The Voice of the People in the People's Republic

BEIJING – A Chinese court announced Friday it will retry a farmer sentenced to life in prison for evading highway tolls after a massive public outcry over his heavy punishment.

 The back story is here:
China to Retry Farmer Given Life for Evading Tolls

To be clear, this was not simple toll evasion, the accused apparently forged military license plates and otherwise disguised his truck as a military vehicle to dodge some $500,000 in road tolls over a period of time.

Tough it wouldn't be anywhere close to life in prison, neither would it be a ticket or misdomeanor here in the USA.

But this isn't about tolls in China.

This is about the people being heard in the People's Republic.

Note that countries with the word "People's" in their name (or both of the words "democratic" and "republic" and especially countries with all of those words like the DPRK) tend to be none of the above.

China's government is much like a corporate bureaucracy. Officials are essentially promoted on merit and political connections and move up in the ranks, eventually becoming the CEO. The board of directors are a group of senior party officials who make sure everything is cool with their view of what good communism looks like.

The harsh sentence in this case was likely a political message meant to set an example so that others contemplating defrauding the government would think twice. It is meant to demonstrate the power of government to harshly punish fraud against it.

But the people didn't buy it.

Not much opportunity here for "the people" to have anything to say.

But, of course, there are 1,300,000,000 of them, give or take, and sheer weight of numbers has serious implications.

Simply, if significant numbers of them feel the government is no longer serving China, the government has to listen and respond. Failure to do so is going to open the door for social unrest, the greatest threat to a stable government in China ("stable" meaning "staying in power").

Why is this the case? Because there is no mechanism within the current system in China for the people to alter the government's direction or policies.

If the people feel they have no voice, and are discontent enough - the people begin to understand a basic truth of all nations:

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Ironically, the government in China lives in fear that the people will realize this is true.

Thus the government has to be responsive to public outcry, indeed, sometimes more responsive than might be prudent. In this case they backed down.

China is starting to see inflation. Bills are rising faster than incomes. They are entering into a trying period, IMO.