The other day I was moaning
that China's
failure to recruit enough
money to free its
people from shame was
depressing me
no end -- I promised to go to
PBS' website
to see if there was anything
to lighten the
picture with which Frontline had hit me
right between the eyes. I went there and
was not
disappointed.
China
in the Red: The first person singular
below is an expert wiriting to
a forum that
Frontline
put together to offer a
current
assessment of hope for a
better future.
=== start excerpt from Frontline
forum ===
Jiang Zemin's new theory of
the "three
represents" is another example
[of hope for
the future].
I initially did not take the
"three represents"
seriously. My unscientific
sampling of taxi
drivers, street vendors, hotel
attendants,
and restaurant staff has yet
to reveal a single
person able to recite the
substance of the
theory.
But most of my academic Chinese friends are
taking the theory -- that the
Party represents
(1)
the most advanced productive forces (the
entrepreneurs and
capitalists), (2) the most
advanced cultural forces (the
intellectuals),
and (3) the great masses of
the Chinese
people (the workers and peasants) --
seriously indeed.
The three represents
essentially turns Maoism
on its head, redefining the
class basis of the
Party's support. Mao's
revolution, after all,
aimed to overthrow (1)
the capitalists; and
intellectuals (2)
were at the lowest rung of
the [power] hierarchy of status.
Jiang's theory incorporates
into the Party the
very people Mao was trying to
destroy.
=== end excerpt
from Frontline forum
===
Maybe an entrepreneur, an
intellectual or
a foreigner, will open the
Chinese Communist
Party's eyes to money enough for all as an
idea for which they are
ready.
They have closed state enterprises and dumped
tens of millions of people on
the road to the cities.
True the Party does
not want to open incompetent
state enterprises to employ
these disposessed
millions on projects likely to damage the nation and
help no one at all.
But China certainly has the intellectuals to
suggest a million small business activities that
will provide things individuals, localities
and the
nation needs.
And, if China finances
these activities with
modest advances, it will
see many of them
bear fruit. In the
Frontline program emphasis
was placed on the current
debt of Chinese
banks and the central bank
that
might severly
limit such small business loans.
How is that possible -- when we intellec-
tuals here know that past debt
cannot prevent
the use of new debtless money
created in small
enough amounts not to
outrun production?
How can it be possible when
the very
activities to be financed will
be directed to
pro-
ducing the things that
appear to be in short
supply?
Sure it may be that shortages
mean people
will consume less than they
need and find
it necessary to save their
wages more than
most would like -- but they
will not be idle and
looking for work.
The newly financed activities will be looking
for
them to take a job, get a good
wage, and save
a great deal of it until food
and necessary item
production catches up with
real--if modest--
need.
And China and the Magic 3
will give everyone
confidence that hope is now at hand.
