*I post this here, not because it's particularly cogent political analysis – he's blaming the Emperor because the population's sick, and why not, who else can you blame – but because the translated language is so interesting. I post rather a lot of CCP Party-speak here on the blog, and this isn't party-speak.
*I'd give this guy a byline, but I know that would immediately get snaffled into some algorithm of the CCP Cyberspace censorship bureaus, and it would affect his social-responsibility scoring. So I'm not even gonna directly link to the article here. You're gonna have to cut and paste it all by your little self. It's quite an interesting article, too.
ttp://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/viewpoint/viral-alarm-when-fury-overcomes-fear
(...)
There was a time, not too long ago, when moral imperatives found fellowship with systemic self-interest in a manner that led to a vast corps of competent technocrats taking the stage. Over time, they formed a highly capable coterie of specialists and administrators even though, as anyone would readily admit, it produced managerial arrangements that were far from ideal. After all, the new technocracy was one riven by its limitations and beset by serious problems of every kind. Nonetheless, one of the reasons that China’s technocratic class evolved and managed to work at all was that by combining administrative competence with a system that allowed for personal advancement on the basis of an individual’s practical achievements in government, countless young men and women from impoverished backgrounds were lured into pursuing educational self-improvement. They did so with the aim of devoting themselves to both meaningful and rewarding state service.
Of course, at the same time, the progeny of the Communist Party’s own nomenklatura—the so-called “Red Second Generation” of bureaucrats—proved themselves to be all but useless as administrators; they occupied official positions and enjoyed the perks of power without making any meaningful contribution. In fact, more often than not, they simply got in the way of people who actually wanted to get things done. But enough of that.
Unfortunately, as a result of the endless political purges of recent years [carried out in the name of an “anti-corruption campaign”] and along with the revival of “Red Culture,” the people in the system who have now been promoted are in-house Party hacks who slavishly obey orders. As a result, both the professional commitment and the expertise previously valued within China’s technocracy, along with the ambition people previously had to seek promotion on the basis of their actual achievements, have been gradually undermined and, without any great hue and cry, they have now all but disappeared.
The One Who Must Be Obeyed who talks about the importance of transmitting “red genes” through the reliable Party body politic, the man with the ultimate decision-making power and sign-off authority, has created an environment in which the system as a whole has fallen into desuetude. What remains is a widespread sense of hopelessness.
The bureaucratic and governance system of China we see now is one that values the mediocre, the dilatory and the timid. The mess they have made in Hubei Province, and the grotesque posturing of the incompetents involved has highlighted a universal problem. A similar malaise has infected every province and the rot goes right up to Beijing. In what should be a “post-leader era,” China has a “Core Leader system” and it is undermining the very mechanisms of state. Despite all the talk one hears about “modern governance,” the reality is that the administrative apparatus is increasingly mired in what can only be termed inoperability. It is an affliction whose symptoms I encapsulate in the expressions “organizational discombobulation” and “systemic impotence.”
Don’t you see that although everyone looks to The One for the nod of approval, The One himself is clueless and has no substantive understanding of rulership and governance, despite his undeniable talent for playing power politics. The price for his overarching egotism is now being paid by the whole nation.
Meanwhile, the bureaucracy is directionless, although the best among them get by as best they can. They would like to take positive action, but they are hesitant and fearful. For their part, meanwhile, bureaucratic schemers take advantage of the muddle and, although they have no desire to be proactive, they are good at making trouble. The situation works to their advantage; they shove the competent bureaucrats aside and create in their place an environment of overall chaos....
