China and authoritarianism

The other day I wore my "Taxation Without Representation" shirt to class, and one of the Chinese English teachers asked me what it meant - and I was totally at a loss. Megan is actually my best teacher, and she speaks pretty good English. She understood the "taxation" part - but how the hell do you explain "representation" to a Chinese person? There's just nothing in Chinese history to tie it into. It's easy enough to explain that DC has the same special status as, say, Hong Kong, but just I couldn't get her to understand why people think that's bad.

On a related subject, I got to the end of my giant Chinese History book, (Fairbank and Goldman China: A New History) and the conclusions section had an interesting note on the lack of democracy in Chinese history. The author argues that the gratuitous violence of the Cultural Revolution reflects a paranoia that has been present for a long time in Chinese history:

Conspiracy was a continual part of Imperial Confucianism because the ruler's legitimacy was assured only when his proper conduct produced harmony between ruler and ruled. Dissent was disharmonious, and so a dissenter feigned loyalty to protect himself. Sensing this deceit, a ruler easily became suspicious if not actually paranoid. The system had little space for the open expression of opposition because policy was part of the ruler's moral conduct and so of his legitimacy. Opposition must therefore be secret. It might animate a secret society. It implicitly aimed at power. There could be no loyal opposition. In this light, for example, the pro-democacy demonstrators at Tiananmen Square on XXXX X, XXXX, since they wanted changes, seemed to the CCP elders to be their enemies. Those who expect conspiracy can always find it. (bolding mine)

I'm not sure it's quite so easy to write Maoism off as just another incarnation of Confucism though. Ever since Mao, with his internationalist way of thinking, China (with some help from India) has been the loyal opposition. In this model, their censorship and political repression actually has more of an overseas than a domestic audience in mind.

Also, thinking in terms of the global system helps answer my earlier question, about how you explain the concept of 'representation' to a Chinese person. The Chinese government 'represents' the Chinese people on the international stage, where many different forces are competing for attention, in order to get the most 'goodies' (like the Olympics.) There is even some loyalty involved here, as shown by China's recent move to dump Zimbabwe. Ever since the Sino-Soviet split really, they've made it clear that they can still antagonize the US even while maintaining some semblance of standards of their own. It is this role which has allowed them to ascend to global power status.

...I haven't yet tried explaining this concept to any actual Chinese people.