Actually, the strength of this nation is the rule of law. Yes, rich people can be above law. But fundamentally, we are all protected by the US Constitution. In fairness, this society is still fairer and safer than many others. Can you post the same kind of articles (bad mouth the country you live) had you lived in Mainland? Personally, if I am asked to rank where I want to live among the three places (1) US; (2) Mainland; (3) Taiwan, my answer is definitely (1) the US of A; (2) the US of A; (3) the US of A. I was born in Taiwan and I grew up there. But I am just sick of those (green) people. Regarding to Mainland, it is my “motherland” but I am so afraid of the people there. Besides, it is not safe! People there still live under “red terror”. So I don’t think you can dispute the fact that US is still the best place for people like you and me. I definitely call US my home, sweet home. This is true to many people from around the world including you (I bet). Of course many Americans are not too smart and many of them are lack of work ethic. But this has opened many doors to people like you and me. Of course US democracy is not perfect (in fact it is quite dirty). Even so, a black dude was elected to lead the most powerful nation on earth. No matter how much you dislike the system, you must give it some credits! Regarding to market economy, of course US is far from a free market economy. We all suffer from the oligopoly of Verizon and AT&T just to name one industry. But disruption is also the rule of the market. Where are Wang, BlackBerry, IBM, and Kodak today? Sooner or later, Apple will be the next. But in a centrally plan economy, disruption and innovation are hard to come by. You mentioned Japan. MITI was very powerful at one point of time when Japan was doing very well. Yes, execution is very important. But I do believe the best execution will come from the brightest people from around the world when they are free to innovate and compete in their pursuit of “unicorn”. I don’t want to bad mouth Mainland. I am Chinese. In fact, I think I am more Chinese than many Chinese including you. I watch Mainland TV programs and I love listening to “red songs”. I am proud of my heritage. But I am afraid the progress in Mainland is not sustainable. It was USSR first, then Japan and now China. The US of A is still standing tall while facing one after another rising powers. Finally, my disgust of the green people should not turn into a blind love of my motherland. Most importantly, regimes come and go. But my motherland will always be my identity. I am pro Chinese. For the sake of the entire Chinese race, I must be critical to the current party in power – CCP.
First of all, I don't bad-mouth; I just tell the truth.
Second, nobody is saying life in the US is no good. Quite the contrary, that is exactly the point: the people in the US have their good lives paid for by the other 95% of the world. Just the fact that they forced their currency on the world, and then took away the promise of not printing money from thin air, is simply and indisputably the largest theft in human history.
60% of the CO2 in earth atmosphere comes from 5% of its population. Do they bother to pay for it? In fact, they are pointing their fingers at China, which still has only 1/3 of emissions per capita .
I have been writing dozens of articles explaining that the US is strong not because of its "systems" but because of luck and shameless killing/robbing/stealing. If you want to dispute any of those, just lay out your arguments, but please don't pretend that they do not exist and just go on a rant using only baseless statements to the contrary.
Regarding to Mainland, it is my “motherland” but I am so afraid of the people there. Besides, it is not safe! People there still live under “red terror”.
Very typical imagination about the China mainland and the mainlander. I grow up there in the countryside. All I can tell you is that it is safe, it is safe enough not to be shot by some strange people or brutal police. If you calculate the number of crime per capita, you would find the place you live is truly amazing. The homicide rate per ten thousand inhabitants is 5 in USA, whereas it is only 1.12 in China mainland. USA is at least four times more dangerous than your motherland in this aspect! Red terror has been long gone. The latest guy that use red terror for his own purpose was Bo Xilai, and he is now in jail. I guess you probably never lived in China mainland before. You know chinese, please drop your bias and take a look at your motherland. Forget about the west media trash talk. Or go there during your holiday. Then we can discuss a little more, rather than just imaging and giving such unconvincing conclusion.
Maybe you can recommend a few websites for the poor brainwashed ABC to visit. I have been told that there are hundred of channels with millions of complaints online at any given time.
Wow, you guys had a party! Sadly, you guys didn’t even realize what I was trying to say. Fundamentally, CCP and DPP are the same kind. They have no interest to build a lawful society. All they care is how to keep their power unchallenged. In Taiwan, DPP promotes “democracy” as “I can do whatever I want”. In Mainland, CCP does not care the rule of law as long as its status is unchallenged. Of course Mainland becomes “probably the most liberal country” (to individuals). NPR did have an interesting report about this phenomenon. Based on the report, indeed, CCP is very tolerable. However, when it comes to gathering to protest, the “freedom” is gone! In other words, you can say all kinds of bad things about CCP. Your posts will not be deleted. However, once you start saying you want to start a protest and ask people to join, your post will be censored. So tell me who has been “brainwashed”? I will say this one more time. I support reform within system (under the rule of CCP). But I am very disappointed so far. CCP must start building a lawful and civil society. Tolerating personal lawless behaviors in exchange of one party system is not sustainable! It is the very reason why I said Mainland is not a “safe” place to live. It is a wild west! Here are my specific questions: (1) Is centrally planned economy really a better system in the longer run? I really hope so but I am not optimistic. Japan’s MITI was a good case to study. (2) Can Mainland rely completely on home grown talents? I mentioned Silicon Valley model. Mainland cannot even keep her best and brightest talents, let alone attracting foreign talents. Pollutions, corruptions and the lack of rule of law turn people away. (3) Indeed, innovations do come from a small group of talents. However, the problem is how to generate, identify, keep and use talents. I believe the only way is to create the environment and let people compete by offering equal opportunities. In Mainland, princelings dominate business world. Market force is pretty much equal to party force. This is very bad in the long run. Yes, I enjoy reading The Times. Certainly I might be influenced to some extent. However, with my background, I believe I am more insightful when it comes to topics about Mainland and Chinese. FYI, I don’t watch CNN. I watch Netflix, YouTube and CNTV. Speaking of CNTV, this is my question 4: The firing of 毕福剑 is a “red terror”. Tell me not! 惜秦皇汉武，略输文采；唐宗宋祖，稍逊风骚。一代天骄，成吉思汗，只识弯弓射大雕。俱往矣，数风流人物，还看今朝。
0) True, you cannot do street demonstrations as freely in China as in the US, but so what? The priority of the people is better lives, not the right to be beaten up or occasionally killed by the white police on the street.
1) Any large scale economic activities have to be organized and enforced with dictatorial power. Under Roosevelt, this was done by a competent Federal bureaucracy, just like Japan from 1950-1980, Taiwan from 1970-1990 and China today. When the bureaucracy is gutted (by "Free Market" fundamentalists in the US, by internal decay in Japan and by 李登辉 in Taiwan), the economy starts its decay also. Furthermore, as I have pointed out several times, when the government does not wield its dictatorial powers, the big companies will. At least the Chinese government cares about the people; big companies by definition have the mentality of a psychopath.
2) Do the best and brightest still want to go to the US? Five years ago, I had exactly that conversation with a Silicon Valley boss originally from Canada, and our consensus was "not as much as before, and still dropping".
3) In the world over, it is the privileged families that control the businesses. The Economists did a study a couple of months ago and found that China has a MUCH HIGHER percentage of rags-to-riches company owners than the US. But even if this percentage is very low like in Korea, it does not mean the economy necessarily sucks. Really good scientists and engineers derive much satisfactions from their work, not from the prospect of becoming multi-billionaires. Besides, which Silicon Valley boss is a technician any way? They are just sales people who enrich themselves on their employees' work. How is this fundamentally different from the horror you describe of China?
In reply to the comment above： Can you post the same kind of articles (bad mouth the country you live) had you lived in Mainland?
I am not sure whether the blogger has ever lived in Mainland China and thus can provide much insights on this issue. But this question is frequently asked and indeed deserves a little more than just emotional reaction and finger-pointing. So here is my personal thoughts. By the way I am mainlander Chinese.
The simple answer is yes, and hundreds of thousands of people do it all the time, if not living off it. Bashing is everywhere, on blogs, on Wechat, on traditional forums of course, and even on video sites dedicated to Anime. You can see bad-mouthing about China, about CCP, or both, of all types and from all perspetives that are ever conceivable. In fact, China is probably the most liberal country (out of all major ones) in the world in this respect, because critizing the government is not only allowed, as in many western countries, it is even somewhat encouraged and has become a fashion among many intellectuals (examining the reason behind this is worth writing several books and therefore, is omitted here). Since you probably can read Chinese, I suggest you throwing yourself into the Chinese internet world for a few days. I believe you will be amazed by the harshness of the numerous critiques made by Chinese people, the pervasiveness of them, and the fact that they are still there for you to read.
I have never set foot to mainland China, not even for transit.
But you are right, most Americans have been brainwashed to believe that Chinese have no freedom to criticize their government. The truth is that, not only do they air criticism all the time, their complaints get acted on, unlike in the US.
2012年以前，中国大陆确实存在相当大的危机，整个社会如同一口高压锅，就快要到了炸锅的临界点了。大陆高层权斗也非常厉害，胡温二人根本无力再管经济发展以外的事情。2002到2012这十年，是大陆经济飞速发展的十年，更是互联网急速爆炸的十年，然而由于缺乏管控，使得互联网乱象频出，而民众的不满在网络世界也有了发泄的渠道，而这种发泄也反过来影响了很多人对政府和社会的判断。本届政府上台后，习近平可以说是以雷霆万钧之势迅速巩固了权力，使各方面的统筹规划有了一个主心骨，这也许就是博主所说的Any large scale economic activities have to be organized and enforced with dictatorial power.三中和四中全会的主题毫不夸张的说是振奋人心。现在习近平有余力统战网络媒体www.guancha.cn/politics/2015_05_21_320406.shtml。他是要把网络的声音聚流，在保障政治稳定的前提下，多元的思想为中华崛起服务，而不是做绊脚石。我是十分赞同的。 在西方所谓没有言论自由的大陆，你可以看到网民公开讨论社会主义，共产主义和资本主义的优缺点，以及哪种主义适合中国。而在言论自由的西方，却极少看到这种辩论，民众对待除西方民主政体以外的体制，几乎视为洪水猛兽。这不是很讽刺吗？ 台湾媒体就更不用说了，对我来说它就是客观公正的反义词。前不久韩国kbs出了一部纪录片《super china》，在韩国收视率超过10％，里面对中国的看法是褒大于贬。这样规模宏大的纪录片背后不可能没有政府的支持，而且片子播出前不久中韩刚刚敲定自贸协定。很明显韩国已经铁了心要借中国强势崛起的东风发展了，而这个协定敲定之后，最大的输家就是台湾。但台湾人真的厉害，对这个协定和这部纪录片完全无感，我看过台湾一个节目对super china的评论，里面说中国是超级了但还不高级，还给出很多国外‘禁止乱扔垃圾’‘禁止踩踏花草’的中文标识作为证据，台湾那种莫名其妙的优越感，鸵鸟心态显露无遗。
I am happy to recommend some websites. http://club.kdnet.net/. This is probably the most popular website regarding politics in China mainland. Over ten million member, talking about everything. There you can find many harsh and sarcastic comment about the government. www.163.com This is the website I don't like. But it does attract many young people. You can read the comments of the news, many of them are very provoking. People curse CCP and even the country itself like crazy. I am surprised these websites are tolerated in such a 'dictatorial' country the west described. Honestly, I do think it is necessary that Xi Jinping pay attention to restrict this kind of media misleading people many times.
To answer one of the specific questions from 'Just me', I want to say nowadays China has much more attraction for talented scientist. Simply because the government is willing to provide supports including making new policies for them. Maybe you can google 'plan of 1000' and you will find many talented scientists have already given up their tenure positions in US and move to China. These scientists is reshaping the research environment and atmosphere of China. Here are several examples. Wang Xiaodong, nobel class biochemist, currently in Beijing. Shi Yigong, Structure biologist. Tsinghua Deng Hongkui, Peking Han Jiahuai, cell biologist, Xiamen. Xie Xiaoliang, Peking. They are now even more productive then before!
to chenwj网友： 1、关于薄熙来案，目前比较靠谱的一种说法，是薄熙来在中共党内高层竞争中失势，被政治局发配西南边陲，不甘心失败，遂打算利用中国社会贫富差距大，部分底层百姓仇富的心理，想打起毛主义的旗号，煽动底层民众作乱，为自己谋求政治利益，此为中短期目的。如果能借机使得天下大乱，他便能以穷人代言人的面目出现，火中取栗，此为远期目的。(到今天大陆居然还有不少支持者为薄熙来鸣冤叫屈，说明民智开启和社会财富公平分配仍然任重而道远)。因为很奇怪，以前他在大连市、辽宁省任职时，他是以改革派、开明派官员的身份而着称的，但忽然却变成了毛主义代言人，前后变脸之快，只能说明所谓唱红打黑不过是他谋求个人政治野心的手段，他手下任用的一批人搞了一些干涉司法，敲诈勒索的事情，但总体来说是声势大雨点小，而且很快就被中共给收拾了，和“文革”那样真正的红色恐怖还远不能相提并论，不过是一个野心家最后的绝望表演而已。
Just watched the first new show of 星光大道. Finally, CNTV put up the first two shows. I love it, as always. It is my opium. Who does not want to see the rise of motherland? Who does not want to see a harmonious society? Of course I am proud of my heritage and culture. 家有诗书如沧海! American culture is superficial and shallow. American democracy is not real because “elected/public servants” only serve the interests of lobbyists and rich people. American economy is mostly crony capitalism. Howe could God bless America if God does exist? However, I must point out these: Mainland has its own problems. To be critical to US really cannot help or solve Mainland’s own problems. The most important competition is not even with US. Clock is ticking and CCP will collapse sooner or later if staying on the same course. Reform within system under the rule of CCP is currently the best option. But the reform cannot merely be lip service. DPP’s “I can do whatever I want” and CCP’s “I can tolerate you doing whatever you want as long as you don’t challenge my authority” are equally bad! Learn from the mistakes and experiences of Taiwan. The “economic miracle” cannot be sustainable if the society and the people are not catching up.
Similarly, this blogger is constantly feeding you guys opium. I don’t believe “American exceptionalism”. But I do think that US can offer some great ideas to our pursuit of “Chinese dream”. 一条大河波浪宽 风吹稻花香两岸 我家就在岸上住 听惯了艄公的号子 看惯了船上的白帆
I have to give you a warning here. Another case of attack or refusal to acknowledge logic conclusion will be automatic delete.
Making unsubstantiated attack on me or any other commentators without logical or factual support is not going to be allowed. Debate is good, but insults are not.
If you don't like the rule, go live and wallow in your fantasy land. This is my blog, and the rule is: You don't have to be right, but at least have to be open to logical falsification of your opinion. After a long debate, simply coming back and restating your already falsified thesis is a big no-no.
我决定把这篇违规的留言保留做为反例，以后类似的恶性留言会被删除。
这篇留言是恶性的，体现在两方面：1）“Feeding Opium”是纯人身攻击，没有任何论证的支持； 2）“The economic miracle cannot be sustainable..."是前面已讨论过的话题，留言者的论点已被驳斥，不应该忽视这些论证而重复已被证偽的口号。
关于精神鸦片的指责，请允许我再多说两句。我想在这里发言的各位没有人认为中共以及中国政体和社会是没有问题的，而且大家谈论的焦点也不是要去唱衰美国并赞颂中国。只不过大家渐渐有一个共识就是美国式的选举民主未必就是世间唯一的救赎之途，没有美式选举的国家也未必就万劫不复。正如同李世谟在他的TED演讲(Tale of two political systems) 里说得那样，这个世界上有多样人种，多样文化，以及多样宗教，怎么可能只有唯一的一种普世必需的政治体制？而中国所行之道路，也没必要去与西方投票选举制度你死我活的一争高下，只不过是说明，想要实现公平透明并且有效的政治治理，也许还有其它途径可循。我个人也认为全民投票只不过是民主的一种操作手段，但不是民主的本质。而投票的有效范围值得三思再三思。个人以为一旦投票的人数的人群内部的差异程度超过一定的范围，其结果就很难维持理性，或者说有效性。简单说，美国宪法也是由区区55个人经过讨论决定的，而这55个人几乎全部参加过独立战争，超过一半的代表受过专业的法律训，多数做过议员甚至州长，除此之外，其余代表皆是工商界的有钱人。这55个人，很难说对当时的美国社会有多么广泛的代表性，但是他们讨论制定了美国立国之本的文献，而且至今鲜有人对制宪会议的合法性有任何异议。话说回来，如果当时参与讨论的不仅仅是这55个人，而是按人口比例加入了印地安人以及黑人奴隶或者白人平民的代表，这宪法估计得流产。西方民主制度发展到现在，随着选举的普及化，其面临的最大的挑战就是选民价值观及文化背景的分裂，大家很难对社会发展方向达成共识。个人认为，美国未来最头疼的恐怕还不是黑白之间的问题，而是拉丁裔的迅速膨胀，到白人总数低于50%的时候，美国社会的走向会越发的不确定。 另外，选举只能在形式上决定政治决策者的任命，却无法对其执政行为进行监督。虽然说有任期限制，但是诚如王兄讲过的，其纠错成本至少也是几年的时间。目前，中共改革的大致方向是，决策者任命的权利交于菁英内部，但在决策者执政过程中进行公民参与与监督。去年习总提了8个“是否”作为衡量民主的标准，把选举搁在一边，这8项分别是：1.国家领导层能否依法有序更替；2.全体人民能否依法管理国家事务和社会事务、管理经济和文化事业；3.人民群众能否畅通表达利益要求；4.社会各方面能否有效参与国家政治生活；5.国家决策能否实现科学化、民主化；6.各方面人才能否通过公平竞争进入国家领导和管理体系；7.执政党能否依照宪法法律规定实现对国家事务的领导；8.权力运用能否得到有效制约和监督。这已经是一套相对完整的评价体系。其挑战在于建立并执行相关的制度，以满足这8个执政评价标准。其相关的改革大约是中国未来两到三任领导人需要共同面临的挑战，其成败则关乎十几亿人口的前途命运。而这些改革的方向未必会最终走向多党投票。说起来简单做起来难，中共眼下就面临着19大的布局。按照惯例，习李的继任者仍该在近两年内浮出水面。虽然在习的强势领导之下，大家对他的十年任期有了信心。但是制度化的真正挑战，很可能在习李之后的十年。大家都在看。 说回到美国，大家都公认美国仍然是这个世界的老大，也是很多人梦寐以求的地方。我个人希望美国能够作为人类文明的一个航标而持续的繁荣下去。事实上，个人以为中共的体制到今天还没有崩溃， 恐怕还得感谢以美国为主的西方世界的各种批评与威胁，这令中共始终处有一种随时会垮台的高度的危机感，并不断地做出改进。如果美国真的衰落，欧洲又不能复兴，那么中国的发展反而对失去借镜与参照，变得不可持续了。正如道家所言，有无相生，无此即无彼。对立产生竞争，竞争促进发展，失去对手的胜者自然会日渐衰落。所以，我很希望看到美国国内出现有力的改革，让这个国家继续作为人类文明前行的参照之一（但不是唯一）。