China is a great country. It has a past and it has a future.
As with all countries of the world, no country is perfect. China is great, but not perfect, even if their leaders wish to indicate so.
It is an economic and military powerhouse as of now. It has hegemony aspirations and why not? It has superpower aspirations and why not?
China and the Chinese people have no qualms of what others feel that the population is being ‘suppressed’ by a ‘dictatorial and totalitarian’ Communist regime. The Chinese people don’t feel so and what the Chinese feel is what matters and not what the world thinks should be the right path. The world must understand what ‘Legalism’ that the Chinese people have practised throughout modern history is. Legalism is but what the Communists are only extending – the King or the State knows best! Since we don’t understand Legalism, we claim they are brainwashed. They are not. If what is happening is brainwashing, then it is a historical hand me down.
One can’t blame the Chinese. All Orientals have this father figure fixation or respect for the elders that is alien to the Occidental cultures. Therefore, the Govt or the CCP is the father figure.
Unlike other Oriental countries, because China is under Communism, it is repressive. The Chinese don’t mind it now. If one has visited the ‘freer’ Chinese communities as in Singapore and Hong Kong, they will realise that the Chinese are sharp businessfolks. Money speaks. They live in abject moderation with stark minimalistic existence, but they will reap in money since that is the sole pursuit!