MCLC: Pussy Riot and China

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Martin Winter <dujuan99 at gmail.com>
Subject: Pussy Riot and China
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Source: Martin Winter's blog (8/21/12): http://blog.sina.com.cn/dujuan9999
or http://erguotou.wordpress.com

2 years for singing in church. One media comment I saw after the Pussy
Riot verdict wondered whether Russia is trying to emulate China, where the
word civil society is banned on the Internet. People put up with
authoritarian one-party rule because it brings economic success, the
comment said. But it won't work in Russia, because the economy depends on
natural resources, not on industry. In China, government policy and
enforced stability have caused economic success, the comment suggested.
However, the prominent law and economy professors Qin Hui 秦暉 and He
Weifang 賀衛方 have been saying for years that the economic miracle of the
1980s depended on a consensus to move away from the Cultural Revolution,
as well as on investment from Taiwan, Hong Kong and overseas. After 1989,
there has been no comparable social consensus. The social drawbacks of the
economic miracle and the gap between rich and poor may have grown faster
than the economy. But they let it happen. The economy, the art, the
internet. Even protests, when they are against Japan, and/or not too big.
And they profit. 

Religion and more or less independent art have been growing in China,
about as much as the social conflicts. Art brings huge profits, so they
let it happen. In Russia, Pussy Riot have succeeded in connecting
independent art, oppositional politics and religion in a highly visible
way. Art, political activism and religion are voluble factors, so much
that societies where everyday news has been fixated on finance for at
least four years now could almost grow jealous.

For international discussion about the relevance of underground art, music
and religion, China has Liao Yiwu. And Russia has Pussy Riot.