China Views of John Garnaut's Piece Hit the Mark Nicely, Except for This...

This review of respected Australian John Garnaut's thoughts on China comes with thanks to Bill Bishop for recently sharing it in his well-respected Sinocism newsletter. Though I often disagree with Mr. Bishop's more negative rhetoric toward China, the piece is a truly magnificent, clarifying seminal view on China's current governance and ideology under Xi by the Australian journalist John Garnaut, who had then joined the Australian government as a speech writer and policy advisor on China. The transcript of Mr. Garnaut's recent speech in Australia caused no less than ten conversations through my day and I am told by those flying in far higher circles than I, "everyone is talking about it".

Right there dear friends, we have the end of my compliments as I also find in the piece more fear mongering China negative bias. In this case, tisk tisk, quite an alarming statement by Garnaut jumped out at me and that's what we are focusing on here.

”Xi has set in motion a purification project - a war against the forces of counter-revolution - that has no end point because the notional utopian destination of perfect communism will always be kicked a little further down the road.” 

..."perfect communism"? In the context of Garnaut's lengthy piece, the accusation in this statement stood out like a sore thumb and I immediately noticed it to entirely completely wrong and false. You should pounce on the moment to ask, why would I say that?

Mr. Garnaut actually states here that Xi’s ultimate end point focus is a “perfect communism”? Have I just changed his meaning in asking and slightly rewording it? Really? Where has he been to offer up such an allegation when a ton of evidence indicates no such thing? I checked over a dozen definitions of communism and it is termed a classless society where everyone is equal and no one owns anything and the government controls everything for you and doesn't let you do anything on your own, is that about right?

As many of you know, I’ve watched the country of China for 19 years from the inside, unlike any single industry expat, from a countless variety of perspectives and projects. I have sat on rickety merchant street stools with 3rmb noodles. I have sat on the piano stool of a $250,000 Steinway concert grand on the stage of the Hangzhou Theatre plus a dozen other 2nd, 3rd & 4th tier city theatres, to perform solo piano concerts and in the portable folding chair of a TV series production set shooting with stars like Sun Wei Min and Zhen Zhe Wei. I have sat at the local hospital bedside of my mother in law, at the school desk of our 7 year old son with his local primary school teacher and in the pews of countless churches on Sunday. I have sat on a leather executive chair in our office at the Kerry Hotel Pudong Executive Suites, interviewed the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders at M!NT, auctioneer-ed a GM Cadillac for AmCham's charities and even in a Chinese court room. Enough. I've been blessed to sit and experience the country of China from far more perspectives than most and I don't see anything at all resembling a march toward ideaological communism.

What I have watched is China become more and more prosperous via western free market capitalism, the development of millions of private SME’s and encouraged entrepreneurial pursuits, the transforming into a modern society with the largest group of happy, stable family households on the entire planet. What we have all witnessed has by every measure been an unprecedented economic and societal miracle. Every single month in today's China, somewhere over 40,000 brand new businesses are registered by people who have the freedom to execute their business ideas. People are free to start businesses, get jobs, negotiate better salaries, quit and change to another company job as they wish. Does anything I just wrote sound like the destination of perfect communism? 

For several years, Chairman Xi's government has offered a 30,000rmb per month tax exemption for all SME's. This and other incentives/policies specifically and only to encourage individual's to start their own businesses as entrepreneurs. This month, they further increased the tax exemption for registered SME's from the 30,000rmb per month threshold up to 100,000rmb along with also reducing the income tax burden. Again, to make it easier for SME's to turn a profit, for people to achieve their lifelong dreams as China's economy slows down. Does any of this sound like its moving toward a notional utopian communism?

Next, let's take a look at Mr. Garnaut's observations on Xi's apparently triumphant return to the days of Stalin, that lovely fellow responsible for the murder of millions. Its like Don Lemon calling President Trump a Nazi, but I digress.

"Xi was arguing for a return to the Stalinist-Maoist principle that art and literature should only exist to serve politics. Not politics as we know it - the straightforward exercise of organisational and decision-making power - but the totalitarian project of creating unity of language, knowledge, thought and behaviour in pursuit of a utopian destination."

Again, here's the quote, "unity of language, knowledge, thought and behaviour in pursuit of a utopian destination".

Doesn't that also sound like the folks who might be in support of and committed to countless ideologies, even the Judeo-Christian ideology? What is wrong with being a country which mostly has its households and society guided by the wise, reasonable and fair set of principles found in Confucius' writings? Nothing really. And we could say the same thing about other ideologically driven lifestyles and societies driven by Judaism or Buddhism or Islam. These represent life approaches with a unity of language, knowledge, thought and behavior. So what? None of this is new nor a surprise in any country on the planet.

I rather think the pursuit of unity of language, knowledge, thought and behavior is fancy words for everyone in the same group liking hot dogs, apple pie, working hard and families having kids in a society. Or perhaps we could make the jump to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness, of which Chinese households today have more of all than they have ever had before. Just ask them.

So, great piece Mr. Garnaut. Every China watcher should read it and absorb it deeply for the list of magnificent explanations and elucidations found within. Yet, here we find, once again, ad nauseum, the view from Mr. Garnaut that China is somehow the big bad wolf and the western world are the good guys who should perhaps install their democracy instead. The nauseating negative narrative on China rooted in self-appointed moral superiority which revolve around terribly politicized concerns, should give every intelligent, aware human being a reason to pause. Politicized views on China are more problematic than helpful. Its the nauseating negative narrative again and again.

I'm quite displeased with having found Mr. Garnaut's otherwise brilliant piece to be sullied so by the ludicrous idea Xi's government is in pursuit of a perfect communism when what we much more clearly observe is the generous implementation of many western free market, capitalistic approaches and the continued pursuit of keeping Chinese society harmonious, stable and more prosperous as it struggles to keep growing and maturing.

Is the society here in China more strict? Of course yes, it is. It is also far more stable, consistent and safe. So then, we accept the compromises, the pluses and minuses that come with whatever country we live in, where we choose to live and how we like to live. Yet, Garnaut clearly suggest that the current Chinese government doesn't want any of that goodness for its citizens. Nonsense.

Finally, Mr. Gault reminds us that in a 2015 speech, Xi said that his vision “requires all the Chinese people to be unified with a single will like a strong city wall”, as though such a statement combined with other such statements are an ominous warning. He tells us Xi seeks power dressed up as patriotism.

But when I read that, I was immediately thinking those words are just similar leadership talk as what I've heard Obama or any other American president including Trump say in addresses to Americans countless times over the decades. "We must unite together as Americans..." Right, and so...?

I wish these days that Americans were more unified and less divided in their thinking, don't you? Is that a bad thing Mr. Garnaut?

Sure, it is true that China is a rising economic power with greater global influence directly competing for the first time with the existing hegemony of the developed west. No one could deny that is happening and that it is intimidating, that it feels like a threat. The economic competition is real and the stakes are high.

The conclusion I reach is that rather than simply content to share many clarifying and insightful nuggets on China, Mr. Garnaut joins the hack parade to drag us into the politicized fear mongering and his big bad wolf pitch falls flat.

Mario Cavolo, Shenyang

Catch Mario's 1st 2019 author keynote in Shanghai, live on stage, Thursday, Jan 24th at the Hua Xia Finance 2019 Economic Council. All attendees will receive a free copy of The Dragon Roars On China Book Tour Edition e-book. Reserve your seat, call Amy at 13248041904 or wechat ID amyzz88

The full piece by John Garnaut is here