'Dictator for life': Xi Jinping's power grab condemned as step towards tyranny

[Ülev]

https://www.elconfidencial.com/mundo...uropa_1526357/

In Spanish, but interesting

[Tooting Carmen]

Magna Carta. Where was China in 1215? To liken Anglo-Saxon society to Chinese is quite wrong.

That was only about limiting the King's power to imprison nobles without a trial. The right of the King to rule was still unquestioned. Things like parliamentary democracy and universal suffrage have not been around for that long at all.

[zhaoyun]

I don't see democracy working with a massive population,even if the HDI was like Western Europe which is a long ways off. Would you not say China's history has been characterized by authoritarianism?

Yes, absolutely. Basically long periods of glory backed by competent authoritarian rule, then eventually meeting its demise through corrupt and decadent rulers, who are overthrown by massive populist rebellions. China has risen and fallen probably 6 or 7 times in its history, each period of glory was roughly 200-300 years. It's pretty sad that it's shaping up to be more of the same. But at this time, it's hard to predict where Western democracy will end up either when we see that we are about 240 years in to America's experiment, but obviously the remarkable thing about America's political system is that it allows fluidity to change and transform, while an authoritarian system is like a pressure cooker where the problems are bottled up until they explode.

The major difference is that China is heading towards a place now where the population is becoming wealthy and educated, and how that will mesh with an authoritarian structure is hard to say. Will it become authoritarian like Singapore, which is a well run, orderly place governed by rule of law or more of the same like past Chinese dynasties, hard to tell.

[zhaoyun]

Magna Carta. Where was China in 1215? To liken Anglo-Saxon society to Chinese is quite wrong.

The Magna Carta profoundly changed Western civilization in that it gave the English commercial class a powerful foundation to act as a balance of power against the ruling nobility. Eventually this evolved into the American form of democracy.

[Tooting Carmen]

China will be the world's economic and military power in two decades time, although in terms of 'soft power' - music, TV, film, language etc. - the West (mainly USA) will still dominate.

[zhaoyun]

I've said myself that not all cultures and societies are (easily) set up for democracy, and that much of the time a relatively benign dictatorship is preferable to a corrupt and dysfunctional democracy. (Perhaps the best current example is in fact China versus India - without wishing to minimise China's own problems, the poverty, corruption, poor infrastructure and lack of basic services for many people are far worse in India).

It is hard to imagine China will ever be a Western style democracy. I just don't think it will ever happen. But if it ends up at least becoming an orderly society ruled by law and not by man, where the government is clean and the individual's basic rights are protected, then that would be the best outcome possible IMO.

[Tooting Carmen]

The Magna Carta profoundly changed Western civilization in that it gave the English commercial class a powerful foundation to act as a balance of power against the ruling nobility. Eventually this evolved into the American form of democracy.

But still some form of parliamentary democracy didn't really come into being until 18th century, and universal suffrage until the 20th.

[zhaoyun]

China will be the world's economic and military power in two decades time, although in terms of 'soft power' - music, TV, film, language etc. - the West (mainly USA) will still dominate.

I don't think China will ever match America's soft power. China is too ethnocentric while America's diversity gives it strength in this regard. I'm serious.

I do think China could end up becoming the second most powerful exporter of soft power through film, music, etc surpassing Japan and Korea, but replacing the US, I seriously doubt it.

[zhaoyun]

But still some form of parliamentary democracy didn't really come into being until 18th century, and universal suffrage until the 20th.

It built the roots of it.

Cultures evolve over long periods of time. The point is that the Magna Carta profoundly altered the modus operandi in the Anglo world and built the basis of the Western political culture as we know it.

[Tooting Carmen]

It built the roots of it.

Cultures evolve over long periods of time. The point is that the Magna Carta profoundly altered the modus operandi in the Anglo world and built the basis of the Western political culture as we know it.

Sorry, but that notion is too teleological. As you yourself have said about China, different societies and cultures rise and fall, and this includes the Anglo countries - Britain has mostly lost an Empire that at one point covered a fifth of the world, and in the not-too-distant future US power will wane too.