In a “mini-debate” posted at Dissent Magazine, Daniel A. Bell and Michael Walzer contend the question: Should the international community do more to support democracy in China?
Bell establishes the parameters for the discussion by defining ‘democracy’ as ”free and fair competitive elections at the national level” and ‘promotion’ to mean “moral criticism of a non-democratic status quo.” Unsurprisingly, given his other writings, Bell’s answer is no, and he argues this by comparing China to despicable regimes in Burma and Zimbabwe, while outlining five conditions which he feels do justify ‘moral criticism’ in the service of democratization.
I’ve listed the five below and sketched out Bell’s defense of the Chinese system with Walzer’s responses:
The target country must be led by an outlaw regime. (Bell: Not when compared to the Burmese junta or the Robert Mugabe. Walzer: What is the threshold for moral criticism? Need it be so rigorous?) Outsiders can confidently predict that the rulers would lose democratic elections. (Bell: The urban elite LOVE the CCP. Walzer: If full political freedoms were granted, the CCP would lose power with two to three election cycles.) There is an obvious political alternative. (Bell: Been in China awhile and haven’t found one yet. Nobody seems to be getting organized. Walzer:
From yesterday’s Lithuania-China game…
YJ and I went to the US-China baseball match last night at Wukesong Stadium. I was at Wukesong this past spring for the LA Dodgers-San Diego Padre AAAA international tour, and the experience last night was more or less the same…with the addition of a few thousand rowdy China supporters making up in exuberance what they might have lacked in actual baseball knowledge.
And I tell you, folks: those fans were treated to a real old-fashioned barnburner.*
The score wasn’t close (9-1 USA) but we had a little of everything. Former MLB manager, one-time “Batman” guest villan, and now coach of the China team Jim Lefebvre got tossed in the sixth for arguing with the umpire. US outfielder Nate Schierholtz, attempting to score on a sac fly from catcher Taylor Teagarden, completely took out Chinese catcher Yang Yang in a close play at the plate. The Chinese fans in my section–perhaps not up on the rules–wanted Schierholtz called for a foul or at least to receive a yellow card. I reminded them that if the catcher has the ball and is attempting to block the plate, the runner can use any means at his disposal short of shooting the guy to knock the ball loose and score.**
The Chinese had already
I took advantage of the sunny skies to do some urban hiking through the legation quarter, up through Tiananmen Square and back over to Wangfujing. Some random TGIF thoughts:
Today was a BLUE SKY day. We’re talking 蓝 freaking 天. First one of the Games and well timed too as track and field preliminaries kicked of today.
The square was busy with every available piece of shade filled with resting bodies. I’m not kidding. There was a row of people lined up squatting on the concrete in formation, perfectly aligned along the 6″ x 6′ shadow of the light post. Who says Beijingers don’t queue?
The visible security at the square didn’t appear out of the ordinary. The square always has its share of personnel, and today I didn’t feel like there was a huge increase in the security presence. Quite a few visitors though, and walking around I was treated to a cacophony of languages—Cantonese, German, Italian, Spanish, English, Japanese, Korean, and those were the ones I could identify from snatches of conversation, there were more to be sure.
No scam artists on Wangfujing!?!? Or maybe there were so many foreign visitors that they didn’t get around to me
There has been a bit of bally-hoo in the press about China putting an end to US Olympic dominance, a dominance which doesn’t seem to jibe with history. I took a look at the medal counts for the Summer Olympics, and since 1956 (not counting the boycott years of 1980 and 1984, a total of 11 Olympics) the US has topped the gold medal chart five times. Not bad, but three of the five have come since 1996. From 1956 to 1996, the US only placed first twice, finishing second to the USSR in 1956, 1960, 1972, 1976, 1988, and to the Unified Team in 1992. In fact, in 1988, the USA finished third behind both the USSR and East Germany. Now admittedly we have had a bit of a good run since 1996, but I’d hardly call the US track record over the past fifty years of Olympiads ’dominant.’
Nor would it seem prudent to link gold medal tallies with the health or prosperity of a particular country or economy or to the stability of its political system. After all, in the years between Seoul and Barcelona, of the top 10 countries in terms of overall gold medals in 1988: the top two (USSR and GDR) ceased to exist, four
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