CH3291

多谢莫军师、李军师和蓝军师。

CH 3291 Contemporary Chinese Culture
Assignment 3
Name: Lim Shiyun
Tutorial Group: DO2
Title: Thoughts on “The Rigged Jiangsu Public Opinion Poll ”- Evaluating the implications of the “lying culture”. __________________________________________________________________________________
A newspaper article discussing the fakery of public opinion polls was featured in EastSouthWestNorth. Various reasons were stated to account for provincial grassroots participation in fabricating opinion polls. Firstly, direct monetary incentives were offered to those who fake polls results. Secondly, coercion was employed with those who fail to comply with fakery being threatened by provincial public security system. Also, officials steps in to offer benefits for those who were hardest hit. Finally, the citizens were promised improvement in living standards. Through such incentives and disincentives, the grassroots obeyed the orders yet eventually, turned against the government, voicing their grievances through the media.
Why are the leaders so keen in fabricating opinion polls? I would argue that one major motivation perpetuating such fakery is the incomplete bureaucratic structure of the Chinese government. The governmental structure propagates intense competition at the horizontal level (in this case provincial level) to outperform one another. This subsequently accentuates official’s tendency to produce fake results in order to please the central government and prove their capabilities. Moreover, with little check and balance in place together with a sustained culture of corruption and network, provincial governor perceives his probability of being discovered negligible. Furthermore, it has become a common practice, hence making it easier for them to rationalise their misgivings.

Meanwhile, the grassroots are both motivated and obligated to participate in fakery because of the short term incentives they are offered. However, bribery without tangible improvements in living cannot last. Upon realisation of how their communities’ interest is sacrificed for their governors’ political benefits, the grassroots became infuriated. Consequently, they sought platforms to release their suppressed voices. Theoretically, the bureaucratic structure disseminates instruction in top-down manner while garnering grassroots opinions in a bottom-up fashion. This gave the grassroots a stake in the country’s decision-making process. However, owing to poor check and balance in place, coupled with an immature bureaucratic system, their voices are often filtered and snuffed out even before they can reach the central government. With clogged channels of communication, central policies (created based on fake opinions) repeatedly present a wide gap between realities the grassroots face and what is done to alleviate their poverty. The implications can be mild (in this case complaints broadcasted by media tarnishing the credibility of the officials) or more serious: grassroots bypassing the provincial governments through protests and demonstrations in order to get their voices heard.

The “lying culture”, be it among the provincial leaders or the grassroots presents stark continuities from the past centuries of Chinese rule. This bandwagon phenomenon of faking results can be traced back to The Great Leap forward and even further back to the myriad of dynasties beyond. Yet to argue that it stems from the Chinese innate culture would be too essentialist. One has to take into consideration the massive population (amounting to more than 1/6 of world’s population) as well as the inherent flaws of the bureaucratic structure to rationalise the “lying culture”. Perhaps such culture could be countered by addressing the flaws of the bureaucratic system through establishing a check and balance system. More importantly, officials have to see beyond personal advancement within the political hierarchy while citizens have to see beyond short term monetary incentives. In other words, such phenomenon will only fade away with the rise of civic consciousness among BOTH the leaders and grassroots within the political structure.