LexisNexis(TM) Academic - Document
LexisNexis(TM) Academic - DocumentCopyright 2005 The Financial Times Limited
Financial Times (London, England)
June 11, 2005 Saturday
USA Edition 2
SECTION: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR; Pg. 6
LENGTH: 260 words
HEADLINE: China lacks the economic stability needed for political reform
BYLINE: By STANLEY LUBMAN
BODY:
From Mr Stanley Lubman.
Sir, In arguing that China must move faster to promote democracy ("Sooner or later China will embrace democracy", June 7) Victor Mallet ignores the complexities involved in changing China's governance.
Unwilling leaders combine with social instability to create conditions more likely to result in political disorder than orderly transition.
China's leaders obviously lack the will to bring about a meaningful rule of law, not to mention representative government. They are at best ambivalent about the relationship between civil society and the state, and are often hostile to institutions they perceive as detrimental to continued Chinese Communist party dominance, such as religion and the internet.
China also presently lacks the economic and social stability needed for political reform. Economic reform of state-owned enterprises, a bankrupt financial system, a casino-like stock market and the lack of a national social safety net are only the most obvious difficulties.
Offering moralistic advice to other nations on democratisation is a venerable tradition in US foreign policy. Such advice to China might be more credible, however, if it were buttressed by substantial assistance to legal reform and budding non-governmental organisations.
Congress, however, has been niggardly. More basically, in the face of China's size and its social and economic flux, progress towards political reform can only be slow and impossible to accelerate.
Stanley Lubman, Lecturer in Chinese law, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, US
LOAD-DATE: June 10, 2005
Financial Times (London, England)
June 11, 2005 Saturday
USA Edition 2
SECTION: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR; Pg. 6
LENGTH: 260 words
HEADLINE: China lacks the economic stability needed for political reform
BYLINE: By STANLEY LUBMAN
BODY:
From Mr Stanley Lubman.
Sir, In arguing that China must move faster to promote democracy ("Sooner or later China will embrace democracy", June 7) Victor Mallet ignores the complexities involved in changing China's governance.
Unwilling leaders combine with social instability to create conditions more likely to result in political disorder than orderly transition.
China's leaders obviously lack the will to bring about a meaningful rule of law, not to mention representative government. They are at best ambivalent about the relationship between civil society and the state, and are often hostile to institutions they perceive as detrimental to continued Chinese Communist party dominance, such as religion and the internet.
China also presently lacks the economic and social stability needed for political reform. Economic reform of state-owned enterprises, a bankrupt financial system, a casino-like stock market and the lack of a national social safety net are only the most obvious difficulties.
Offering moralistic advice to other nations on democratisation is a venerable tradition in US foreign policy. Such advice to China might be more credible, however, if it were buttressed by substantial assistance to legal reform and budding non-governmental organisations.
Congress, however, has been niggardly. More basically, in the face of China's size and its social and economic flux, progress towards political reform can only be slow and impossible to accelerate.
Stanley Lubman, Lecturer in Chinese law, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, US
LOAD-DATE: June 10, 2005
posted by Eastlaw @ 9:05 AM
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