China: Reflection

This is the season for changes. Not only is the American government going to change tomorrow, but China is about to pass on its leadership in its decade-long ceremony. The last three decades have treated China especially well, and there is a lot of hope for Xi Jinping. As a pragmatic man who has a lot of worldly experience, he appears to be an excellent choice to continue the trend of other Chinese pragmatic leaders who have found a lot of success. Sure, there are skeletons in the closet in regards to his family's investments and work; however who doesn't have such family secrets these days in Chinese bureaucracy? As the American candidates wind down their dogmatic attacks against Chinese exports, Xi Jinping can sit safe and sound, for he knows that nothing will change. And that is exactly what China hopes will happen.

In order to exam China, we have to examine 3 M's: Maoism, Mandate from Heaven, and More. In regards to Maoism, I find it especially amusing the amount of rhetoric that Chinese leaders have to pay to peasants while simultaneously trying to forget they exist. Mao built his philosophy on the back of the farmer peasant workers, which is something that previous Communist leaders had neglected. While Lenin and Marx lauded factory workers, Mao specifically took his fight to the rural areas. Given how touchy the Chinese leadership is about their history, current party members have to recognize the value that the rural farmers had in creating the China that exists today. After all, Deng Xiaoping started his Capitalist revolution within the communal farms, not the major cities. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out in the future, especially if the Mandate from Heaven falters.

The Mandate from Heaven has been a Chinese concept for a very long time. Essentially the idea is that Chinese rulers have always had celestial support to back their regime. If they ever lost this support, then someone else will end up taking the mantle. Historically, given China's volatile past, the Gods have been rather selective. Although China no longer has to worry about areas outside of Senkaku Islands in terms of outside threats, China nonetheless has to worry about internal strife. That is why there are many theorists who claim that the Mandate of Heaven still exists; however this time it is economic in nature rather than based on other threats. Most people have this mandate pegged at 8% growth, which is about where China is growing these days. Although it has been successful in maintaining this ratio for nearly 30 years, the elephant in the room is always the fact that eventually the growth rate will dip below 8%. When that happens, the Communist government in place will be on its tiptoes trying to anticipate what will happen.

This brings me to my last point, which is that China needs more. China will continue to grow and use an ever-increasing amount of the world's resources.