This week, I read an article named Authoritarian Resilience, which is about the authoritarian system in China. In this article, author Andrew J. Nathan indicates that the special and particular Chinese style authoritarian is resilient. Andrew elaborates this perspective in four aspects. Above all, it is the increasingly norm-bound nature of its succession politics. Then, is the increase in meritocratic as opposed to factional considerations in the promotion of political elites. Thirdly, is the differentiation and functional specialization of institutions within the regime. Finally, it is the establishment of institutions for political participation and appeal that strengthen the CCP’s legitimacy among the public at large.
In the second half of the article, Andrew shows that all Chinese media are owned (at least formally, and for the most part actually) by Party and state agencies before, and now, the media have become more commercialized and therefore less politicized. Although most media have become more commercialized, however, as a powerful weapon and method to control and manage the country, couples of important media such as People’s Daily, the New China News Agency and China Central Television are still politicized and directly controlled by the party’s propaganda department.
Now we can question that it is good for the public that some important media are controlled by the government? How to analyse the positive and negative effects of politicized media? Is it significant for the government to control people through media?
As a Chinese who lives in China almost 18 years, I want to state my point. I do not think it is bad for public because the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government give a degree of freedom and right to Chinese. I always believe that the freedom that everyone seeks and love, to a certain extent, is dangerous, although that is the fundamental right of being a human. The politicized media could lead most of the commercialized media to a correct direction. For example, the government business enterprises and the private enterprises in China. Since the Chinese economic reform started, more and more private enterprises came out to the Chinese market, and the leader of these private enterprises are the government business enterprises. This is one of the reasons that China can develops quickly in recent decades.