From the oak tree-lined avenues of Stellenbosch comes advice to President Cyril Ramaphosa on what to say, or not, when he addresses us next week in his annual state of the nation ritual. Don’t bother to promise millions of jobs, concentrate on providing work instead, says former public protector Thuli Madonsela, the law trust chair in social justice at the University of Stellenbosch. She urges Ramaphosa, “when it comes to a business literacy grounding for government, let’s look to China for guidance”. She adds, though, that “you don’t need to govern like China’’.
Not entirely bad advice, really, but the problem is you can’t have China’s record-busting economy without having its rotten form of government and social control too. It is a success that is built on the broken backs of millions.
Too often lost in the ideologically-inspired wonder at China’s dizzying growth rates is any regard for the freedom and liberty of the unsung minions who labour there somewhere on the spectrum between full humanity and something far less than that, a being that works, but dares not think for itself. You would wonder at the casualness at which the greatest human achievements, democracy and the enshrinement of individual rights, would be so carelessly bartered for a trinket called growth.
Take the cannot-be-disputed fact that “China lifted 300-million people out of poverty”, which is the alleged foundation of the China “growth miracle’’. It is assumed to be the product of the Chinese state and its communist system. So if you’re one for templates, carve out a big interventionist role for a future South African state along Chinese lines and start chalking up 7% growth rates. But the “Chinese model” is one thing from China that should never be exported.
The first big difference between any South African state and the Chinese state is in China they actually listen to their state and, most importantly, obey. This is clearly not the case in SA, where the state is something to be argued with, questioned, ignored if possible and avoided.
The first big difference between any South African state and the Chinese state is in China they actually listen to their state and, most importantly, obey. This is clearly not the case in SA, where the state is something to be argued with, questioned, ignored if possible and avoided. These are generally good things. If necessary, the state can be paid off or bribed, which is not so good. SA’s laws and business culture are hostile to the young entrepreneur, but this obstacle can be surmounted with ingenuity and guile. By contrast, the Chinese state is remote, cold, officious, ruthlessly efficient and single-minded in its entrenchment and furtherance of the practices and beliefs of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It works, frightfully so; not a crack of light is allowed.
I listed remote as a characteristic of the monolithic Chinese state, but that’s only partly true, for the deliberate infiltration of party members at all levels of the economy is part of business in China. Which brings one to the second big difference between SA and China, which is it has the communist party and we, alas (or fortunately), have the ANC. Many in the ANC have visited China to see how their party could become more like the CCP. After repeated visits, their conclusion seems to have been that the loyalty, fear and dread that the CCP engenders in its members is not really ANC, or very South African. Besides, tyranny is hard work, a 24/7 thing, and no weekends either.
When it comes to commentary on its so-called internal matters, China is a bit like Israel, in that criticism of the state and its policies is seen to be “antisemitic’’, or in this case “Sinophobic’’. It’s infinitely ironic that those who are quick to apply these labels fail to give the Chinese people, hardworking to a fault as they are, rather than the party and its system, any credit whatsoever for the time and labour and lives given in the name of the Chinese national project. This, as I understand it, is to “Make China Great Again” and to return it to the “greatness’’ it enjoyed before its subjugation and colonisation by the West. If there is one thing that is as great as the Chinese state, in its own small way, it’s the Chinese family-owned sweatshop, the aggregation of millions of which provided the seed of enterprise to turn China into the world’s factory in the first place.
China’s version of state-led capitalism with 'Chinese characteristics' is there to enforce a culture of unquestioning obeisance and loyalty to the party, of which they make no secret. Economic growth is, if anything, a secondary objective.
For the lucky few (and in China that means millions) who have been able to marshal their savings from poorly paid, non-unionised jobs for long hours and little pay, a close encounter with the glittering temples of Western luxury capitalism is within reach on a stroll on the sidewalks of Beijing. For others, though, the sense of community of the days of village poverty are but a memory as they contemplate dull futures in soulless high-rises that poke up into the smoky skies of megacities.
So in Africa we have clearer skies and freedom, largely, and the spirit of complaint, argument, contestation and protest is alive and well. One could argue that precolonial forms of organisation and government in Africa fostered a more democratic political culture to what arose in Asia, where dictatorship was a bulwark against disorder. And the Western colonial culture transplanted here further broadened the liberating appeal of enlightened ideals.
Contrary to the thesis of the EFF’s Julius Malema, it is not mainly economic freedom that is the cornerstone of the struggle, such as it is, in SA. Essential as we deem these items to be, having pots and pans and houses and cars can only go so far in helping humans attain fulfilment, as complex and baffling as this may be, and a nation realise its destiny.
Of course, another practical obstacle is Cosatu, which apparently can’t be translated into any Chinese language. In China there is one big “sweetheart” trade union and it’s run by the CCP. Who else? There are also the remnants of a pass system that discourages free movement of labour, and helps unscrupulous employers exploit so-called “illegal’’ workers. A workers’ paradise it ain’t.
China’s version of state-led capitalism with “Chinese characteristics’’ is there to enforce a culture of unquestioning obeisance and loyalty to the party, of which they make no secret. Economic growth is, if anything, a secondary objective.
So while we’re in that neighbourhood assessing role models, aren’t South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and even Hong Kong worth a look? They’re also prospering and at least they’re more fun.
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