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If you still want your Mao memorabilia, you better hurry down to Tiananmen Square, Beijing, while you still have the chance.
In China, the State Council is somewhat comparable to the Cabinet. Headed by the Prime Minister and consisting of the heads of the various Ministries (Defense, Commerce, Education, Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Justice, Civil Affairs, State Security, Public Security and so on), it handles the day-to-day running of the country while formulating economic policy.
Its operational procedures are described in a document, conveniently titled "Working Procedures for the State Council". On March 18, an updated version of that document was published, and it has a couple of changes.
First off, the State Council now has to "report any major decisions, major events and important situations" to the Central Committee "in a timely manner." Previous edition sentences like "administration according to law, seeking truth from facts, democracy, openness, pragmatism and integrity" have been scrapped, as has the requirement for the State Council "to correct illegal or inappropriate administrative actions", or to "guide and supervise" the bureaucracy. In other words, its wings have been seriously clipped.
Secondly, any and all references to Marxism/Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, the thought of Deng Xiaoping and the ideologies of former presidents Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao are now verboten. Only references to Xi Jinping Thought are allowed, as that is "the essence of Chinese culture and the spirit of the times".
To drive the point home, the Central Committee of the CCP launched another nationwide disciplinary campaign among its 96 million members.
This round will check them for loyalty to supreme leader Xi Jinping, weeding out "black sheep" and "two-faced" officials.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by istartedi on Saturday April 01, @09:53PM (4 children)
The essence of a good ideology for achieving total control, is that it's plausible enough to fool people at the right time.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 5, Informative) by mcgrew on Saturday April 01, @10:17PM (3 children)
Lincoln said "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."
He neglected to add "But you don't have to. The first two will suffice."
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 01, @10:48PM
You only need a plurality, if even that.
(Score: 4, Touché) by krishnoid on Saturday April 01, @11:13PM
Don't forget he also said "You can't believe every quote attribution you read on the Internet."
Now that 1984 has recently made it into the UK public domain [theguardian.com], this guy made it into an audiobook/radio play [youtu.be].
On another note, the book (upon relistening) clarifies how important personal journals and paper records [csmonitor.com] and being able to observe the progress of edits via revision control can be, but not for the initial reasons that might come to mind.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Sunday April 02, @01:50AM
I can't help but think of Adlai Stevenson, who while running for president had this exchange:
Supporter: "Every thinking person in America will be voting for you!"
Stevenson: "I'm afraid that won't do — I need a majority."
And he indeed lost, in no small part because Richard Nixon had popularized calling him an "egghead".
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.