In case you still haven’t accepted that China is going to surpass the United States as the leading global power before the middle of the 21st century yet, consider the difference between the moral trajectory of the two societies.
From budgeting for rural weddings to dressing appropriately and avoiding online porn, China’s Communist Party has issued new guidelines to improve the “moral quality” of its citizens. Officials have released several sets of guidelines this week alongside a secretive conclave of high-ranking officials in Beijing which discusses the country’s future direction.
On Sunday the government published its “Outline for the Implementation of Citizen Moral Construction in the New Era” — which advises readers how to use the internet, raise children, celebrate public holidays and behave while travelling abroad.
The guidelines from the Central Commission for Guiding Cultural and Ethical Progress calls for building “Chinese spirit, Chinese values, and Chinese power”.
The texts urge citizens to avoid pornography and vulgarity online, and follow correct etiquette when raising the flag or singing the national anthem.
Public institutions like libraries and youth centres must carry out “targeted moral education” to improve people’s ideological awareness and moral standards, according to the rules.
The guideline also stresses patriotism and loyalty to the motherland.
“People who have a servile attitude to foreign countries, damage national dignity and sell national interests must be disciplined according to the law,” it says.
Translation: The Chinese leadership is well aware of the long-term program of the Learned Elders of Wye to jump from the United States to China when the former empire collapses and have no intention of allowing them to run that program of subversion and economic ascendancy through invasion and moral inversion to the disadvantage of their nation.
It is more than a little ironic that where Christians failed to heed the warnings of Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul, Confucians – and they are Confucians, not Communists, no matter what they officially happen to call themselves – are aware of the danger of permitting a foreign nation to invade and invert their society. Even more impressive, instead of waiting passively for the next attack, they have launched a systematic campaign to seize the strongholds of their long-term rivals and enemies.
As for those who have been predicting China’s collapse due to various economic and demographic indicators, that is a failure to grasp the causal relationship between societal wealth and morality. It is the latter that precedes the former; while there are certainly challenges and structural weaknesses that threaten the stability and well-being of both great societies, the Chinese elite is most likely going to be able to deal successfully with them. The US elite, both foreign and native, is obviously not.