Does a world power fear its citizens?

ARTICLE: China makes gains in its bid to be top dog, By Gideon Rachman, Financial Times, September 14 2009

A good argument on the fragility of rising China. Note, as it's becoming frequently argued, that China seems to be ruling in fear of citizens.

That dynamic does not a world power make.

(Via WPR Media Roundup)

Comments

[Hal O'Brien]

"China seems to be ruling in fear of citizens. That dynamic does not a world power make."

And thus, even if one gives them the benefit of the doubt, one succinct reason why the previous US administration was a disaster. Cf. the PATRIOT Act, the circumvention of FISA courts for domestic surveillance, etc.

[Guest469]

"ruling in fear of citizens" is definitely progress over the traditional "Citizens who fear their rulers."

Some might even say this is how all democracies should be.

[ral soong]

When I lived in China circa 1990 6 month after tian-an-men square, I met a few intellectuals at the school I was at and they were party members. They were rather candid with me, their theory about how the party works is that the party is really scared of "the people that mattered", i.e. the middle class educated folks in cities, and thus, all the subsities to them. If you can read Chinese, in the chinese papers it is always about crimes committed by or related to relatives of the party members in some rural township abusing the locals. I used to think before I lived there China is this police state....having lived there, I found that the party is barely holding on to power...cities are fairly well run, but the countryside...the party probably knows this and is very sensitive because people are not going to put up with more abuses...