A Place to Stand

Just been watching Kirsty Wark on Newsnight spending most of the programme on China (& a bit on France). In the normal impartial Beeb way they put both sides - either China is a dreadful foreign country we must openly be rude about at all times or China is a dreadful foreign country with a vulgar amount of cash we must be quietly rude about at all times. This included a talking head section with a dissident & a silly woman to put the former view & a Chinese businessman & a government minister to put the latter. Speakers to put the suggestion that China is actually doing rather well, better indeed than us, has a higher level of crime-free personal safety than us, a greater respect for the rule of international law & an infinitely better level of respect for human rights than our Nazi leaders responsible for genocide in Krajina & Bosnia & the killing of possibly 100,000 in Iraq were not present.

Kirsty, of course, while keen to mention Chinese dissidents being (formerly) imprisoned never mentions our imprisonment of Fikret Abdic for not supporting al Quaeda when we did. There were also, of course, mentions of the alleged desire of the Tibetans, those living in Tibet that is, for independence & the restoration of the Dalai Lama's feudal rule that these cute native people so enjoyed. The truth is more complicated but, for some reason, not one our "free media" report.

So to (slightly) balance the censorship of the BBC I am reprinting a letter I had in Spiked recently:

The corollary of China having grown by exporting to us is the degree to which, over the last decade, its price competitiveness has suppressed world inflation, which has saved us from having to do it (China: threat or opportunity?, 13 October).

As regards environmentalism, there's no moral or legal duty for China to be subject to our Luddite fantasies. As regards human rights, I don't think even the most rabid Westerner could claim that the people of Krajina have been treated a thousandth as well by NATO as the Tibetans have been treated by China. This being the case, no Westerner can honestly claim moral superiority. As regards the military threat, while a growing economy automatically produces military power, it's undeniable that China has shown infinitely more respect for the rule of international law and the rights of other nations than have the NATO states.

Indeed, it could well be argued that the growth of a country which has respect for international law is an absolute necessity. Even China's growth wouldn't be a threat to us, if we decided to match it. Ireland, the Baltic states and Russia have proven over the past decade that it's perfectly possible to achieve growth close to China's level, if you just practice a relatively unregulated pro-growth policy. That we choose to hobble ourselves means that it's our governments, not that of China, which are a threat to the West.

Neil Craig, A Place to Stand, UK






I was in China for one year in the late 1980s and for one year in the early 1990s, and I recently spent a month in Shanghai (China: threat or opportunity?, 13 October).

The main reason why the country has achieved so much in those 17 years is the people and their culture of hard work and self-sacrifice, not the politicians. That said, I find it odd that the role of the Chinese Communist Party is always viewed negatively in the West. The communist dictatorship, resented though it is by many, has helped China in at least four ways. First, provision of basic universal education, ensuring high literacy and a focus on technology. Second, creation of a modern Chinese identity. Third, eradication of big landowning and other vested interests, that have obstructed or distorted development in other countries and have hogged power and resources. The party is, of course, guilty of this itself, but is genuinely interested in national progress for its own survival. Fourth, the ability to force through comprehensive development plans into the long term, something that - democracy with its four- or five-yearly regime changes - doesn't encourage.

I still say that the people should take most of the credit for what's been achieved, but these are four other reasons why China has done a lot better than India and the Philippines, the two longest-established Asian democracies. It wasn't a coincidence that Taiwan, South Korea and arguably Japan did their economic heavy lifting under enduring one-party rule.

Ian Channing, UK

The original article is here.