Lao Zhu - "Depoliticization" and "Repoliticization" of the Middle Class

Two or three years ago, someone made a map of the distribution of left and right ideology in various provinces in China. The top five "right" are Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Beijing, and Jiangsu, and the top five "left" are Xinjiang. , Guizhou, Guangxi, Ningxia, Henan. Since last year, I have found that this kind of division is relatively rough: "In some places, the 'left' is the official 'left', such as Xinjiang, while the 'left' in some places is the folk 'left' (mainly Mao Left), such as Henan.” This year, because of writing Ren Zhengfei’s article, I have become more and more aware that the “right” of the reform era is not the same as the “right” of the Mao era, and is generally understood as “liberalism” further and further.

In my article "The Value Consensus of Chinese Elites from an Interview with Ren Zhengfei", I wrote that China's elite/middle class has a tendency to "depoliticize", but this "depoliticization" needs to be further explained : They are not without political stance, most of them support the Chinese Communist Party in politics, but they hope that "politics" will not "appear" as much as possible. All problems, in their view, can be attributed to problems arising in "development". For these problems, if they can be solved by economic means, they can be solved by economic means. If it is really not possible, they can be solved by administrative means. Deng's words of "keep a low profile", Jiang's words of "make a fortune in silence", and nonsense "not tossing" are all manifestations of this kind of value.

Two days ago, I talked to a friend who teaches at the University of Hong Kong about this issue and gave him an example. About six or seven years ago, Taiwanese singer Zhang Xuan performed in a city in the United Kingdom. Many mainland students studying there also went to listen to it. In the middle of it, a Taiwanese fan uploaded a flag of the Republic of China to Taiwan. Zhang Xuan saw it quite a bit. Be happy and say "this is a gift from my hometown". The mainland students in the audience were very dissatisfied and shouted: "No politics!" Zhang Xuan heard it, took it over and said, "This national flag just reminds me of my hometown, it is no different to me than other Taiwanese specialties. "The mainland students didn't buy it. This incident later turned into a scolding battle on Facebook. Zhang Xuan was labeled as a "Taiwan independence artist", and even a mainland student who wrote an article to speak for her was directly reported to the School punished.

I think this story is very interesting: these mainland students used an extremely "politicized" way (openly declared their anti-Taiwan independence field in foreign countries, confronted dissidents on social platforms, boycotted Zhang on political grounds) hanging, reporting dissenters) to express their “depoliticization” tendencies (“No politics!”). The idea in their minds is, you are a singer, just sing your song well, why should you get involved in politics, what does politics have to do with you? Even if Zhang Xuan really wants Taiwan independence, as long as she doesn't show it, they don't care at all, but once she shows signs, they can only be "forced" to take a stand. In their view, it was Zhang Xuan's fault that she "inappropriately" introduced "politics" into the field of literature and art. They could have been immersed in the nostalgia soothing that Chinese singing brought them. This dramatically illustrates the complexity of this "depoliticization" of the Chinese elite.

Due to the nature of my daily work, although I often come into contact with such elites, we do not communicate on sensitive topics. In an environment like China's, ordinary people only reveal their true views on those issues to others when they are very relaxed. On the way to travel in Xinjiang, facing the plateau snow-capped mountains and the Gobi desert, people's minds become open, and such a relaxed environment comes into being.

In the second week, I said goodbye to the two friends I had been with, and came to the second self-driving group, because the latter included almost all the routes in southern Xinjiang. My reader Xiaobai is my referrer. On the first night in Bayinbulak, I met with them to let them know about my situation. After all, there are still ten days to get along. This group originally consisted of four boys and two girls. One of the boys left the group in Yili, and now it's just right for me to fill in. So I just sat down. Alex, the head of the group, was extremely enthusiastic to me. He readily agreed without asking anything. Another middle-aged man named Chongyang kept smiling, but Lao Zhu, who was sitting next to Xiaobai, treated me "Take care".

This self-driving group came from all over the world, and it happened that Lao Zhu and I were both from Guangdong. Lao Zhu was born in the late 1960s and was born in Shanghai. He studied at a prestigious university in Beijing and came to Shenzhen shortly after graduation. Now he is the owner of a medium-sized technology company, and his son is ranked in the top 20 in the UK. University to study. This is a very typical middle class (this is not the label I put on him, he himself has admitted his middle class status many times).

Lao Zhu looked quite young, with very few wrinkles and no signs of hair loss, so much so that I thought he was in his early 40s at first, but when I bluntly praised him for his beauty, his whole attitude towards me suddenly changed. To be friendly, he had been pressing on me about my career progress, and he had occasionally been mean. When we finished our conversation and got up, I couldn't help but be amazed at his behavior, which is the shape of a man over 60: a bulging belly, a hunched back, and an unusually slow walk. He said it was because of ankylosing spondylitis.

I was sorry for cutting the queue halfway, so they asked me to pay the ten-day car rental fee and deposit, and I passed it on to them without saying a word. On the road, I sat alone in the last row of the off-road vehicle. Even if I couldn't straighten my feet, I never asked anyone to temporarily change seats with me. Before leaving for Ta County, they found that I didn't have a border defense permit. They asked me to stay in Kashgar for one more night. I went to the local authorities to get the permit the next day and then went to meet them. I didn't have any objection. All in all, I try not to give them any trouble.

I'm not a big talker, but Alex is always trying to get me to speak. When they came to this ancient "Western Region", they couldn't help but think of the ancient feelings. When they went to some inaccessible places, he liked to point out the car window and said, "Doctor, come and tell us about the history of this area." I usually just laugh and say I don't know.

On the first night in Kuqa, Alex continued to ask me, I heard Xiaobai say that you are famous recently, what is the reason. Xiaobai took it for me and said, haven't you paid attention to Liu Qiangdong's affairs? Byron is the one who posted the video for the girl. Alex suddenly realized that, of course I know about this case, fairy dance. Lao Zhu also said along the way, there must be something wrong with that girl. Originally, I, who talked less, quarreled with them because of the attitude of the two of them. When I was at the front desk of the hotel, Xiaobai shook his head angrily and left.

I shared a room with Lao Zhu, and he told me along the way, this is the reaction of a little girl, and a truly mature woman will never do this. I said with a half-sneer, I don't think you know women that well.

He said, it's not that I don't know women, it's that you can't provide evidence. I will ask you, did she enter the room holding Liu Qiangdong's hand? I also read the ones you posted, but that doesn't change the fact. I am a logical person, if you can fully prove to me how Liu Qiangdong raped her, then I will admit it.

I explained to him that I had no "complete proof" to him that the rape happened, and if there was, it wouldn't be in my hands. Since he believes in justice, he will wait for the judicial judgment from the United States. However, if he really watched all the videos we sent and listened to the audios, there would be no doubts about "fairy dancing". If he really understands the current situation of women in China, then he should also be able to understand why it is difficult for a woman who is not deep in the world to refuse clearly in front of such a powerful person, and why she does not dare to call the police after the incident.

He walked over to the bed and sat down, and said a little nonchalantly, why can't he refuse? Everyone has free will. On the other hand, since you did not refuse and released the signal of "will", isn't it logical that what happened next? Don't tell me that theory that you have the right to say "no" at the last minute, who can prove that she said "no"?

I laughed again and said that you are now more of a liberal than I am. He was stunned for a moment, suddenly silent, and then said, I think you are a little... So you belong to the circle of liberal intellectuals. I said that this matter has nothing to do with me being a liberal intellectual, and many liberal intellectuals are on Liu Qiangdong's side. He looked at me with a very strange look, and said a little slyly, if the court in the United States finally decides that the girl loses the case, will you still insist on your current position?

I said, yes.

He immediately jumped up from the bed and said, you see, this is not a rational attitude. For example, if the US side judges the girl to win the case, I will revise my position. That is rational.

I said, I don't think the justice can absolutely give justice to the victim in this kind of incident. In this civil action, the final judgment will be affected by many factors. Once that girl loses the case, of course I won't say anything in public, but I still want to believe that girl in my heart. There's nothing irrational about this, and reason doesn't completely eliminate our scope for belief choices after judicial decisions are made. (In November 2018, a Hong Kong track and field coach was sued in a case of indecent assault, and the defendant was finally found not guilty. The judge specially emphasized that this can only be sentenced in law, but the court's decision may not reflect the facts. This attitude is in line with my position. similar.)

Lao Zhu was not persuaded by me, but he didn't want to talk about this anymore. Judging from his reaction tonight, I think he is a relatively rational person, unlike Alex, who has made all kinds of "successful" remarks along the way and does not accept any refutation. In the car the next day, he asked me what I usually write. Before I could answer, he said, is it Mimon's style? I almost vomited out a mouthful of blood.

Alex said, don't look down on Mi Meng, he is a big V and has a lot of influence. I said, I don't want to be a big V. He was reluctant, saying that what article did you write? I was so entangled by him that I could only post the article I wrote about Ren Zhengfei to the group. I guess some Ren Zhengfei could barely read it. After all, he is also a businessman, and I really can’t count on others.

I saw from the back seat that Lao Zhu was seriously opening the long picture and looked at it section by section. After scanning for a few minutes, Alex said, "You flattered us in the front, and then started criticizing it again. I see your tricks." very clear. I don't speak, and wait for Lao Zhu to read it. He took off his glasses and solemnly said to me, this article is really well written, the middle-class values you summarized here are very accurate, and I can tell you frankly that these are my values. These words of Lao Zhu are the basis for my writing this article, and he himself corresponds to the group I study.

Lao Zhu put down the phone and began to recall bitter thoughts. He said that he had lost any chance to enter the system because he participated in the events at the turn of the spring and summer (I was awestruck to hear that), so he went south to Shenzhen to find a job. When he was in his early thirties, he recommended himself to join a famous technology company. He started doing odd jobs and gradually reached the top. Then he started his own business, so he has the current state. This story is not very new, what is new is that he told us at least three times along the way, revealing a lot of personal and business information, and did not follow the teachings of his idol Jiang Core.

Alex heard that Lao Zhu respected Jiang, and was a little dissatisfied. He said that the current corruption, the seeds were planted in the Jiang era, so the current leader's anti-corruption is very necessary. The biggest difference between Alex and Lao Zhu is that Alex almost unconditionally agrees with all the policies of the current government, but Lao Zhu has more or less his own judgment. Lao Zhu admits that it is a bit "overkill" now, but he thinks it will all pass because the party has a self-correction mechanism. In order to prove that he is not a blind supporter of the regime, he also said that he had also voted in the local people's congress. The only thing he was not satisfied with was that they did not have any introduction to the candidates, so he wrote his own on the ballot. name.

After the polite remarks, Lao Zhu changed his words and said, but he firmly believes that China cannot go as the liberal intellectuals say, because their understanding of China's reality stays on paper. I do not necessarily object to his criticism, which is why my research in recent years has shifted from political philosophy to specific political phenomena and the political concepts of different groups. He said that none of the liberal intellectuals in China had experience in running a business (this statement is not very accurate), let alone how to run a country well. When he talked to me about politics, he always compared it to a business, and even persuaded me that if I wanted to study Chinese politics well, I had to actually start a company. I thought at first that he wanted to say that only by operating a business can we know how the Chinese government regulates and deploys the industry, but he didn't mean that. What he meant was that running a business is essentially the same as running a country. This peculiar understanding of Chinese politics makes me very curious. I wonder if it is representative of the Chinese middle class.

I was not in a hurry to refute Lao Zhu, but just mentioned a little: Is his identification with the ruling party also limited by the "middle class" perspective? He mused, saying that he not only represented the middle class, but also knew other groups. He often travels and travels all over the country. Every time he has the opportunity, he takes a hard seat on the return journey and gets to mingle with the people at the bottom. They are all full of confidence in the future. I don't doubt that he will sit in a hard seat, because he goes to the supermarket to buy beer for 20 yuan (we didn't drink it), and he will pay AA in the group. The first few days we were on the road, he was thinking about the most cost-effective way to go back to Shenzhen from Urumqi, and finally decided to make an extra six or seven hours of transit, saving three or four hundred dollars. He really likes to deal with all kinds of people, and because he doesn't have that "rich" vibe, those people are willing to talk to him a little more.

That night his talk was even more cheerful, and he kept pulling me to talk about sensitive topics. He probably thought that I could listen to his words and wanted to show me a new path. I also wanted to test his bottom line to see if he was as open-minded as he said. Based on the general impression that night, I still don't think he is an unreasonable person, but the extent to which he is reasonable is limited. He made no secret of his distaste for liberals, saying that he often goes on Twitter and watches various "jumping clowns" performances. "These people are brainwashed by Western ideas."

"Liberals are alarmist every day, saying 'the country advances and the people retreat'. I tell you, from my standpoint as a business person, there is no such thing as 'the country advances and the people retreat'. The government takes great care of our private enterprises." The interests of the country and the people are the same, only when the country advances will the people advance, and when the country retreats, the people will retreat.”

He was afraid that I would not believe it, so he showed me his chat record with a lady who was in charge of the financial part of his company. Their company bought a batch of goods a while ago and paid millions of taxes. Later, when the market was not good, the tax bureau took the initiative to contact them to refund part of the tax to them. "We didn't apply for it ourselves, but the tax bureau took the initiative to contact us," he said excitedly. I looked at the numbers displayed in the chat, and it was indeed a total of six or seven million tax refunds for them.

I don't find it strange when I say this. After all, in Shenzhen, private enterprises are the main force, and it is impossible to squeeze you. But don't you think that China's state-owned enterprises are really not very efficient? I was thinking of the Northeast as an example, and Lao Zhu waved his hand and said, "You are taking it for granted again. On the contrary, I think state-owned enterprises are the "secret weapon" of the Chinese economy. He said that this 5G was developed by Huawei, but if those state-owned communication companies did not buy it, there would be no market for them to develop it. I stopped him and said, wait, you said that the role of state-owned enterprises is to exist as buyers of private enterprises? State-owned enterprises can be buyers because they own the resources given by the state. What kind of contribution can this be considered?

He said, well, let me change the argument. Do you know those technologies that are converted from military industry to civilian use? I said that I don't know the specific technology, but I know that there is such an operation. He said that China now has a large number of technologies that have been converted from military industries to civilian use. I really don't know much about this, but I asked him that the United States also has many technologies that have been converted from military workers to migrant workers, but their military industries are not state-owned enterprises. How do you explain this? You can't say that China's military-to-civilian technology is better than that of the United States? With a look of disgust on his face, he said that China and the United States have different stages of development. Can this be compared?

I said with a smile, "Okay, Lao Zhu, I'm not going to argue with you. Can you tell me what is the most powerful reason for you to support the current regime?" Get some goodies. He said, "Let me think about it. He lowered his head and rubbed his hands, eager to try."

He said, I will analyze it for you from the perspective of investment. If the Chinese Communist Party is an entrepreneurial team, why would I invest money in it. To judge whether an entrepreneurial team has a future, it depends on three points. The first point is their background, the second point is their performance since they started their business, and the third point is their assessment of whether they are likely to be confused in the future. The so-called background is the strength of their team in all aspects. There is no problem with the Communist Party. No matter from the selection of officials, the promotion mechanism and the level of party building, the Communist Party is a very strong team. As for performance, China's development speed over the past 40 years has attracted worldwide attention. The long-term and stable performance of a team is enough to make investors feel confident. So the last point is whether they will be confused in the future, I don't think so. I believe that the current and future leaders will definitely lead the Chinese nation to a great rejuvenation.

He said, while I was typing on my phone, he thought I was absent-minded and chatting with others, but I was actually taking notes. After I finished typing, I turned around and said to him, you once again compared national politics to running a business, but there are several problems here. First, the performance you mentioned earlier only covers the next 40 years. What about the first 30 years? ? He saw the tricks and said that without the foundation of the first 30 years, where did the glory of the next 40 years come from? I said, well, because your whole argument has too many holes, and I'm not bothering you on a single point. Second, I would like to ask you what do you think about the centralization and unlimited tenure of the current supreme leader? Does this count as a "crime"? He said calmly, what kind of mess is this? If the country wants to adjust its direction and correct the problems left by the past, it needs to concentrate power and have enough time. What he does is in the interests of the party and the people of the country. There is no problem. I gave him a few rounds of applause, because I felt that as an ordinary businessman, it was really not easy for him to be able to match his political thoughts about the country with those who engage in ideology.

I continued to ask, have you ever thought about a question, if this is an investment, you are almost "all in" now, don't you think you have given too little thought to the last point you just said? I don't think you have the ability to predict whether the ruling party will be confused. He spread his hands and said innocently, "I don't see any sign of confusion. The country as a whole is moving towards a state of rule of law and rational governance." I said that the current "rule of law" is not the real "rule of law". The real "rule of law" requires at least two guarantees, and that is the independence of the judiciary and legislation. He waved his hand impatiently again and said, You are brainwashed by Western thought! Why should the "rule of law" be independent of the judiciary and legislation, and why can't "the party's leadership" coexist with the "rule of law"? I would like to continue to refute, such as asking him "how to ensure that the laws of the country really serve the well-being of the people when there are no constraints on the ruler", but suddenly realized that my purpose is not to be in the debate Victory (and I could have predicted how he would respond), but to explore his belief system, so I stopped again. I'm not quite sure if he's read Qiang Shigong et al. (or through some twisted paraphrase), but his line of defense is very similar to theirs. This at least shows that this type of political thought does not only exist in the statist intellectual elite.

I relaxed a bit and told him that the questions just now were directed at your theory, and now I want to talk about some of my own political analysis. I must admit, I was embarrassed by what I said next. I originally wanted to tell him about my analysis of the hollowing out of China's ideology and the justification for the value of political liberalism, but the more I talked, the less confident I became, because I had anticipated his reaction: he would not think that those were question. For an expanding company, if you tell his boss that there is a problem with your company's core values, or you say to him that your employees can't get a sense of meaning in their work, he won't think it's a big deal . Sure enough, after listening to my two paragraphs, Lao Zhu looked at me with a strange smile, and only said one sentence, I don't even know what you are talking about.

I feel a little lost, not because Lao Zhu's defense is impeccable, most of his responses are based on "the party will not make major mistakes, and even if they do, they can be quickly corrected", but from his response, I Not only aware of the limitations of his defense, but also of the justification of liberal values. For a justification of values to be persuasive to an audience, the values that the justification appeals to must be "reasonably acceptable" to the audience. Overwhelmed by other values, the achievement of this value certificate cannot succeed. In Lao Zhu's view, values such as "justice", "free academics" and "religion" are not very great values. In other words, he knows how to justify these values within the framework of "Party leadership". It's what Yuji, who came to me, said, "We support your academic research, but you must obey the law." I mentioned to him those people who were arrested for defending their rights, and he dismissed them with one sentence: These people are all instructed by people behind their backs, and they all have ulterior motives, otherwise how could they be arrested? I said, so you can't imagine anyone doing these things purely to help others, can you? He was a little stunned, not sure whether he was disdainful to answer or he didn't know how to answer.

Lying on my bed, looking at the ceiling in the dim light, I remembered the recent unjust cases in "Sweeping the Black and Eliminating Evil" written by Wu Fatian (it was Wu Fatian's turn to write this kind of article), and some entrepreneurs were swept away by the underworld forces. Lost. I finally said something to him, I have nothing to say other than wishing you a prosperous business.

A comment circulating on the Internet about the 1989 incident was written in the tone of a former participant. Some people said that the author was Hu Xijin. It said that they all hoped that China would be good at first, but in retrospect, the party's handling was right. This is the truest thought in Lao Zhu's heart. He was proud of his involvement in the incident that day, and when he looked back, he said that students will always be used as gunmen, one hundred percent!

The two days of communication with Lao Zhu benefited me a lot, but after that night, we both found that each other had exhausted the desire to understand each other. This is the first time that a typical "middle class" has spoken to me so deeply about all aspects of Chinese politics. In this article, I tried to faithfully restore all his views and arguments, and did not deliberately vilify him. I myself have some comments on his views, but considering the difference between my position and his position, readers should be able to make their own Discuss these comments. The language that Lao Zhu uses to talk about politics includes a large number of economic, business and investment terms, which is related to his identity as a businessman on the one hand, and may also be due to the depoliticization tendency of the middle class. If he were not a businessman but an IT engineer, he would not necessarily not be able to use such language. Lao Zhu's depoliticization is also reflected in his distaste for any event in which the public participates in large numbers, such as his complete denial of the Eight or Nine that he once participated in, and the things done by left-wing youth, #MeToo, and young people in Hong Kong are all in his view. It's negative. I don't know if this has anything to do with the aftermath of the mass movement in the Mao era.

Four decades later, the Chinese Communist Party replaced Mao Zedong's myth with another set of discourses, and the followers of the discourse gradually changed from the masses of workers and peasants to the middle class. In my opinion, this discourse contains at least two points, one is that "development is the last word" and "let some people get rich first", which is strongly depoliticized, and the other is that "the party will never make major mistakes" , even if I commit a crime, I will quickly correct it.” This part appeared frequently in the debate between Lao Zhu and I. It seems politicized at first glance, but in fact it still has the flavor of depoliticization: it is of course a kind of “propaganda”, But it is more like an "advertising" or "word of mouth" of political performance; there is of course an element of ideological indoctrination, but it is also a (one-sided) summary of apolitical experience. This set of discourses was clearly established during the Deng era, and it is also the source of the "value consensus of the Chinese elite." I don't know if it has exhausted its "charm" or if the new leader is creating a new myth, but it proves "left" and "right", "country" and "people", "inside the system" The distinction from "outside the system" is increasingly meaningless in China, and as long as this discourse is not broken, liberal democracy will never have any attraction to these middle classes. As for the first part to burst first, or the second part to burst first, we can't guess at the moment.

Some people may notice that the values expressed by Lao Zhu in this article are in tension with the values of the Chinese elite in Ren Zhengfei's article. How should this tension be explained? According to Lao Zhu's own statement, he fully recognizes that kind of value consensus. I don't think this is a courtesy, but in the debate with me, he broke my presupposition several times. For example, in Ren Zhengfei's speech, he has a high degree of identification with the West, especially the United States, but in Lao Zhu's case, he showed a strong hostility to the West; Ren is the representative of the elite of private enterprises. Zhu is also a private entrepreneur, but in Ren's talk, the confidence of private enterprises is revealed everywhere, but Lao Zhu said that state-owned enterprises are the "secret weapon" of China's economy (and it is obviously not persuasive); I wrote Ren Zhengfei's article in the article. He also mentioned that although the value consensus supports the leadership of the Communist Party of China, it still hopes that Chinese politics will move in a more rules-based direction. The practice of this generation of leaders to break the collective leadership system and the tenure system does not meet their expectations. However, Lao Zhu spontaneously found a reason for this approach.

These tensions cannot be simply understood as the differences between Lao Zhu and Ren Zhengfei in character, status, and structure, nor can they be explained by the differences between "public situations" and "private situations". I tend to think that this tension reflects the conflict between Deng's and Xi's lines, and the impact on their belief systems. Lao Zhu's response was that he "neutralized" the two routes, using his own framework to interpret the two routes as a later performance. I believe that many Chinese elites have carried out such "neutralization" in their belief system to ease their inner anxiety and panic. It may be said that in the new era since 2012, a part of the middle class has undergone a process of "repoliticization", from anti-corruption, "coreization", to revision of tenure, establishment of supervisory committees, and anti-criminal and anti-evil, political sense and political Rationalization has become a fundamental skill for the survival and well-being of the middle class. This is why, compared with the batch of mainland students at the beginning of the article, Lao Zhu's "political statement" after his "depoliticization" setback will be more involved and more defensive.

Some people may object to the way I have explained in this article: Lao Zhu may not be a representative sample of the middle class; there may be no essential difference between the line of the Deng era and the line of the new era; Politicization", and there is no corresponding "repoliticization"; the middle class has no "value consensus" that can completely distinguish it from other groups. I admit that my current research samples, research materials, and theoretical explanations are not enough to convince most of my friends who are concerned about similar issues, and I have no intention to draw conclusions in this observational article, but I believe in this direction It's worth the extra effort. I would be very grateful if a friend would like to give constructive advice on this, but it would be fine to suggest me to start a company.