Chinaís new rules all come in good time
Wednesday, September 15, 2004 at 7:13PM ■"Party Democracy in China Is on Agenda," by staff, Wall Street Journal, 15 September 2004, p. A19.
■"Pirated Goods Swamp China: Official Crackdown Has Little Effect," by Peter S. Goodman, Washington Post, 7 September 2004, p. E1.
Chinaís economy is swamped with counterfeit money, videos, drugsóyou name it. The feel of the place is like America at the turn of the start of the last century: jittery with ambition, a bit raw with its manners, but growing like crazy. All the fakery means little can be trusted there, and that inefficiency is really getting to be a drag on the economy as it seeks to open up more and more to the outside world. Counterfeiting survives at such high levels because the party can be bought and sold on a regular basis, through bribes and corruption, to look the other way. But all that pirating pisses off the rest of the Core, which pushes China to do better.
Chinaís answer: open up the party to new levels of democracy. Why? Itís the best way to clamp down on corruption (Gorby called it glasnost!). That politics being led by the nose by economicsóand thank God for it.
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