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Seventeen years on the streets, living and working with the people of China, Jeff
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My comments
My wife and I live in China (myself a total of 17 years), most recently almost two years on Taiwan Island. I thought these two articles by foreigners living here were worth sharing, because they show points of view that are largely in agreement with what we see and feel, but expressed differently, for a little change of pace. I appreciated their fresh perspectives and I think you will too.
Definitely not the Talmud-Tanakh West, thank Buddha!
Enjoy!
Jeff
Article I (reference below)
Why Chinese populace has a high degree of trust in the government
Editor’s Note:
For many foreign observers, China’s daily landscape presents a series of fascinating phenomena. In this special commentary series, “The Logic of Chinese Governance through Daily Life,” we address three core inquiries about China frequently raised by the international community: Where does Chinese people’s trust in the government come from? How is the baseline of social welfare secured? And how is social order maintained from bottom up? Through the eyes of expats living in China, this series aims to explore the “ground reality” of Chinese governance.
By Adel Baktygulova
There is no universal approach or theory on good governance in the world. Each country has its own unique governing system, and China’s governance model is particularly special. First, over China’s thousands of years of history, the country has experienced varied types of governance models and has developed the most optimal one for its unique conditions. Second, the population of China is more than 1.4 billion encompassing 56 ethnic groups; therefore, it’s about how to consolidate people with different backgrounds and beliefs in order to make a country more prosperous and each and every citizen wealthier.
“When the Master governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists.” These words from Laozi capture a philosophy of governance that prioritizes quiet effectiveness over constant political spectacle. This ancient idea helps explain a modern question: Why does the Chinese populace have a high degree of trust in its government?
Trust is rarely built through rhetoric alone. It develops through consistent results over time. The repeated positive outcomes tend to strengthen public confidence. For many citizens, trust is shaped more by visible improvements in daily life than by political discourse. China’s poverty alleviation campaign lifted nearly 100 million people out of poverty between 2012 and 2020. The country has built more than 40,000 kilometers of high-speed rail in over a decade, transforming travel and connectivity. Life expectancy has risen from 64 years in 1980 to over 78 years today, while air quality in major cities such as Beijing has steadily improved over the past decade. These are changes that people can see and experience in their everyday lives. When such improvements accumulate over time, confidence in governance naturally grows.
I have been living in China for nearly four years, and these improvements are visible in my daily life too. Traveling across different regions of China, I see the scale of infrastructure development and regional connectivity that supports domestic development. Many aspects of public life are designed with convenience and accessibility in mind, allowing people to experience the benefits of development. Such everyday experiences help explain why effective governance resonates with many citizens and contributes to public confidence.
Like any major country, China faces challenges. Yet public confidence has remained resilient in part because many people have witnessed the government’s ability to address previous challenges and adapt to changing circumstances.
Trust is based on the expectation that problems can be managed and resolved effectively. This confidence also creates the conditions for long-term planning. Major initiatives, from successive five-year plans to large-scale infrastructure and development projects, are often viewed as part of a broader national development strategy. Confidence built through previous achievements helps sustain public support for future goals. In this way, a reinforcing cycle emerges: Effective governance strengthens public trust, while public trust provides the stability needed to pursue long-term objectives.
Each of these achievements has required not only policy design but also effective implementation. A government that consistently delivers on its commitments develops a reputation for credibility. In Western political theory, checks and balances are often regarded as the primary mechanism for ensuring government accountability and public trust. The Chinese experience suggests that effective governance can also be a powerful source of public trust. When people see concrete improvements in their lives, confidence in public institutions becomes a practical conclusion drawn from experience.
As Laozi observed more than 2,000 years ago, the most effective governance is often felt through its results rather than its visibility. In contemporary China, public trust has been shaped not by grand promises alone, but by the cumulative impact of policies that have transformed everyday life. When governance is measured by its ability to solve problems and improve people’s well-being, trust becomes less a matter of political theory and more a reflection of lived reality.
The author is a Kyrgyz undergraduate student at Tsinghua University. [email protected]
Article II (reference below)
Public order a constant task for everyone
Editor’s Note:
For many foreign observers, China’s everyday life presents a series of fascinating phenomena. In this special commentary series, “The Logic of Chinese Governance through Daily Life,” the Global Times addresses three core inquiries about China frequently raised by the international community: Where does Chinese people’s trust in the government come from? How is the baseline of social welfare secured? And how is social order maintained from the bottom up? Through the eyes of expats living in China, this series aims to explore the “ground reality” of Chinese governance.
A stranger in need, or a confused tourist in China, in parks, in residential neighborhoods or even on the streets may encounter active citizens – often elderly – who will proactively step up and ask, “Who are you looking for?” “What’s wrong?” or “Do you need help?” They will scold young people who litter, will help lost children find their parents, and will intervene when they see a suspicious stranger.
This behavior is a mix of being helpful and maintaining order. If you are well behaved and need help, such elderly people are there to support you. But if your behavior is out of the ordinary, they may approach or even scold you if you look harmless, or call for security guards or even the police if they find you intimidating.
In the individual case, although the latter can be annoying, it is the legal right of Chinese citizens. Here’s the point: Bottom-up democracy means the local people decide what problems they report and to which level. Any European or American traveling to China always notices just how few police they see in the streets. Hardly ever do we hear wailing sirens. This is self-governance in Chinese: Local people in the streets maintain order by themselves, and can call for support if needed.
The boundary of such self-governance is the law, so these volunteers can’t demand anything unwarranted from passersby. But they can legitimately demand that law enforcement check the validity of permits.
The topic of bottom-up governance in China is rarely discussed because Western narratives prefer to present Chinese citizens as passive subjects in a top-down system. Chinese self-presentation often prefers to focus on the result of maintaining order, rather than on the processes of supervision. But everyone knows that social order doesn’t happen without enforcement, so the bottom-up management of society in China is really worth looking at more closely.
By comparison, citizen supervision and civil courage in Europe are a fine line, where the accusation of “spying on your neighbor” is quickly launched if anyone scolds others for bad behavior, or calls the police on them. Therefore, the Chinese system of self-management needs to be embedded in the cultural context of the three-generation family, and the village as an extended family, which is so very different from the hyper-individualist worldview prevalent in the West.
When people live in social settings where grandparents naturally take care of children after school, while parents work and look after both children and the elderly in the evening, everyone in society agrees that public safety, peace and tranquility are very high goods that need to be maintained.
While it may seem odd to Western minds that people without any formal or state-given authority should tell others what to do or what not to do, the “mass line” has remained a core governing practice of the People’s Republic of China from the very day of its founding. Rather than an authority “from above” sending its police to control the people, let the people manage themselves, and report to authorities if there are troublemakers.
This reporting can have different ways too: In the short term, or in the case of urgency, it can mean calling the police to get professional help against a threat; in the long term, it can mean talking to local authorities to suggest changes, for example, in traffic control, neighborhood management or even legal regulation. These suggestions are then collected and aggregated by local offices, and if a similar complaint keeps reappearing, it will be reported upward and eventually changed.
This process takes time and isn’t perfect, of course. Nor does a complaint from one viewpoint mean that a change is possible. First, there needs to be an assessment from all sides, as one person’s freedom may be another person’s nuisance. But the principle of collecting inputs from bottom-up voices and improving things at the lowest level possible is very much practiced in China and visible all the time.
I can count dozens of intersections in my neighborhood that have been adjusted in various ways over just a few years, based on feedback and police observation of traffic, to improve traffic flows.
Engaging people in maintaining order doesn’t just work like an auxiliary police force, it works by opening people up for the need to maintain order, to the ultimate benefit of everyone. Public order is a constant task for everyone, not a state-vs-people topic in China.
The author is the founder of Buchmann CultureTech (Shanghai) Co Ltd. He is based in Shanghai. [email protected]
Further reading
Jeff J. Brown’s many libraries and catalogues EXPANDED and they R-O-C-K with all of humanity – past, present & future! Our Pale Blue Dot’s story all on one page! Radio Sinoland 260531
The Myth Of Western vs Chinese Education Superiority-Godfree Roberts On China Rising Radio Sinoland 20160714
China has the world’s best merit-based education system. Here’s why. China Rising Radio Sinoland 191210
A look at China’s education system versus the West. Different cultures, expectations and outcomes. China Rising Radio Sinoland 240618
Top 30 applied science schools on Planet Earth are ALL Chinese! With thermonuclear commentary that tells it like it is. Buckle up. Radio Sinoland 260207
China’s meritocratic and dynamic education system is leaving Satanic Harvard and the Ivy League in the ranking dust! Radio Sinoland 260307
Shanghai’s public school revolution is burying the West – Godfree Roberts on China Rising Radio Sinoland 20160507
China leaps past USA in global university rankings, plus a fun family anecdote that proves the point. China Rising Radio Sinoland 221111
Living library on Judaism. Continually updated. With image texts and video transcripts to easily copy for your use, and for translating them and this webpage in all available languages!
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Further study
The China Trilogy is an honorary degree in Chinese Studies. Don’t miss out!
https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00TX0TDDI/allbooks and
Jeff J. Brown’s many libraries and catalogues EXPANDED and they R-O-C-K with all of humanity – past, present & future! Our Pale Blue Dot’s story all on one page! Radio Sinoland 260531
Do yourself, your friends, family and colleagues a favor, to make sure all of you are Sino-smart:
Google ebooks (Epub) and audiobooks:
44 Days Backpacking in China: The Middle Kingdom in the 21st Century, with the United States, Europe and the Fate of the World in Its Looking Glass https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=YBKHEAAAQBAJ
https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details?id=AQAAAECCkQXRlM
China Rising: Capitalist Roads, Socialist Destinations https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=YNmLEAAAQBAJ
https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details?id=AQAAAECCfHo86M
BIG Red Book on China: Chinese History, Culture and Revolution
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https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details?id=AQAAAECCfHo86M
Amazon print and ebooks (Kindle):
44 Days Backpacking in China: The Middle Kingdom in the 21st Century, with the United States, Europe and the Fate of the World in Its Looking Glass
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1484939999/
China Rising: Capitalist Roads, Socialist Destinations
https://www.amazon.com/China-Rising-Capitalist-Socialist-Destinations/dp/0996487042
BIG Red Book on China: Chinese History, Culture and Revolution
https://www.amazon.com/BIG-Red-Book-China/dp/1673322719/
Author page:
https://www.amazon.com/Mr.-Jeff-J.-Brown/e/B00TX0TDDI
Praise for The China Trilogy:
Why and How China works: With a Mirror to Our Own History
JEFF J. BROWN, Editor, China Rising, and Senior Editor & China Correspondent, Dispatch from Beijing, The Greanville Post
Jeff J. Brown is a geopolitical analyst, journalist, lecturer and the author of The China Trilogy. It consists of 44 Days Backpacking in China – The Middle Kingdom in the 21st Century, with the United States, Europe and the Fate of the World in Its Looking Glass (2013); Punto Press released China Rising – Capitalist Roads, Socialist Destinations (2016); and BIG Red Book on China (2020). As well, he published a textbook, Doctor WriteRead’s Treasure Trove to Great English (2015). Jeff is a Senior Editor & China Correspondent for The Greanville Post, where he keeps a column, Dispatch from Beijing and is a Global Opinion Leader at 21st Century. He also writes a column for The Saker, called the Moscow-Beijing Express. Jeff writes, interviews and podcasts on his own program, China Rising Radio Sinoland, which is also available on YouTube, Stitcher Radio, iTunes, Ivoox and RUvid. Guests have included Ramsey Clark, James Bradley, Moti Nissani, Godfree Roberts, Hiroyuki Hamada, The Saker and many others. [/su_spoiler]
Jeff can be reached at China Rising, [email protected], Facebook, Twitter, Wechat (+86-19806711824/Mr_Professor_Brown, and Line/Telegram/Whatsapp: +33-612458821.
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[google-translator]
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