The prize of 'freedom'
The recent complaints by western institutions about Chinese Human rights reek of hypocrisy and represent a form of ideological aggression against the rule of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese nation. This form of aggression is carried out in a subtle and sophisticated way. Such attacks generally focus on areas of politics, political reform, human rights or national questions, which are complex historical problems full of contradictions.
A similar pattern was used in the 1980s in Eastern Europe. There, small groups of dissidents gathered together in the name of fighting for "democracy" and "human rights" and launched manifestos and charters proclaiming their support for "freedom". But "freedom" is one of the most loaded and grandiose terms to be abused by elites throughout history for their own power. Marx used to say there is a class content in the term, thus "freedom" means something different to rich people than to the poorest. "Freedom" for a billionaire is clearly not the same as freedom for a worker or peasant. "Freedom" from poverty, insecurity and exploitation is clearly at the root of socialist ideals of "freedom".
In the name of "freedom" western capitalist democracy gained sufficient support in Eastern Europe to topple the rule of the ruling parties and transfer the wealth of the people into a few private hands. For example in Eastern Germany over 80 percent of all property now belongs to Western Germans, bureaucratic administration was replaced by administration run in the interests of the new ruling class, who stole from the people as surely as imperial powers in the 19th century plundered Africa, India and China.
The rights and freedoms of the mass of working people of the USSR and Eastern Europe were ignored. At the same time a handful of oligarchs took possession of the vast majority of wealth. They took over the key industrial and banking sectors of the former planned economy and systematically proceeded to seize the ownership of almost everything, the housing stock, the banks, the natural resources, the media, even the pensioners were liberated of their property. In the former USSR life expectancy dropped dramatically, the economy suffered a collapse greater than when Hitler's armies invaded, scorched the earth, and killed over twenty million people.
When most people in the west saw the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, they expected a new era of peace and plenty would follow. Within two years war was declared on Iraq, we witnessed the unleashing of the most sophisticated laser guided firework display in history hitherto. The "freedom" that had been promised, reduced itself to the freedom to establish the unipolar military and economic hegemony of the United States, over the planet, its peoples and resources. The same pattern was reinforced by the bombs reigned down on Belgrade in 1999, Afghanistan from 2001 and again Iraq from 2003. These displays of military might facilitated NATO's expansion to the borders of Russia, which was justified by the need to protect new forms of "freedom".
New countries were carved out of the former USSR but many became worse off. Kyrgyzstan, for example, suffered a catastrophic decline in living standards, destabilizing the country. However, the USA gained the "freedom" to establish an airbase there, from which to launch attacks into Afghanistan.
No prizes have been awarded to innocent victims of torture, incarceration or murder, in the so-called War on Terror. Therefore one has to question the motivations behind recent attacks on China. This does not mean one is deflecting attention from Chinese problems or that one endorses any misuses of power or mistakes in policy.
I am convinced that if China were ever to use western methods of democratic procedure, the Communist Party of China would easily hold the support of the vast majority. However, the western system of democratic procedure was developed to serve the interests of millionaires and billionaires. A system like China's – with public ownership of the commanding heights of the economy and where developing socialism is the objective – needs to develop and perfect a different system with different priorities. One where decreasing inequality and promoting Marx's vision of a "democracy of consumers and producers" is the effective means for working people to manage the economy and society. Experiments and innovations in trade union and workplace democracy, in the spirit stipulated by the Chinese constitution, "democratic management through congresses of workers and staff" can play a vital role in communicating a more positive image of China's reality, development and progress to the mass of working people around the world.
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/node_7084903.htm
