Chapter 6 Will Xi Jinping’s Road Work? (2)

The real estate, government financial and banking sectors are in a state of decline and not only will the economic boom be difficult to recreate but the economic difficulties reflected in high unemployment and low wages will intensify day by day bringing an end to the “good old days” of the Chinese economy. The future outlook for China’s economy will never be the same as compared to those two years of boom with high inflation and a deteriorating real economy becoming the new features of the “new normal. The “Lying Down Flat” mode of life (i.e. not seeking a job, not seeking a spouse, not getting married, and living on their parents’ pension at the lowest level), which is now becoming popular among some young people on the mainland, reflects to a large extent the pessimism of this young generation about the future.“
 
Third, there is no public opinion base
 
On April 15, 2013, People’s Daily’s “People’s Forum” launched an online public opinion survey called “Confidence – Faith – Belief”. The survey is divided into four items: “1. Do you agree that the CPC has enough courage and wisdom to speed up reforms? 2. Do you agree with the statement that “adhering to and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics is beneficial to the fundamental interests of the broadest number of people”? 3. “Do you agree with the statement that “only the CPC can lead the people on the road to socialism with Chinese characteristics”? 4. What do you think of China’s system of “one-party rule and multi-party participation in government”? There are four choices under each sub-item: A. Agree completely; B. Agree; C. Don’t know; D. Disagree.

At around 2 p.m. Beijing time on April 15, the results of the survey and the voting page of People’s Forum were all closed. Before closing, the poll results showed that: for the first question, as many as 75.40 percent of the respondents chose “no”; for the second question, 82.33% chose “No”; And for the third question, 83.85% chose to disagree; and to the fourth question, 81.32% chose to disagree.

According to economist He Qinglian, “The fact that this public opinion survey started with confidence and ended with fearful disappearance fully illustrates that China’s ruling group and the propaganda system serving it have become a self-imposed system of political violence. They lack basic knowledge of both the relationship between the people and the government and the real public opinion in China, and even foolishly take the “public opinion” they have created as the real public opinion.
 
This survey, a rare reflection of public opinion, shows that most Chinese identify with universal values and advocate constitutional democratic reform and that Xi Jinping’s return to totalitarianism and building a red empire has no popular base at all..

Interestingly, on July 8, 2020, the Ashe Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government released its latest study : Understanding Communist Party Resilience: A Long-Term Survey of Public Opinion in China, showing that Chinese people’s satisfaction with the Communist government was 93.1 percent in 2016, a record high since the survey was conducted in 2003. But the center ignores that Chinese people under totalitarian rule do not use their mouths to express what they really think.

Fourth, bureaucratic groups lying flat

After Xi Jinping came to power, the bureaucratic group has been the most ruthless target. He made officials suffer; 243 officials committed suicide in the eight years between 2009 and 2016 and more than half of them chose to jump from high buildings. The rest committed suicide by hanging, taking drugs, disappearing, shooting, crashing into trains, drowning and slitting their wrists. After the 19th National Congress, it has been found that corruption in the CCP has not diminished but on the contrary has become more insidious and more serious. While the causes of corruption are certainly related to the degradation of officials, the root cause is the totalitarian system. On August 26, 2018, the Commission for Discipline Inspection announced the newly revised Regulations on Disciplinary Punishment of the Communist Party of China. The regulations can be described as harsh in which only expulsion from the party membership has 45 items. Xi Jinping wants to use these CCP laws to tie up 95 million party members like a rope, so that they dare not criticize the government or be corrupt and can only be party slaves. But the result is counterproductive. Since they can be blamed at every turn, these officials, who have no political beliefs, are simply not doing any job, just talking.

Fifth, China’s potentially huge opposition forces
 
Li Weidong points out that Chinese officials have unconsciously cultivated seven opposition forces that did not exist in the past and all of which are the result of using force to maintain social stability and using high pressure to keep the social order over the years.