Rule By Thieves
Jochnowitz, George
China Rule By Thieves by George Jochnowitz Hillary Clinton, in Beijing, complained publicly about the treatment of delegates to the U.N. Women's Conference. She feared for their fate. But what...
...No one knew when the laws would change retroactively, since the law in a totalitarian state is unknowable...
...Stalin and Mao brought nothing but instability to their people...
...Stability means that governments can change legally and in an orderly fashion...
...Perhaps trade, wealth, and openness will lead China to create an orderly, stable society after the death of Deng Xiaoping...
...New directives coming from the party leaders can change life quite abruptly, which makes Chinese society extremely unstable...
...Sooner or later, the dictator falls, and chaos surfaces...
...Corruption and instability go together...
...All innovations come from the top and are transmitted and enforced through the hierarchical structure of the party...
...China's leaders wanted to have a rich country to exploit, one that was worth exploiting...
...After Communism comes kleptocracy-rule by thieves...
...Let us consider the following headline on page one of the May 30, 1994, issue of China Daily, an official English-language newspaper published in Beijing: "4 cigarette smugglers executed...
...Hitler, in 1944, when faced with the choice between supplying his beleaguered soldiers or transporting Jews to death camps, chose to give priority to the Final Solution...
...It means that disagreement is viewed as a constructive way to exchange ideas...
...An honest society, unfortunately, is not available as an alternative...
...Trucks carrying food and beverages to Tiananmen Square kept passing by...
...Only democracy can bring stability...
...Under the headline, "State raises checkpoints on the tobacco road," we read: "Violators will face severe punishments...
...A city-wide drop in crime, accidents, and fires was reported...
...No one knew when a new campaign would be launched against some unsuspecting and harmless group, like land-owning peasants or teachers...
...There is no democracy, which could create a legitimate system that spoke with the authority of the people...
...The framework for a system based on law does not exist...
...Not even the possibility of victory could tempt him from doing what he thought right...
...No one knew when violent fighting would break out, as happened during Mao's Cultural Revolution, when rival groups of Red Guards killed each other for the greater glory of Chairman Mao...
...But China's decision to treat those in attendance at the U.N...
...There is no possible connection between talking about politics and doing something about it...
...The adjective most frequently used is "overheated...
...The nature of the punishments is not specified...
...As the economy becomes more capitalist, however, outsiders-those not in the party-move into positions where they may participate in the corruption of the state...
...The greatest monsters in human history have been incorruptible...
...And the execution of four cigarette smugglers is not a sign of order...
...Yet China's booming surge toward prosperity is being threatened by corruption, which increases, despite draconian punishments...
...There are lots of smokers in China, and the manufacture of cigarettes is a major source of revenue...
...Russia is no longer Communist...
...Societies emerging from Communism are always corrupt because they have to be...
...Feeding the million demonstrators in Beijing was a task that required organization and a great deal of effort...
...The Communist party, which Mao had created, was in a position to monopolize corruption...
...China's wealth is increasing rapidly...
...Dictatorships resort to severe punishments because they have to...
...Mao closed the universities during the Cultural Revolution despite the fact that he knew he needed scientists to build his atomic weapons...
...A year later, on June 26, 1995, cigarette smuggling had not yet been stamped out, according to a story in the Business Weekly Supplement of China Daily...
...There are no human rights, so there need be no human responsibilities...
...Another headline, the same day, announces, "34 drug traffickers executed...
...Both, however, are kleptocracies...
...But what about the fate of China's cigarette smugglers...
...Deng Xiaoping therefore invented Marxist capitalism-a system where one worships Marxist teachings while ignoring them...
...China might have become an exception to this rule...
...But what good is corruption in a world of poverty...
...Let us not think, however, that China may be getting soft...
...George Jochnowitz is a professor at the College of Staten Island CUNY...
...There is no legal process to choose a new leader...
...There is no liberty, so there can be no room for moral choices...
...During Beijing Spring, between April 15 and June 4, 1989, China became an honest and a responsible state...
...Had the Democracy Movement not been crushed, China would not have become a kleptocracy In a country with no politics, there is no way for ordinary people to make their views known and no avenue for change from the bottom...
...Similarly, Chairman Mao was so committed to the insane policies of the Great Leap Forward that he allowed between 20 million and 60 million people, most of them peasants, to die during the years 1959-61...
...Perhaps...
...The advantage of Marxist capitalism is that it provides a rationale for continuing absolute power of the Communist party while at the same time letting the country get rich...
...Chairman Mao destroyed traditional values, and there is no legal system apart from the Communist party...
...This always happens when the crazy, wicked leaders who create totalitarian states are followed by the sane, wicked leaders who inevitably succeed them...
...When Mao died, however, corruption took over...
...Mao's loyalty to the Marxist dream of equality, where people would "raise cattle in the morning [and] criticize after dinner," outweighed China's need to defend itself...
...China is...
...Chairman Mao could not be corrupted...
...conference as terrifying interlopers is not evidence of stability...
Vol. 1 • September 1995 • No. 1
