Fat Years - Chan Koonchung [118]
He Dongsheng listened with a smile, as if he was lapping up their criticism. “Everything you’ve said is true,” he said, “but all the information you normally have can’t possibly compare with the information I have access to; the two are completely out of balance. I can tell you several things that are even more terrible and absurd than those things you already know about. A couple of days ago, we had a meeting to discuss what kind of a major catastrophe would arise given the hypothesis that so much mud has eroded off the hillsides along the Three Gorges Dam that it blocks the Yangtze River. Everybody knows that this is going to happen sooner or later—we just don’t know which leadership group is going to be so unlucky as to have to clean up the fucking mess. But I’ll tell you something for sure: you can’t just watch other people do all the heavy lifting while you just reap the benefits. You always have to give up something. Some lousy and irresponsible work will always be done here and there in a big country, but that’s the only way it can function. I can tell you another thing straight from the heart: there is no possible way for China to be any better than it is today.”
“What do you mean there’s no way China could be any better than it is today?” asked Little Xi indignantly. She threw up her hands.
“Doesn’t the West believe in God?” asked He Dongsheng, ignoring her. “God created the world and God is completely good. So God could not have deliberately created a bad world, right? But there are many things in the world that are not totally good. Many have struggled with this—the German philosopher Leibniz’s theodicy set out to defend God on this score. He proposed that, although the world is indeed not perfect, a better world is an impossibility because God had created the best possible world he could. If God can’t even do it, how can China? China’s current situation is as good as it can be under the existing circumstances, and it’s a practical impossibility to make it better. You cannot just assume that China has Britain’s parliamentary tradition, or northern Europe’s social democracy, or America’s vast land resources … China is just China, and history is not a blank page that you can fill in any way you want to; you can’t turn back the clock either; you can only start from the present situation. I firmly believe that today’s China has already chosen the best option in the real world.”
“Voltaire long ago ridiculed Leibniz’s philosophy that the world could not improve,” said Lao Chen, “in the words of Dr. Pangloss: ‘All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.’ ”
Fang Caodi wrinkled his brow in confusion.
“Whatever you say,” said Little Xi, “you’re just defending your one-party dictatorship.”
“Well, can you propose a better, more complete, and more feasible option?” asked He Dongsheng.
“Just because I can’t do it,” answered Little Xi, “doesn’t mean that I want to accept your option.”
He Dongsheng understood very well all the arguments and charges made by his captors. He knew that everything was due to the double-edged sword that was the Communist Party. Maybe the blame belonged to Lenin and Trotsky for first devising a one-party dictatorship.
“But can the dictatorship’s ‘Chinese capitalism with socialist characteristics’ be replaced by any other system? Or is it already the best option in the world as it really exists?
“One-party dictatorship is indeed incapable of eliminating its own corruption, and one-party dictatorship has to stifle freedom of speech and suppress any and all dissidents. But can China be controlled without a one-party dictatorship? Can any other system feed and clothe one billion, three hundred and fifty million people? Or successfully administer an ‘Action Plan for Achieving Prosperity amid Crisis’? Could China rise so fast without the leadership of a one-party dictatorship?” He Dongsheng allowed his words to settle in his captors’ ears before continuing.
Some people might think that now that China has risen and its age of prosperity has begun, China can