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06/13/2008: "Populism in China means listening to the nationalists"
Despite not having to face elections, China's Communist Party wants to be liked. Nothing wrong with that: but populism does bring some dangers.
But some Chinese worry that the party's efforts to boost its standing among the downtrodden, as well as to pander to rising nationalism, reflect a trend towards populism. The party was quick to side with nationalists who lashed out at the West in the wake of unrest in Tibetan areas in March. To its relief the earthquake helped defuse some of this anger, which was threatening to overshadow the Beijing Olympics in August. But the party still bends in the wind. Late last month officials agreed that Japanese military aircraft would bring relief materials to Sichuan. China changed its mind after vituperative outbursts online by nationalists, still angry with Japan for its occupation of China in the 1930s and 1940s. The material was sent by civilian aircraft instead.
In recent weeks some Chinese intellectuals as well as official newspapers have engaged in heated debate about the dangers of populism. In April China Youth Daily, a Beijing newspaper, published an article describing China's internet-savvy nationalists as "online Red Guards" infected by a "populist virus". This virus, it said, had had a serious impact on China's intelligentsia. Common symptoms, it said, included anti-Western, anti-democratic, anti-reform and anti-market thinking along with a love of Mao, the former Soviet Union and today's Russia. In countries with poorly developed market economies and undemocratic systems, it noted, populism was more likely to act like "dynamite". Its explosion could produce "despots or violent upheaval".
[ Populism in ANY nation would mean listening to nationalist sentiment - but our "democracies" refuse to do so. We are run by globalists. China and Russia are two nations who stand up to this. What this article in The Economist shows is that the globalists feel the Chinese government could yet be convinced not to please the nationally loyal amongst their population, and decide to join in with globalism. ]
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11541327