Written by Laurence Brahm - Published by South China Morning Post on 05/31/2005

When Premier Wen Jiabao received a delegation of American business leaders during the Fortune Global Forum in Beijing two weeks ago, they must have been anticipating promises of super-growth and open markets.

But what Mr Wen had to say was not, perhaps, what the executives expected or wanted to hear.

“The two messages I want to convey are: wealth is not just about economics, but also culture. We should not only look at the Fortune 500, but also at poor people who make up half of the population,” Mr Wen warned.

“If there is no development, the material and cultural needs of people cannot be met and society will certainly not be stable. However, if wealth is not distributed fairly and if it is concentrated in the hands of a few, the society will also not be stable.”

Something is evolving within the brain centre of China’s political ideology that speaks to the developing world and nations undergoing economic and political transition. As one ambassador in Beijing commented recently: “Half capitalism, half not and half democracy, half not; what if China shows the world such a model can work?”

Many are quietly asking this same question, from India to Latin America. Could new economic and even political models be evolving in China?

In many ways, Hong Kong is the front line of this emergence from material pragmatism. British-American-educated pro-democracy activists face off against patriarchal pro-China business interests in Hong Kong’s legislature, representing a mixture of social and commercial constituencies and popular votes.

Ironically Mr Wen’s address may not differ much from what some of these Hong Kong activists are telling the tycoons.

Hong Kong’s legislative elite represents both a clash and merger of values. But what comes of it may be healthy. The central leadership has opened new political dialogue not limited to tycoons.

It may not be saying the chief executive will be elected directly, but it is assuring to know that Beijing has finally learned to listen to and feel the pulse of the Hong Kong people.

There is no single formula for representative government. Hong Kong’s pro-democracy legislators should be encouraged to press for more transparency of government and institutionalised processes, while realising that merging two political cultures is not easy, and may create a third, alternative, one.

President Hu Jintao’s ideas of creating a “harmonious society” based on the premise of China’s “peaceful rise” have more to do with the Buddhist “middle way” than with confrontational class struggles of Marxism. Such an approach may prove better suited to building political, economic and social institutions in Asia.

Maybe this century, with its new problems, calls for political as well as economic models differing from ideologies fixed during the 19th century.

Such thoughts may be viewed with as much heresy among Washington think-tanks as China’s premier telling Fortune 500 CEOs to distribute their wealth.

But much of the world is discovering, in some cases, tragically, that when democracy is proselytized without the substance and structures which make societies function, it is meaningless.

The 21st century is quickly proving that premising political theory on one’s right to vote while disregarding socio-cultural realities, does not guarantee happiness, prosperity, or the world’s political and social stability.

Electoral systems, as well as political solutions, cannot be franchised universally like a fast-food chain.

Back to Top