China, media control, trade imbalances

The development of China is a topic which often occupies my thoughts. China is a country of over 1.3 billion people ruled by an authoritarian one-party system. From reading news reports in many major news sources, one risks falling into the trap that China’s Communist party has been extremely successful in ruling the country and growing the national economy. However, such media reports present an extremely myopic vision of the overall condition of the Chinese people and society. Firstly, currently the government of China controls and censors most major media sources dealing with China, either directly, as in the case of China’s state-run media, or indirectly, as in the case of theoretically ‘free’ international media. There are several types of indirect control that the international press in China receive. One type of control that the Chinese government exerts is denial of information: many government departments and state-owned businesses simply refuse to speak with media outlets that are not censored by the government. Secondly, media sources also practice a measure of self-control, in order that they might preserve their ability to be distributed in China. Furthermore, both Chinese and international reporters are routinely detained, harassed, and even physically beaten at times when such reporters investigate issues which are considered off-limits. In total, China was ranked as one of the 10 worst countries in the world in terms of press freedom in 2007 by Reporters Without Borders, an international non-profit organization advocating media freedom. Censorship in China does not end in print and broadcast media, but rather extends to the online world, where access to sites critical of the Chinese government, including CNN, the BBC, and wikipedia are routinely blocked.

China’s propaganda screen conceals several vital flaws in the country’s system of governance. First of all, the authoritarian regime and media control in China allow for massive systemic corruption. Without effective controlling measures, many local officials rule their areas as virtual fiefdoms, complete with squads of armed hirelings to enforce their decrees upon the rest of the populace. Secondly, media control obscures the massive unpaid environmental costs which have accompanied China’s economic growth, leaving most of the water in China befouled and the air unbreathable. Finally, a lack of democracy in government has led to wide-scale business cronyism: without the proper governmental connections, it is extremely difficult for small start-up businesses to succeed. The connection between governmental power and successful business has effectively created a barrier between most of China’s people and the possibility of economic success, and, paired with an extremely uneven educational system, is the reason that economic polarization is such a marked phenomenon in China today. Recently I had a discussion with a contact of mine who works for the PRC government- he said that China’s Gini index, a common indicator of economic disparity, which had been officially reported by the UN to be 44, has now actually exceeded 50, which places China’s level of economic disparity close to such countries as the Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Papua New Guinea.

The reason that I am concerned about China is that there are strong implications of dealing on even footing with a dictatorship with little regard for the welfare of its citizens. I feel that at the moment, the United States is playing China’s game on China’s terms: the US purchases huge quantities of Chinese-made goods without objecting to the fact that the corruption and protectionism in China’s markets prevent US businesses from entering into China, thereby causing a huge trade imbalance which yawns ever wider. The future prospects for the US if this trend is not reversed are bleak.