Tuesday, October 01, 2019

"Happy Birthday 'People's Republic'of China"

"Your time has passed, now please hurry up and die."

That's our birthday wish for the PRC from Unforeseen Contingencies.  Not China -- China is the world's longest existing civilization, and we wish China well.  May China soon recover from its communist malaise and take its place among great civilizations.

October 1st is the PRC's anniversary.  The PRC killed more of its own citizens than any other regime in history.  Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, the other contenders for the homicide/bloodshed crown, fell behind.  Kampuchea, the regime of the Khmer Rouge, may have killed a higher percentage of the population, but for sheer numbers China's Communist Party and the PRC win the title for butchery.

Under Deng Xiao-ping, China began to move away from totalitarianism.  Unfortunately, Deng feared losing control and crushed one of China's most hopeful developments, the Tienanmen Democracy movement...which actually did not promote democratic rule but freedom of speech and freedom of thought.  The principle established at Tienanmen is that any "freedom" is only by permission of the Chinese Communist Party.  That is, there's no freedom.

The people of Hong Kong are uninterested in that.  They insist on the rules that the communist party promised to uphold.  Communists are liars on principle, they oppose morality that differs from whatever their goals might be, and hence today's clashes.

Communism, and in this case the Chinese Communist Party, are a cancer on civilized society and must be removed, like any malignancy.  May the people of Hong Kong triumph in their struggle against their communist oppressors.


Comments:
Dr. Steele,

Do you have any recommendations for books on Maoism or on the history of Communist China? I'm currently reading "Mao: The Unknown Story" by Jung Change and Jon Halliday which has been excellent thus far.

Best,

Greg
 
Steven Cheung's "Will China Go Capitalist?" monograph has a very short and good summary the history of 20th Century China from the standpoint of New Institutional Economics. It is definitely worth reading. If you can't find a copy, let me know.

Most of what immediately come to mind is about China's transition post-Mao, rather than the Mao period itself.
 
The "Black Book of Communism" is also good, although it covers other countries as well.
 
Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?