The so-called global West has been defined (roughly) since the end of World War II, as the group of countries composing NATO’s member states. This is led by the United Kingdom, the United States, and France.
Its champions are Spain, Germany, Italy, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, and others. Liberal democracy has been its rallying cry. These countries pride themselves on building societies based on human rights, freedom, liberty, and the power of the individual.
Yet, in the past two years since the beginning of the coronavirus project, we have witnessed a decisive turn in policy from governments that champion democracy to those that seek to prevent it. These governments are all led by people claiming to be democratic, however, when their ideas are put into practice as policy, they are tyrants.
How is this so?
One plausible explanation that I will give to you here is that of the Chinese model. These countries have for a long time decried China as a human rights abuser and an authoritarian “communist” government led by one party. In the past few decades, China has seen three pivotal transformations.
First, Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule by the British after it had been held as a prize following 19th-century military-economic conflict.
We want to thank Kensley Vitoria for this Op-Ed.
Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
Second, the city of Shanghai has been constructed at a breathtaking pace, transforming swampland into one of the world’s largest financial centers – with the tallest skyscrapers.
Finally, the Chinese economy has risen to great prominence to by some measures become the largest on the planet, largely on the back of the Belt and Road Initiative, whereby Beijing has poured billions of dollars into infrastructure construction projects all over the planet and effectively shackled most of the countries of the world in its debt.
Politicians in the West, especially those of the liberal bearing, whose radical wings have for years claimed communism is the best way to go, look at these Chinese successes and loudly advocate following in its footsteps.
In the late 2010s, the people of Hong Kong took to the streets, as people in democratic societies tend to do when displeased, to protest Beijing’s premature moves to destroy Hong Kong’s democracy and assimilate its Qing-era society to modern-style Chinese culture. Several laws were enacted in the territory that allowed Beijing to use incredibly invasive surveillance technology in order to locate and arrest dissidents.
Beijing officials were concerned with any discussion of Hong Kong becoming independent and sovereign. Several young democratically-elected legislators in their 20s were imprisoned for exercising freedom of speech. Anti-Beijing newspapers were shattered and their owners jailed. Protests were violently disrupted through the use of excessive police force.
Western liberals looked at and found the Chinese model to be effective. In their eyes it meant enacting communist and socialist policies, redistributing wealth, and using any means necessary to quell any political opposition.
These are the tactics so-called liberal democracy-supporting officials have implemented in France, Belgium, Canada, the USA, the UK, and other so-called “Western” countries.
What these officials have completely missed is that China’s rise to power was not based on the implementation of any of these policies.
China’s rise to power is largely unique, and it should not be used as a model in any other country on the planet, ever.
China is a massive country with a history spanning millennia of imperial rule. It is one of the oldest cultures on the planet, predating all of those in Europe and America.
Few Americans or Europeans are aware that China’s existence as a republic only began in the mid-20th century during World War I and II. These events in Chinese history mark the fall of the Qing Dynasty, and the establishment of a constitutional republic. Although China is criticized for being a state dominated by one party, it is still a republic. There is no monarchy.
Furthermore, China’s rise to economic and financial primacy was not because of communism or socialism. Not at all. In fact, China initially tried the communist model under Mao Zedong, and those decisions led to national famine and starvation.
National socialism never works because the complexities of markets involving free enterprise and entrepreneurship can never be successfully and sustainably managed by government bureaucrats. It was one of the worst economic decisions by any country in recent history.
Only when the United Nations and various global groups of business leaders and financiers stepped in to provide guidance did China orient on to a more prosperous path.
As Beijing adopted capitalist techniques and practices, nurtured small and medium-sized companies, built a stock market, and listed some of its state-run corporations, did it begin to see real economic growth.
China was purposefully linked economically and financially to the United States, as the two countries developed a very intricate relationship involving treasuries, trade flows across multiple industries, and civilian exchange programs involving work and study.
Chinese culture flourished as the country adopted Western-style social media platforms but heavy censorship prevents the Chinese from accessing certain information, especially from certain Western countries. This has promoted Chinese sovereignty but prevented cultural diffusion and interaction.
Chinese society is two-tiered with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members as extremely wealthy oligarchs and everyone else veritable peasants. This is not a societal model about which to boast.
Yet, American and European liberal and progressive politicians look at China and think that they should follow the communist-style example. These leaders have their own idea of what communism means. They think it involves massive government expenditures, the violent suppression of political opposition, and the cultivation of a two-tiered society with elite oligarchs overseeing a peasantry.
These people have mostly never been to China besides business or tourism trips. They do not speak the language, know little of the history of China and Asia in general, and know nothing of economics. Most liberals specialize in English, sociology, philosophy, law, and identity politics.
They also do not understand the trajectory of China in a broader historical arc. China under the dynastic rule of the Qing was a backward and horrifying place, where sexism and racism were rampant. They still are today, but it was much more acute in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Most American and European politicians do not understand the drastic difference between monarchial rule and democracy. Socialism and communism are a step backward from democracy towards monarchial rule, not a step forward. Socialism and communism as advocated by modern liberal progressives mean more government intervention in society and markets.
That has never worked anywhere.
These liberal progressives and their Western countries, who have for decades claimed to be bastions of democracy, have an opportunity to define what democracy means in a way that is different than the authoritarian style of the CCP.
Rather than enact socialist and communist-style programs that typically destroy small businesses, Western governments could champion capitalism— the economic model that built modern China.
Rather than a violent crackdown on protests in front of state and federal legislatures, these officials could welcome people into the legislative complexes to participate in national-level political dialogue. That is democracy.
China is a great country, and now a world leader. There is no doubt about this. But one-party rule and socialism did not get China where it is today. China has succeeded because of coordinated global efforts to build it back from 20th-century global wars, and because it embraced capitalism.
Capitalism and democratization are the paths to growth and prosperity, and they always will be. The role of government is to allow democracy (not suppress it) and to protect people from abusive capitalism. Modern Western liberals need a wake-up call to this effect.
Let China repress and suppress its people. The West should continue to practice democracy— it is a beautiful and flourishing form of governance that makes the world a massively better place.
