China's "vertical democracy"ensures stability
- Source: Global Times
- [21:33 October 28 2009]
- Comments
CN: Can you elaborate on the model of democracy that is both top-down and bottom-up?
John: For example, the economic reform initiated by Deng Xiaoping in 1978 actually started from 18 rural families.
They abandoned the collective commune mechanism and worked on their own individual lands, which was dangerously illegal back then. But they gained support from local government, and when Deng heard about it, it changed the agricultural policy of all of China.
This is a typical example of "bottom-up," and this approach has become more and more important.
Yes, many commands are top-down, but there are more and more bottom-up initiatives. From an economic perspective, China has achieved a great level of decentralization, and it has maintained a balance between top-down command and bottom-up initiatives.
Unlike the US, which has a mature system, China is still building its own system. Our job is to grasp the essence of this new system, as well as its operating mechanism, which we call the "eight pillars."
In Chinese, they mean pillars supporting an architectural framework, but you can also understand them as living principles. It is a constantly changing process, and will continue changing in the future.
CN: We know that some of the materials used in your book are from the Chinese media. How do you ensure the accuracy of these materials?
Doris: It's true that we learn a lot from the existing media in China, but it's not the only source. There is information coming from different channels – our own observations, the Western media, what our friends told us, what people say to us, entrepreneurs or taxi drivers.
John: China's local media has never been as open, but they do provide a great source of information regarding what is happening in different regions of China.
We have explained in the book that to get an understanding about the change taking place throughout the whole country, you need to grasp what is happening in all the different regions, and the best way to get such information is from local media.
For example, many migrant workers went back home after losing their jobs under the global financial crisis. Throughout China, there are projects to provide information and training to these migrant workers to help them to find a job.
How could we get to know all these projects from all the different regions by ourselves?
CN: Will China become the world's next "superpower"?
John: "Superpower" is on Wednesday's term. It was something used in the 1940s and 1950s during the Cold War. We should delete this term from our brain, now that all the world's countries have integrated their economies into the global economy.
I wouldn't say China is a superpower, just as I wouldn't say the US is a superpower. It is an obsolete concept. What we are talking about now is an integrated global economy.
