Kong Fu Zi Still Runs China

Kong Fu Zi (Confucius) still runs China.

As the negotiations end in Beijing and the Politburo standing committee is unveiled we can see that the princelings, the children of an earlier generation of leaders, have grabbed the top spots. They already control much of the wealth in China.

As the New York Times said these princelings, who had endured the great leap forward and the cultural Revolution had learned that you could only trust family. After years of communism, blood is the only thing that matters. For example, Wen Jiabao's family now controls $2.7 billion. The illusion of communism has helped create an aristocracy in China. Xi Jinping, who replaces Hu Jintao, comes from a prominent family that has been important in China for generations.

How did a country that was allegedly communist end up being run by an aristocracy?

The answer lies in Chinese history.

 Confucianism stressed the importance of the relationships between the emperor and the people, husband and wife, father and children and the duties within these relationships. Your family was what really mattered.

The one philosopher who sought to change that was Mo Zi, who said all people should be valued and treated well, but this angered the Confucians and ultimately it was blood once again that mattered in China.

Long ago, Mo Zi enunciated the concept of the value of every individual and could have created a different society. His concept of jian ai, or universal love toward all mankind was a truly revolutionary idea for Chinese thought, but the followers of Confucius fought the concept. Confucians instead wanted special treatment of clans or families to isolate them from others who did not share their blood. So you had a society where you’d give a job to an incompetent family member, but philanthropy was not encouraged.  Buddhism was the only place where equality was part of the admission process.

At the end of the 19th century, the Japanese expanded the concept of family to sons’ in law, colleagues, and friends and it made Japan stronger. On the other hand, Sun Yat Sen, the father of modern China, said “The Chinese people are like sand, they fall through my hands.”

So after an experiment with communism, China has returned to a feudal state run by aristocrats who decide everything.