Won’t Get Fooled Again
The New York Times reported here today about a Chinese Communist Party documentary that extols President Vladimir Putin as a hero. The article describes how the documentary characterizes Putin as heroic in restoring Russia by “cleansing Russia of the political toxins that killed the Soviet Union.” China blames the United States and the West of being the source of infringing ideology that ruined Russia and must not be allowed to do the same to China.
The film sees Stalin’s purge of millions of citizens as necessary to restore order in the wake of moral rot driven by “rock music and modern fashion.” The intent of the film “Historical Nihilism and the Soviet Collapse” is to help establish a common interpretation of history that enforces a firm loyalty to both the Chinese Communist Party and Xi Jinping as he implements policies to prevent a collapse in China similar to the one brought on by the likes of Mikhail Gorbachev in Russia.
Obviously, this whole premise is both true and ridiculous. It is true inasmuch as Communist autocrats must rule firmly and control information in order to survive. On the other hand, it is ridiculous to not acknowledge that the threat of Western culture and economics is their widespread appeal to humanity as generally better than what the Communist Parties would prefer, hence the need for centralized control of information.
The Chinese Communist Party cannot let it become widespread domestic recognition that the relative wealth and success of Russian and Chinese economies over the past couple of decades was due to the generosity of the West in allowing them to be part of the global trade. The irony of the greatness of Chinese Communist Party is that it’s citizens must be protected from the truth in order to sustain the ‘truth.’
As I wrote yesterday here, we must not again be lured into thinking that allowing the current autocratic systems of Russia and China into Western trade and culture will transform them; they are ideologically juxtaposed to honesty, and the economic strength they have been given will ultimately be used against us.