China must adapt to avoid impending internal collision

José Pacheco Pereira

Portuguese political analyst, historian and politician José Pacheco Pereira yesterday told reporters that China can not continue indefinitely as a country run by simultaneous yet contradictory ideologies and systems, warning that eventually it would lead to an internal collision.
“There is no other place in the world that has a capitalist system run by a communist party,” said Pereira. “They [will] need to adjust something. The way things are going now the systems will collide.”
Speaking at a press conference prior to a talk organized by the European Union Academic Programme – Macau (also included in the Macau Literary Festival program), the former vice president of the European Parliament further warned that the conflict between state capitalism and a thin veneer of communism is hardly the only contradiction in the world’s second largest economy.
He also recognizes an internal conflict between China’s modernizing economy and its entrenched autocratic governance that seeks to curtail dissent and repress freedoms.
“You cannot have a modern society without freedom… even in economic terms,” he rationalized. “You have to have conflicts and escapes [like trade union activity and strikes]. You cannot disappear if you publish books that the government does not like.”
“Even if I recognize that the CCP is one of the most successful parties – irrespective of its ideology – you cannot rule indefinitely from a single source of power […] and it is impossible to have modernity without the inclusion of the views of many different people,” added Pereira.
The historian admits that while these are medium- and long-term pressures on the Chinese state, “conflicts and contradictions always have cycles,” inferring that their effects intensify and diminish alternately. He agrees that the recent economic problems observed in China over the last six months may have some connection to these internal contradictions, concluding that the country’s development requires more “openness”.
However Pereira is somewhat more optimistic when it comes to the triangular relationship between China, Macau and Portugal, claiming that the MSAR faces a unique opportunity in “embracing” its Portuguese heritage. He adds that it could serve as a boon to the three parties.
“China really does not need Portugal but if they have Portuguese people in their own country, it is an advantage,” he said as it contributes to the diversity of thought in a nation.
“This is true of Macau, as it is of Hong Kong, and other places,” added Pereira, referring to the other European enclaves in the late-19th and early-20th centuries such as German-     occupied Qingdao.
“The world is a complex place,” he continued, “and differences among people contribute to diversity. They are an advantage. And it is a great advantage to China to be able to absorb [the cultures of other] countries with a long history.”
Fortunately, according to Pereira, the Portuguese culture in Macau has been “crystallized” or preserved even better than in Portugal itself, which has “developed and changed with the times.”
“It’s not a bad thing for it to happen here,” he added. Daniel Beitler

owner of the largest private library

José Pacheco Pereira is the owner of what he describes as the “largest private archive-library” in Portugal, totaling more than 200,000 books and documents. It is said that were the books and documents to be arranged on a single bookshelf the shelf would need to be 5km in length. The collection also includes artifacts, such as objects from the Cultural Revolution, and a small tin safe that was used to collect money for the then-new state of Israel. “I am trying to maintain a certain amount of rescue to books that are normally thrown away,” he said, adding that he focuses on the salvation of books that relate to modern history and contemporary politics “in a broad sense.” Asked whether he intends to open his collection to the public, he said simply: “if you want to visit for research, it [the library] is open.”