Enigma of China

Начало книги

Chief Inspector Chen Cao, of the Shanghai Police Bureau, was attending a lecture at the Shanghai Writers’ Association, sitting in the audience, frowning yet nodding, as if in rhythmic response to the speech.

“The enigma of China. What’s that? Well, there’s a popular political catchphrase-socialism with Chinese characteristics-which is indeed an umbrella term for many enigmatic things. Things that are called socialist or communist in our Party’s newspapers but are in practice actually capitalistic, primitive or crony capitalistic, and utterly materialistic. And feudalistic, in that the children of high cadres-or princes-are themselves high cadres: the ‘red trustworthy,’ or the successors in our one-party system.

“In spite of the Party propaganda machines chunking away at full throttle, Chinese society is morally, ideologically, and ethically bankrupt, yet still going, going like the rabbit in an American television commercial.”

Читать дальше →