The 10th National People's Congress opens today in Beijing. The 10th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) got underway on Monday. Both showcase forums have attracted widespread media attention because of the turnover in China's leadership. Speculation has been rife since last year about the personnel changes in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the government ranks -- and what these will mean for the future of both the party and the Chinese economy.
From the standpoint of Taiwanese, however, the more we get to understand the CCP's power structure, the more we are disappointed with its authoritarian regime. We might as well open our eyes and take a look at 2,318 representatives attending the CPPCC meeting at the Great Hall of the People, or the 2,984 representatives attending the NPC. Were any of them elected by the people at the ballot box?
Back in 1991, the people in this country ended the "perennial parliament" run by the KMT. After 40 years of propping up a fake legislature, the people said enough. Now looking back at those times, one can't help feeling sad about how the Beijing regime still plays this game of raping public opinion. One can't help sympathizing with the people under CCP rule. When will they be able to end their days of no dignity and no freedom?
China's economy is certainly developing very fast and that benefits quite a few people in that country. But the gap between the rich and the poor is growing and millions of unemployed people roam the streets of big cities. Even the iron-fisted CCP can't do anything about them. The problems they pose go far beyond what the outside world can imagine.
Compared to the poverty of a vast majority, the power that the country's ruling class obtains from its authoritarian system has always been the biggest source of corruption. We can often hear from Taiwanese businesspeople in China that almost all party cadres want to making a killing as fast as they can while they have the power to do so. Upstanding party members are as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns. Despite the repeated crackdowns -- and numerous executions -- corruption remains rife. The crux of the problem is that Chinese officials have too much power and the people are unable to monitor the government.
The Chinese people have begun to demand economic and political self-determination. But their faint voices are simply no match for the CCP's pervasive powers. International human rights groups and many governments have repeatedly attacked the CCP's human rights violations -- but Beijing just shrugs them off. We can see from the CCP's political powwows that Beijing's leaders do not see any need to change their system.
This feudal, corrupt and authoritarian government continues to foster the illusion that Taiwan is its territory. But such annual political rituals as the ones underway in Beijing this week remind the Taiwanese of the old days when they were oppressed by the KMT's authoritarian regime. We have had enough of those days. How could we regress and accept another foreign authoritarian rule?
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