The Core Issue

“Without correct political guidance and a common goal, our failure is inevitable!” Du Wen’s voice pierced sharply through the early autumn twilight, only to be lost into the cloudless night sky. Out on the militia base, far from the city lights and clutter, stars were already shining faintly.

No one said a word in reply to Du Wen among the group of people. They were walking a few laps around the exercise yard as evening exercise. There were many time travellers playing badminton and basketball, and the keen-eyed amongst them had already identified that the people walking around were five or six central figures of the Executive Committee as well as a few others that they were unfamiliar with. These extra people were members of the Political Advisory group that had not yet been announced, mostly composed of people with expertise in history, law and sociology. The young historian Yu Eshui was the group leader, and the deputy group leader was Du Wen, who had just spoken.

“What common goal do you want us to work towards?” After a while, Ma Qianzhu said, “Will everyone side with you?”

“You’re joking! A political organisation without its own political goals and no common purpose; yet we want to save the Chinese nation?”

“Save the Chinese nation?” Wen Desi said. “Let’s just say that that’s our highest ideal. At least that would be easier to achieve than true communism.”

“Our current goal is to be corrupt, right? I want to raise a loli–”

All the men smiled ambiguously.

“Such poor taste! History can prove that the inevitable collapse of the bourgeois…” Du Wen launched into a criticism.

“Let’s not go off topic.” Yu Eshui put the train back on track, “There is no need to worry about setting political goals at the moment, be it short or long term. In fact, there are only three key points we need to grasp: power structure, benefit distribution, and the bottom line.”

“Isn’t the Executive Committee working well? We can just adjust it a bit later.” Xiao Zishan was not interested in this question.

“What we have is administration only.” Wen Desi said, “The Executive Committee is just an administrative body, not a real government.”

“But the current Executive Committee is very efficient. If we hold assemblies to vote on everything, then nothing would get done. Don’t take the people here who go on the intranet and denounce democracy seriously. In the future, these hypocrites will in fact be the staunchest supporters of democracy. By then, we would have to hold meetings for several days just to dig a cesspit!”

“So we definitely need to keep the Committee, at least in some form.” Wen Desi admitted that the Executive Committee was indeed working well. “But the willy-nilly approach we have now will cause problems down the road. By the time that the masses rise up and demand their rights, the rulers will be left backpedalling.”

Rather than wait until they were forced to yield to demands of democracy through threat of force, it would be best to incorporate the still ignorant masses into a favourable political framework preemptively. Currently, most time travellers were still immersed in the preparation work. After they crossed over and everything calmed down, everyone would plot little schemes in their hearts–who would be happy being a voiceless member of the masses?

When the Executive Committee was established, although all the leaders of the technical working groups were members of the Committee, the core power was still held in the three oligarchs: Wen Desi, Wang Luobin and Xiao Zishan. When the three discovered that Ma Qianzhu had become quite a prominent figure during the preparation work, the Executive Committee quickly incorporated him into this decision-making core, turning the triumvirate into a quadrumvirate. For Chinese people, these little political tricks came almost by second nature. Everyone knew the truth of where power really lay, even if they didn’t voice it openly. At present there weren’t any problems of benefit distribution or conflict of interest among the time travellers. As such, their leadership positions only meant more work and responsibility for no gain. Thus, most people were still content to muddle along as political bystanders.

“So we want an efficient executive body just like the current Committee, but also incorporate everyone into our decisions. How should we incorporate everyone into our power structure then? Representative or plenary?”

“Obviously plenary.”

There were only about 500 time travellers in total; two basketball courts would be enough to accommodate them all. Implementing a representative system would involve an electoral system, which was far too complicated for this small of a voting base. It was better to keep everything simple at the moment.

“What about the people who join us in the future? Right, what about the rights of the natives? We can’t just ignore them.”

“Early on we don’t need to consider the rights of the natives. Our relationship with them is purely one of exploitation and suppression.” Dr. Zhong Lishi said casually. He was a through-and-through utilitarian, and he expressed his opinion indifferently. “If they are cooperative, we’ll compensate them appropriately for work, as well as their land, and their goods. If they aren’t, well... we’ll make them.”

“What’s the difference between this and what the Japanese did to us? These natives are our compatriots.”

“Well they still have to recognise you as a compatriot. How likely is that, looking and behaving as we do?”

“But in the future we must take into account the interests of the locals who join our cause. Let’s just call them ‘naturalised people’. It is completely appropriate to give them some political power. Without any long-term benefits, why would people be willing to offer their blood and sweat for you?”

“Include them into our government?” Xiao Zishan worried. “There will be many naturalised people in the future, many more than us time travellers. Even with a representative system it will be difficult to manage.”

“One of the characteristics of the petty bourgeoisie is that they are afraid of the masses! Only by mobilising the masses can we build a firm social foundation to wage war against the decadent and backward feudal regime. You’re all just thinking about being corrupt masters. I’m strongly opposed to discussions like this!” Du Wen was angry that everyone was blatantly discussing how to hold onto power and oppress the people. But everyone treated her like the Green Dam Girl, and shut her voice out like the buzz of a mosquito.^[1]

“Let me finish. What I envision is a political system like that of ancient Rome,” Yu Eshui continued his explanation, “aristocratic republic or aristocratic democracy–they are both fundamentally the same thing.”

“A senate?”

“Exactly. All of us time travellers are senators, and the Senate holds total power. Within the Senate we let democracy have full play. But for all the naturalised people we give limited political representation, maybe through a lower house or other such institution.”

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”^[2]

“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean.” Yu Eshui said, “but these are all as of now considerations for the future. Early on we don’t need such a complicated political system. I’ll put it simply: a General Assembly of the time travellers elects an Executive Committee. The Executive Committee wields day-to-day administrative power. But major decisions and legislation should be decided by the General Assembly. Every time traveller has the right to nominate candidates to the Executive and also be elected. The right to vote within the Assembly is universal, regardless of gender, for all above the age of 18. Each person has a single vote.”

“How do we determine the majority?”

“That’s a minor detail. If we want to ensure that decisions match public consensus, we can require that, for instance, 90% of the travellers must be present at the Assembly and cast a vote for the result to be valid. If we base it on a 90% attendance figure then two-thirds is the majority threshold.”

“Will there be any issues with such a format? Sometimes the masses are blind and easily misled. What if after a few years of smooth development and a few military victories, someone gets over-eager and wants to colonise Australia or wage war on Japan? If such an idea passes through the Assembly, then it becomes a resolution that we are legally bound to fulfil.”

“Haha, that’s true.” Yu Eshui said with a smile, “If the time travellers realise a democracy, then we must also live with democracy’s inherent contradiction: what if you’re the only one who’s sober while everyone else is drunk? If you find that everyone around you has a ‘wrong idea’, the outcome of democracy is that you are nonetheless compelled to obey it.”

“For instance, in a democracy where a majority of people want to raise lolis,” this raised some chuckles, “if you suddenly insist that such a hobby is degrading female dignity and so must be outlawed, the only possible result of your proposal is failure. Unless of course you can convince everyone to agree with your ideas. That might take many, many years to achieve. Of course you could resort to extreme measures. You can seize power as a demagogue, and impose your thoughts directly onto others.”

“Public opinion. The key is public opinion.” Xiao Zishan said.

“That’s right, public opinion can be used as a guide to achieve certain political objectives.”

The people walking around the field took another turn, during which Du Wen kept criticising the hypocrisy of a democracy of the bourgeois. Her voice was more or less relegated to background..

“Do we implement a separation of powers as well? And establish a separate judicial system?” Someone asked.

“No need for that, at least early on beginning. That would cause too much internal friction. We are few in number and don’t need such a complicated way of balancing power. Even if we need checks and balances they won’t be done through a court of law.” Although Yu Eshui didn’t explain his words, everyone understood the implied meaning.

“Haha, I think we are being a bit too detailed. Isn’t a political system just ultimately for distributing benefits?” A new voice spoke, belonging to Qian Shuiting. He represented the North American interest group among the time travellers. This 40-year-old man with a Masters in biology had been largely silent, and only spoke up at this time, “It is not realistic to establish a leadership core with a common purpose. Modern people have all kinds of political leanings: left, centre, right; Russian nationalist, German nationalist, Chinese Imperialist…If we want to find a common ground before doing anything, we’d end up slaughtered by the Ming Dynasty—actually, we’d probably starve to death first. There are many highly educated people here, and all of them think highly of themselves. Many have a firm pre-established worldview. It would be almost impossible to ask such people to find common ground between them. Therefore, the time travellers should cooperate on the basis of common interest rather than common philosophy. I personally think that a shareholding system would be the best way of distributing benefits, and that should be the basis and direction of our future development. What I mean by share-based structure is something like a company. What is the company’s goal? Someone said that we should strive for the prosperity of the Chinese nation? That is far too grand. I ask us to be realistic: what are the real interests and needs of us time travellers? We are no different from ordinary people. Except for a few selfless idealists among us, most of us normal guys are just after money, fame, women and power. Why spew such lofty words when we all know deep down that these are the true universals of human existence since the start of recorded history. So if we focus on these truths, even if everyone has differing political philosophies, it will still be possible to cooperate by finding common ground while reserving differences.”^[3]

“If you advocate for an interest-based political system, the time travellers will betray our cause the moment their personal wants cannot be met!” Du Wen said, “History has proven time and time again that the people who join a revolution for their own selfish interests are not reliable at all—they will abandon the revolutionary cause at a moment’s notice. Only those who devote themselves entirely to their ideals can achieve greatness.”

“If our goal was to build the world’s first socialist society in the 17th century, are you willing then to devote yourself to this cause?”

“Not only that, I will train many people who are willing to also devote themselves!” She said this sentence completely unswayed. A wave of people fainted, and some were even throwing up in distaste.^[4] Only Ma Qianzhu seemed normal. The conversation moved on.

“We will need a basic constitution. Even the Mayflower had a covenant back then.”

“Speaking of this, I now have a strange feeling–-like we’re going on a 17th century expedition.” Yu Eshui rubbed his hands excitedly, “A group of social outcasts and hopefuls look to get a new start. They venture to another world to make a fortune and work to fulfil their wishes. They have brand new technologies and weapons, and lots of valuable goods. They enter a New World cold-heartedly. At the start they only ask for a small piece of land to live on. Later they become masters of a new empire!”

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1. Green Dam Girl is a meme about a Chinese censorship program. English Wiki covers it here. ↩︎

2. Original quote, as I’m sure most of you know, is from Animal Farm, usually used ironically to make fun of certain authoritarian regimes. Here however it's not said in jest. ↩︎

3. This is something of a catchphrase of modern Chinese foreign policy. Xi Jinping says it all the time. ↩︎

4. Fainting metaphorically ↩︎