On Practical Matters

(On Practical Matters)

All this talk about protests in China can have one craving a plate of Egg Foo Yung. In all seriousness, however, what seems different this time is that there are now calls for ending the current regime. To be replaced with what ? One government that cannot operate if the Peoples' Republic gets dissolved, would be a representative democracy. With a population of almost a billion and a half people, imagine assigning representation to each Chinse citizen, developing an administrative structure that is not comprised of Communist Party members ? What about political parties, now that there is no more Communist Party ? What would count as a Chinese Democrat or a Chinese Republican ?

Would suffrage be universal ? Would tens of thousands of polling stations across China be established ? The logistical challenges alone make the whole idea impractical. And that being said, the concept of a popular vote would be a new one for the average Chinese. One can see the magnitude of the problem. China. Peoples' Republic and otherwise, is too damn Big ! Democracy might be universally desirable as opposed to forms of tyranny but at the same time, such a governing form is not necessarily practical. Like in China.

Recall the experience of Rome. What began as city state on the Tiber grew to the mightiest Empire of Antiquity. While the Roman Republic was able to manifest certain aspects of popular representation, electing Senators and appointing Consuls, there came a point where Rome's broad dominions could not be effectively governed by popular decree. That was when Rome's elite, the Caesare's, the Pompey's and the Crassus's took control. Rome had evolved into a Dictatorship before any Emperor was named.

The Chinese, in their considerably longer history, never had a popular representation mechanism. It had a series of Dynasties lasing thousands of years before the imperial system had been overthrown. In the Chinese Civil War of 1949, the two camps, the Communists under Mao Zedong, and the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-Chek, ended with the exile of the latter to Formosa, known today as Taiwan. As an island with a smaller population. Tawan is operating as a democracy.

But, as a practical matter, this prospective over-throw of the Xi Jinping regime is still months away, if it happens at all. The human cost will be significant. The question is at what point does government suppression erode regime legitimacy ? But an equally important question ius who will keep the lights on, if not the Communists ?