China as the potential to achieve a Technate by itself, but I don’t believe that it would be done to eliminate scarcity. If China was to move from a People’s Republic to a Technate, it would be done to maintain the power of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). While China has many shortcomings (massive population and low agriculture output), the CCP leadership, as with all leaderships, has an invested interest in maintaining its position.
It won’t be the Technate envisioned by Technocracy, Inc. it be a
“Technate with Chinese Characteristics.â€
Let’s compare China and the three Requirement of a Technate:
It must have sufficient natural resources to provide everyone with a high standard of living.
China has an abundance of natural resources and a diverse climate. Most critical of resources it’s possesses are hydroelectric potential (CIA World Factbook) and massive manpower. While it doesn’t necessary provide everyone with a high standard of living in China, it sure has been provide a high standard of living for the US and other countries due to it cheap labor costs. What if these manufactories were converted to supplying the Chinese?
It must have a sufficient level of technology installed to convert these resources into use forms, that will comprise this standard of living.
China’s industrial capacity, while poor compared to Western Nations, is growing rapidly. Its focus on exports, limitation on imports and insistence on self-development in areas of technology (missile and space technology as examples) will ultimately lead to the fulfillment of the second requirement.
China is already predicted to be the world’s largest economy in the coming decades. With them already supplying the world with consumer goods far great than they currently can consume, it’s only a matter of time before their national demand is supplied by their own industries. Something other regions are beginning to lack, as their industrial capacities are moving to China! Worst case, Chinese Communist Party will resort to their old fallback – massive manpower and get it done with brute strength (example – Three Gorges Dam)!
It must have sufficient technically trained personnel to operate this machinery.
China has long history of being ruled by a meritocratic system under the various Dynasties. The
Bureaucracy of the Chinese Empires aided the Emperor in his rule. To become a bureaucrat, one had to pass a series of tests – the high one wanted to achieve, the harder and longer the testing. So historically, China has experience in governing systems based on ability and centralized control.
As with most Communist governments, education has been free to all in China with the nations literacy rate at 86% (CIA World Factbook). They have a vast pool of engineers, technicians and scientists, many employed by the government in various programs (like their Space Program) in order to retain their service so they don’t immigrate overseas.
While the Technocracy, Inc. and the Technical Alliance never envision creating a political vehicle to achieve their goals, the Chinese Communist Party has no ideological qualms about adapting itself in order to survive (from Mao’s communal communism to Deng’s “social marketâ€). The party cadre would be great assist in order to organize and enhance China’s transition. Look that the People’s Republic’s history and you’ll see that virtually all major attempts at development and change relied on the party cadre as the base of the organization (the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution – not that these were very successful).
Other benefits and characteristics that China has going for it:
An existing Armed Services Sequences: from the CIA World Factbook – “People's Armed Police Force (internal security troops, nominally a state security body but included by the Chinese as part of the "armed forces" and considered to be an adjunct to the PLA)â€
Possible source of change:- The Party Cadre – tired of losing authority to business interests;
- Rising Unemployment and Increase Disparity between Economy Levels – a return to a class-based society could be viewed as unacceptable;
- PLA/CCP – unable to stop the demand for democracy, unable to revert back to full communist due to the public acceptance and desire for consumerism; may just side step the issue rather than be consumed by it – converting the Party into the Technocratic system itself or have the Party “guiding†the development of the system while allow limited democracy on “social†issues.
If I could spend an Energy Certificate on where the first Technate would be formed - sorry everyone but I’d spend my on the People’s Republic of China.
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- By FiveofSwords
- By Negotiator
- By Saeko
- By Tainari88