Red rising, red eclipse: China story yearbook 2012

340 Pages·7.079 MB·English

by  Barmé Geremie R., Goldkorn Jeremy, Cartier Carolyn, Davies Gloria.

Contents
i Introduction: Red Rising
Geremie r. Barmé
2 China’s Foreign Policy Aggressiveness
Brendan Taylor
26 Symbolic Cities and the ‘Cake Debate’
Carolyn CarTier and luiGi TomB a
53 Cross-straits Relations
mark HarriSon
62 The Ideology of Law and Order
SuSan TrevaSkeS
86 Uncertain Numbers, Uncertain Outcomes
Jane Golley
107 China’s Top Ten
120 Discontent in Digital China
Gloria davieS
144 Searching for a Sage Today
BenJamin Penny
163 Anxieties in Tibet and Xinjiang
170 Behind the Great Firewall
Jeremy Goldkorn

194 Voices from the Blogosphere I
223 From Victory to Victory

234 Voices from the Blogosphere II
261 Red Eclipse
Geremie r. Barmé
283 Chronology
299 People and Personalities
307 Contributors
313 Index of Information Windows
onLIne MAteRIAL @ www.TheChinaStory.org
Notes | Further Reading | The China Story Archive
edited by
Geremie r. Barmé
with
Jeremy Goldkorn
Carolyn Cartier and Gloria davies
China Story yearbook 2012
australian Centre on China in the World
ANU College of Asia & the Pacific
Canberra, Australia

IntRoduCtI on
Red RIsIng
Geremie R. Barmé
A Year of the dragon
ii The start of 2012 ushered in another year of the
iii
dragon according to the twelve-year cycle of
the traditional Chinese lunar calendar. it also
marked a time of pre-ordained political change
– over the following year and a half, the leaders
Introduction: Red Rising Geremie R. Barmé AiPnh d oBrteaoiga:h oGan eis rPaeoatm rntkihe, e RbB n.e oBiijnarirnenmg-d.é r iango an W dalrl agomeofrn eaC ntyhiteoi nanwra.o ’csua Clndo mbheam nau dbn loiesvstes Pirna pgrt.o y‘wm aenaryd t tcohi vethi lseioa nnn e bgxoetcv ogeemrnne--
BOOK2012 a dragon’ (a success) is an ancient benediction: this birth year is associ-
R
A
RY YE ated with enterprise, intelligence and daring. yet China’s political leaders
O
A ST know all too well that dragon years are also fraught with hidden dangers:
N
HI ambition can easily be frustrated and the best laid plans can go awry. The
C
Dragon Year of 1964-1965 saw the first stirrings of Mao Zedong’s Cultural
revolution in the form of the Socialist education movement in the coun-
tryside. The next cycle in 1976-1977 witnessed natural disaster, political
upheaval, mao’s death and the unravelling of his revolutionary enterprise,
while the economic and cultural ferment of 1988-1989 called forth a na-
tionwide protest movement culminating in its suppression by massive
state violence on 4 June 1989.
initially, observers both inside and outside China presumed that
the years 2012-2013 would see an orderly transition of power and the
untroubled retirement of a generation of party-state leaders, from Com-
munist Party General Secretary Hu Jintao and State Premier Wen Jiabao
downwards. even within China’s Communist Party, however, there were
already signs of discontent – over corruption, social anomie and the per-
ceived stagnation of the economy and the political system.
The year 2011 had seen a rise in protest against underlying systemic
problems. it started out with police clampdowns on protests inspired by
the arab Spring. in the middle of the year, a disaster involving the country’s
much celebrated new high-speed rail system at Wenzhou, near Shanghai,
killed dozens of people; the accident raised serious questions about the
the Beijing olympics
At the auspicious hour of 8:08 pm on the eighth
day of the eighth month of 2008 (8 August), the
XXIXth Olympiad began in Beijing with an open-
ing ceremony extravaganza directed by the film-
maker Zhang Yimou. Beijing had become only the
third Asian city to host the Olympics.
accelerated rate of construc- It was the hottest month of the year, but
tion and frenetic change in the thanks to the shutting down of industry, a strict
system of traffic management and even ‘rain-
country. The year ended with
making’ cloud-seeding to clean the air, the city’s
villagers in the southern prov-
usually stifling summer smog-haze was kept at
ince of Guangdong revolting bay. Still, human rights activists, particularly con-
en masse against the collusion cerned with the recent crackdown in Tibet, held
their noses. Regardless, the international com-
between local party bosses
munity supported China’s hosting the summer
and unscrupulous developers games thanks in no small part to US$44 billion
that had resulted in brutish in expenditure, the construction of twelve large
sporting facilities, a restructuring of the city’s
land-grabs. increased surveil-
transportation system, an extensive program to
lance of the internet, which
relocate polluting industries, a multiyear propa-
played an ever-increasing and ganda blitz and ‘civilizing’ campaigns aimed at
improving civic behaviour.
unpredictable role in these un-
The Games enjoyed unprecedented popular-
settled times, was also a sign
ity, breaking records for TV audience numbers.
of official anxiety that social The Chinese national team won a record fifty-one
unrest could escalate into vio- gold medals and the US swimmer Michael Phelps
won eight gold medals – the most ever won by an
lence and trigger wide-scale
athlete in one Olympics. The overall result was
rebellion. deemed a resounding success by the Chinese
meanwhile, continued government, the majority of participants and
most media observers.
ethnic tensions in China’s west
The positive impact of the Games can still be
– Xinjiang and Tibet – led to
seen in Beijing today. Plastic shopping bags still
waves of protest and repres- have to be purchased and are no longer given
sion. in its immediate region, away by supermarkets, new subway lines have
opened up and older ones extended and public
China had been increasingly
transport is more convenient than ever. That said,
aggressive in pressing its ter- air pollution is more noxious than ever and the
ritorial claims over the South giant Bird’s Nest stadium where the opening and
closing ceremonies were held in 2008 looms on
China Sea. Since 2009, bel-
the north central axis of the city, costing more
licose statements by several money to run than it can generate in income.
army leaders had alerted the Still, China’s self-image was burnished by
the Games, and the smooth management of the
international community to
event is held up by the official media as one of the
the new realities they faced
country’s greatest recent national achievements.
with a country that was mov-
iv ing away from a former policy of ‘hiding its light’ and biding its time (tao
v
guang yang hui 韬光养晦) to one of asserting its influence on the world
stage. Some commentators have chided China condescendingly as dem-
onstrating ‘adolescent behaviour’. others saw China’s precipitous rise to
regional and global stature from 2008 onwards as thrusting the current
Introduction: Red Rising Geremie R. Barmé alpgeipovgplaeirtncioic eatahscl e hlo eedfas etd tchoeaer d‘ sopehpasie spont f ii –nsn etgtolh f ua-eipn mb’ iupunnoltlesdyerienndrg a id stcioeoonlnangtad ialou nrncoditls esom iffn o utcrhne we.d mheWrioc emrhse taio toav w neadran,s dtJ iha ltpleh- apeunr nee chipnlaea pcrthtpeidyec
BOOK2012 colonial era as well as the post-World War ii international dominance of
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RY YE the united States and its concomitant hostility to China – together with
O
A ST the fractured interests of the countries of Asia and the Pacific and Japan’s
N
HI economic sluggishness also contributed to China’s assertiveness.
C
Fireworks at the Beijing national stadium – the ‘Bird’s nest’ –
on the night of the opening Ceremony of the XXIXth olympiad, 8 August 2008.
Photo: Lois Conner
tour of the south (nanxun 南巡)
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centu-
ries, the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors of the
Qing Dynasty whose rule represented the great-
est Prosperous Age (shengshi 盛世) in Chinese
history, revived the ancient practice of the im-
perial tour of inspection, or ‘imperial progress’.
international leaders wel-
‘Tours of the South’ became major events in im-
comed Chinese capital to help
perial administration.
stabilize European financial Mao Zedong frequently ‘toured the south’,
institutions in the ongoing spending much of his time away from Beijing. In
1992, Deng Xiaoping undertook what was official-
financial crisis of the Euro-
ly described using the imperial-era term nanxun,
zone. Several business com-
travelling to Shanghai and Guangdong province.
mentators lauded the Beijing The tour signalled to the nation his commitment
model as a success story about to economic reform and market-driven prosper-
state capitalism married to au- ity. Remarks he made during the tour contributed
directly to a new stage of the country’s economic
thoritarian politics. in China,
opening up and market reform.
there was growing discontent
and alarm over corruption
and official brutishness. Some
see systemic change – a liberalization of the one-party political system – as
a possible way ahead; others on the left are critical of an authoritarian
market economy in league with global capital. as the contributors to this
volume show, in the years between 2008 and 2012 there are Chinese citi-
zens who regard a return to socialist values, mao-era egalitarianism and a
strong populist one-party state as the solution to China’s mounting social
crises. others believe that the political and media reforms promised at
the hopeful start of the country’s transition to a market economy thirty
years ago remain the vital remedy. Still others note that following the suc-
cessful 2008 Beijing olympics, China has witnessed the reassertion of the
party-state (that is, Communist Party control over the civil governmen-
tal bureaucracy, the one inseparable from the other) in major aspects of
national life.
The result is a series of contentions over the national narrative re-
quired to articulate the next stage of economic reform and the country’s
modern transformation. ‘Collective vision’ is an integral part of political
rhetoric under the Communist Party. In practice, we find in recent years
the divided agendas of a cautious, fearful and time-serving bureaucracy
with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.
An overlooked Anniversary
vi at the start of 2012 there were muted
vii
commemorations of the 1992 Tour of
the South (nanxun 南巡) that deng
Xiaoping, the celebrated ‘grand en-
gineer’ of China’s open door policies,
Introduction: Red Rising Geremie R. Barmé tPhhoet Co:h Gineare Pmaivei lRio. Bna, r2m01é0 shanghai expo. husstaanacddlrl eeebr drot ooifno u3 kgt-h h4 etaJ uwaftnneae rke e1n 9eod8cf o9ttohn. eoTth mhBeeei ci‘mjc ihnaragseo sfmaso’cra rmosef-
BOOK2012 nationwide student-led demonstra-
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RY YE tions in favour of freedom of expression and government accountability.
O
A ST it had also thrown into doubt the reformist agenda of deng and his allies;
N
HI for a time, economic conservatives and ideological neo-maoists held sway
C
and along with a clampdown on all forms of public protest, further eco-
nomic liberalization was sidelined. deng realized that China was in dan-
ger of going the way of the Soviet union and that if the welfare and pros-
perity of the majority of China’s people was neglected, as it had been with
disastrous consequences under Mao Zedong, his own attempts to bring the
country into the global market economy and to play a major role in world
affairs would be thwarted.
in early 1992, during what was ostensibly a family holiday, deng
Xiaoping toured the southern cities where economic liberalization and
market economies had been allowed. He warned his fellow Party mem-
bers that they could not afford the luxury of continued ideological wran-
gling over whether economic reform and engagement with the interna-
tional economy was by nature ‘socialist’ or ‘capitalist’. development, he
declared, was an inescapable necessity; ideological and systemic stagna-
tion were the enemies of future prosperity. His words (and behind-the-
scenes politicking) ignited a wave of change in China that has since awed
the world. His efforts were formally recognized at the Party’s Fourteenth
Congress in october 1992, setting an economic course for the country that
was maintained for the next two decades.