The Biggest Treat to China Is Not Social Turmoil but Social Decay

The biggest treat to China is not social turmoil but social decay

Social turmoil indicates serious social conflicts can threaten the basic framework of the political system, on the other hand, social decay means necrosis of the cells and function failure that compose the body of a society. To illustrate this point with a metaphor, turmoil is like a healthy body is injured by punishment of someone, whereas social decay is like the death of the cells and living issue of the body.

In recent years, obviously, the phenomenon of social decay has arisen. A major problem is the uncontrollable authority. Although we have established the framework of a market-oriented economy through the past three decades’ reform, authority is still the pivot of our society. Thus the primarily problem of social decay is uncontrollable authority, corruption is just its outward manifestation. The authority of local governments and various departments are neither restrained and monitored by forces from above nor below. There is no balance behind this. Officials sacrifice the interest of the government, for their own interest of preserving their positions or getting promoted. Corruption has become out of control and ungovernable problem under this background.

This social decay has spread to all aspects of social life. Various underlying rules prevail in the society, and even become the basic behaviour of officials and ordinary citizens. There is no bottom line of social ethics; the society has lost its morals; strong interest groups are unscrupulous, which cause serious erosion of social fairness and justice. Violation of professional conduct and professional ethics is widespread. The information systems throughout the society have become highly distorted.