You can't possibly think that xi is ruling by himself like a God.
Dictatorships have just as much of a fickle, constantly changing hivemind as any other form of government. you might just have one ever running party, but look inside and you'll see a complex network of factions.
All of those people have relationships that roll up and down. Rules for rulers and all that -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs
Perhaps I didn't use the best term, but it seems you're saying the same thing I did? My point was precisely that the actions of the party as a whole aren't collective actions directed by a single person's mind (xi's) but rather the sum of all the party members ideas and political movements, so it's just as complex as a democracy.
No one needs party membership to do anything in private sectors...
Why the hell people still think about Chinese live like party farmed animals. For God's sake, get on YouTube search some Chinese speaking videos by normal people.
You are so echchambered that I start pitying you...
I don't live there but I've heard a lot of people say that party membership is useful, not necessary mind you, for lots of business endeavors.
There's a whole other conversation about the differences in representation between the two countries, and I think China's system has some points in it's favor as far as "does this government act on behalf of it's people", but I was just trying to phrase things in a way that would get through to the typical HN reader.
You seen the skyline in any of 50 different cities there? Did it look communist to you?
It only looks plain, straightforward and simple to people who are themselves plain and simple.
When I told my classmates in 2012 that China is going back to revert back into "redness," unless the remnants of pre-reform China would be decisively proactively stomped out, people laughed me out.
Now, almost 8 years later, those people call me out on facebook how in the world I saw it.
I did not change the explanation: the most ruthless, militant, and headstrong faction in the party cannot be expected just to give up, no matter how much political castration they suffer.
People to whom killing tens of millions is an acceptable price to stay in power, will not be scared of breaking some toothless legal regulations.
Getting more power is a raison d'etre for such people, they will never give up on seizing power peacefully for as long as they live.