Posted on 11/25/2019 3:43:07 PM PST by caww
Thanks caww.
1. China is no longer actually economically communist. Since the reforms of Deng Xiaoping the nation has actually become somewhat capitalist, while finding a way to remain politically communist. Overall, “communist” is not a good way to think of China. “Fascist” might actually be closer to the truth, though “dictatorship” is really the best.
2. Elections in Hong Kong are different. Under the “One Country, Two Systems” model established in 1999, there is a form of actual democracy in Hong Kong, and these district-level municipal elections are the MOST democratic of all the elections which take place anywhere in China. These elections were for people who do things like set bus routes, plan for garbage pickup, that kind of very local political activity.
3. The vast, vast majority of China does not have elections which are like those of Hong Kong (again, due to the One Country, Two Systems model). In the whole rest of the country you are correct, the choice is between Communist Party member A and Communist Party member B. Hong Kong is very different from the rest of China.
I wonder how many hong king protesters have disappeared into Chinese labor camps?
They'll soon learn Arabic to get along with the Muslim fellow slave laborers.
How terrible that a menace like Communist China infects our planet.
The Communist elite wants to retain absolute power but they can’t do so in the long term.
Young people don’t want stability and more of the same autocratic top down approach that’s characterized Chinese politics since the Imperial Era.
They want a say in the future of the country. And the Party can only put them off for so long.
Change is coming whether China’s leaders want it or not.
Communist Chinese Government and Muslims. Frying pan meet fire. They’re both bad.
Uh-oh....a bad omen for the Communists running for office in the USA. Pray to our gracious God to make it so .
Having now caught the PRC tiger by its tail, what do the pro-democracy Hong Kong politicos intend to to with it?
Or, to put it another way, just how many PLA divisions are now on the border of the New Territories?
[It has been rumored everywhere that Jack Ma was forced out of Alibaba by the Party.
Of course, officially, he said he stepped down on his own accord.]
The imperial monopoly on certain business sectors, combined with random seizures of whatever large private fortunes were accumulated, was imperial China’s way of avoiding the fate of the European kings, who were gradually squeezed out by merchant princes, or businessmen who grew increasingly resentful of royal intrusions into their business activities. Historically, Chinese regimes have dealt with this problem by seizing any outsized fortunes that were accumulated by private citizens. This is why wealthy Chinese are continually spiriting their fortunes out of the country. Some just want out. Others want out, but are resentful about having to make this move, and at the principal actor forcing them out. So after they leave, they throw a few coins in the direction of any movement that might make trouble for the Communist Party.
Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong’s richest man, has moved most, perhaps all, of his money out of China proper, and is selling a hefty chunk of his Hong Kong assets. China’s state media has criticized him as a traitor and frozen him out of Shantou University in Li’s hometown, which he had set up with a $1.2b donation.
Li’s Chinese counterparts need no reminding that their persons and wealth are always in danger. While many preceded him, many are following in his footsteps. That is the meaning of the large real estate and other investments in the US. A good chunk of it is capital flight - the US is viewed as an investment destination that is least likely to seize their assets and hand it over to the Chinese government on demand. The Chinese government routinely manufactures accusations of corruption to seize private assets. That is how many vast private fortunes ended up in the Communist Party’s coffers. Since Xi Jinping and his coterie of supporters ultimately control the Party, some of those assets ultimately ended up in his pockets. His family was worth $136m *before* he became head honcho. The mind boggles at his family’s net worth today.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/29/china-bloomberg-xi-jinping
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2015970/china-lift-ban-state-owned-firms-buying-bloomberg
Bloomberg said really nice things about Xi Jinping in order to protect his company’s fast-growing Chinese revenues which, at $24,000 per terminal per year and 5,500 Chinese terminals, are easily worth over $100m a year. Did he really mean Xi Jinping wasn’t a dictator? Probably not. Many would have switched subjects. But he also needed to protect his Chinese reporters and access to Chinese news stories. Since then, Bloomberg LP has come out with many negative (and positive) news stories about China. That’s the function of a business news provider - to provide an overall view so investors understand the big economic picture. But he hasn’t gone after Xi directly.
[China is no longer actually economically communist. Since the reforms of Deng Xiaoping the nation has actually become somewhat capitalist, while finding a way to remain politically communist. Overall, “communist” is not a good way to think of China. “Fascist” might actually be closer to the truth, though “dictatorship” is really the best.]
The titles are different, but every change in dynasty used to involve changes in titles, at some level. “Communism” and “fascism” always struck me as monarchies in which the monarchs had different titles. While the nation’s resources did not technically belong to the leaders, they had absolute control over how those resources were used. If that’s not ownership, what is?
We need this in America for 2020
Huzzah!
I hope Trump kicks their ass
This reminds me of the Deep State Kleptocrat Bureaucracy of the European Union and their response to Brexit. They looked down on England for actually ‘allowing’ the citizenry to vote. A free people deciding their own future is anathema to these creepozoids.
It wouldn’t surprise me if China blames the results on foreign interference of the elections.
Details on system in China....
/////////////////////////////////////
Thank you very much. Your explanation concisely answers questions I have had for a long time.
Your post gave more information than I’ve seen in the work of “journalists” and is another reason Free Republic is so great.
There is always some expert or someone experienced with the subject on practically everything.
Election was in Hing kong, not China.
You’re just very uneducated.
True. Thank you for pointing out that deficiency to me.
What happened was I used the occasion of the Hong Kong report to wonder how the mainland China elections and status of millionaires are handled under Chinese Marxist-Leninism. My questions reveal my lack of education but elicited some helpful posts from people on this thread.
My education is rapidly improving.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.