Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article: A1406-W1009

魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A1406-W1009

Release Date: July 27, 2021

发布日：2021年7月27日

Topic: Reflection on China's Natural and Man-made Disasters -- Wei Jingsheng

标题：中国天灾人祸的反思 -- 魏京生

Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)

此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）

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Reflection on China's Natural and Man-made Disasters

-- Wei Jingsheng

Natural disasters have happened since ancient times, and man-made disasters sometimes happen and sometimes do not. Beginning in the era of Dayu’s water control more than 4,000 years ago, one of the important functions of humans organized as a nation was to control water disasters and prevent or reduce the losses caused by disasters, including the construction of various water conservancy facilities to turn disasters into conservancy. This is the process of human progress. More than two thousand years ago, the Zhengguo Canal and Dujiangyan irrigation system were classic projects where the ancient Chinese turned water disasters into water conservancy. Ancient Sumer and Ancient Egypt were the earliest countries formed with water conservancy projects.

Contemporary China under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) claims to be already modernized, with its expansion of nationalism that is going to shine its red color all over the world. However, regarding disaster management, it is even inferior to the ancient times, and is constantly causing man-made disasters yet throwing the blame to nature. Since the Great Leap Forward in the 1950s which caused tens of millions of deaths, the Communist regime has been in the habit of throwing the blame of man-made disasters to God. After the Great Leap Forward, Liu Shaoqi said the truth for the internal fighting and lost his life for it. Will anyone dare to tell the truth afterwards?

There is only one exception. That is the Wuyang Reservoir in Henan Province collapse in 1975, which caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. News was completely blocked without the need to activate this model of “shifting the blame”. That's because Deng Xiaoping was busy playing card games and wasted the needed time to take action. Of course, Deng Xiaoping, who was in charge of the State Council, had the power to block news and deceive everyone to protect their official positions. For CCP’s gang-style autocracy, the Chinese people are like the trivial ants and crew that work for them. Therefore, even without natural disasters, or just small natural disasters, are enough to result huge man-made disasters. As the whole country becomes the private property of this small group, the original intention of establishing the country is already gone.

Now, at the time when the people of Henan Province were mired in dire straits due to the deadly flood, Xi Jinping, as the modern emperor, went to Tibet to escape the heat of the summer. After escaping from the heat and cooling off, Xi issued a supreme instruction regarding the issue of establishing public toilets. This not only shows that Emperor Xi does not care about the life and death of the people, but also shows that the entire CCP system has no internal trust. Even Xi doesn't care about the information released by the internal system. Instead, one of his relatives who could not find a toilet while out to escape the summer heat became major news worthy of trust. This is the common characteristic of the autocratic monarchs for thousands of years: the country has become private property, while the lies of the bureaucratic system become a disaster, and only the eunuchs around the emperor are an important source of information.

Mao Zedong was already stuck in this mode. There were conflicting messages from the bureaucracy at that time. Some said people were starving to death and some said that there was surplus of food. Scientists were vigorously proving that it was possible to produce hundreds of thousands pounds of grain per acre. This made Mao Zedong, who was influenced by the May Fourth Movement which worshiped science with blind faith, completely at a loss as to what to do. So he sent his personal guards to the countryside to observe and investigate, and finally believed how serious the man-made disaster himself had caused was. However, Mao didn't condemn himself for his guilt like the ancient emperors, but opened a new mode of shifting the blame, and made God the guilty party. The modern Chinese Communist regime has already used this shifting the blame model to perfection.

By shifting the blame of man-made disasters to natural disasters, and then vigorously promoting heroes under the CCP leadership, and now also blocking those media which dare to tell the truth, and propagating how desperate the Western people are and the new “toilet revolution”, the Communist regime is trying to divert people's attention. This whole set of propaganda routines concealed the truth: for example, the Communist government opened the levee to release floods without pre-notice, which treated countless villagers as fish and turtles, and reported afterwards how many centimeters of the dangerous water level it had lowered. Another example is that even after receiving notices and warnings it let cars and subway trains drive into tunnels, which drowned countless people. This is in line with the traditional mode of the CCP crisis management, that is, the extent of the danger is not in the scope of consideration; the bureaucrats only consider the issue of the rise and fall of their official positions and who would bear the responsibilities.

Can autocratic politics focus on big things? Democracy where power rests with the people has many flaws, but its characteristic is that it must do things for the people, no matter how big or small things are. The autocratic model where power rests with officials and emperors naturally only care about their own interests. Only when the interests of the people and the country are also related to their own interests, they will concentrate on doing big things. Breaking the levee and releasing the flood, yet reporting it as their credit is the best illustration for the dictatorship model to do big things.

If the dictatorship is not gone, the man-made disasters will continue. Everyone should realize this rule of history, especially to about the gangsters like CCP, which combine evil conducts of ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign. If the CCP is not dead, there will be no peace forever, with disasters being the norm in China.

(This English version is translated by Ciping HUANG, without any compensation. Wei Jingsheng and the Wei Jingsheng Foundation appreciate her decades of contribution, especially for allowing the use and distribution of her translations of these commentaries.)

Original link of the commentary broadcasted by Radio Free Asia:

https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/pinglun/weijingsheng/wjs-07272021102226.html

To hear Mr. Wei Jingsheng's related commentary, please visit:

http://www.weijingsheng.org/RFA/RFA2021/WeiJS210726onChineseDisasters.mp3

(Written and recorded on July 26, 2021. Broadcasted by Radio Free Asia on July 27, 2021.)

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中文版

Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article: A1406-W1009

魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A1406-W1009

Release Date: July 27, 2021

发布日：2021年7月27日

Topic: Reflection on China's Natural and Man-made Disasters -- Wei Jingsheng

标题：中国天灾人祸的反思 -- 魏京生

Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)

此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）

如有中文乱码问题，请与我们联系或访问：

http://www.weijingsheng.org/report/report2021/report2021-7/WeiJS210727onChineseDisastersA1406-W1009.htm

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中国天灾人祸的反思

-- 魏京生

天灾自古就有，人祸有时有、有时没有。从大禹治水的时代开始，人类组织成国家的重要功能之一，就是治理水祸，阻止或者降低灾祸给人类带来的损失，其中包括建设各种水利设施，化灾祸为水利。这是人类进步的过程。两千多年前的郑国渠和都江堰，就是古人化水祸为水利的经典工程。古苏美尔、古埃及都是因水利工程而组建起最早的国家。

现代中国在共产党的领导下，号称已经现代化了，人五人六、民族主义膨胀要红遍全世界了。可是在灾害治理上却连古人都不如，不断地制造人祸还甩锅给天灾。从五十年代的大跃进造成几千万人死亡开始，就有了把人祸甩锅给老天爷的习惯。事后刘少奇为了内斗说了一句真话，还为此丢了性命。之后还有人敢说真话吗？

只有一个例外，就是1975年河南舞阳水库垮坝，造成几十万人死亡，完全被封锁了消息，没有启动甩锅模式。那是因为邓小平忙于打牌耽误了时间，总管国务院的邓小平当然有权封锁消息，欺上瞒下保他们一帮人的官位。对中共这种黑帮性质的专制团伙来说，人民就是给他们工作的蚂蚁和螺丝钉。所以没有天灾或者小小的天灾，就可以酿成巨大的人祸。因为国家是他们小集团的私有财产，已经丧失了建立国家的初衷。

正在河南人民陷于水深火热之中的时候，作为现代皇帝的习近平却跑到西藏去避暑了。避暑清凉之后发了一道最高指示，关注建立公共厕所的问题。这不但说明习皇帝不关心人民的死活，而且说明共产党的整个系统已经没有了内部信任。就连小习也不在乎内部系统发布的信息。反而他某个亲属出外避暑找不到厕所，成为值得信任的重大新闻。这就是专制昏君千百年来的共同特征：国家成为私人财产，官僚体系假话成灾，只有身边的太监才是重要的信息来源。

毛泽东当年就已经陷于这种模式了。官僚系统传来了互相矛盾的信息，有说饿死人的也有说粮食过剩的。科学家们大力证明粮食亩产万斤是可能的，这让出身五四运动迷信科学的毛泽东，彻底陷入了无所适从。于是派他的警卫员下乡去观察虚实，才终于相信他自己制造的人祸有多么严重。不过他没有像古代皇帝那样下罪己诏，而是开启了甩锅新模式，让老天爷给他顶缸。现代中共早已把这套甩锅模式，玩得炉火纯青了。

把人祸甩锅给天灾，再大力宣传党领导下的英雄人物，现在还加上封杀那些敢讲真话的媒体，并用西方人民水深火热和厕所革命来转移人民注意力。这一整套宣传套路掩盖了真相：例如不加通知就扒开大堤泄洪，把无数村民当鱼鳖，事后还报功说把危险水位降低了多少厘米。再例如接到通知和警告之后，还让汽车和地铁开进隧道，淹死人无数。这都符合共产党危机处理的传统模式，就是危险有多大不在考虑的范围；官位的升降，责任由谁承担才是官僚们唯一考虑的问题。

专制政治能集中办大事吗？主权在民的民主政治有很多缺陷，但它的特点是必须为人民办事，无论大事小事。而主权在官、在皇帝的专制模式，必然只关心他们自己的利益。只有当国家人民的利益也关系到他们自己利益，他们才会集中力量办大事。决堤泄洪，上报功劳，就是专政模式办大事的最好解说词。

专政不去，人祸不断，大家应该认识到这个历史规律，特别是像中共这种集古今中外坏水于一身的黑帮党。不灭亡中国就永远不得安宁，灾祸只是常态而已。

(本评论的英文版本由黄慈萍翻译。魏京生和魏京生基金会感谢她数十年来有关的无偿贡献，特别是使用和发布此译文的许可。)

本篇评论在自由亚洲电台的原始链接：

https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/pinglun/weijingsheng/wjs-07272021102226.html