Author’s Note: This article was written on May 8, 2022, reflecting on my youthful inclination towards liberal values influenced by public opinion propaganda at that time.
Back then, my understanding of the national situation was more naive, but even as times change, the views expressed in this article remain valid. In short, when young people have limited exposure to practical affairs, they should not blindly believe in theories or be brainwashed by implanted values. Through life experiences, they should observe those hidden realities, seek truth from facts, think independently, and make their own judgments and choices. May everyone have a rich life experience in the pursuit of making the world a better place.
Freedom, how many evils commit acts in your name.
Even in an era when the liberalism requiem has already played, I still remember those stirring words back then: from France’s “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” the New World’s “Give me liberty, or give me death,” to America’s solemn declaration: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
These powerful expressions still sound shocking today. Unfortunately, as history’s wheels roll forward, the progressive cries once breaking free from bondage have become lies used by the strong to oppress the weak.
On the land of China, the winter of liberalism is coming. Many believers in freedom, from devout prayers and calls to painful moans and cries. Some ask bewilderedly, “What is happening to us?” but their voices are scattered by the howling north wind.
In fact, from the moment of its birth, freedom has been inseparable from the mark of justifying the legitimacy of capitalism.
The “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen” states that “freedom is the right to do anything that does not harm others.” It is obvious that the freedom actually enjoyed by the strong far exceeds that of others. As for the requirement of not harming others, it only guarantees no simple and direct harm, whereas negative externalities (the phenomenon where the actions of an individual economic actor harm others or society, but the latter cannot get corresponding compensation) are obviously not considered. From the scheming over carbon emission rights to the Starlink plan grabbing low-earth orbit resources, the Western countries with a first-mover advantage have never taken into account the human rights and development of developing countries! In short, freedom is the order of the strong!
In essence, ideology is a tool to maintain the ruling order. Without the ideological consent of the governed (those whose interests are harmed), any rule maintained solely by violence cannot be stable or lasting. Just as the theory of surplus value became the ideological weapon for laborers to resist capitalist exploitation, liberalism inevitably becomes a tool for capitalism to enslave the world’s people.
Liberal ideology has a neat and self-consistent discourse system. Under the guise of democratic elections, equal opportunity, procedural justice, it permits private rights to be exercised unless legally prohibited while public power is restricted unless legally authorized, forming a “small government, big market” capitalist development model that opens the door wide for capitalism’s rampant domination: politically, campaign donations sway elections; economically, oligopolies engage in extortion and dumping; legally, judiciary is manipulated under the banner of equality; culturally, information is controlled to deceive the public…
Under the unchecked freedom rampant in capitalism, America’s “freedom of speech” brazenly banned Trump’s Twitter account, giving the excuse that “‘The First Amendment (freedom of speech) only restricts government limitations on speech, not those of private companies. Twitter is a private company whose terms of service allow it to take appropriate action on any account or content for any reason.’” How many so-called influential intellectuals who claim to “speak the truth for the people” focus on public power issues while remaining silent on capital’s bullying? The reason is simple: it is harder to touch vested interests than the soul.
Liberalism rallies to fully implement the capitalist economic order under Western first-mover advantage, under the pretense of equal opportunity and free competition, putting the infant national capital of developing countries and the powerful financial capital of the West on the same stage to compete. Even if a few national enterprises occasionally break through, what awaits them is acquisition and decline like Yinlu, extortion like ZTE, or sanctions and bans like Huawei.
This theory has prevailed for a considerable time in China. Many business elites and prestigious university students, ignoring the country’s platform and the people’s nurturing, worship liberalism as the sole criterion, pursuing only personal small gains. Though merely second-class citizens subject to a glass ceiling, they consider themselves superior Chinese and are complacent. In their eyes, they see neither the contribution of their forebears nor the country’s investment, attributing success entirely to personal effort or entrepreneurial spirit, confidently prioritizing personal interests absolutely. Clearly standing on others’ shoulders to reach a higher platform, yet they show no gratitude, proclaiming personal struggle as voluntary, embodying the face of a refined egoist.
These people mistakenly take China’s use of the US-led liberal international order and market economy to boost productive forces after the Cold War as a permanent norm, failing to realize that the development of a large country like China inevitably impacts the existing system. When the biggest beneficiary of liberalism may change, and pragmatic interests replace adherence to liberal ideas in the US mainstream, the increasingly antagonistic elements in Sino-US relations make liberalism’s bankruptcy in China historically inevitable.
Because under the liberal system, strong early-mover countries have a plant-like apex suppressive effect on others, latecomer countries cannot rise or gain dominance in the world economic order through liberalism, so better government intervention becomes an inevitable choice for China’s economic development.
Given the complexity of the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, unlike the simple and clear logic of previous leftist or liberal narratives, China, theoretically weaker, will inevitably strengthen public opinion control, and the entertainment industry will also be affected. Without positive functions, voices that cannot maintain consensus will inevitably disappear from the public discourse, at best surviving only in small circles for mutual comfort and mere survival.
Nevertheless, the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation’s path will likely be longer than expected. It is unwise to overestimate the speed of decline of the US and UK; they not only represent the interests of the Western developed countries group but also the group interests of capitalism, liberalism, and individualistic elites that have ruled the world for two or three centuries. Even among talents in various Chinese industries, many tacitly or overtly stand on the other side. The controversy over dynamic zero-COVID policies and previous local chaos are clear proofs.
In this historical process, national enterprises responding to the country’s call may have a bright future, also containing opportunities for individuals to grasp the pulse of the times and realize self-value. Remember, New China was not created and developed by those refined egoists; reflecting on who truly is the backbone of this country may help better understand the future direction.