacy increasingly involve governance and providing public goods. This is a new kind of revolution for a Leninist party: the revolution of rising expectations."
Howard W. French
International Herald Tribune, May 29, 2008
SHANGHAI: This has been a good month for China's government, and especially for its ruling Communist Party.
That may sound like an odd thing to say after an earthquake whose final death toll could reach 80,000 or more, but to say so is neither flip nor insensitive. Rather, it is giving political reality its due.
China entered the month of May riding a head-spinning streak of bad political news and even poorer political judgment. The uprising by Tibetans and rumblings among Uighurs in the country's vast far west simultaneously had brought severe damage to the "China brand" internationally, while raising serious questions about the fragility of what even most Chinese forget is still very much a patchwork nation.
Seemingly overinvested in the prestige value of hosting the Olympics, Beijing responded to the gathering crises with rhetorical excess, officially elevating the ersatz event of the global Olympic torch rally to a "sacred cause."
Despite lots of recent nationalist sentiment against perceived unfair criticism from the West, day in and day out many Chinese feel alienation and cynicism about their country's political system and its leaders.
It was against this backdrop that the test of the earthquake arrived. In the words of the China expert David Shambaugh, in his new book, "China's Communist Party, Atrophy and Adaptation": "The challenges the CCP faces in maintaining its power and legitimacy increasingly involve governance and providing public goods. This is a new kind of revolution for a Leninist party: the revolution of rising expectations."
(...) [artículo aquí]
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