The centenary celebration of Chinese Communist Party was certainly full of fanfare. But something didn’t seem right. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it at the time.
Why all the embarrassing bluster from the Chinese leadership? Why all the unnecessary threats? Why were they even necessary if China is doing so fabulously well?
Maybe things in the Middle Kingdom are not nearly as rosy as we are led to believe. We only know what we are told.
There is an old Cantonese saying that even a dead chicken can lift a saucepan lid. It is a culinary reference to boiling a chicken in a covered pan of water. As the bird gets cooked, its legs will extend to push up the lid, even though it is no longer alive.
The closest English aphorism is to stop digging when we find ourselves in a hole. Another is that the first sign of madness is to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result. But maybe Plato’s proverb sums it up best: Empty vessels make the most noise.
If we take a look at China’s economic progress after Mao Zedong, there is no denying that it is nothing short of spectacular. During Deng Xiaoping’s time as Paramount Leader, China’s economy grew 196%. Pretty impressive.
But that is nothing compared to Jiang Zemin who grew the economy from $427 billion to $1.9 trillion. A 350% expansion. He was followed by Hu Jintao, whose time as Paramount Leader saw China’s economy grow 390% to $9.6 trillion.
But something seems to gone a bit awry with the present Paramount Leader. It is just 53% in eight years, compared to the triple-digit increases that his predecessor achieved as Paramount Leaders over the same timeframe.
Has China’s growth rate slowed because there is a limit to what can be achieved with a command economy? To admit that would be to concede that socialism with Chinese characteristics is just a mirage.
It is little wonder that the rhetoric in China has turned from economic success to nationalism. Some years ago, I warned about patriotism turning into protectionism, then morphing into nationalism. It is a dangerous path to embark on that history tells time and time again will probably not end well.
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David does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned.
