蘋果日報專稿文章：CCP’d better isolate China from the world (Yi Jian Piao

CCP’d better isolate China from the world (Yi Jian Piao Chen一劍飄塵)

 

Recently at the Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai, Liu He, the Vice Premier of the State Council of China, has spoken of a concept of "domestic economic cycle" and declared that China's economy will be dominated by the domestic market. In this cycle, there is an industry chain comprising production, supply and merchandizing, which are independent from overseas influence. As Liu has been known as the chief economic advisor to Xi Jinping, his speech has become an instant hot topic on the internet. Subsequently, same old speculations and commentaries follow: China is about to collapse. 

I wish the collapse of the Communist Party of China (CCP) will happen sooner, too. But I cannot agree with that kind of "dismal talk" concerning the CCP. Is this scaremongering or what? Is Xi Jinping's self-satisfaction with his own achievement to be spoiled? "The collapse of China" was speculated back in 2001. After 20 years, the CCP has not crumbled but doubled its efforts to swagger around. “The collapse of China" is merely an aimless curse no better than casting a spell or voodoo. 

We cannot forecast the future of China with Economics as understood in the West. We cannot analyze the behaviors of Chinese people through the lens of the Western values. The Chinese system molded by the CCP is the most hostile and holistic authoritarian system never seen in history. Chinese people are of a hard-working and hardship-enduring bleed only to be likened to donkeys. In the wake of the pandemic, the governments of the Western countries have activated various kinds of relief packages, but peoples' discontent has still not been contained. In the U.S., the Black Lives Matter movement has erupted in the meantime. Now look at the CCP's regime. Have the Chinese plebs been pragmatically aided by their government? No! Have they voiced their grievances? Rarely! Instead, most of them have been more grateful to the party than ever. 

Therefore, westerners cannot understand the Chinese: Do they not want to live? Well, what the Chinese really want is to survive, not to live. If they feel dejected, they take a dose of "fear toxin"(a psychedelic substance used by Scarecrow, the Batman's enemy). The National Security Law is indeed a dose of "fear toxin". Last year at the Beidaihe meeting in August, Hu Jinto spoke on behalf of the retired big guns of the CCP to urge Xi Jinping not to be too ruthless towards Hong Kong. Xi did not listen but then forced through the National Security Law. This is not only aimed at subduing Hong Kong. The Covid-19 has been ravaging China and the "fear toxin" is to be sprayed over most of the Chinese people who are in need of post-pandemic fantasy and hallucination. 

The under-development of human rights in China, perceived as a kind of China's "advantage" over other countries, has been condoned by the Chinese people themselves. It is not the CCP that has unilaterally imposed such an ideological subjugation. The Chinese that have been used to being slaves for thousands of years do not have a single clue of what human rights are. What they want is humble yet resounding: a life with daily meals is good enough. The words are not what I mention in passing but a platitude from the mouths of my older generation. 

For those who are civilized in the age of modernity, it is human nature to pursue a better life. That is the motivation of engaging in transactions in which we capitalize on our own strengths to exchange for what we are short of. Since China joined the World Trade Organization 20 years ago, the “advantage of transactions” has become "big sales". The global market has been inundated with cheap products of low quality and after-sales service, not to mention development and innovation for their better quality. Labor rights are for sure out of the map. The CCP has altered the convention of global business! That is the root cause of the trade war launched by Donald Trump. The business culture in the west has been dragged to the CCP standard of "being the cheapest". Propped up by the aforementioned "advantage" of the under-development of human rights, China has gained the upper hand in trade while the West is being leeched. 

On the way to closed economic cycle isolated from the world

With the CCP flaunting its supply chain during the pandemic, the U.S.-China trade war has been driven to a new order and subsequently, the West have to reflect on its security. Liu He's speech entails the pragmatism of the Xi Jinping's regime. China has to prepare for the prospect of being isolated after the pandemic. In CCP's calculation, the supply chain in China has already been completed with the assistance from the Western world: China's GDP is ranked the second with a domestic market supported by a population of 1.4 billion; Premier Li Keqiang has recently mentioned the cheap labor force of 0.6 billion people, among which every worker earns just 1000 yuan (US$143) per month. When we look back in WWII, the global population was about 2.6 billion people. Less than 1 billion of them were American, European and Japanese! Therefore, it will not be a problem for the CCP to direct its people to form an economic cycle isolated from the world. This is why Xi Jinping dares to crush Hong Kong with a heavy hand. In the future, Hong Kong will merely play a limited role in the isolated system advocated by the CCP.

Apparently, such a projection is based on Xi Jinping's immature wishful thinking. The dream of "self-reliance" in the Mao Zedong's era only resulted in famines with tens of millions of causalities, followed by the Cultural Revolution. At the moment, the economies of North Korea and Venezuela are devastated as we all know. It will not be enough to simply apply the "fear toxin" over the people. This is an inevitable consequence generated within those communist regimes. Curbing liberties would only dampen a vital economy! Only by relying on collectivism and suppressing individual freedom can the CCP keep the authoritarian system running. As a result, the motivation of the people will gradually dissipate and the society become dispirited. It will take less than five years for China to "evolve" into North Korea. North Korea has not collapsed after 70 years, has it? In contrary to the prediction of "the collapse of China", the CCP can seize an even tighter control if Xi Jinping resorts to a high-handed approach. If the country plunges into cannibalism, the primrose path ahead of the privileged strata of the party would still be intact. 

Certainly, I am glad to witness the success of Liu He's proposal of isolating China from outside because the world will be safer with it eventually. Otherwise, mankind will be under threat like that from virus. 

(Yi Jian Piao Chen, a Chinese expatriate writer based in the US)