Bringing economic prosperity to one’s people is not enough. If Chinese leaders doubt this, they should watch what is unfolding in Chile. Watch it very, very carefully.
Gen. Augusto Pinochet, Chile’s longtime dictator, died over the weekend at age 91. His death brought about unrest in Santiago, the capital. Young people clashed with police. There were the usual scenes of tear gas. The TV news showed images of very young protesters, many barely alive when Pinochet left power in 1990 after 17 years of rule.
What’s to be learned of this? The repercussions of authoritarian rule last for decades, even generations, and those pained by it will be utterly unforgiving.
Odd as it may sound, Chile is a worthy case for Chinese to study. Chile is a mighty mite. A string bean-thin nation at the ends of the Earth, it is a fearless economic competitor that began its transformation under Pinochet and his clique of “Chicago boys,” free-market economists trained at the University of Chicago and heavily influenced by Milton Friedman.
To give you an idea of Chile’s strengths, consider that it has signed over 40 free-trade agreements with nations around the globe. Its FTA with China went into effect this year. Was Chile concerned it would be inundated with Chinese manufactures? Not at all. That’s how competitive the Chilean economy has become.
This economic miracle makes Chile stand head and shoulders above every other nation in Latin America. And it is largely the result of Pinochet’s prolonged ability to tweak the free-market model until he got it right, just as China is attempting to do on a larger scale.
Chile today is practically unrecognizable to the period when I lived there in 1984-1985.
But the social costs were enormous. The 1973 coup sent Chilean foes of Pinochet fleeing around the globe, shattering families. Maybe only 3,000 or so people were killed under the regime, but its state security practices were brutal. Those who did not accept the regime were implacably branded as communists and faced internal exile, and worse.
In the end, it is almost meaningless if authoritarian regimes are of the left or right. When they exclude and repress their opponents, they inevitably face their day of historical judgment.
The judgment on China is enormously complex and yet to be fully determined. Like Pinochet, China’s leaders postpone political reforms in search of a “well-off society.”
Pinochet succeeded in creating a free-market version of a “well-off society.” It wasn’t enough. Anyone who doesn’t believe me, wait a few months, then pay a visit to Augusto Pinochet’s grave. Once he is interred, will the tomb be under heavy guard to prevent vandalism? You can bet on it. If it is not, I am sure you will need to clean your shoes once you depart.
Tim,
You're absolutely right, the price is unacceptably high. Having money and an acceptable standard of living is important. Having freedom and human dignity however is even more so.
There are no streets or schools in Germany named after Hitler. None in Spain named after Franco. There will surely be none in Chile named after Pinochet.
September 11th will live in the memory for generations.
There was blue sky, a pristine morning.
Suddenly a jet appears out of the clear and flies straight for the tower.
A terrible explosion and a column of smoke rises over a stricken city.
People in shock stare up as a man leaps to his death from the inferno.
Another plane screams in for the second attack.
Horror on a scale unimaginable is unleashed.
No one knows how many have perished but in every heart there is fear and foreboding.
Except in the perpetrators, who gloat and praise God for the gift of total surprise.
By evening, the country and the world are changed forever.
No, not 2001.
It’s 1973.
Santiago Chile, not New York City.
Pinochet and Kissinger, not Osama.
The CIA, not Al-Qaeda.
And after begins the War on Terror.
Either with us or against us.
If against us, not with us long.
Torture camps and rendition flights.
Botched campaigns and incompetent generals.
And in the end, the God Card is played.
He hath used His servant to smite the enemy and save the country.
There is the tightest of bonds between the two 9/11's. Atrocities like those the US committed in Chile contributed to the latter 9/11. A US legacy of placing economic stability and prosperity above human rights and freedoms led to the first.
Ken Strauss, MD
www.kenswritings.com
Posted by: Kenneth Strauss | December 11, 2006 at 11:22 AM
Well, my girlfriend was fed up very early when I harped on about the Chinese regime's (to me)
corrupt and illegitimate basis for dictatorship. Sure it committed lots of errors and I don't certainly don't love the Party, but when I grew up there were no restaurants and evryone dressed the same and had nothing. Now it's completely the opposite.
I teach history in Beijing so I'm conscious more than most about the numbers of dead and destroyed that keeps the CCP hell-bent on ensuring its people are kept ignorant. But they've done a damn good job of having 1.3 billion subjects having no thoughts at all on their past or future; always living for today and asking no questions.
Posted by: Keir | December 11, 2006 at 07:37 PM
Keir - on China
The China government might be able to keep the CHinese growing like mushroom in the dark for 1 generation, what about the next?
It is even more dangerous with present day communications speed?
One must asked why Mao needed the Cultural Revolution. That revolution itself tells a lot of story.
Posted by: cindy | December 11, 2006 at 09:20 PM
You gringos, don´t have any idea of the real world.
Posted by: Orientalist | December 12, 2006 at 07:43 AM