security: collective versus individuals
a tale of two foci
Yesterday offered a stark juxtaposition between hypothetical fears about bike riding between cities in Hunan and a tragedy resulting in 35 deaths in Guangzhou Province. A driver deliberately maneuvering his car onto a stadium track to kill three dozen of the nearly a hundred people he struck was a horror like our mass shooting in Las Vegas several years ago. Worse, this tragedy in the southern city of Zhuhai was only the latest in a series of a multiple-victim incidents transpiring in China this calendar year. Yet the attention by authorities has been on civil unrest bicyclists could create as I noted in the column. It is a disconnect but why?
No government can predict with certainty that disappointment resulting from a divorce settlement could lead a 62 year old man to murder so many people attending a sporting venue. Other similar acts of mass violence have been random yet seemingly not as worrisome to the CCP. The Party’s overarching emphasis on society’s stability for fear of dangers posed by crowds redirecting their anger towards the government remains their focus.
Less than a week ago, Bill Bishop’s Sinocism.com, noted that Xi Jinping issued guidance to the CCP Central Committee Political Department to assure strong social stability work remained at the fore as the Party handling internal challenges. The article lauded the importance of meeting to ponder such guidance in advancing efforts to assure social stability work. The name of Xi’s game is increasing and maintaining social stability rather than addressing violent crime.
Xi’s public admonition, thus, to officials to take actions to prevent a recurrence like this particular Zhuhai horror is noteworthy but secondary to the real priority. Any emphasis in Xi’s public rebuke is of government officials’s role rather than an individual lawbreaker’s responsibilities. No, breaking the law is not advocated (or tolerated) at any level by anyone in China but the actions by an individual appear far less concerning to Party leaders than do those of society in a coordinated aggregate. During any large scale natural disaster, such as the May 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the Premier, the second government official in rank, races to assure the public that the government’s efforts will alleviate pain and suffering. Then Party officials are highly visible in ministering to the afflicted for several days but concerns about individuals soon dissipate, if not end altogether. What worried the Party in 2008 were accusations that school buildings collapsed due to corrupt CCP officials taking bribes rather than adhering to building standards. Once those rumors began, officials took dramatic steps to “reign in” family members making a stink as no one wanted to investigate the suggestions for fear of who it would undermine.
But the unpredictability of any specific individual’s actions is vast amid an enormous population; preventing other instances of violence is as challenging as seeking the proverbial needles in the haystack. But Xi’s proclamation does imply that the Son of Heaven, that individual in whom China metaphorically endows so much power because he has been designated to run the state apparatus, shows appropriate concern regarding the pain of the Chinese people following this tragedy. That symbolism may be old but remains venerated even by modern Marxist-Leninists worried about political rather than criminal acts.
Confucian ideals mandate society’s order above everything else. Luan! Disorder! Is to be avoided at all costs. China’s citizens pose many threats as individuals, whether by someone gunning his car over people on a stadium track or using knives against foreigners walking along a river bank. But the Party primarily dedicates its efforts to preventing the society-wide threats against its continued rule while local law enforcement handles the random murders.
China’s greater attention, however, on the collective rather than on individuals is why our focus and remonstrations about how the country’s leaders ignore individual rights falls on deaf ears. China has many additional cultural influences but this veneration of order theoretically assures that sense of predictability, of measured behavior facilitating an entire society functioning smoothly. The Party officials invoke what power they have to assure societal order but it’s increasingly obvious that their power is as limited as that of any other governing party. Chinese cannot understand how we can be so unhindered in a society of this size as it’s antithetical to their profound need to guarantee they can provide order. Yet evidence grows that the CCP is not nearly as able to assure stability as it promises with party members terrified of the public realizing this truth.
It turns out people, when frustrated, lash out whether against a hundred or against a hundred million. Leaders fear the social inequalities, lack of a predictable path towards a better standard of living, and the other contemporary challenges may become systemic burdens inciting social disorder. This feasible reality keeps Chinese leaders up at night more than does any list of adversaries appointed to political offices in capitals around the world.
Too many days don’t seem quite as orderly in China today as many people desire. The challenge for us is to recognize how much of their reaction really is actually domestic in character versus a clear and present danger to us. We miss the distinction some days.
Thank you for reading Actions create consequences today or any other day. Please feel free to circulate the column if you find it of value. Thank you for subscribing, if you do.
Harry was looking pretty handsome and self-satisfied this morning.
Be well and be safe. FIN
Bill Bishop, “3. Social Stability Work a Focus of Another Meeting”, Sinocism.com, 7 November 2024, retrieved at
Jason Douglas, Clarence Leong, and Liyan Qi, “SUV Plows Into Crowd in China, Killing 35; Attack Draws Response from Xi Jinping”, WallStreetJournal.org, 12 November 2024, retrieved at https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/zhuhai-china-car-crash-crowd-1ec4fb13?mod=china_news_article_pos2
Lingling Wei, “Trump Is Recruiting a Team of China Hawks. So Why is Beijing Relieved?”, WallStreetJournal.com, 13 November 2024, retrieved at https://www.wsj.com/world/china/trump-is-recruiting-a-team-of-china-hawks-so-why-is-beijing-relieved-bb1a4001?mod=hp_lead_pos2