The Great Ring of China: the one-party-state of real power

China, you could say, has its very own unique circle of life; its infamous system of rigour, reproach and restraint has been one of the leading proxies of national power for decades since the founding of its communistesque People's Republic image and inauguration of its Communist Party of China, progress of which was overseen by the heroically-depicted, iconic revolutionary Mao Zedong after WWII and the fall of the old Kuomintang government in the Chinese Civil War.

The government of China currently, is not much different from what it was when it first started out. This can be seen by noting how cynical it remains in regards to ceding to its active minority dissidents, and the critical rest of the world, greater civil liberties to its subjects, most notably the right to freedom of expression.

But, it could be posited that, after the galvanic go-getting of the last few decades and rapid technological stimulus, something in the dauntingly formidable bastion of the Chinese government has succumbed to change. However, we would be wrong to conceive of any change divergent from the precepts of the government itself; the change as it is seen today is more negative than it is positive. Take the recent clash between the web-based giant Google and our crucial global associate, China, for example.

The internet search engine, Google, consciously objected, by way of its staunch moral compass, to the conniving deviance by the Chinese government that was shown, or rather uncovered, in the ongoing process of jamming China's internet highway to protect its internal interests (interests of the party). The party's main targets in this exposed crackdown on anti-establishment information appear to have been human rights activists, whose Google accounts could be hacked into and from them have content divulged, which could lead to the denunciations of those held responsible.

Of course, Google is likely to now retract from its previous agreements with the business of Chinese internet freedoms. This is no doubt, at least in part, due to the futility of arguing, let alone fighting with a government - not country - that specialises in an art of annual retention of its highly cherished totalitarian doctrines. And in any case, who would wish to be seen losing face to a hard-nosed, wily elite, whose position on the global stage is not only growing, but succeeding; it would surely be bad for business.

It would be no lie to state that putting do-gooders down is business as usual for the inscrutable Chinese politicians and power brokers - these are men who cannot bear to see the divinity of their profound ideologies, and face of their founder, Mao, disparaged. To be truthful, and we all know it, their steadfast ideal is power, or at least power-based. You'd be wrong to think you could ride through the gates of the Great Wall on a white stallion of freedom and liberate the inhibited rights of the people with your righteous sword. No - China has its power covered.

To the rest of the world, its deck is hidden. The Chinese circle of life, or Great Ring of China, is the very autonomous political device by which its government isolates itself and the country from us. Years ago, the head of China's fierce red dragon, the CPC, threw back its head and bit at its forked tail - and since then, it has refused to let itself go. Why? Because it's afraid. And who could blame them? After all it was the CPC that orchestrated outrages against its own civilians through draconian use of the People's Liberation Army, or who caused untold deaths of workers during the Great Leap Forward (not so much of a leap in economic output as plummet in population). The fangs may loosen, but they won't relax.

China, as it stands, can only stand to endure yet more oppression under the pervasive swell of the CPC. Despite continual efforts at integrating justified expression and advocating higher freedoms, including the Charter 08 manifesto that was quashed in 2008 (a publication driving towards political reform and democratisation in China), the indomitable red dragon that holds together the Great Ring of China looks set to tighten its grip as the new decade dawns.

Perhaps we will witness a new national and international faith emerge, as China continues to secure its reins in the global market and proves itself to be an worthy asset to a global stage that will exit 2019 under a much different appearance than it entered with in 2010.