>The report is appalling, but one should avoid misusing terms. The Chinese
>dictatorship is not fascist. It lacks the domination of capital--capital is
>rising but stringly subordinated, the authoritarian populism, the military
>aggressiveness, the public commitment to racial superiority, the
>antomodernist blood-and-oil ideology and antirationalism, and many other
>attributes of either classical or neo-fascism--the latter being typical of
>the Latin america of the 1970s, say. We have to apprehend the specifity of
>the Chinese regime on its own terms. --jks
Specificity is fine but the avoidance of the term "fascism" to China seems odd given how flexibly the term has been used to other regimes. Capital was in many ways subordinated (if privileged) under both German and Italian fascism and given the capital ownership stakes of both individual and party divisions - an issue some of the more traditional Maoists have complained of - I'm not sure where you would find the distinction.
As for military aggressiveness, I would think that the domination of Tibet, the threats to Taiwan, and other military stances are hardly non-aggressive. And the point of the article was to note the eugenic commitment to racial improvement. It may lack some of the more antirationalist elements of Nazism but a number of other readily-designated fascist regimes were much more on the rationalist mode.
During the PNTR debate on China trade, condemnation of China's human rights record was denounced as imperialist- I didn't see a lot of rallying for discussing the "specificity" of the US-China relationship at that point. Of course, China is a complex country and has both positive and negative forces in operation, but then so did many fascist regimes- heck, fascist Spain was far more helpful to those fleeing the Holocaust than most of the democratic countries.
As for Yoshie's post on China's humane treatment of the disabled, it still reinforces the eugenics thrust of policy: Note:
"The Maternal and Child Health Care Law forbids the marriage of persons with certain specified contagious diseases or certain acute mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. If doctors find that a couple is at risk of transmitting disabling congenital defects to their children, the couple may marry only if they agree to use birth control or undergo sterilization."
Yes, the Chinese government will let the disabled live out their lives - uneducated and without children - but to terminate their genetic line with their deaths.
My argument is not that in any standoff between the US and China, the Chinese will be in the wrong, but that - in many ways like the US - it is dominated by bad capitalist interests with the extra spin of authoritarian tendencies. Yes, there are internal complexities to the policies China promotes which need to be evaluated for which class interests may have pushed their adoption, but then I argue for the same in looking at United States government policy.
The US-China trade deal for instance was pushed by the authoritarian capitalist interests in both countries, yet many leftists were all too ready to denounce any opposition as imperialistic because of a knee-jerk defense of China's "anti-imperialist" position.
There needs to be a reevaluation by a number of sectors of the Left on the complexities of regime actions, both by the United States and by China, reflecting the diversity of forces operating within and effecting policy in each.
-- Nathan Newman
>From: "Nathan Newman" <nathan at newman.org>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>To: <lbo-Talk at lists.panix.com>
>Subject: China Fascism weeds out the "unfit" from higher education
>Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 08:38:15 -0400
>
>If this article's info on China's eugenics is accurate, China is moving
>from
>merely authoritarian capitalistism towards full-out fascism. Folks can
>dismiss this as enemy propaganda - which it may be - but given well
>documented reports of union leaders being sent to mental hospitals, the
>crushing of heterodox religionists, and the authoritian promotion of
>capitalists allied to the party hierarchy, it starts to look like any word
>other than "fascism" would be hard to apply to China
> -- Nathan Newman
>
>Only the 'medically fit' can go to college, China decrees
>Source: The Sunday Telegraph (U.K.)
>Published: 06/24/2001 Author: Damien McElroy
>
>STUDENTS wanting to attend university in China next term will have to pass
>stringent new examinations first: not to test their ability for the courses
>that they want to sit but to judge their medical suitability and physical
>fitness.
>
>Teenagers whose legs differ in length by more than two inches or whose
>spine
>is curved by 1.5 inches will be disbarred from courses as varied as
>geology,
>law and civil engineering. Anyone with colour blindness will be banned from
>sitting business administration courses, while those unfortunates diagnosed
>with cancer, epilepsy, high blood pressure or "mental disorder" will be
>prevented from enrolling altogether.
>
>The new medical examinations are an attempt to "engineer" a stronger,
>healthier population free from physical and mental handicaps. Last week,
>millions of teenagers across the country lined up at hospitals to be
>certified by a doctor as fit enough to make the leap from school to
>university.
>
>The new rules have forced many able and successful students who suffer from
>physical ailments to pull out of the education system in despair. Next
>month, the traditional Chinese period for entrance exams, is now being
>called "Black July" by disabled groups. The Chinese higher educational
>system is renowned for crushing the hopes and ambitions of more students
>than it elevates. There are university places for only about five per cent
>o
>f the student population, although some 20 per cent apply.
>
>The Chinese authorities claim that, in view of the level of competition to
>get into college, the system should weed out imperfect applicants. A doctor
>involved in administering the medical examinations said the physically
>impaired were generally unable to cope with the demands of the education
>system. "How could they have made it to secondary school?" she said. "How
>can they study?"
>
>Education officials have admitted that the new rules are designed to
>prevent
>the disabled from "clogging up" Chinese universities. "These days, no
>college is willing to take a disabled student," one university head told a
>Chinese newspaper. He said that allowing one disabled student in "only
>encourages more to apply".
>
>"Once a college gets one, the media will publicise it, and then there will
>be more disabled students applying next year," he said. "Of course, the
>school should bear certain social responsibilities, but it's not a welfare
>organisation."
>
>Even employees of the Chinese Disabled Persons' Federation concede that
>such
>viewpoints are understandable. "Universities have little experience in
>dealing with the disabled and hence have worries about educating them,"
>said
>Li Dongmei, a deputy director of the education division of the federation.
>"Many do not have the facilities."
>
>There have been few voices raised to object to restricting university entry
>to hale students. Chinese law requires the government to work actively to
>"raise the quality of the Chinese people". There is a continuing debate
>raging about how far the country should go towards removing the mentally
>deficient from the population.
>
>There has been widespread acceptance of the maternal and infant health care
>law, a notorious piece of legislation that instructs citizens to avoid
>having "idiotic" children. The prevention of new births of an inferior
>quality has become a national objective that involves invidious controls on
>reproduction.
>
>A nationwide screening process assesses the likelihood that pregnant women
>will give birth to retarded children. If medical tests determine that the
>risk is too high, officials will order an abortion that will often be
>forced
>on the pregnant woman. Li Peng, the former prime minister and the man
>behind
>the Tiananmen massacre, is known to be an enthusiastic proponent of the
>drive to limit the "inferior stock" among the country's 1.3 billion people.
>
>The need to rid the Chinese population of its weakest links has been
>described by foreign scientists as taking up where Adolf Hitler's eugenics
>policies left off. But scientists in China claim that measures are needed
>to
>curb irresponsible breeding by the poorly educated or impoverished
>residents
>of the hinterland.
>
>Whole villages, said Qiu Renzong, a professor of bioethics at the Chinese
>Academy of Social Sciences, are populated by mentally retarded people who
>are the product of inbreeding or iodine deficiency, which is a problem
>across the vast North China plain, home to 400 million people.
>
>
>Nathan Newman
>nathan at newman.org
>http://www.nathannewman.org
>
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