State and Democracy (was Re: Who Killed Vincent Chin?)

[jf noonan]

On Mon, 3 Jan 2000, Doug Henwood wrote:

> 
> Ok. As long as we're clear that what's happening in China is
> the development of capitalism, and not the development of
> "socialism with Chinese characteristics," as they used to
> say (do they still?).


Yes they do.  I see it used nearly every night in the state run
Chinese newscast that I watch.  The last time they had a big
confab (about 6 months or a year ago -- can't remember if it was
a Party congress or what exactly -- but rows about rows of bored
looking officials), the coverage was positively hysterical.  The
English translations of what Jeing et.al. were saying sounded
like that could have come from Chairman Al or some GE annual
report.  But they kept describing this neo-lib juggernaut as
'progression to socialism' with  'Chinese characteristics'.


Speaking of fun-loving state run TV, does anybody know which
station(s) the Russian gov't still runs?  On the same cable
channel that I get CCTV, I also get a Russian newscast that
is either directly state run or is run by apologists for the
government.  When Yelstin went tottering off to Beijing some
time back, German TV (RTL-Aktuell sp?) showed him falling all
over the place and being led around by a panicked looking
Chinese official who seemed to be asking "why is this drunk
Russian hanging onto my sleeve?"  But things got worse when
Boris was allowed to ambulate on his own and went wandering in
various random directions.  Well the Russian newscast I saw 1/2
hour later showed NONE of this, nor did CCTV.  



--

Joseph Noonan
jfn1 at msc.com


Keep on rockin in the Free World(tm).