Ru Zi Ke Jiao

I believe that the answer to China’s current “free speech” debate is embedded in Chinese history.  Specifically, the stories of two of China’s most widely celebrated leaders, Liu Bang and Deng Xiaoping.   It was Liu Bang who said, upon conquering the Qin capital city of Xianyang:
 
“Fathers and Elders, you who have long suffered under the cruel laws of Qin.”
 
“First, a man who murders another will receive the death penalty.”
 
“Second, a man who harms, robs or steals will be punished according to his crime.”
 
“Third and last, ALL  the other laws of Qin are hereby repealed.” [Emphasis mine]

This came to be known by all as Yue Fa San Zhang.

Liu foreshadowed Deng Xiaoping.  He wasn’t after power for “power’s sake”.  He just wanted the people to have better lives.  He knew that governments ABUSE their power – not only to control for good, but also to decide whom to punish and how.  (Or do you naively think that all laws are uniformly enforced?)  And so, he decided to end those methods of control.  Risky?  You bet.  Because then, as now, there were all sorts of enemies within and without who would have loved to seize power.  And yet history goes on to record this:
 
“His popularity soared.  The people now only feared that he would NOT  be king.” [Emphasis mine]  It’s easy for us to understand why.  Here was a leader who put the people above his own power.  Who wouldn’t want leaders like that?
 
Freedom of speech, and it’s requisite component, freedom of thought, do result in a much greater chance of chaos.  However, the people are smarter than Beijing sometimes gives them credit for.  Most Chinese want the country to continue on its current path of progress.  That means moving forward with additional freedoms and their accompanying responsibilities – not merely standing in place with economic growth of 10% per year.  Which brings us to the second historically great leader, Deng Xiaoping. 

Deng Xiaoping SACRIFICED all of his power to do what he thought was best for China.  He didn’t sacrifice for “the Party”, he sacrificed for “China”.  Big difference.  And yet, the party benefited.  That’s okay, someone has to make the rules, to govern.  Why shouldn’t it be the leader who does what is best for the people/country over what is best for the party?  Just like Liu some 2,000 years before him.  
 
In 1967, the posters said to “pulverize Deng thought”.   Today, ALL of us who love China are grateful that Deng stood up and SACRIFICED for his beliefs.  Back then, he had NO guarantees of success.  On the contrary, many tens of thousands (or more) were killed for “expressing” those same thoughts.  The most likely course of events was that Deng would also be killed for his “free thinking” and the expression of those thoughts.
 
And finally, once firmly in power, Deng used creative thinking to solve the puzzle of how to integrate Hong Kong back into the mainland – One Country, Two Systems.  Simply brilliant. 

I like both President Hu and Premier Wen, I believe that they are good, decent and honorable men who love China more than anything.  But sometimes, the ’system’ overwhelms the best intentions of good men.  We need look no further than Deng’s own history to know the truth of that.  President Hu and Premier Wen need to come up with some creative solutions of their own regarding China’s “freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of expression” situation.  It’s not enough to merely say that this is the way things are.  Things change.  The best course of action is to deal with the changes creatively.

Perhaps laying out a timeline of loosening restrictions – show the people some light at the end of the tunnel.  Something like this, for example:

     1. Beginning in 2011, the web will have no more censorship. Period.
     2. Beginning in 2015, all print media will also have all restrictions lifted.
     3. Beginning in 2020, the public will have “freedom of assembly”.

Last year, in Beijing, the book Unhappy China (?????) created quite a stir.  I think I know – although I could be wrong, I’m often wrong – just why China is so unhappy: the Chinese people feel that the government doesn’t trust them.

How would the Chinese people respond to my Yue Fa San Zhang?  Again, I think I know.  I believe that a large majority of Chinese “would only fear that the party would not be in charge.”   Who doesn’t want a government that puts the people above all else, even their own power?

“Will Deng’s heirs – that’s not just Hu and Wen, but also You  - turn Beijing into a superpower the world can love?”

Great question.  What will your answer be?

I can tell that you all missed me from all the e-mails I’ve been receiving asking me if I’m doing alright.  Fear not, I’m fine.  But you’re never going to believe what has happened to my blog.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know how I LOVE Google.  And you’re obviously aware that China and Google are having a little spat.  Well, the Guangdong agency in charge of blogs decided to block my blog (among others) to “outsiders” – that is, to those outside of Guangdong Province. 

So, those of you in SZ and GZ could access my blog, but I couldn’t, which is why I haven’t posted in the past couple of weeks.  I can only guess that the government wanted to keep all of my good lessons (in the form of posts) strictly for the benefit of the Chinese people. 

My solution, as you’ve probably already realized, is to move my blog to a host outside of China.  Yes, it makes it more likely that my blog could be censored inside China, but since I am a big supporter of Beijing, I’m hoping that it won’t. 

One thing is for sure, there won’t be any censorship issues on my end, so I’ll be able to regularly post.  If you don’t ever want to miss any of those posts, I recommend that you sign up for e-mail delivery of my posts via RSS (really simple syndication).   You certainly recongize the RSS symbol, and if you don’t, here it is:

Just look for that logo on any blog and click it.  That will lead you to a subscribe page where you can have that blog delivered to you.  So if you click my RSS logo (not this picture, but the actual RSS logo) located on the upper right side of this page, you can make my blog posts come to you.

Anyway, I’m thrilled that you’re here and THANK YOU for allowing me to teach you.  I know what an honor that is and I truly appreciate it.

I’d like to ask for two favors, both of which are good for you and me. 

First, please let your friends know that they can find lots of useful information here at RuZiKeJiao.com  Particularly if they are leaders-in-training.

Second, PLEASE comment more.  I would love to hear your opinions on the ideas that I am sharing, even if your ideas, ESPECIALLY if your ideas are contrary to mine.