Olympic Epiphany

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http://media.asiasociety.org/video/chinaboom/CG-OlympicEpiphany.mp4
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A lot of the problems are not as simple as they seem.

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<p>Before the Olympics, many of China's problems seemed clearer to me than they are now. How do you understand China?&nbsp;By the problems in its ideology? As a one party system? But, after I had worked on Olympics for 2.5 years, and in thinking about China's culture, its ancient cultural values and heritage and what was passed down to contemporary China as one of the themes in preparation for opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics and, at the same time, working with many Chinese politicians and other people, I saw the rapid changes playing out in Chinese politics, the hard work and the difficulties experienced by the Chinese officials. A lot of the problems are not as simple as they seem.<br /> <br /> On the one hand, we could feel the greatness of universal values. We should push for human rights, democracy, freedom, open society, freedom of speech, the right of political participation, etc. We should continuously try to remind society [of these values], so that society can increasingly have these universal humanistic values. Because these are all are universal, people's dignity and people's basic rights.<br /> <br /> But, on the other hand, we also feel, or understand, to a degree, that, in fact, the top leaders of the CCP, they also know that these universal values aren't something that only the Westerners hold, they are universally necessary, including for Chinese people. Chinese people have contributed to these universal values. Like the advent of the ancient merit system, where even the poorest farmers and segments of society, as long as they had talent, could become the country's leader through merit tests. Chinese people, including the government, have realized this. They also realize that this kind of political and societal openness has not been reached. It hasn't reached the societal value of putting people first. This society can be said to have an unhealthy and unsustainable distribution of the benefits derived from economic development in the long term. I feel that this is clear to the government officials.<br /> <br /> In their reality, they're firstly a party system, they're controlling the country. Firstly, they have a process, a condition: They want to build slowly, to make China a multi-party society, to have more openness and more freedom for expression. And then allow public opinion to supervise the party, to supervise the government. This process is self-conflicting and difficult one.<br /> <br /> On the one hand, what I just said is obviously the more selfish side of things, but on the other hand, when considering the responsibilities of the CCP to the public, the country and history. They will also consider mass disruptions -- they don't want the many kinds of political disruptions, thought struggles, debates and fights, anything that will disrupt rapid economic growth.</p>
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Cai Guoqiang explains how many of China's biggest problems are not as simple as they may seem. While the Chinese Communist Party is obviously concerned with remaining in power, top leaders realize that the current form of government is not necessarily ideal and are looking to find non-disruptive ways to improve on its flaws.