Where the Communist Party finds New Recruits

October 4, 2010

“I think it’s worth remembering that China has parties other than the Chinese Communist Party (e.g. the CPWDP), although (of course) this does not make China a ‘multi-party state’ in the sense of the term. But observing how the CCP interacts with these other groupings can be revealing.” Source of comment from: Sino-Gist

My Response, There is also the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF).  I wrote about that at Women’s Rights in China.

Then there is the China Youth League and other representatives from various democratic parties, which must be referring to the CPWDP, and patriots and democrats without party affiliation; (c) representatives of people’s organizations; (d) representatives of the People’s Liberation Army; and (e) representatives of minority ethnic groups with a population of over 1 million each. Source: China.org

Another segment of the population where the Party finds new members, are freshly minted millionaires and billionaires of China’s successful capitalists.


Many of these representatives may not belong to the Communist Party or have voting rights, but they do have a voice. 

Just as most Western corporate business is conducted on a golf course, in China these nonvoting members express themselves at meals and banquets in conversation with voting members.

These non-voting members are sort of like lower management in a corporation who take advantage to express their opinions and suggestions, which may be heeded by a voting member of the party.

Non-party members, who are of a like mind, will be noticed and possibly asked to join the party, which is an invitation few in China would reject since it means joining the ruling Party of more than 70 million.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Understanding the Party that Rules China

October 3, 2010

People tend to distrust and fear that which they do not understand, and the roots of American Sinophobia go deep.

The 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was directed solely against Chinese. Today, the Chinese in America are still often treated as if they are outsiders.

The Washington Post published a piece in February 2010 on “Polls show growing American resentment and fear of China.”

In fact, it doesn’t matter how anyone feels about China. China is here to stay. For more than two millennia, China has demonstrated an ability to burn and rise like the phoenix to be reborn again.

That’s why Richard McGregor’s book, The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers is vital for understanding what is going on in today’s China.

McGregor not only shows how the Party works, but why the Party fears  losing control and helplessly watching China revert back into the pre-revolutionary chaos and anarchy which almost destroyed the nation when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists ruled the mainland.

As an organization with more than seventy million members, the Party has a grip on every aspect of government, from the largest, richest cities to the smallest villages. It also presides over all official religions, the media, the military and large state-owned businesses.

The picture that emerges is of a creative, adaptable, self-aware and resilient social network that is alert to the internal and external dangers it faces and has proven able to respond to challenge with remarkable agility, creativity and effectiveness.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

1 Comment | America, China, Communism, cultural differences, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Different Results for Different Propaganda Campaigns

September 20, 2010

The concept for this post came from an exchange of ideas with A Modern Lei Feng.

On January 20, 1961, President John F. Kennedy said, “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Then in March of that year, President Kennedy signed an executive order that authorized the Peace Corp Act, which resulted in some controversy. (A Peace Corps History)

If history is any sign, many of the laws passed after Kennedy’s premature death did the opposite. Instead of Americans helping the country, the country ended up helping Americans.

LBJ’s Great Society program to aid urban renewal and a wide-scale fight against poverty turned millions into wards of the government and added billions to America’s current deficit. (two views of LBJ’s programs may be found at Free Republic.com and a New York Times Opinion Piece)

Then in 1963, a public relations campaign – similar to what Kennedy called for in his 1961 speech – was launched in China.

It was called the “Learn from Comrade Lei Feng” campaign.

Lei became the symbol of nationwide propaganda; the youth of the country were encouraged to follow his example. Source: Wikipedia.org

In essence, the campaign to learn from Lei Feng was to read Chairman Mao’s books, obey Chairman Mao’s words, and be Chairman Mao’s good soldier.

Maybe Mao borrowed the idea from Kennedy.

See China’s Great Leap Forward

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Homeless

September 16, 2010

The East Asia Forum (EAF) reported September 1, 2010, on the impact of the global financial crises on China’s migrant workers.

It turns out that the impact wasn’t as significant as first thought in 2009 as most laid-off workers went home to the rural, collective village farms.

Two years after the world economy collapsed, the EAF was surprised to discover that migrants who stayed in the cities suffered very little.

Instead, workers who stayed in the cities continued to work while about 15 million migrants, about 10% of the workforce, went back to the farm, where they had already worked on average 52% of the year helping grow the food China eats.

The EAF suggested that small landholders, since most Chinese in rural China cannot own or sell the land they farm, should be allowed to sell their land and that China should move toward a universal welfare system.

Huh?

In America, which has a universal welfare system, when a worker loses his or her job, he or she collects unemployment benefits until those benefits run out. The next choice is to become a homeless beggar.

A report on PBS says that since 2007 there has been a 12% increase in homelessness and that about 2.3 to 3.5 million people in the U.S. experience homelessness.

The suggestion from the EAF that China must allow rural peasants to sell the land they farm is wrong.

As long as those farms exist, few people have to go homeless in China. Being a poor peasant farmer may not offer many choices in life, but it has to be better than sleeping in an alley in Shanghai and going hungry.

It was difficult to discover how many homeless people there are in China.  It appears that most who are homeless lost their homes through floods, earthquakes and other acts of nature and live in tent cities while the government has new homes built.

See China’s Stick People

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to this Blog, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

1 Comment | America, American culture, capitalism, China, Chinese Culture, Communism, cultural differences, family values | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

A Forbidden City Connection to Tibet Revealed

September 14, 2010

Since the Western media is often critical of China and often exaggerates events in Tibet to make China look bad, I was surprised while reading The Last Secrets of the Forbidden City Head to the U.S. by Auston Ramzy.

I was surprised that evidence like this slipped past the Western media censors—sorry, in the West they are called editors.

The TIME piece was about an exhibit traveling to the United States with treasures from the Forbidden City that have not been seen since 1924.

I read, “Many of the 18th century objects that will be displayed are symbols of the emperor’s devout Buddhism. They include a hanging panel filed with niches that hold intricate figurines of Buddhas, deities and historical teachers from the Tibetan Buddhist sect to which [Emperor] Qianlong belonged.” See Buddhism in China

I didn’t know the powerful Qianlong Emperor followed the teachings of Buddhists from Tibet. There are four Buddhist sects in Tibet. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of one of the four, the Yellow Hat sect.

Why would the Qianlong Emperor belong to a Tibetan sect of Buddhism if Tibet were not considered part of China at the time? There is even evidence that Tibetan Buddhist monks traveled to the capital of China to serve the emperors.

I saw this as more evidence that proves China considered Tibet a vassal state or tributary.  In fact, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasty troops are known to have occupied Lhasa over the centuries.

I’ve written about primary evidence from the October 1912 National Geographic Magazine that described how the Imperial government in Beijing managed a difficult Tibet, and I’ve mentioned letters Sir Robert Hart wrote in the 19th century that also mention Tibet as part of China.

In 1890, a Convention between Great Britain and China was signed—more proof that China considered Tibet part of its realm and Great Britain agreed.

Yes, Tibet did declare freedom from China in 1913 soon after the Qing Dynasty collapsed and China fell into chaos and anarchy while warlords fought over the spoils.

The British Empire convinced Tibet to break from China. 

It is also a fact that in 1950, after World War II and the end of the rebellion between Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists and Chinese Communists that Mao invaded Tibet and reoccupied what the Chinese considered a breakaway province as mainland China still considers Taiwan.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to this Blog, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | Buddhism, Buddhist, China, Chinese history, Chinese minorities, Communism, history, Tibet | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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