A Conversation with a Chinese Person 01 | Cowardly Chinese Who Only Dare Curse Capital, and Still Back the People in Power

"They don't dare go after the people in charge, but they do dare to gang up on the people who demand answers. That's helping the bad guys."

Author / interviewer: Brennan Ruskell

Interviewee: Chen, in his forties

Brennan Ruskell: You say some people curse capital, and what they're really doing is backing the people in power. What do you mean?

Chen: Look at those little pinks. Day to day they say the Communist Party leads everything. Something goes wrong, and they say capital controls everything. So I want to ask: what has the Party actually led? Does it only lead the good things, while a few bosses do the bad things behind its back? You say capital is so powerful. Is it powerful enough to decide what you can see, what you can say, whether you can start a union? Who decides those things? He won't ask. Every day he begs the person who does decide to come out and set things right.

Brennan Ruskell: But he really is getting squeezed by his boss. What's wrong with cursing the boss?

Chen: If the boss owes you wages, of course you curse him. But if you still can't get the wages back, you have to keep asking. The law says it protects you. Why is nobody there when you actually need protecting? It's the same if you buy a home and the building never gets finished. Someone is there when they sell the land. Someone is there when they hand out the loans. When they take your money, every paper is in order. Then it's time to hand over the home, and suddenly it's just you and the company that sold it to you. You go ask what the others should answer for, and those little pinks who were just cursing capital for you tell you right away not to make trouble. They say you're hurting social stability. So whose side are they on?

Brennan Ruskell: Do they simply not know there's someone else behind capital?

Chen: Some don't. But some people I know, in private, understand it better than anyone. Which boss is the front man for which official. Whose family is behind which project. They can spell it all out. You ask why they don't say that online, and they say, you think I'm stupid? Then someone else actually says it, and they run over and curse that person for making up rumors and taking money from abroad. Look at them then. They're not scared of trouble anymore, because they know which side is the safest to curse along with.

Brennan Ruskell: So you think this is already more than just being timid?

Chen: A timid person can keep quiet. I have no right to ask anyone to gamble the life they have. But if you don't dare go after the people in power, and you help those people gang up on the ones who demand answers, that's helping the bad guys. Someone goes after unpaid wages, and you say they're making trouble for the country. Someone asks where the money went, and the first thing you ask is what they have in mind. You haven't got a single coin back for them. Before anything else, you put the victim on trial on behalf of the person who owes the money.

Brennan Ruskell: So when they curse capital, what are they actually hoping to get?

Chen: Some of them just want the Communist Party to see it. My life isn't good, but I have no complaint against you. I know who I'm supposed to hate. I haven't dropped a single enemy you assigned me. Capital, America, Japan, he can curse all of them for you. In the best case, once he's done cursing, the people up top think this one knows how to behave, and they look after him a little. Ask him to support ordinary people having the right to keep officials in check, and he won't. He still hopes that one day he gets to be an official himself. If you tie power down now, where is he going to go later to get something for nothing?

Brennan Ruskell: Why do you connect this way of thinking with the exam to become a government official?

Chen: Because some people say it themselves. Once you're in, you don't have to take abuse from capital anymore. The pay is secure. Getting things done is easier too. I ask him what happens to the people outside. He says, then you take the exam too. Listen to that. It's not that he doesn't know people on the inside and people on the outside are not treated the same. He thinks that difference is the reason to fight his way in. You tell him everyone should have that security, and he feels you're splitting up the benefit he worked so hard to pass the exam for.

Brennan Ruskell: But he's been hurt by this unfairness himself. How can he still defend it?

Chen: Because he thinks his own turn will come. No connections today. Tomorrow he can go find some. Today the boss orders him around. Tomorrow maybe it's his turn to order other people around. I know someone who hates the people hired through connections more than anyone. Then his kid needs a job, and he pulls strings harder than anyone, and he tells me that's just how society is, you don't get it. The same thing is called corruption when it blocks his way, and called connections when it opens a door for him. Talk about fairness with a person like that, and all he thinks is that you don't have the ability.

Brennan Ruskell: So did you keep arguing with them after that?

Chen: Later I stopped. You talk to him about how to get people bullied less. He talks to you about how to get to know a boss. You're not even having the same conversation. What disgusts me most is this. He knows perfectly well who has the power to decide how his days go. He still only curses the people the top allows him to curse, and he calls that seeing clearly, calls it loving the country. The day they actually give him a little benefit, he won't even admit the hard time he went through with you yesterday. He turns around and lectures you. That's on you for not working hard.