| Regarding #3, he said that the reason they can't control people as they move to cities is to: a) the use of cellphones/internet spreads information b) their ability to collectivize and locally share information in high-density cities But have you read any recent books on China post-internet? They have largely succeeded in maintaining control of the peoples perceptions of vast amounts of issues. They might not be able to stop CNN/Tweets from getting out but they have an incredibly powerful propoganda machine that makes sure all the citizens distrust Western dissent. So even with access people question it and Second, the government employees a massive '50-cent army' to sway opinion all over the internet. Thousands of people who endless comment on websites in highly deceptive ways. Third, the party co-opts popular influencial youth such as Han-han [0] and Zhou Xiaoping [1], and makes sure their message is anti-western and pro-state (with degrees of restraint to make it non-obvious). Fourth, those cell phones have nothing but helped the Chinese party pick up and 'disappear' any dissidents. So I disagree with Lee Kuan-yew that China can not maintain control. They have and are. 1 out of 3 people in China work for the party, how can they not maintain control? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Han [1] http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/10/21/is_this_the... |
I would say rather that the CPC manages to hang on to public opinion because they are quite stable and the economy does well enough under their leadership. But all the stuff that they do to control the minds of the public (censorship, wumao's, controlling the bloggers) is pretty much a failure, they hang on despite this.