Originally Posted by
Dimeron
Except there are those who do wish for political reform, and some of them are part of the ruling communist party. Their voice may not be too loud right now, and the western media will rarely mention them because:
1. They do not internationalize their issues
2. They agree with CCP (and many Chinese) on variety of China's core issues, such as Currency, Sovereignty (Tibet, Taiwan), etc. Which means west will not like them very much.
3. They do not advocate immediate drastic change, but gradual changes, lead by Chinese for Chinese.
The minute any of them internationalize their issues or let them become influenced (or a tool) by foreign entities, they lose all sympathies by most Chinese people. Do you honestly expect Chinese people to support Liu with his colonization comments?
Here's an analogy for you. Lets say your roof is leaking. You know your roof is leaking and it needs to be fixed sometimes in the future before damage become permanent. Would you trust your neighbor that had a history of screwing you (and others) over when convenient? the same neighbor who is right now, trying to get your house re-zoned so you lose a big chunk of your property (Tibet) to weaken you? the same one that is blaming all his own economic problem on you?
No, you will trust the guy who while not fixing the roof right now, was able to get your house livable. They are not perfect, but the modern CCP has concrete results that benefit hundreds of millions of Chinese people on their side, whereas the west has history of trying to screw China and other nations over (when it is to their benefit to do so) using this kind of excuses.
The other thing is, instead of looking at rhetoric and propaganda, one can just look at recent history. The prosperous Asian economies. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, what do their development history all have in common? they all started very centralized if not outright authoritarian, and major political reform only came after economy, urbanization, and education has reached a certain level.
Reversely, you have Russia and India. The first tried to perform drastic changes and look how it turned out. The second one, while started out in a far better position 50 years ago, is now trailing China in all area of development. Although I'm sure US would love it if China imploded like Russia or end up not capable of challenging them like India.
The world is not black and white, democracy is not some magic bean that make everything all better. Chinese people are not stupid, they look at sum of the results and the modern CCP just simply have done a lot more than the so called "human right" champions China bashers, whom most are doing it either:
1. To strengthen their own cause and interests and/or weaken China using "human right/democracy/<insert catchphrase of the day>" as a convenient excuse.
2. To feel morally Superior for their own ego, domestic political, or monetary gains.
Now, you can put yourself in Chinese people's shoes (or talk to them, either works), or you can keep believing they are all just brainwashed sheeps who has the common sense to choose proven propserity over empty words and unknown future.
PS. from my personal experience of reading news from both China and the West, IMO when it comes to brainwashing, propaganda, and Spin, the western media is far, far better at it. China seriously need to improve in that area if they wish to compete on a global scale.