Big Trouble in Red China?
Posted by Gateway Guest Blogger on Wednesday, December 14, 2011, 9:09 PM
guest post by Mike LaRoche
From the People’s Republic of China comes news of an uprising against the Communist Party in the southern fishing village of Wukan. Twenty-two years after the massacre at Tiananmen Square, might there be hope of a new birth of freedom? At the Daily Telegraph, Malcolm Moore writes:
For the first time on record, the Chinese Communist party has lost all control, with the population of 20,000 in this southern fishing village now in open revolt.
The last of Wukan’s dozen party officials fled on Monday after thousands of people blocked armed police from retaking the village, standing firm against tear gas and water cannons.
Since then, the police have retreated to a roadblock, some three miles away, in order to prevent food and water from entering, and villagers from leaving. Wukan’s fishing fleet, its main source of income, has also been stopped from leaving harbour.
The plan appears to be to lay siege to Wukan and choke a rebellion which began three months ago when an angry mob, incensed at having the village’s land sold off, rampaged through the streets and overturned cars.
Although China suffers an estimated 180,000 “mass incidents” a year, it is unheard of for the Party to sound a retreat.
Could this uprising spread across the country? Remember that as late as August 1991, there were many who assumed the Soviet Union would remain a permanent fixture on the geopolitical scene for decades to come.
(h/t Robert Stacy McCain)
UPDATE:
Here’s another take on the Wukan situation coming from a trusted source and good friend of mine (who wishes to remain anonymous) who spent several years living in the People’s Republic of China:
I don’t think its really an anti-communist uprising, though. They are appealing to Beijing for help, and expecting it to come. The revolt is against local party cadres, and so all Beijing has to do is declare itself on the side of the people against corrupt local officials – something it does a dozen times a year – and try to end it peacefully. The other options are to wait it out or crack down violently, and the last one will get out internationally and really should be a last resort. One hopes. But there are tens of thousands of protests in China each year – this one is more extreme than most, but it’s worth noting that most of those protests are not actually calling for the overthrow of the central government, but justice on the local or, sometimes, provincial level. Reform, not revolution. Not even the Tiananmen Square protesters in 1989 were calling for an end to communism.
An interesting, temperate, and learned perspective in my opinion. Like I said, this comes from a personal friend of mine: someone who is a staunch, anti-communist conservative Republican just like me. One must take into account the larger sociopolitical context in which the Wukan incident is unfolding.
ADVERTISEMENT
-
Featured Story:
Rough Night… Obama Loses 36 Arkansas Counties to Unknown Democrat – Loses 67 Kentucky Counties to “Uncommitted”
Published May 23, 2012 at 4:57 am - 56 Comments
Molon Labe commented:
Revolutions do not occur when things are at their worst but when things begin to get better. Perhaps the people have discovered what socialism means when elites steal what is not theirs in the name of “social justice.” I hope the people of China can liberate themselves from this evil philosophy and give their leaders their just rewards. Liberty and freedom cannot be surpressed forever nor can the human spirit. The profound greed of socialism and evil that directs itcannot be endured forever before the desire for liberty asserts itself.
wtd commented:
Things are really going sour considering these reports:
China’s deserted Disneyland
and
NPR: Highway construction in China stalled because the workers haven’t been paid in months
tommy mc donnell commented:
is the muslim brotherhood in china?
Truth commented:
If you like Ron Paul except for foreign policy, watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8NhRPo0WAo&feature=youtu.be
Tjexcite commented:
For some reason people only loves big government when they are the ones in charge of it. And someone will just be executed to placate the masses, even if nothing is reformed just the illusion of it is.
Txn4Evr commented:
And Obama will do NOTHING to encourage or assist these brave people against his kindred commie spirits.
Hedgehog commented:
This is what happens when a population is totally controlled by the government. The government can ignore the protest, throw someone under the bus to placate the crowd, or pack them all off to a death camp. In the end nothing changes. (See also: Russia)
Gary commented:
I was in China for 9 years.
These things, no matter how large or well-planned, get squashed.
The ringleaders can look forward to disappearing soon, and lots of other people will have their skulls thumped.
The real story here is that a country famous for its intellectual thinkers fell so easily to communism and 60 years later shows no realistic hope of shaking it off. They fell for populist rhetoric that divided the “99%” against the “1%” and now Communism (regardless how true it is to actual Communist doctrine) is deeply entrenched in all aspects of life in China.
Wake up America.
bg commented:
++
Big Trouble in Red China?
excellent coverage, thanks..
Gary #10 December 15, 2011 at 6:57 am
re: [Wake up America.]
no, this could never happen here.. /s/
==