Jottings from the Granite Studio

There’s a new essay at OpenDemocracy by Kerry Brown, author of the book Struggling Giant: China in the 21st Century. Brown argues that while the Olympics currently dominate both the headlines and the attention of Chinese government officials, the twin problems of corruption and inflation will remain once the spotlight has been turned off, the athletes go home, and the One World, One Dream banners start to come down. When August’s celebration ends and September’s hangover subsides, will the people’s attention once again return to rising food prices and a culture of endemic local corruption?

First off, as a historian, I’m not sure I completely agree with the historical parallels Brown uses in his essay if only because China will be a very different place in 2009 than it was in 1989, never mind 1949, but as politicians the world over are all too well aware, pocketbook issues need to be taken seriously, even in places where the vast majority of people are shut out of the political process.

The CCP’s legitimacy rests on its perceived competence at managing economic development. Discontent over spiking food prices coupled with growing frustration over corruption, especially at the local level, threaten the Party’s