China has been without an emperor for just over a century. Life was as normal as any other day on February 12, 2012 in China. Very few people took notice that exactly 100 years ago on that day, the last emperor of China abdicated. A new era dawned, emperors and a few empresses, who had continuously reined China for over 2000, ceased to exist on that day. People were excited, hopeful, and confused. They wondered what kind of China would become in the years ahead.
The time was right for China to get rid of a system that failed to adapt to the new, expanded, and industrialized world. But China was not ready for a new system to replace the old one. It’s easy to destroy something and it’s far difficult to build another one, particularly when people refused to keep anything from the old system and there was nothing they could rely on to build a better system.
Thus ideas and experiments dominated the exploratory ways of building a new system. The American style republican system was ready, available, and shown to have worked and worked well. Thus many people took that and tried to implement it. Then foreign invasions and the deep rooted skepticism unseated that effort. The bunch of people who suddenly found themselves the new rulers of the nation needed to find a new way to explain to themselves and the world the nature of the system. They had something ready made for them, it was Marx’s Communism.
The novel and new idea seemed to be more advanced, promising, and better than the other idea. Many countries implemented it and the USSR practiced it to perfection. The Russians and their European and Asian allies built nations that were as powerful as the United States. The Chinese rulers had to adopt one of the two. Since their defeated foes took one side, they simply had no choice but to take the other side.
An idea was just an idea, particularly when it was about implementing it. The Chinese version of Marxism took its own form. Years after the last empire collapsed, a new empire came into being. The new empire was truly an empire in almost all aspects other than the title of the emperor and a westernized ideology. The new emperor had in mind of building a long lasting empire, just like many of his great predecessors. If he didn’t verbally proclaim his intentions, his behavior and conducts clearly bespoke all of his inner thoughts. But he was frustrated when his heir apparent died, which was a devastating blow to his ambitions. He was further frustrated when he couldn’t have official concubines to bear him other sons to continue his rule. As much as he wanted to be am emperor, he was still restrained by the progression of time.
His successors didn’t have his imagination and ambition. They didn’t believe in imperialism anymore. They realized that to continue to try to rule like an emperor was not only unrealistic but also very hazardous. So they tried other ideas, which were more practical and so far everything has been working. The ideas are not new but modifications of the old capitalisms that have been perfected in other countries after years of experiments and fine tuning.
The realism driven policies, although working in providing better food and clothing to the Chinese people, carry some unpleasant nuisances that contradict with the ideology and habits of the leaders who needed to adopt them. The contradictions have plagued the Chinese political systems in the last 30 years and there is no sign that there is a clear outcome.
It is clear that imperialism is dead. A hereditary system is no longer acceptable to be a legitimate system. One hundred years is not long in comparison to the many years of imperialistic rules. Many empires were created from the ashes of the previous empires. The replacement periods could be very short, or very long, sometimes a few hundred years. But this time there is no hope that a new empire can be built. China is now a part of the world, which just doesn’t allow imperialism any more.
It is also clear that the Chinese people are still undecided about a new system. This prevarication sometimes has been bloody. Many people believe that China should adopt the American and European systems while many other people insist on trying something new. The two sides have been engaged in a tug of war that currently shows no clear winner.
Decision on a system is definitely a big issue to resolve by the Chinese people. Without reckoning themselves with a clear choice on this issue, China will remain a country that is aimless in its future, unprincipled in its actions, and fruitless in contributing to the advancement of humanity.
The country now is basically lawless. There are certainly laws on paper, but nobody believes in them and nobody earnestly tries to enforce these laws. Anarchism currently rules China. The government is not a real government because it doesn’t know how to govern. There is no ultimate authority to resolve any dispute, big or small. When disputes cannot be peacefully resolved, chaos rein or iron hands rule.
There are no imperialistic style iron hands now. Thus China is settled in a chaotic state, in which everyone has to first take care of themselves before they can do anything else. People in this state tend to look at others before making their own moves. Saving their own livelihoods is now a paramount priority. We cannot blame people behaving this way, when people are in dire situations, the instinct of survival brings out the most selfish aspect of everyone.
There doesn’t seem to be a good way for China to get out this quagmire. If someone makes a move, he or she will likely become a martyr, which is against human instinct. If no one wants to be a sacrifice, outside force may be the only possible source of agitation to break the stalemate. The mature and stabilized systems that have been practiced in the majority of countries around global may be the most influential factor in slowly forcing China to merge into this group. The process can be slow but inevitable, as long as China remains in a state of irresolution.
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