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China's Growth & Its Citizens' Liberty

Amit Pyakurel - 4/16/2007

Does economic prosperity decreases the importance of democracy? China is leaving the world behind while heading rapidly towards a marvelous economic progress. This is undoubtedly a very good note of the well-being of the world's largest population, and the sparkles of this progress may also do significantly good for its economic allies and neighbors and along with other underdeveloped and developing nations.

The European Investment Bank President and an economic expert, Philippe Maystadt, said in an email to the Xinhua news agency, "China's economic development is good both for the Chinese people and for the world." He said, "China kept its growth in recent years and its economic development is impressive." He opined that China's economic prosperity is "not only good for the Chinese people whose living standards has been improved gradually, but also for the world economy in which China has become one of the most important partners in global trade and finance."

But, besides this phenomenal economic prosperity, the prospect of basic democratic norms alongside the free speech, which is visibly being repressed by the hard Chinese rules, is equally gaining fervent importance among the opinion makers around the world. Chinese people are undoubtedly happy for tremendous progress in their wealth and the comfort provided by it. The hard work of the Chinese workforce, intellectuals, and professionals, alongside the relatively open economic policy adhered by the Chinese authority than in the past, do deserve a good praise that increased the possibility of such advancement.

But, aside this progress in wealth and infrastructures, critics view that abundance of the Chinese people may not be as happy as they seem from outside, and the obvious cause could be the limited freedom of actions and speech imposed as per the strict rule of the Communist regime.

The economic superpower, the U.S., and the probable economic superpower in future, China, have long been the dissenters of each-other, and the popular arousal of Chinese anti-American sentiments could be seen since 1989. Since then, the governments of both sides have been involved in various disagreements that extended from economic aspects, Taiwan issue, and human rights prospects. Whereas, this has seemingly sent negative message about the U.S. to some Chinese authorities and to the ordinary Chinese who blame the U.S. for intending to intimidate China's domestic development and harm its international influence.

Besides, the general opinion is especially found to be positive towards the economic growth of China. However, blame is there for the unequal growth of the economic privileges among the country's people.
Chinese Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, has recently said in a signed article published by the People's Daily online that China would promote peace, development and cooperation, and always pursue an independent foreign policy of peace. The article titled "Our Historical Tasks at the Primary Stage of Socialism and Several Issues Concerning China's Foreign Policy," said that "China is at the primary stage of socialism now, and would remain so for a long time to come." This highly resembled the adage of the current Chinese president, Hu Zintao, who had promised to address China's deepening wealth gap, while succeeding the former president, Jiang Zemin. However, president Hu's performance to maintain such a social order has been disappointing, according to Elizabeth Economy, director of Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

According to the annual report published by the American State Department on Tuesday, China tops the list of the countries blocking Internet access and it stated that China's human rights record deteriorated in some areas in 2006. Paula Dobriansky, undersecretary for democracy and global rights, said, "Today, people are imprisoned in a number of countries simply for expressing their peaceful views online." She said that numerous repressive governments are threatening the Web's ability to empower individuals by obstructing its "transformational power."

However, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the U.S. report "again ignored the basic facts", adding that the U.S. "willfully distorted and groundlessly criticized China's human rights situation." Minister Gang counteracted by saying, "based on the human rights provisions of the Constitution, the Chinese governments at all levels have been making constant efforts to expand democracy and advance judiciary reform so as to realize the comprehensive development of its people."
But the global media report shows contrary to this saying. The prospect of democracy and free speech for the Chinese people could have been underestimated on the pretext of having enough economic privileges from which the citizens could sustain their luxurious lives. So, are the Chinese citizens are full-heartedly happy with whatever physical advantages and comfort they have got? It may deserve a rethinking.

Freedom to express oneself fearlessly may not be compared with how much a country is economically prosperous. Besides all the luxury of economic advantages, like better earning and lifestyles, if one is not able to express his/her dissent without any restraint, there wouldn't be a guarantee of a complete psychological satisfaction. Rightly, if you have every physical comfort but no ability to express your political and social dissatisfaction towards the authority it may not contribute to an in-depth mental happiness.

Criticisms towards the limitation of free speech and other necessary liberty of the citizens, however, shouldn't be a mean to negatively provoke Chinese authority towards its citizens. Progress made by China do need to be viewed by an amicable eye. At the same time, some of the internationally recognized civilian rights that are discernibly suppressed within the boundary of economic prosperity of the country are eligible to be examined and questioned. Nevertheless, it shouldn't sound like anti-China or anything to hurt the Chinese feeling of nationality and their joy for the substantial progress their country is making.

Chinese people have been tremendously developing not only economically, but also intellectually. The advent of the modern information age and growing access and inclination towards the boundless aspects of information medium of today, may only increase the value and urge for free speech among the Chinese citizens, as they are astoundingly being touched to the global opinions. The consequence of this is likely to put more challenges and pressure upon the Chinese authority to rethink the rule of limited speech and abuse of some basic democratic norms. Pertaining to the indication that the authority is gradually losing its grip upon the individual Chinese lives to maintain some hard and fast rules, this may also indicate that China could be heading slowly, but positively, for a transformation towards democracy, human rights, and freedom of speech.