The Chinese Communist Party’s internal discipline agency last week posed this question: “Why is there order in ‘China’ and disorder in the ‘West’?”
asserted
agency → pose → West
The fifth plenum of the party’s 20th Central Committee was choreographed down to the last bottle of black hair dye.
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plenum → choreograph → dye
The hundreds of committee members in their identikit suits stood in unison, clapped in unison, raised their hands to vote in unison.
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hundreds → stand → unison
The need for rigorous discipline within the party – “to forge iron one must be strong oneself”.
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one → forge → iron
And the cadres voted to “strictly implement democratic centralism”.
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cadres → vote → centralism
You can have all the democracy you want so long as it’s centralised.
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it → have → democracy
The 12 main Chinese daily newspapers all carried the identical two photographs across the top of their front pages, one a close-up of Xi Jinping looking statesmanlike, the other a wide shot of the members meeting in the Jingxi Hotel.
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members → carry → Hotel
Across the top of every paper was the identical headline: “The Communist Party of China has held the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee in Beijing”.
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Party → hold → Beijing
And below was straight-faced reporting of the 4000-word plenum communique, including breakthroughs such as this: “It was unanimously agreed that the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core demonstrated tremendous political courage and a strong sense of responsibility …”
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Committee → include → responsibility
As for America’s big political event, due on Wednesday, Australian time, I can do no better than to quote the opening sentences of my colleague Michael Koziol’s report of last week: “On Sunday, US President Donald Trump took a break from complimenting the buttocks of Republican senator Jon Husted to admire someone else’s.
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Trump → do → someone
“‘I looked at one hell of a beautiful ass before – Nicki Minaj,’ [Trump] said of the well-endowed rapper, who attended the president’s rally in Michigan.
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who → look → Michigan
‘That’s hard to miss.’”
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That → ’ → ?
Koziol noted, alongside the comic routine, the “more sinister matter” of “spiralling racism”.
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Koziol → note → racism
It’s not just Trump.
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It → ’ → ?
Americans are so inured to the open slather of their election system that no one seems terribly fussed about the fact that Elon Musk has so far pumped half a billion US dollars into the election in support of Republicans.
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Musk → seem → Republicans
The Electoral Integrity Project run jointly by Sydney and Harvard Universities found that “experts rated American elections as the worst among all Western democracies”, as Harvard’s Pippa Norris wrote.
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Norris → run → democracies
Like the ramshackle system that allows gerrymanders every bit as rotten as the rotten boroughs of England, undemocratic affronts that England outlawed in the 19th century while its modern American analogue flourishes more blatantly than ever.
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analogue → allow → century
And the Chinese Communist Party didn’t need to look too far to find evidence of chaos in the streets of some European nations.
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Party → need → nations
Notably, the weekly violence in France and Italy which has now spread to Germany.
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which → spread → Germany
No wonder the Beijing regime is feeling emboldened to offer itself as the model: “Looking around the world, full and rigorous Party self-governance in the new era has provided new experience for the world’s political parties in resolving governance problems and achieving flourishing parties and well-governed states,” boasted the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
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Commission → feel → Inspection
By contrast, some Western countries were “mired in internal attrition from partisan struggle”.
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countries → mire → struggle
As evidence of its rigorous self-governance, the party last week disclosed that it had purged 33 of its senior members and military officers.
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it → disclose → members
For foreign media, this was the big story to emerge from the fifth plenum.
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this → emerge → plenum
It was widely reported as the biggest purge of the party’s top rank in half a century.
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It → report → century
Xi’s purges are relentless and increasing.
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purges → increase → ?
From the plenum’s roll call last week, we learned that 279 remain, meaning 97 have been purged.
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97 → learn → call
Some simply disappear without trace.
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Some → disappear → trace
It’s especially sweeping in the military.
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It → ’ → military
Of the 47 military leaders who were generals in 2022 or promoted to that rank after 2022, Xi has purged or potentially purged 41, according to the China Power Project of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
uncertain
Xi → promote → Studies
That’s 87 per cent.
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That → ’ → ?
Absurdly, the seven-member Central Military Commission that rules the People’s Liberation Army is down to just two members – Xi himself plus a general who is not a military commander but a political enforcer.
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who → rule → members
In other words, the military is overseen by two men who know nothing of warfare but everything about politics.
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who → oversee → politics
“Xi, the poor bastard,” says the Australian sinologist Geremie Barmé.
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sinologist → say → ?
“He’s been in power 14 years, he’s purged all these people and he’s about to launch his ninth nationwide campaign of collective study and patriotism to strengthen the loyalty of the people.”
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he → purge → people
Repression has reached ridiculous extremes.
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Repression → reach → extremes
For instance, the party now prohibits criticism of its economic policies, a sure sign of widespread economic discontent.
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party → prohibit → discontent
What’s next?
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What → ’ → ?
Barmé says the neverending rounds of purge and repression are a sure sign that the same political unrest afflicting the West is seething under the surface in China, too, especially among the young.
“
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unrest → say → young
It’s all going on in China but it’s constantly being crushed by the biggest repression machine in the world, now AI-assisted.”
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it → go → world
All the accumulating problems of China’s system will have to be confronted eventually, he predicts.
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he → accumulate → system
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
