The PRC (aka CCP/CPC) will not rule forever.

With the Mandate from Heaven they can rule forever.

What is the Mandate of Heaven?

The Chinese concept of heaven is not the same as the deified Heaven of westerners.  The westerner needs to think of Heaven in the Chinese context as the “big sky” over all without all of the religious overtones of the western civilizations.  According to the history of China dating back 5,000 years the Mandate of Heaven http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_of_Heaven, was and is a contract between the ruler/emperor/king and life; the umbrella of all, heaven..  If the ruler ruled well the Mandate of Heaven was his protection. If not and usurpers challenged and won the Mandate of Heaven must have been lost and the Mandate now resided in the new ruler.

The result of this philosophy is that China has been a country culturally attuned to central, top down rule.  Unlike traditional western history, even in Japan and Taiwan, there has not been a middle-class that has risen to not demand a dilution of government power and longevity.  Both Japan and Taiwan suffered and may still suffer from top down mandating of democracy on a traditional top-down structure and cultural history.  Both Japan and Taiwan suffered greatly from corruption. Too many Chinese today’s corruption in China is a result of a democratic principals in the workings of the capitalistic (aka democratic) system adopted by the CPC which benefits a few at the expense of many.

The Chinese are wary of democracy and even more so wary because of the experiences witnessed and still witnessed in Taiwan and Japan.  China is not a democracy and has little interest in a democracy.  The Chinese have no experience with democracy.  Both Japan and Taiwan have had serious corruption related to a democratic system and carry heavy costs and burdens from imposed democracy on a society that has culturally functioned with top-down, central management for centuries.

The PRC may not rule forever but its demise will not be because of the west and democracy. Its ruler’s demise will be because the ruler (CCP/CPC) will have broken the contract with Heaven to rule well for the benefit of the subjects. With the loss of the Mandate of Heaven another will challenge and win.  Their winning will prove they have the Mandate (contract) Of Heaven to rule top down as has been the case for 50 centuries.  There loss meant they did not have the Mandate of Heaven.

If one reflects on this it is not unlike the western idea of the joust where the joust proved which side God was on and which lives today in the modern American courtroom.  In fact it is this concept that keeps the CCP/CPC on its feet as it was severely frightened in the late 1980s and subsequently in the late 1990s in a very popular square well connected to Chinese political history in the last century.  The Mandate of Heaven provides China with an ability to have a revolution albeit more like Egypt today in 2011 than democratic elections.

The CCP/CPC is here to stay as long as they keep the Mandate of Heaven in Chinese terms, not western or any other terms.  In China, talking to citizens in all places, urban and rural, north, south, east and west, the citizen seems to measure subjectively as to whether “this year is better than last year or not for the group”.  If it is better than the last year there is no need for change; the group won overall and the Mandate of Heaven is being fulfilled.  If each year is not better then the leadership is open to usurpers who will prove they have the Mandate of Heaven if they win. If they lose their bid for the highest leadership position of such a geographically large and culturally diverse country as is China they did not have the Mandate of Heaven, the existing leadership did. As long as each year is better the CCP/CPC has the reigns of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC).  That has been happening with a couple of challenging periods since the turn of the country in the  late 1970s when Deng Xiao Ping opened the door and let the cats change with the entrance of the “capitalistic cat” and the departure of the “communist cat”.  As long as each year “looks and feels” better than the last overall, for the group, which appears likely in the opinions of most, the Mandate of Heaven exists with the CCP/CPC. They will remain.

This means that as long as the party can change and perfect itself continually, and is perceived by the populace as receiving the supervision of Chinese people, it can exist forever.  The Chinese are building a system out of Marxism, Leninism, Maoism and western capitalism their way for their benefit consistent with their history and culture.  Hopefully they will construct a better system than the ones they have to choose from in history and the world.  A good system is one that can perfect itself gradually, correct faults and prevent corruption automatically. Only this system can relax domestic confliction and avoid next violent revolution. Of course, food quantity and prices must be acceptable to the populous. Successful revolutions seemed to have often emanated in China from food problems, quantity and prices, in China’s history.  The CPC/PRC is painfully aware of this pragmatic fact for 1.34 billion people and their survival. .

Many people in China think that democracy can solve everything, such as corruption, wealth gap, health insurance, education, and so on. Democracy is best suited for literate, educated populous (Remember? Democracy began with Greek citizens, not all citizens, only in the forum), America began with only land owning literate males voting. Democracy requires a system of laws. Many on the globe have not had the privilege or opportunity to let democracy evolve, as the west has for almost 900-years, from the days of the Magna Charta.   Many in the Chinese citizenry seem to think that the gap of China and the west is caused by the lack of democracy in China.  They seem to believe that once democracy enters China, China will be as rich and individual oriented as the west. Others in the Chinese citizenry suggest to the pro-democracy citizens that they research their neighbor India with imposed, not evolved, democracy. Will India become as strong as the USA, unlikely?  Do the Chinese people want the average material, food, substance and income life as the average in India, definitely not.  Democracy is only one reason for the gap between China and west. China must find its own way on its path away from or to democracy.  The west evolved their way; China needs to evolve the Chinese way. Chinese are learning, sometimes from very bad experience, they cannot bring anything into to China from the west without thought, adaptation and pragmatic consideration. Turning two cats loose against the mice in the same house may bring unintended consequences as well.

China, the Chinese people, the CPC and PRC are, like the west, a “work in progress” and their job is not finished.  It would bode well for westerner and Chinese to exercise the utmost respect for the sovereignty of each other, their people, their ways and their beliefs if we are to have a world of cooperative peace rather than uncooperative war that benefits no one and usually damages the innocents on both sides more than the perpetrators on both sides.

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