Chinese Communism: "the party stands naked"

Earthquakes and the Mandate of Heaven

Excerpts:

The massive quake that shook China's Sichuan province this week is one of the worst natural disasters – in terms of lives claimed and property destroyed – that the world has seen in some time. But an earthquake, according to Chinese tradition, is not a mere act of nature, nor is it simply a matter of fate. Traditionally, every earthquake announces profound changes that will affect the entire society.

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Journalists on location, as well as survivors, likewise observe that the buildings first to crumble, and that killed the most victims, were public edifices – schools and hospitals. Everyone in China knows that a common form of corruption in the ranks of the Communist Party consists in economizing on materials and construction standards.

Children crushed by the walls of their school are victims of the corruption of builders, businesses and government officials as much as they are victims of the earthquake. This the people know, and all the gesticulations of aid agencies and national leaders will not be able to eradicate this source of collective hatred of the people towards the party.

So it is with China and with tyrannical regimes: The party is convinced it controls everything. But it is often unexpected events that reveal fault lines in the system, the hypocrisy of public discourse, and the most unbearable injustices. Even as the people of Sichuan attempt to recover from this deadly quake, we learn that scores of children have died from an epidemic of hand, foot and mouth disease that has sickened tens of thousands. All of this reminds us of the panics of recent years provoked by the SARS virus, avian flu and the AIDS epidemic.

Epidemics and natural catastrophes (or not-so-natural catastrophes, if the Three Gorges Dam should also crumble) are more serious threats to the Communist tyranny than democratic pamphlets disseminated on Web sites. The party has resolved to imprison dissidents. But in the face of viruses, popular beliefs and earthquakes, the party stands naked.

Comment: Check out earthquake in the book of Revelation. The coming "BIG ONE": "there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth." (Revelation 16:18)