The strange abduction of China’s foreign minister Qin Gang serves as a timely reminder that U.S. policy and internal events (such as the presidential election campaign) will not alone decide the future of U.S.-China relations. It will also be influenced by China’s developments, which are now murky but alarming.
From what outsiders can see, China is returning to a political system similar to that of the Mao period, which we have not seen in many years. The manipulation of websites and press releases to exclude the involvement and accomplishments of the foreign minister is more important than Qin’s enigmatic exit from power after the authorities claimed his absence was due to “health reasons.” In his book “1984,” George Orwell penned the foreboding aphorism, “Who controls the past controls the future,” and it seems that China’s ruling class politics these days are guided by that terrible maxim.
The technocratic administration that Deng Xiaoping brought in when he transformed China in the 1980s is a long cry from the current one. At the time, the Chinese political system looked incoherent—a dictatorship with age restrictions or term limitations on important positions. Where else might one find this type of totalitarian rule restriction? The king of China continues to have unrestricted authority in modern times. The “Third Revolution” in China—the first being led by Mao Zedong, the second by Deng, and the third by Xi Jinping—continues to be active.
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