I could never live in Datong it looked so run down and polluted. I cannot believe that people’s houses are being demolished while they are still living in it. I know Mayor Geng Yangbo, wants to reform city and bring more people, but it does not seem like relocating and evicting people that have been living in the same place for 30 years  is the way to go. Especially when families are being put on 3 year long waiting lists, but don’t have housing in the mean time. I hate how forced demolition is illegal and yet they are still kicking people out of their homes and evicting them. I liked the quote from the resident  of Datong that said, “Let the Rich guys live, We are not living “. It seems absurd that people love the same mayor that  is kicking everyone out of their homes so much. I know he goes around signing papers giving people whatever they want, but considering he is not the one that actually deals with the relocating, people being beating, or peoples  houses being demolished while in it, it appears that these would turn into empty promises. And the mayor from the other side feels like people aren’t doing their jobs and he is ready to fire anyone.

I know Geng Yangbo wants to be better then the U.S. and that he wants a cultural renaissance, but I feel like this is not the way to do it. It seems like it would  be hard to appreciate a cultural revolution that is tainted by so much corruption and discontent throughout all the common people.

Instead of racial discrimination, like back in the day in the U.S. they have class discrimination. So the people want their schools to be segregated. The Urban people don’t want all the farmers and their children that are moving to go to the same school. I don’t understand what is so different about the up bringing of an urban vs. farmer child that would make it so they would need separate schools, but that is how they felt.

I thought this presentation was very eye opening. I had no clue that originally China was ahead in the Science  and technology. It is a great question, why didn’t China produce the science Revolution when they were so far ahead? Of the potential reasons: confucianism, imperial government, chinese language, geography, and peace theory I feel like I would find the imperial government option to be the most likely option. I feel like the population would not be motivated to invent, or improve because when they do it would not benefit them in a positive way. I would not want to make an invention that could improve my agricultural production if in the end that means my quota will rise and I will be expected to produce more. When I don’t produce more then the rest of society then I would be punished. I do not know anyone that would want to be put that in that situation.

The student led movement was ver concerning. I Know students punishing, beating, and killing their teachers would never fly in the U.S. or most other industrialized countries. If I were a teacher, or in the education industry I would either want to switch professions or leave the country. I know during this era there is a an extreme bias against education and intellects, but I feel that in general they are not valued. Imagine telling someone in the U.S. that a skilled labor worker could make more then an engineer, or something like that. Everyone would not understand. We put those that are intellectually on a higher level and those that create things in a higher social class. During the reform era in China I quote,”scientist and engineers are part of the working class.” My question is without a respect for education and science will China ever experience a real science revolution?

If I were in China, right now would be my prime time to either be recruited by the CCP, or try and apply for  CCP membership. I try and put myself in the shoes of a college student in China and think if I would want to be apart of the CCP. The easy answer would just to say of course not, but the truth is actually thinking about it I think that I would. I feel like your opportunity to live a better life is much greater when you join the party. Plus since the party objectives have changed and the CCP is more focused on economic development and they want he best of the best I would be less likely to object to the parties objectives. On the other hand, most the benefits of the CCP membership are money and career oriented and I do not know how important that would  be to me. Maybe since it is an expanding market, I would get a job in the non-state sector. I do have to say that I like how the CCP members are more committed to a life of  public service. Even thought  it might be for show you cant fake giving your time, money, or goods so that is something I would want  to apart of.

One thing I do not understand how Chinese people can just change the definition of democracy to satisfy their beliefs. According to Merriam-Webster, a democracy is “a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.” The Chinese measure the level of democracy in their society base doff personal freedom, economic opportunity, or leaders who govern in the public interest. Based off their definition most Chinese people are satisfied with their levels of democracy. Maybe I am missing something, but it seems like they are missing a lot of aspects of their own definition of democracy.

I really want to focus on Larry Diamond’s comments to Wang’s article  because I think he made some very interesting points. He started off by saying he agrees the CCP has been transitioning  for a long time, but he questions what they are transitioning to. China’s communist ideology is starting to loose its legitimacy. For example, China’s youth are starting to joke about the CCP  and  the only reason they are competing for membership is so for instrumental and careerist reasons. Although the CCP  has doe vert little to benefit  china in the last 20 years they are doing everything  they can to remain in power and so it  is essential the people in China play along.

The CCP has been acting as if political reform has been taking place and it is effective, but in reality the economy has not changed much since the 1990s. The CCP has not made too many strides closer to democracy. The Three Represent that is claimed to be this big political reform is really a brilliant adaptation for the CCP to continue Domination. I really question what was supposed to be such a big reform by  including more parties under the the Communist Party? Diamond does mention the changes that China has made, but t he reason I think they have gone unnoticed is because they have not been significant enough to make a change. A change that has been made is in the attitude and values of the Chinese people and he believes this could be what ends the CCP. I am not too sure of the affects of the downfall of the Communist Party yet, but I am rooting for  the people to rise against the CCP and government. Diamond believes that democracy should be the answer at the end of all of this. I  agree, but I do not thin that is going to be the answer  it seems very plausible  that China  might try and model it off Singapore’s government. I have no evident to support this, but it seems like China  is trying to avoid  a Democracy and modeling its government after the West even though most of the powerful countries in the world are democracies now days.

This podcast was very enlightening for me because, I  have read/listened to  so many articles and podcasts on what is happening in China with Xi Jinping as a leader, but I did not understand how it got to this point. The certainly do not have a system that is set up by separation of power like the U.S. and there is barely a thing  as checks and  balances because essentially the government  and party are the same thing. Personally it  seems that the The Republic of China’s Constitution backing the China’s Communist Party Constitution seems corrupt in itself. Four years ago when the party started to get out of hand and became malfunctioned the military started attacking citizens in different ways and the government was becoming very corrupt with money it makes sense a strong leader would arise, AKA Xi Jinping. It is during times of extreme corruption that people look for a strong leader to pull them out of the crisis and they are okay with whatever power is necessary to do so.

I think the key with strong leadership arising during a difficult time is it is suppose to be temporary. It is suppose to be temporary powered gained in order to fix a problem and then they should release a lot  of this power. Xi Jinping, however, is gaining more and more power as time goes on and is starting to oppress his people and this is a dangerous game to be playing for China.

It  is pretty impressive that we have such a important and strong relationship with China even though we have  so much tension and disagreement going on with China. It sucks that China and the United Stated clashed so harshly  in the Copenhagen summit because that set the stage fir Obama and his relationship with China. It took then from 2009-2014 to fix a relationship instead of building it.

The problem in the South China Sea is so disputed by both sides it sees as if though it is a huge misunderstanding. It seems that it would really benefit both sides to sit down and get to the root of the problem and come to a solution of how can this problem be fixed. This is not the only problem by any means. Another example is China decided that it no longer needs the same American involvement in its market/economy and started shutting the U.S. out. It is disappointing to know that the U.S. is looking  towards changing its relationship with China in order to protect America and American Businesses. I completely understand why, but knowing how much it would hurt the U.S. and China and other countries I hope we find another option.

Also, side note I completely agree with Melanie Hart that we need to start focusing more on the U.S. and out internal problems/ struggles that need to be dealt with and stop bashing China and acting as if they are responsible for our problems.

This article was really short, but discusses David Shambaugh’s ideas about China. He believes that unless Xi Jinping introduces major political reforms the economy will tank and the party will crumble in the next decade or so. He also discusses how Xi Jinping’s interpretation of the rule of law is disturbing. I have to agree with both of these. I  thought his claim that china would do well with a soft authoritarian and semi-democratic system was interesting. Even though I agree with most of his claims, becasue he stated everything with such boldness and certainty it makes me hesitant to believe  it is going to happen just as he states.

If I had to take a guess based off this article if the Communist Party was going to collapse I would say yes. I think that President Xi Jinping trying very hard not to be like the Soviet Union and Mr. Gorbachev is leading him closer to the destruction of the party. Because Xi Jinping  is being repressive I think he will deposed in a power struggle or coup d’etat. Also, I think that with  the economist elite and the regime loyalist all ready to skip town if things get to bad, the intensifying repression, and the corruption campaign Xi Jinping has lost a lot of support and he does not have major parties  and classes baking him up. It seems that he/the party are extremely vulnerable at this time and I can’t help but think someone, or some group is going to take advantage of this.

You should have “illuminating lenses through which to view the People’s Republic of China”. I did not  understand what this meant at first, but  now I understand and I love the quote. Wasserstrom is right that people have a very skewed view of  China that are based of stereotypes and others popular opinions. People don’t think that the United States is anything like that  China, but this is not completely true the 2 countries are the same  in many ways. I thought he made an interesting point that people like to compare the 2 countries in terms of human rights and everyone talks about how bad China is. But, both countries have human rights struggles amongst the lower classes and they are the only 2 big countries left that still have the death penalty. Because the death penalty is such an inhumane punishment I think it is a good start to showing how  these 2 countries are more alike then people make  it seem.

Time is a funny thing, because time is relative. Sixty years in terms of a human life is a long time, it is over half of our life. But when you are thinking about history sixty years is nothing. Although Sixty years seems like a long time from the beginning of the Culture Revolution with Mao to the end of the reform period with Deng, it is not in the grand scheme of things.  China in that 60 year period changed from a revolutionary party to a ruling party. Within this time period there are six major changes that took place: revolution to reform , struggle to harmony, dictatorship to democracy, rule of man to rule of law and decentralized, and state to society. You cannot point any of these topics as extremely more important then the other topics, because they almost all inter link in someway.

I think the element  that is craziest to investigate is the revolution to reform aspect. The fact that Mao tried to carry out a forever lasting revolution is interesting  in itself because here you are with a leader that wants armed struggle and violence permanently. It puzzles me that he could think that China could be stable and last while constantly in a state of revolution. Yes, the revolution had a lot of short term positive effects like : increased standard of living, boosted economy, literacy rates improved and the international status was enhanced. But during a revolution rule of man takes over and defies all rule of law. I don’t understand how people could live under those violent conditions. I would think that the “natural disaster” of millions of Chinese starving to death would have made it evident that things need to change, but that was not the case. China in those 60 years was just complete chaos and its hard to believe the country came out of that chaos in any way.