Asia's Big Brother
Over the past 30 years China has experiences massive economic growth, establishing itself as the newest superpower on the geopolitical scheme. China’s economic expansion is unprecedented, allowing for massive political influence as a result of economic hegemony. Despite international prominence, domestic matters have been brought into question. Over the last few years Xi Jinping has adopted stricter laws regarding his presidential powers and those affecting all Chinese citizens. Recent technological developments demonstrate a dangerous resemblance to Black Mirror, bringing the Human rights record of the current administration into question. Despite the monumental economic advancements, it seems like the socio-political environment is increasingly digressing towards authoritarianism, sacrificing humanistic concerns in the name of massive development.
Throughout the last 30 years, the Chinese government has been able to lift over 800 million Chinese citizens out of poverty into the middle class. China has also experienced an average GDP growth 10% per year since 1978 and has been able to sustain this until a few years ago, when its GDP growth stagnated. This economic growth had extremely positive impacts on the development of infrastructure, air travel, technologies and standards of living. China has also begun to invest, in Eastern Africa as a means of getting involved with massive economic and infrastructural projects to consolidate their power outside their own geographical location. This is especially the case in Kenya, where a massive railway project from Kenya to Uganda is underway. However, after this project is finalized, it will take Kenya 110 years to repay the debt to China.
The National People’s Congress passed a massive constitutional amendment in 2016 that has impacted the political and democratic climate in China. The bill stated that the two-term limit that a president has -a constitutional act established in 1990- which is 10 years, was abolished by an almost full majority. To be more specific, three abstained, two voted against, and 2959 voted for the measure. This means Xi Jinping has now been able to amass absolute power in China which has caused significant concern for leaders worldwide. Xi Jinping has been in power since 2013, and now finds himself in a very powerful and strategic diplomatic position on which Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia heavily depend on during diplomatic negotiations.
While the National People’s Congress was for the measure, Xi Jinping himself on the other hand has been censuring criticisms that erupted on the internet after this two-term presidency bill was abolished. Extreme censorship is not new to China, having one of the most extensive and restrictive ones in the world, with more than 60 internet restrictions being replaced by state owned companies and organisations. Over two million people have been ‘’recruited’’ by the Chinese government to monitor web activity and delete posts that paint a defamatory image to the President or its policies. One of the most widely used Chinese online platforms, Sina Weibo, has been experiencing unprecedented amount of government censorship after Xi Jinping's controversial presidency act was passed. Some of these phrases and words that have been censored due to their alleged detrimental depiction of the President include:
I don’t agree
Re-election
Election term
Constitution amendment
Proclaiming oneself an emperor
Immortality, lifelong
And last but not least, Winnie the Pooh.
Where the latter is definitely open to subjectivity, China’s online rules have been vague, which allows for broad political discretion on what the government deems a negative portrayal of Government institutions.
Nonetheless, there have been more cases where things have taken a different turn. This has been the case with Shawn Zhang, who posted a picture of Xi, encased in a glass and draped in a communist flag, after he created an anonymous account on Weibo trying to lure the eye of the censors. Then, he retweeted this from his own account. Before his post was censored and his account suspended, Chinese public security police called his mother who was in China, all in the span of 9 hours, while he was in Canada.
Not only are these accounts suspended, the Chinese government has also been taking note of who exactly behaves against the government regime. In 2020, it wants to introduce a disputed social crediting system for all 1.3 billion Chinese people. This entails that the government can collect data from financial institutions, social media platforms, the police, and give all Chinese citizens plus or minus points on how well they behave in society and if they follow the rules. The Chinese government gives reasons on why it considers this a good initiative:
‘’In a large country like China, it was already too easy for people to commit a crime in one place and then move to another and start a new life there as nothing has happened. The idea behind this system is that you are not able to run away anymore.’’
This data is not only collected from these institutions. It is also based on, for example, if someone is ghost riding, commits tax evasion, smokes in non-smoking areas, or even misbehaves in trains and flights. If one’s score is very low, citizens can be denied purchase of train and plane tickets, real estate, cars, and even high-speed internet. If they behaviour ‘’deteriorates’’ even more, they will be noted on a so-called blacklist, on which 7.5 million Chinese citizens can already find themselves. There are certain actions which can increase one’s social rank, such as being involved in community service and buying Chinese produced products and services. However, the government still holds significant discretion and subjective interpretation on whether it will actually improve someone’s social rank, and whether to drop someone on the rank completely and impede their abilities and liberties.
While there can be some understanding towards the fact that crimes cannot be left unpunished, and that some people that want to avoid the imposed regulations such as tax evasion and fraud cannot get away with it that easily anymore, it seems like Xi Jinping and the Chinese government almost control the entirety of Chinese society. It crosses clear boundaries of the freedom to privacy and human rights, as now their every step can be followed when they want to travel, invest, or even apply for a job.
Current socio-political developments in China come dangerously close to an Orwellian reality, where censorship is the norm and absolutist power is part of everyday life. With China being one of the most powerful economic and geopolitical players in the world, there is nothing really the West and other countries in Southeast Asia can do other than stand by and see how slowly but steadily, human rights in China are becoming more of a privilege than a right.
Sources:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-43361276
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-24396957
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_China
https://www.businessinsider.com/china-great-firewall-censorship-under-xi-jinping-2018-3?IR=T
https://nos.nl/nieuwsuur/artikel/2227440-big-brother-2-0-in-china-bepaalt-je-sociale-score-je-leven.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OubM8bD9kck
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