On 10/04/2014 11:48 AM, Tjebbe van Tijen wrote:
'Rule of law' did not only benefit big business, but also functioned
as social leveller for the less affluent citizens of Hong Kong,
because a successful economy is only hampered by too blatant social
unequally in its direct realm.
Dear Tjebbe, despite the due respect which is considerable, I read the
above and said, "Huh?"
Hong Kong is the city that Milton Friedman once proclaimed the most pure
experiment in liberal free-trade economics. It has 114,000 billionaires,
including the four richest men in Asia. Housing prices have doubled
since 2009. A fifth of the population lives below the poverty line
(calculated as 50% of median income). Hong Kong's Gini coefficient,
measuring the degree of inequality, stands currently at 0.537, around
six points higher than that of two very unequal societies which set
unfortunate benchmarks for the rest of the world: China (0.474) and the
United States (0.477).
The question of what democracy could mean for Hong Kong and the world is
an interesting one. To appreciate its many dimensions I recommend a book
by a fellow named Hai Ren, called "Neoliberalism and Culture in China
and Hong Kong." He analyzes the 1997 handover - or, as the Chinese would
say, return - of Hong Kong as the culmination of Deng Xiao Ping's policy
aiming at the "synchronization" of China with the West. This was
perceived to be necessary as the failure to keep in step with Western
development had led to China's humiliation in the nineteenth century,
beginning with the loss of Hong Kong itself. Those enamored of the
visual history of societal development would be fascinated by the vast
cultural programs of "countdown" toward the day of return that were
deployed by the Chinese Communist state in order to dramatize the
progress toward synchronization.
The question is, what does synchronization entail on the social level?
Hai Ren tackles that in his next book, "The Middle Class in Neoliberal
China," where he shows that after the death of Mao and the purging of
the Gang of Four, there was a crisis of political representation in
China. What this meant, however, is not what you might think. It meant
that the Party was unable to represent, i.e. create an image or profile
of, the ideal citizen. Hai Ren maintains that the essence of Deng's
policy and the resolution of this crisis can be found in a shift away
from the figure of the proletarian and toward that of the "middle
strata," as defined by very extensive sociological studies which
deliberately abandoned the earlier category of class. Ten distinct
strata were identified, from the destitute to the billionaire, and on
that basis, five strata were identified as the components of the ideal
synchronized society. The aim was to produce this idealized range of
income distribution, which obviously includes the very wealthy -
because, according to Deng, "To get rich is glorious," and "Someone must
get rich first."
Once again, the book attempts to trace the deliberate processes of
social and cultural engineering that produced what we might call
cognitive capitalism with Chinese characteristics. One the one hand,
these processes included the institution of "the rule of law," to the
exact extent that it is indeed necessary for the successful conduct of
business. And on the other hand, they included all sorts of cultural and
educational transformations aiming to produce the right entrepreuneural
and consumerist subjectivities. Of course the return of Hong Kong was
crucial to this whole policy, as the former British colony included not
only the desired billionaires, but also the educated, talented,
technically adept and creative "middle strata" on which China's
synchronization with the West would depend. (Plus they have such a nice
movie industry, good universities, great restaurants, Canto-pop, you
name it.)
Now, the primary "Chinese characteristics" that the Party has insisted
on maintaining throughout its progress toward synchronization are
obviously centralized decision-making and authoritarianism. According to
the sociologists of inequality, these become necessary for social
control in any country at some point after you cross the threshold of
0.4 on the Gini scale. And indeed, we have seen authoritarianism and
oligarchical centralization of decision-making on a distinct rise in the
US itself, ever since inequality began its dramatic intensification in
the 1980s. To that extent, China's synchronization with the West will
not really be threatened by the, alas predictable, but perhaps not
inevitable repression of Occupy Central in Hong Kong. After all, the US,
in its way, also cracked down on its Occupy movement, which was
demanding substantial democracy in the face of massive inequality and
oligarchical rule. (Somewhere in the above I should have skillfully
inserted the number of billionaires you actually now find within Party
ranks in China, to make the point that they are just as oligarchical as
the US - but hey, this is a nettime post, so I can just do it like this.)
The US and now increasingly, the EU, are examples of what political
scientist Sheldon Wolin calls "managed democracy," and to achieve full
synchronization, China would have to be too. Again, Hong Kong seems to
be the perfect place to experiment. "Managed democracy" is something a
bit more detailed than what Guy Debord called "the spectacle perfected,"
but anyway, so far it's the most advanced reconciliation of oligarchical
control and rapid economic growth. In other words, managed democracy is
what you really need for a so-called "successful economy." It does
require figureheads and sham elections, so China seems to be on the
right track with its HK policy. Wolin also refers to managed democracy
as "the specter of inverted totalitarianism," which is really
interesting when you want to make the comparison between the Western
societies and China.
I reckon that the achievement of substantial democracy in Hong Kong
would have significant political and economic consequences. Maybe not
only for the island and the adjacent peninsula, but for the whole world.
Experiments on the order of the one being carried out in the streets of
Hong Kong right now are great and powerful things. May our hearts and
acts be with all of those who have joined Occupy Central.
best, Brian
PS: Those interested in Hai Ren's first book might fish around in a deep
pool called lib.gen-dot-org. Just google the second book and with a
little persistence you may also get access to it without having to make
an investment that your precarity would not necessarily allow. As for
all the details on inequality in Hong Kong, I was lazy so I took 'em all
from a single Bloomberg article that tallies with everything else I have
been reading for the past week:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-29/hong-kong-poverty-line-shows-wealth-gap-with-one-in-five-poor.html
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