Exporting Darkness

I have to admit, Andrew Browne at the Journal has put things together on China that others seem to miss.  This time, he talks about a darkness that is hard for us to see, but something the Chinese come face to face with every day - a kind of darkness that hides the inner workings of government from the people.  As Browne puts it, “Increasingly, economic, diplomatic and military power in the 21st century will emanate from an organization that was born in secrecy and still obsessively guards its inner workings.”  

Every government has secrecy for several reasons, the first of which is national security.  It has to hide parts of its budget and China does that pretty well.  It has to have technological development of its military and Intelligence Services which collect huge amounts of data from around the world.  We understand that kind of security.

Every government has some secrets about how it goes about “making sausages”, the what goes on behind the scenes before policies get to public view.  Making sausage, for those who have never seen it done, is an apt description.  You don’t really want to know what went into that tube.  We understand that kind of secrecy.  

Every government has to have a managed economy and some of those backroom deals that make that happen are not things we want to discuss in public.  We understand that kind of secrecy.  

But not every government has the level of censorship, control of the press, influence on other countries activities relative to China.  That is because they want the trust of the people.  As Browne says, “The paradox of power in China is that the stronger the country grows, the more insecure the party feels and thus more prone to bouts of repression.”.   

This is always the case with dictatorships.  We see it over and over.  The country does well and the leadership rises to the top, maintains the economic growth and silences the enemies of the state.  But, let things go wrong and trust will turn quickly to people in the street expressing their views.  Even that can be controlled for awhile, but not forever.  

If you read this entire article, you will come away with an uncomfortable feeling that the central Chinese government can hold things together for a time, maybe a long time, but not forever.  It is a little like the feeling you get when the GPS takes you to the wrong place, and you are alone at the end of a road with no place to go.  There is a little bit of panic, and some irrational thoughts about being lost somewhere you don’t belong.  We should all be concerned about that day coming.