Ultra
Junior Member
I think China is already in the middle phase of its development towards becoming more like Singapore - it is entering the middle income bracket, it is now the economic powerhouse of the world, it has the centralized leadership that can do anything they want. And ever since Xi Jinping became the leader, he has work tirelessly to try to eliminate corruption - the next phase to make China more like Singapore.
As Deng Xiaoping said in 1992: "Singapore's social order is rather good. Its leaders exercise strict management. We should learn from their experience, and we should do a better job than they do."
"Deng explicitly called upon Guangdong Province to catch up with the "four dragons" over the next two decades, "not only catching up with them in terms of economic prosperity but also in terms of social order and public conduct."
"Deng has also called for China to build "several Hong Kongs" along its coast, and Wu Bangguo, the Communist Party leader in Shanghai, was recently even more explicit. Mr. Wu reportedly told a visitor that China aimed to learn from the policies of South Korea and Singapore in developing their economies."
"The emulation of Singapore, an island-state whose population of 2.7 million is 77 percent ethnic Chinese, reflects a growing consensus among China's leaders that prosperity and order are more important than Marxist ideology. Singapore is attractive in that it has enjoyed an economic miracle with political stability in a system dominated by a single political party that the voters regularly return to power by overwhelming margins."
"The talk about Singapore says a lot about what Deng wants," said a Chinese economist. "He would like to free up the economy, but he wants tight political control." Clean and Orderly
"Singapore not only has very few street protests; it has a cleanliness and orderliness that critics find dreary and antiseptic but that Mr. Deng regards as inspiring. There is no pornography, no extreme poverty, little corruption and not much spitting or littering in public. Bubble gum is prohibited, and critical foreign publications are sometimes banned."
"Of course old Deng likes Singapore," said a young Chinese Government official. "It's run by Chinese, it's efficient, it's rich, and no one jabbers about human rights."
"The point is that Mr. Deng increasingly seems to regard Communist economic dogma -- state ownership and central planning -- as details that can be fudged. On the other hand, the bedrock of Chinese Communism, on which no compromise is allowed, is continued political control and maintenance of social order. This conception of government rests less on Marx than on Confucius. The sense of continuity from earlier Chinese dynasties, less visible in the Maoist era, has become more apparent in the last decade. The core convictions of "Emperor Deng" seem to have little to do with economic ideology. Instead, what Mr. Deng is passionate about is the Communist dynasty's right to rule and the need for a strong central government."
Fast forward to 2015, what a difference 22 years make. More than ever, China is no longer Marxist, and the communist party's "right to rule" is nowadays rest solely on its economic management of the country,, and increasingly the wellbeing of its citizens (pollution being one of the top agenda for the past 2 years). The article is proven more than prophetic, the communist party has dump the marxism completely and now trying to revive the Confucianism.
The Chinese Communist Party's Confucian Revival
Confucius rises as Communist Party revives tradition
"The redesign of the Communist road is evident when officials are asked what kind of a country they are trying to build. Officials sometimes describe their work as "mozhe shitou guo he" -- crossing the river by feeling with one's feet for the stones to step on. But there tend to be long silences when they are asked what is on the other side of the river."
"Lei Yu, a prominent reformist who is now vice chairman of the Guangxi region in southern China, ventured an answer to that question in an interview earlier this year. Whatever changes, he said, the fundamental aim of Chinese socialism is collective prosperity and the absence of large income gaps between the rich and poor."
"If people live better, without big income gaps, that's the important thing," Mr. Lei said.
"China's leaders seem much more envious of Singaporean wealth than of its voting system, and some of the "four dragons" in the past combined bustling markets with brutal repression. That deft combination may be what China's leaders hope to adopt for themselves."
I think that has already come true, the chinese communist party will not renounce their power, that's a certainty. Most of the chinese population at this stage does not want democracy either (I have asked many mainland chinese about this - mostly my in-laws who are self-made millionaires from Guangzhou and very rich by chinese standard - they are extremely skeptical about democracy, for example my sister-in-law who is educated in the west with a master degree in accounting said it pointedly "what's so good about democracy" even though she lives in a democratic country the same sentiment echo by her relatives).
I think as long as the communist party don't make any major mistakes it will continue to be in absolute power for the foreseeable future, just like Singapore, Saudi Arabia.
Funny thing, I have asked many of my Singaporean friends the same thing, and talked to a Saudi one time too, and they are FIERCE defendent of their own regime. If you don't believe me, ask people who come from these two countries.
