Reflective
Journal 4
During
the last two lessons, we talked about the societal problem faced by China and America.
The situations of the two countries are really different due to the diversity
in politics, economics and people’s ideologies.
The biggest problem which Chinese may come
up with first is corruption in the government. I think this problem is very
worrying. One of the reasons why CCP could defeat Kuomintang which was originally
stronger in the civil war was that CCP was clean and cared much about common
people. Thus, it gained wide support from the masses. However, today, there is often
news about corruptive officials and sometimes when people are really feeling
that local officials are not doing things which benefit the masses, they become
disappointed and even angry. I can understand the common people as the
corruptive officials who are fed by the taxes they pay only think about how to
get more benefits for themselves instead of common people. In my opinion, the
formation of this problem cannot only be attributed to the government itself. It
is money worship in the whole society and people’s greed that make this problem
worse. Many Chinese still link being an official more closely to earning a lot
of money than serving people. Maybe one of the ways they think to realise it
quickly is to be corruptive.
However, to resolve the problem, the main
responsibility still falls on the government. Although CCP has made much effort
to find out and deal with the corruptive officials such as Chen Liangyu in
Shanghai and Wen Qiang in Chongqing, there is still a long way to go. I think
the first thing China should do is to perfect the legal system. The corruptive
officials must be punished harshly and fairly and the prosecutors must work
independently. Then the government should encourage people to report corruptive
behaviour and protect the reporters as the government works for people so
people should have a voice. On the other hand, it may not be wise to adopt
other countries’ system such as Singapore’s meritocracy because the number of
officials is much larger and hard to manage.
Another serious societal problem faced by
China is polarisation of income. When I was in China, I could see both luxury
cars ostentatiously running down the road and the poor beggars begging for
money on the pavement. I feel sorry for the poor, but it is not very reasonable
to blame the rich as long as they get rich through legal ways and contribute to
the development of the society. China is building a free market gradually in
which once there are winners, there is likely to be losers as well. The problem
cannot be easily avoided. Also, because of the restriction of transport and
communication, the rural areas are not able to develop as well as urban areas
at all, especially the mountain villages in the West.
Unlike the problem above, this problem
cannot be solved solely by the government. According to what I read in newspapers
in China, the government has actively decrease the tax for the poor and
increase the tax for the rich, but obviously this measure is not able to
resolve it all. The government is also improving the health care and housing
welfare, but it will take a long time to complete. I think the rich are more
responsible to help the poor by donating money and things. More philanthropists
should emerge and promote the spirit of giving back to the society so the rich
and the poor can share the fruit of development together.
In America, the problem of corruption and
polarisation is not that serious but there seem to be other social problems
like drug abuse. I have never been to America before, but in the news, I have heard
a lot about some superstars who took drugs and finally died at a young age. According
to statistics, one-twelfth of people over 12 years old in America use illicit
drugs. The number is really terrible and even a bit unimaginable to me. Drug
abuse may lead to violence and other crimes as well, which will cause further
problems.
I think both the government and the society
are responsible for resolving the problem. The government has to do more to
prohibit illegal drug trading and transaction. The society can help to
rehabilitate the drug addicts and stop young people from touching drugs.
In conclusion, China and America are facing
different but serious societal problems and they cannot be resolved in a short
time. The government and the society should act together to deal with them.
Dear Huiyao,
回复删除I feel very strongly about corruption in China as well, because I feel that the government should think of ways to benefit the people, instead of benefitting themselves, which you have mentioned in your reflective journal. Indeed, they are paid by the taxes imposed on the citizens, but yet they do not put in the effort to help make the citizens’ lives better. Worst still, they seize land from farmers in rural areas and do not give them proper compensation, but instead keep the profits for themselves.
In your reflective journal, you mentioned that “it is money worship in the whole society and people’s greed that make this problem worse”. I found this point very interesting as I have never considered the problem of corruption from this perspective before, and what you said really struck me. We cannot entirely blame the government for being corrupt, since the whole society of China is becoming so materialistic. In fact, I feel that we can even trace back to China’s history when there were still emperors. In those days, people desired to be officials because of the prestige instead of really meaning well for the country, in my view. Furthermore, there were numerous corrupt officials in the past as well, and this may have been what shaped the attitudes and moral standards of the current batch of leaders in China.
To resolve this societal problem, you stated that the legal system should be perfected and that “prosecutors must work independently”. However, I strongly believe that this may backfire since the prosecutors may be corrupt themselves. They may be bribed to ignore certain acts of corruption, or even bribed to push the responsibility of certain crimes to other officials who are clean and morally upright.
You also proposed a solution which is for the government to encourage people to report leaders who are corrupt, and to protect the reporters. However, I feel that this solution would be rather hard to implement since China is such a huge country. In order to protect the informants, it would require huge numbers of manpower to do so, and these “protectors” may even be bribed by the corrupt officials to get rid of the informants through illegal means. Ultimately, my concern is that the solutions proposed are just aiming to resolve the problem superficially, but not tackling the challenge from its roots. In my opinion, the way to solve the problem is to introduce Confucius’s teachings to the government, convincing them that it is necessary for them to be morally upright and just people. This can possibly solve the problem of corruption in the government since it deals with the root cause of corruption, which is the moral degradation of leaders in China.
Moving on, I agreed with your point on income disparity to a large extent. It is indeed a very severe problem in China and it hurts me to know of people who cannot even afford their daily meals when others can afford luxury good and live a luxurious lifestyle. The solution you proposed is extremely workable as well, in my opinion. Philanthropic behaviour should be encouraged as this can resolve the problem of the rich-poor gap in China.
(cont)
(cont)
回复删除In addition, for America, you highlighted the challenge of drug abuse. That is one challenge I have never considered before, and thus I found it very interesting. After looking at the statistics provided, I do agree that drug abuse is a very severe problem and it should be rectified. I believe that the solutions you proposed are very useful in solving the problem as well. However, I feel that you could have proposed educating citizens about the dangers of drug abuse. In my opinion, people abuse drugs because they desire the ‘high’ feeling and want to let down their hair since their lives are extremely stressful. Therefore, I strongly believe education of the dangers of drug abuse and introduction of other methods to deal with stress would be an excellent solution to this problem.
In conclusion, it was enjoyable reading your reflective journal as I gained many new insights.
Regards,
3S129
Dear Huiyao:
回复删除I agree with you that polarization of income in China is serious . However, in your journal I cannot find out why it is a problem. I think maybe you can talk about its negative effect on the society, such as whether the poor would slow down the social development, or the poor would envy the upper class and be discontent with the social structure, which may lead to unhappiness or even unrest that is not good for social harmony.
And for the solution of this problem, I think that the government can solve most part of it. The distribution of the fruit of development is still the government’ responsibility .Donations from the rich or other people may help, but it is not the rich’s responsibility, so we cannot require them to do so. And to make the poor get rid of poverty, it is not enough for either the government or the rich to give money to the poor. The government can provide the poor with job training to help them earn more money so as to make them live on their own instead of on others’ help. I think that will be an effective and sustainable solution as it is from a long-term prospective to alleviate polarization. What do you think?
Regards
Zhenghao.
Dear Huiyao,
回复删除About your point on polarization of income in China, I feel that it can be alleviated through providing better education for more of those poorer citizens in China. This is because education is the key to breaking out of the vicious cycle of poverty as it open more opportunities to better jobs. This way, the gap can be narrowed down.
Jin Hui