Red Star Over China

This article provides a well done overview of the political factions in China’s political sphere. I think the most interesting thing that I pulled from this was the the movement of the New Left. As stated in the article, the leaders and many members of this faction were forced out of the country during the tumultuous 1980’s because of their progressive views.  However, they returned from the once believed capitalist and democratic utopia, the United States, with a belief in government involvement in the economy. However, the New Right faction did not have members that were forced out during those years yet hold very capitalist/laissez-fairebeliefs, which would have been heavily persecuted during the 1980’s in China.  Like the article is hinting, these factions hold very evident similarities to many other western nation’s political parties.  As much as Chinese and Western leaders will deny, the similarities between these two spheres seems to be overlapping with each passing decade. I think that the real question is when will these factions be recognized as separate political parties instead of factions within the CCP? 

These talks, in my opinion, represent a missed opportunity for the United States.  The  stigma of Cuba and their socialist society in the US has hindered the advancement of a neighboring country.  While the US has recently allowed travel to Cuba for a select number of its citizens a year, there is still an embargo in place that hinders any real economic relations to develop. Therefore like many other situations, China is more than willing to step in and provide capital for Cuba’s growing economy. Cuba’s recent move to allow privatization of property for their citizens and overall economic reform shows that the Cuban leaders are willing to break from past ideologies to advance the country. The US could easily get its foot in the door with this developing country but because of old preconceived notions, that I feel many Americans don’t even understand, China will likely grab up this market before the US.  Also as the article stated, the relations between Cuba and China, with this deal, will deepen and broaden.  This means that China could possibly have a country next to the US deeply within its sphere of influence, which in the long run could be beneficial to China but could also strain relations between these two super powers leaving Cuba in the middle to be sacrificed. 

Hong Kong is one of the more confusing aspects of Chinese policy.  However as was stated by Hu Jintao, HK falls under the one China two systems that the government has adopted for situations like HK and Taiwan.  This is the idea that ultimately HK is under the control of the Chinese government but is not subjected to the same rules as the mainland.  This is evident in the protests and rallies that took place this last week against the lack of political freedoms for the people of HK.  As the article states, the numbers from last year’s demonstration has risen substantially and this could be a sign for the beginning of a powerful political movement.  It will be interesting to see how the long the momentum of these recent demonstrations lasts.