By Jeff J. Brown
Pictured above: Chinese protesters letting their leaders know how unhappy they are that South Korea allowed the US to install its THAAD missile system aimed at them, this in 2017. The vast majority of China’s 300-500 daily protests are for internal reasons, but the citizens do vent their feelings about anti-Chinese machinations overseas. It is very telling they used Mao Zedong’s portrait to express their displeasure. Every Chinese citizen knows that without him, China would just be another plundered, raped, balkanized, continent-sized Indonesia, Columbia or Syria, being destroyed by Western empire.
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Live from the streets of China, Jeff
Downloadable SoundCloud podcast (also at the bottom of this page), YouTube video, as well as being syndicated on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, RUvid and Ivoox (links below),
In Southwest Sichuan Province Rongxian County, the people there protested openly to their local officials, because of two minor earthquakes that recently happened. They thought it was due to drilling using high pressure fracturing of the Earth’s upper strata, to release the trapped hydrocarbons underground. The popular name for it is fracking or shale drilling.
In their case, two people died from these and numerous other earthquakes in their area, since fracking was started, which weren’t happening before, so there is a 99% chance their suspicions of the source are a bullseye (http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1140106.shtml). I should know. I grew up in Oklahoma, where drilling for hydrocarbons is the biblical 11th Commandment and to protest against the oil industry ranks right down there with bestiality. Since fracking was started there 10-11 years ago, the people have experienced thousands of tremors and property damaging earthquakes. A few brave souls are suing the oilies, but in a state perforated with oil and gas wells and the halls of government and the courts dominated by barrels of petroleum industry cash, they have about as much chance of winning their suit as they do the Power Ball lottery (https://inhabitat.com/oklahoma-earthquake-activity-up-4000-locals-sue-oil-and-gas-companies/).
Not in China, which has the most responsive, participatory democracy on Earth. One way the people here express their rights is to publicly protest and they do so, 300-500 times a day across the country, something I wrote about in The China Trilogy. In the case of the Rongxian County, Chinese social media showed videos of 1,000 local citizens trying to push down the local government’s building gate, with 100 police working to keep it standing upright. In the US or Europe, those people would have been tear gassed, tasered, pepper sprayed, beaten. In Europe they also freely use rubber bullets and in the US, they like to gun them down with lead ones.
As a result, the Rongxian county officials announced that all fracking would stop post haste. Now, that’s what I call effective democracy! See how far you get trying that in the West.
Chinese democracy is in constant action to serve the needs of the citizens. I reported earlier on another way the citizens here participate, a single family conducting a street protest, this one with a mother and her baby selling breast milk to raise money (http://chinarising.puntopress.com/2018/01/30/60-seconds-over-sinoland-selling-breast-milk-as-public-protest-is-chinese-democracy-in-action-china-rising-radio-sinoland-180131/). They would have been thrown in jail in the US, if they were lucky enough not to get physically harmed, and in Europe likely arrested too, or just simply ignored. In the US, the mother may have lost her child to the state’s “protection services”.
Why and How China works: With a Mirror to Our Own History
JEFF J. BROWN, Editor, China Rising, and Senior Editor & China Correspondent, Dispatch from Beijing, The Greanville Post
Jeff J. Brown is a geopolitical analyst, journalist, lecturer and the author of The China Trilogy. It consists of 44 Days Backpacking in China – The Middle Kingdom in the 21st Century, with the United States, Europe and the Fate of the World in Its Looking Glass (2013); Punto Press released China Rising – Capitalist Roads, Socialist Destinations (2016); and for Badak Merah, Jeff authored China Is Communist, Dammit! – Dawn of the Red Dynasty (2017). As well, he published a textbook, Doctor WriteRead’s Treasure Trove to Great English (2015). Jeff is a Senior Editor & China Correspondent for The Greanville Post, where he keeps a column, Dispatch from Beijing and is a Global Opinion Leader at 21st Century. He also writes a column for The Saker, called the Moscow-Beijing Express. Jeff writes, interviews and podcasts on his own program, China Rising Radio Sinoland, which is also available on YouTube, Stitcher Radio, iTunes, Ivoox and RUvid. Guests have included Ramsey Clark, James Bradley, Moti Nissani, Godfree Roberts, Hiroyuki Hamada, The Saker and many others. [/su_spoiler]
Jeff can be reached at China Rising, je**@br***********.com, Facebook, Twitter, Wechat (Jeff_Brown-44_Days) and Whatsapp: +86-13823544196.
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The pro-fracking propaganda produced by think tanks and media companies sponsored by the oil companies in America must be seen to be believed. They go for broke and bombard you with logical fallacies, scaremongering, libelous rumours, or any other tactic necessary to convince you that their interests should be supported. They enjoy a guarantee of the government in their pockets via luxurious bribes, carve out their “turf” as one of the most common employers in deprived areas of “Flyover Country” or nearby, and finally attempt to win over hearts and minds as the Cherry on the sundae.
Thanks, Martin. Great comments.
Dmitri Orlov wrote and article recently where he said the fracking industry in the US has lost $300 billion dollars and is being propped up by loans and tax subsidies.
Sichuan has a lot of shale hydrocarbons. It will be interesting to see how Baba Beijing approaches it, vis-a-vis the citizens. They are not going to get walked on, like in the West.
Best from China, Jeff