Wei
Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A835-W533
魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号： A835-W533
Release
Date: August 24, 2014
发布日：2014年8月24日
Topic:
The Way Out for China (Part C): Only When a Democratic System is Established in
China, Shall There Be True Anti-corruption -- Wei Jingsheng
标题：《中国的出路》之一百：只有建立了民主制度才能真正地反腐 -- 魏京生
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The
Way Out for China (Part C): Only When a Democratic System is Established in
China, Shall There Be True Anti-corruption
--
Wei Jingsheng
Anti-Corruption
is the most popular topic now in China.
There is an anti-corruption article published in the well-known Yanhuang
Chunqiu magazine in China which briefly discussed how corrupted the United
States was long ago. However, its
good governance stopped corruption without having to execute many corrupted
officials. Finally the USA came to
today's relatively clean politics, that seems to be calm without bumpy
waves. The description in this
article of the clean politics in the USA is basically correct. The important reasons limiting that
corruption were also pretty much correct.
In particular, this article emphasizes the role of the independent
media, which can be said to be the consensus now shared among elites inside
China. In recent years, many
people have really put their hopes on media exposure, and everyone has
continued their encouragement to the media to do so.
Yet
why doesn't the Chinese media seem to so effective? The Internet media in China now certainly is not like the
American newspapers of two hundred years ago. Even though there is Internet blockage by the hundreds of
thousands of Internet police in China, the leaked information is absolutely
more than the USA had two hundred years ago. But the effect in China seems not what the United States
had.
What
is responsible for this difference?
Is it because of the poor quality and ignorance of the Chinese
people? The education level of the
Americans two hundred years ago was absolutely lower than that of the current
Chinese people. Then a further
assumption would be due to an inferior nature of the Asian race according to
the theory of "Asian values"?
This assumption is not only unacceptable to the Chinese people; even the
vast majority of Americans disagree with it.
Then
what is the reason? Now the Chinese
people are talking the most about a "selective anti-corruption". That is, the use of anti-corruption as
a way to attack political opponents, yet without any binding and deterrent for
political allies. China now is
still like China in ancient times, when anti-corruption would not bring a clean
society for very long. Not only is
there no effectiveness with the anti-corruption measures, it even could be more
corrupt after anti-corruption.
Why
was the U.S. able to simply restrain corruption, yet China cannot? Like all Chinese elites, the author of
that article did not dare to point out the root cause. In that article, it described in great
detail the process whereby the United States developed anti-corruption laws, so
when the laws were established they seemed to automatically at work. It just ignored the most important
part, as to whether and how the law can be implemented.
Was
not ancient China not corruptive?
At that time, the laws in China were even more detailed and tight than
in the USA. The executions to
punish corruption were endless.
But was that useful?
No. In ancient China,
executions due to corruption were carried out against high-ranking officials
even including the prime ministers.
But nowadays the punishments are not carried out on the standing members
of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, as
well as its veterans. This current
status in China could not even be compared to ancient China, not to mention be
compared with the USA. Recently,
we heard that several senior veterans of the Communist Party already received
certificates to avoid the punishment of corruption, and more waivers of the
death penalty are coming out as well.
I had to laugh after I heard this news - are the Chinese people so gullible?
Why
were and are the anti-corruption measures in ancient China and modern China
ineffective, yet effective in the United States? Why do not the media in China dare to speak up, and even
when they do why are they ineffective, when the American media has become a
powerful aide of anti-corruption?
What is the difference between China and the United States? The biggest difference is that China's
bureaucrats and politicians are the same group. China has no opposition and no opposition party, and thus has
no democratic system.
Nominally
there are several Chinese political parties which serve as decorative vases to
the Communist Party, or more politely are in partnership with the Communist
Party. Do any of them dare to
expose corrupt officials? They
have done even less than the people within the Communist Party. Even if they did successfully expose
someone, it would still be useless - it would be irrelevant because the
replacement for the corrupted official will still be a member of the Communist
Party. There is no motivation to
expose, simply due to the certain revenge by the exposed person's accomplices
afterwards.
So
we see that the minority who adhere to the principle of the law will have to
accept retaliation, while most of the elite are eloquent, evasive, and put
their messages in the cover of cloud and fog. The average Chinese are unable to see everything clearly,
besides having the feeling of being cheated. After too much cheating and crying wolf, the Chinese people
do not believe even when the real wolves are here. When I see the photos of (the Communist leader in charge of
the current anti-corruption) Wang Qishan (emphasizing anti-corruption) in
exhaustion, I can not help but to laugh - the Chinese people do not believe you
anyway, so why are you so serious in playing out this drama that you have
staged?
I
do not think the anti-corruption effort by Xi Jinping and Wang Qishan is
necessarily phoney. Ancient
emperors in China were also genuinely anti-corruption. Just like the current Communist regime
knows, these emperors knew that the regime would meet its end if the corruption
continued. In ancient times, the
design of the anti-corruption agencies used extremely tight and needless
repetition. Now the
anti-corruption agency of the Communist regime has also learned from the
foreign countries and combined with good Chinese practices. Yet why it is not working?
Even
Hu Yaobang (the Communist leader in the 1980's) felt strange about this: Why do
good things from abroad become effectiveless and do not work right when they
are introduced to China? So this
conundrum leads me to think of the ancient story of envoy Yan Zi's illustration
when he visited the country of Chu: the delicious Mandarin oranges grown south
of the Huai River have inedible and bitter fruits when the trees are planted
north of the Huai River. When the
conditions are different, of course the performance is different. The reason that the American system is ineffective
when it was copied in China, is because the basic conditions are different, so
of course the taste changed.
What
condition is different then? The
difference is the democratic and multi-political party system in America and
its fair legal system that is protected under constitutional law. In comparison, it is essentially
different from the Chinese one-party authoritarian system that is lawless and
self-monitoring with officials protecting each other. Without a multi-party system of basic checks and balances,
any application of individual policies naturally changed. It is like putting a donkey's lips on a
horse mouth - to put it nicely, we call it funny.
With
true opposition parties, it would not be the same. When corrupt or incompetent officials are caught, they could
be ousted. The motivation to take
turns for the governing power is so strong, that the opposition will be
seriously supervising it. With
serious and strong pressure from the opposition and the opposition parties,
revenge could not easily be done against those who expose corruptions or elite
who make non-preferred remarks.
Judges could make fair rulings without following directives or
consultations of someone. Thus we
would get the delicious mandarin oranges in the south of Huai River.
Of
course, democracy is not perfect.
But where there is no democracy at all, it for sure will not be
right. Not just this
anti-corruption issue, but also the variety of major and persistent problems in
China now are all related to this basic system of one-party dictatorship. Following these problems up, we will
all learn this one-party dictatorship system is the root cause. In this respect, the Chinese inside
China have a clear insight, thus they are discussing Lord Acton's "power
tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Unfortunately, they do not really have
the freedom of speech.
Xi
Jinping and Wang Qishan want to win the support of the people through
anti-corruption, then move forward.
They have made things upside down.
If they truly want to start a political reform from the anti-corruption,
they must get the support of the people.
Without it, it is impossible to resist the counter-attack of the
bureaucratic capitalists. Unable
to resist the counter-attack of the bureaucratic capitalists, how could they
achieve the anti-corruption and win the support of the people? Xi Jinping is being caught in a
paradox.
Solutions
to this paradox lie in the establishment of a democratic system. The establishment of a democratic
system can only be done through revolution. I wish the failure of Xi Jinping's reforms.
To
hear Mr. Wei Jingsheng's related commentary, please visit:
http://www.weijingsheng.org/RFA/RFA2014/WeiJS140709ChinaWayOut100democracyroot.mp3
(Written
on July 8 and recorded on July 9, 2014.
Broadcasted by Radio Free Asia.)
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中文版
Wei
Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A835-W533
魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号： A835-W533
Release
Date: August 24, 2014
发布日：2014年8月24日
Topic:
The Way Out for China (Part C): Only When a Democratic System is Established in
China, Shall There Be True Anti-corruption -- Wei Jingsheng
标题：《中国的出路》之一百：只有建立了民主制度才能真正地反腐 -- 魏京生
Original
Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)
此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）
如有中文乱码问题，请与我们联系或访问:
http://www.weijingsheng.org/report/report2014/report2014-08/WeiJS140824ChinaWayOut100democracyrootA835-W533.htm
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《中国的出路》之一百：只有建立了民主制度才能真正地反腐
-- 魏京生
反腐败是当下最热门的话题。炎黄春秋有一篇反腐败的文章，简单地论述了美国当年是如何的腐败，又如何没有人头滚滚，就把腐败治理好了。到如今这种相对来说清明的政治，好像是风平浪静。这篇文章对美国政治清明的描述基本上是正确的。其中谈到的重要原因，也八九不离十。其中特别强调了独立媒体的作用，可以说是现在国内精英们的共识。很多老百姓近些年来也确实把希望寄托在媒体揭露上了，大家给媒体加油的呼声不断。
可是为什么现在中国的媒体好像很不给劲呢？现在中国的网络媒体，绝对不是二百年前美国的报纸可比的。就算是有几十万网警五毛在使劲，泄露出来的信息也绝对超过二百年前的美国。但效果好像不如美国。
为什么会这样？是中国人素质差、愚昧无知吗？二百年前的美国人，文化水平绝对低于现在的中国人。再推论下去就该是亚洲价值观的人种低劣论了。这不仅是中国人不能接受，绝大多数美国人也不以为然。
那是什么原因呢？现在国人议论最多的，就是选择性的反腐。也就是利用反腐打击政治对手，对于政治同盟者来说则丝毫也没有约束力和威慑作用。也就是和古代一样，不但没有效果甚至还越反越腐败，干净不了几天。
为什么美国就能简简单单地把腐败抑制住，中国就不能呢？文章的作者像所有中国的精英们一样，不敢说道根本原因。文中很详细地描述了美国陆续制定反腐败法律的过程，似乎法律制定出来就自动产生了作用。这恰好就忽略了最重要的环节，法律是否能够实施。
中国古代就不反腐败了吗？那时的法律制定得比美国还要严密，杀人也真的是人头滚滚，甚至比现在还人头滚滚。但那有用吗？没有。古代连宰相首辅也照杀不误，现在还刑不上常委，刑不上元老呢。连古人都比不上，谈什么美国。听说最近给了几大元老传说中的丹书铁券，还准备给更多的免死牌。我听说后就笑了，中国老百姓就这么好骗？
为什么中国古代和现代的反腐都无效，而美国就有效呢？为什么中国的媒体就不敢说话，说了也没用，而美国的媒体就成了反腐败的有力助手呢？中国和美国有什么不同呢？最大的不同就是中国的官僚和政客是一伙的。中国没有反对派和反对党，也就是没有民主制度。
例如中国的那几个花瓶党，或者说共产党的合伙党，有一个敢揭发贪官污吏的吗？还不如人家党内揭发得多呢？即使揭发并且成功了也没有用，换上来一个还是人家那个共产党的，没你们什么事儿。且不说揭发的动力如何，就是他们的同党事后的报复，就杜绝了揭发的动机。
于是大家看到的就是少数坚持原则的就得接受报复，大多数精英们则洋洋洒洒、避重就轻、云煽雾罩。老百姓被煽得罩在云里雾里，每一次都是被骗的感觉。被骗的次数多了，就是狼真的来了也不信了。我看到王岐山声嘶力竭的照片就想笑，老百姓根本不相信，你还演个什么劲呢？
我不觉得习近平和王岐山的反腐败是假心假意。古代的皇帝也是真心真意地反腐败。他们也和现在的中共一样，知道继续腐败下去就是亡党亡国。古代设计的反腐败机构可以说是叠床架屋，严密无比。现在中共的反腐败机构，也是洋为中用，中西结合。为什么就不行？
所以连胡耀邦都奇怪：为什么国外的好东西引进到中国就失效，就变味了呢？于是想起了晏子使楚的故事：桔生淮南为桔，淮北为枳。条件不同，表现当然就不同。美国的制度搬到中国来没效果，就是因为基本条件不同，所以当然就变了味儿。
什么条件不同呢？就是美国的民主制度、多党制、和民主制度保障下的公平的法律制度，和中国一党专制下的官官相护、自我监督、无法无天的本质上的不同。没有这个基本的制度，其它附加的制度自然也就变了样。这就像驴唇安在了马嘴上一样，说好听点叫搞笑。
有了反对党和反对派就不一样了。抓住你的腐败或者无能，就可以把你赶下台。轮流执政这个动力太强大了，还怕他们不会认真地监督吗？有了反对党和反对派的认真而又强大的压力，揭发腐败或者精英们说三道四也就不容易受到报复了。法官们秉公办案也不用看谁的眼色，向谁请示了。如此，才是桔生淮南为桔。
民主制度当然不是十全十美。但是没有民主制度就肯定十不全、十不美。不仅仅是反腐败，中国现在的各种老大难的问题，都和这个基本的一党专政的制度有关。顺藤摸瓜都会摸到这个一党专政的制度上来。这方面国内的有识之士看得比我们更清楚，所以才有了绝对的权力带来绝对的腐败的议论。遗憾的是他们没有真正的说话的自由。
习近平、王岐山想靠反腐败赢得民心，然后再如何如何，这叫本末倒置。要真正从反腐败开始政治改革，就要获得民众的支持。没有民心所向，就不可能抵挡官僚资产阶级的反扑。抵挡不住官僚资产阶级的反扑，又怎么能够反得了腐败，赢得了民心呢？习近平陷入了自相矛盾之中。
这个难题的解，就在于建立民主制度。建立民主制度，只能够革命。预祝习近平的改革失败。
聆听魏京生先生的相关录音，请访问：
http://www.weijingsheng.org/RFA/RFA2014/WeiJS140709ChinaWayOut100democracyroot.mp3
（撰写于2014年7月8日。录音于2014年7月9日。自由亚洲电台播出。）
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