Chinese Activist: Money-Governed Politics is Root of the Financial Crisis

On November 29 and 30, Chinese activist Wei Jingsheng lectured on possible causes of the financial crisis at the “Modernization-Democracy” seminar held by the Spirali Publishing Company in Milano, Italy. The seminars were well attended by European writers and philosophers, Chinese dissidents and other prominent figures, including Russia’s former Minister of Energy.

Wei Jingsheng, a Chinese democracy activist famous for his 1978 essay “The Fifth Modernization-Democracy”, theorized that the root reason for the current financial crisis is that money has governed and influenced the politics, leaving democracy on the rocks.

Wei stated that while every one seems to be talking about the current financial crisis, very few people realize that this is occurring at the same time that western democracy has started to malfunction. Wei believes that the main reason for the widespread and serious crisis is caused by the restructuring in the global industries during the past 20 to 30 years.

According to Wei, this industrial shift is different from those of the past. These new changes in industry are not fueled by technological advances, but instead, fueled cheap labor.

This shift is characterized by big, multinational corporations making large profits while mass unemployment is being created in the developed countries, said Wei. The global economy is in essence regressing and huge trade deficits are created as capital transfers from rich countries to poor countries. 

Wei talked about how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has infiltrated to western media and politics in democratic countries in order to beautify the ruthless exploitation system and make huge profits. Wei said, “While the CCP’s bureaucratic capitalists and big western companies are sharing the profits, Chinese workers are leading a miserable life and western workers are losing their jobs.”

Wei said that developed countries have not only failed to address this issue, but added fuel to the flames via unfair trade. According to him, it is not that countries are just blindly accepting policies that will harm them in the long run, but lobbying done by large enterprises have played decisive roles that could not be blocked.

Wei stressed that the present financial crisis is not only caused by economic reasons nor is it something accumulated over short period of time. Wei suggests to consider political reform in western countries while solving this financial crisis.