Tag Archive for 'bureaucracy'

BEIJING, Dec. 25 — Outraged that his Internet posting about dogs had been banned, Chen Yuhua wrote to the mayor of Beijing. No answer. He wrote to the city council. Still no answer. When all else failed, he consulted a lawyer, studied China’s civil code and marched into court with a lawsuit.[link]

This bizarre but telling article indicates the level of terror the bureaucrat wields on an ordinary Chinese. Read the article to get a sense of the inability of the average Chinese citizen to criticize the government.

For those people who are jealous of China’s success I tell them: Yes, there is much to be jealous of in China. But here in India we have much to be proud about too. Our economy is much smaller than China’s but we are now growing at 9% + every year. Not bad for a democracy where people are free to have as many children as they want; as many dogs as they want; criticize, vote out and participate in government. They say India is where China was 10-15 years back economically. Well, fine! I’d take a slightly backward but democratic India over a totalitarian but rich China any day*! Secondly, China is probably 20-30-who knows how many years behind India politically. When China will transition to a democracy is anybody’s guess! I believe Chinese citizens will not be sophisticated enough compared to Americans, Europeans or Indians to be able to understand and react to changes in tomorrows world. They will be susceptible to rabble rousing and extreme nationalism (citizens of democracies understand issues far better because they is much more transparency and debate on all aspects of an issue). The Chinese state is likely to make grave errors in the future because citizens will not able to guide it on the correct path.

Underpinning all this is my sincere belief that you need a free mind to understand what is happening in the world in every sphere: social, political, economic and scientific. You also need a free mind to innovate and create. India is freeing its citizens economically and socially and that is something amazing too.

__

*I’m not implying that democratic freedoms cause a reduction in economic growth rate. India is behind China economically not because it was a democracy but because it made some poor decisions like adopting a dirigiste model of development. We all know what the License-quota- permit-notification-exemption-circular-raid Raj did to India.