[2008.06.14] Why Grandpa Wen has to care 温爷爷须警惕民粹主义

Populist politics in China
中国民粹主义
Why Grandpa Wen has to care
温爷爷须警惕

Jun 12th 2008 | BEIJING
From The Economist print edition
2008年6月12日　北京
《经济学人》印刷版

Despite not having to face elections, China’s Communist Party wants to be liked. Nothing wrong with that: but populism does bring some dangers
尽管不用面对大选，但中国共产党仍希望能为人爱戴。这无可厚非，但民粹主义的确带来一些风险。

Reuters/路透社

HE SCRAMBLES through earthquake debris, he weeps, he hugs children. If China’s Communist Party allowed popularity polls, the prime minister, Wen Jiabao, would probably do better than any politician since the days Red Guard fanatics swarmed to Tiananmen Square for a glimpse of their idol, Mao Zedong. Some who suffered in last month’s disastrous earthquake in Sichuan grumble, but party leaders are making political gains.
他在地震废墟中前行，他哭泣，他拥抱孩子。如果中共允许举行受欢迎度民意调查的话，那么温家宝总理可能是自毛泽东时代以来最受欢迎 的。当年，那些狂热的红卫兵蜂拥至天安门广场仅为看一眼他们的偶像毛泽东。一些在上个月四川灾难性地震中受影响的人颇有怨言，但是共产党领导却正谋取政治 收益。

The cult of “Grandpa” Wen has been helped along by the kind of media-manipulation skills honed in Mao’s day. State television broadcasts endless footage of him in the earthquake zone, wearing trainers, ordering troops through a megaphone and comforting victims. But Mr Wen has shown some of the public-relations flair of Western politicians too: calling an impromptu news conference amid swirling helicopters and inviting foreign reporters, who normally have just one chance a year to quiz him, to shout out questions.
温“爷爷”之热得益于毛泽东时代练就的 媒体操纵技巧。国家电视台不间断地播放他在地震灾区的镜头，脚穿运动鞋，手持扩音喇叭向军队发布命令，安慰灾民。但是，温家宝也展示出一些西方政治家的公 关天才：在盘旋的直升飞机中间召开了临时新闻发布会，并邀请外国记者提问，而这些外国记者一般一年只有一次机会对温家宝提出问题。

The state-controlled press has even enthused about Mr Wen’s following on Facebook, a social-networking internet site based in America. Xinhua, the news agency, said a page claiming to be his (its real authorship is unknown) showed him the sixth-most-popular politician listed. At the time of going to press Mr Wen was the only non-American among the top ten.
国家控制的新闻界甚至对温家宝在美国Facebook的追随者也充满热情。新华社称，一个自称是温家宝的网页（真实的作者不知是谁）显示，他是第六位最受欢迎的政治家。在报道时，温是唯一一位的进入前十名的非美国政治家。

Mr Wen has always delighted in an officially fostered man-of-the-people image. In January he was shown on state television apologising (an act that Chinese leaders usually abhor) to victims of snow-storms that paralysed large areas of the south. Chairman Mao’s radical colleagues, if not Mao himself, envied the popularity of the then prime minister, Zhou Enlai, and made Zhou suffer for it. But the present party leader and president, Hu Jintao, has shown no sign of resenting Mr Wen, whose standing is more likely to strengthen the party’s grip on power than challenge anyone’s authority.
温家宝一直喜欢塑造和人民打成一片的形象。1月份，中央电视台播出他向受雪灾影响的 人道歉（中国领导人通常憎恨的行动），那场雪灾使南方大部分地区陷入瘫痪。如果毛泽东自己没有的话，他激进的同事嫉妒当时的周恩来总理，并让周为此受苦。 但是，现任共产党领导人和国家主席胡锦涛，没有表现出对温的不满，因为温家宝的立场更有可能加强共产党的权力而不是挑战其他人的权威。

The party needs all the support it can get. Inflation is causing widespread public anxiety. Urban and rural protests have been increasing in recent years, fuelled by official wrongdoing such as corruption and land grabs. Parents of children killed in Sichuan when their shoddily built schools collapsed in the earthquake have been denouncing local officialdom, which has responded by trying to silence them.
共产党需要赢取它能获得的所有支持。通货膨胀正造成公众的普遍担忧。官员腐败和征地等不良做法使近年来城市和农村的抗议越来越多。那些在地震中因校舍倒塌而丧生的孩子的父母揭发地方官员，得到的回应却是试图让他们保持沉默。

But some Chinese worry that the party’s efforts to boost its standing among the downtrodden, as well as to pander to rising nationalism, reflect a trend towards populism. The party was quick to side with nationalists who lashed out at the West in the wake of unrest in Tibetan areas in March. To its relief the earthquake helped defuse some of this anger, which was threatening to overshadow the Beijing Olympics in August. But the party still bends in the wind. Late last month officials agreed that Japanese military aircraft would bring relief materials to Sichuan. China changed its mind after vituperative outbursts online by nationalists, still angry with Japan for its occupation of China in the 1930s and 1940s. The material was sent by civilian aircraft instead.
但 是一些中国人担心，共产党意图提升其在受欺压民众中的地位，迎合高涨的民族主义，这反映了向民粹主义发展的趋势。3月，西藏暴动之后，民族主义者对西方进 行鞭笞，共产党迅速站到了他们那边。令其宽慰的是，地震帮助化解了威胁要抵制8月北京奥运会的愤怒情绪。但是共产党仍在风中摇摆。上个月月底，官方同意日 本军用飞机向四川运输救灾物资。但民族主义者仍对二十世纪三、四十年代日本侵华很愤怒，他们在网上责骂之后，中国政府改变了想法。物资转由民用飞机运输。

In recent weeks some Chinese intellectuals as well as official newspapers have engaged in heated debate about the dangers of populism. In April China Youth Daily, a Beijing newspaper, published an article describing China’s internet-savvy nationalists as “online Red Guards” infected by a “populist virus”. This virus, it said, had had a serious impact on China’s intelligentsia. Common symptoms, it said, included anti-Western, anti-democratic, anti-reform and anti-market thinking along with a love of Mao, the former Soviet Union and today’s Russia. In countries with poorly developed market economies and undemocratic systems, it noted, populism was more likely to act like “dynamite”. Its explosion could produce “despots or violent upheaval”.
最近几周，一些中国学者和官方 报纸就民粹主义的危险进行了激烈辩论。4月，中国青年报表了一篇文章，称中国的网上民族主义者为被“民粹主义病毒”感染的“网络红卫兵”。文章称，该病毒 对中国知识界产生了严重影响。文章称他们共同的症状包括反西方，反民主，反改革，反市场，并且爱毛，爱苏，爱今天的俄国。文章指出，在一个市场经济和民主 体制不发达的国家，民粹主义更像是“炸药”。一旦爆炸，“不是炸出暴君，就是炸出暴乱”。

The author was Wu Jiaxiang, a researcher in a pro-reform think-tank with close links to the government. Mr Wu, ironically, writes admiringly on his blog of Wen Jiabao’s common touch. In the 1980s he accompanied Mr Wen, then in charge of the party Central Committee’s day-to-day work, on a provincial trip. Even then Mr Wen ate simply and wore an army greatcoat, which Mr Wu noticed years later on television he was still wearing.
文章的作者是吴稼祥，一名研究员，在与政府有密切联系的、支持改革的智囊团工作。讽刺的是，吴稼祥在他的博客里崇拜地描述了温家 宝的平易近人。上世纪八十年代，他陪同当时主管中央委员会日常工作的温家宝去地方考察。即使是那时候，温家宝也是吃得很简单，穿着军大衣。多年以后，吴稼 祥在电视上注意到，温家宝还穿着那件军大衣。

However, in an interview, Mr Wu worried that some recent developments in China suggested a populist lurch. They include a labour-contract law that came into effect on January 1st and which many employers fear could make it much harder to fire underperforming workers. He also noted the promotion in March of several descendants of revolutionary elders (including one of Mao’s grandsons) to positions as advisers to the legislature. On June 10th an article in Study Times, a pro-reform newspaper published by the party’s training centre for senior officials, gave warning that “populist” measures to narrow the country’s growing gap between China’s rich and poor could damage its economic performance.
但是，在一次采访中，吴稼祥担心中国近来的一些发展显 示民粹主义倾向。这包括今年1月开始执行的劳动合同法，很雇主担心该法会使解雇工作绩效差的人更为困难。他同时谈到3月份几位革命先辈的后代（包括毛泽东 的一个孙子）被提拔为立法顾问。6月10日，中共高级官员培训中心出版的、支持改革的《学习时报》警告说“民粹主义者”缩小中国贫富差距的做法可能影响中 国经济效益。

No one in China describes himself as a populist, but many rail against populism’s critics. China Youth Daily has aired the views of both camps. On June 3rd it published an article that spoke of “antagonism increasing by the day between the masses and China’s elite” (meaning, apparently, the intelligentsia). The author raised the case of “Runaway Fan”, a teacher in the earthquake zone now notorious for fleeing a school building ahead of his pupils. Were the “elite”, like Mr Fan, the author asked, paying too much attention to themselves and not enough to the masses?
在中国，没有人标榜自己为“民粹主义者”，但很多人对民粹主义批评强烈不满。中国青年报报道 了这两个阵营的观点。6月3日出版的一篇文章指出，“中国民众和精英的对抗在日益扩大”（显然，精英指的是知识界）。作者提到了“范跑跑”事件，范是一名 因在地震中抢在学生前面跑出教学楼而闻名的老师。作者问道,是不是精英像“范跑跑”，太关注自己而不关心大众？

China’s leaders certainly do pay them attention. The Sichuan earthquake has created millions of potential malcontents. Mr Wen’s efforts have impressed many for now. But it will take sustained efforts and huge spending over many years to keep them satisfied. To ease the agony of the thousands who have lost the only children government policy allowed them to bear, doctors are to provide free treatment to reverse sterilisation procedures. A little populism can be a mercy.
中国领导人当然留心 民众。四川地震造就了几千万的潜在不满者。温家宝的努力给很多人留下了深刻印像。但是要让他们满意的话，需要很多年的持续努力和巨额投入。为了减轻成千上 万在地震中失去孩子的父母的痛苦，政府政策允许他们再生育，医生将会提供免费的逆转绝育治疗。些许的民粹主义或许是一种仁慈。

译者：myshellxu  http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=12049&page=1&extra=page%3D1#pid75364