On March 5th, a high-ranking official inspected the Qingshan Kaiyuan Mansion community in Wuhan. He (Note: the inspecting official is Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, female) was surrounded by a group of people and inspected the community square, looking around. Just when he was about to make a positive conclusion about the lower-level management, a woman's loud voice rang out, "It's all fake!" The shouting voice echoed in the empty community, repeating several times until the high-ranking official heard it clearly.
During his inspection, the property management prevented residents from going downstairs and even had volunteers pretend to deliver groceries to residents. There have been too many similar revelations. When I worked at my previous company, there were several times when the personnel notified us that a certain leader would be inspecting, and everyone should ensure hygiene and safety. As a result, everyone was busy, waiting for the leader's inspection. When the leader inspected, colleagues had to stop their normal work and put on a show of high order. It was so disgusting!
I haven't watched TV for more than twenty years, except for occasionally watching nature and sports programs. Those TV news programs are essentially a form of propaganda. Propaganda is when those in power deliberately shape a beautiful situation of national happiness, social harmony, and responsible lower-level officials for the citizens. But the reality is not like that!
That woman may be a bit naive, to the point of shouting, "It's all fake." Her factual assumption is that the high-level leaders don't know that the lower-level officials are faking it. I think she is wrong. The high-level leaders also climbed up from the lower levels. How many times have they gone through perfunctory inspections by higher-level officials? They have a more comprehensive and profound understanding of high-level, middle-level, and lower-level officials than the residents of your community. They know that the lower-level officials are faking and doing evil. The lower-level officials also know that the higher-level officials know that they are faking and doing evil. In most cases, the higher and lower levels cooperate with each other and put on a full show. The next day, the news will be reported in newspapers and on television. The national audience will see the report. Look, the high-level leaders care so much about grassroots communities like Kaiyuan Mansion, and they care so much about the lower-level people in our society. The inspection by high-level officials thus gains legitimacy.
What about the truth? If the leaders care about the truth, they should conduct secret investigations instead of inspecting openly. The truth harms harmony and stability and should not be known by the citizens. Confucius said, "The people can be made to follow, but they cannot be made to understand."
With 1.4 billion people in China, very few villages or urban communities can be visited by leaders. The vast majority of people spend most of their time watching the harmonious scenes of high-level leaders inspecting villages or communities far away. In this way, the citizens gain an overall positive impression. Of course, for the minority of citizens with diverse sources of information, they see the more complex side of the truth. They see a lot of disharmony, they see property management faking, they see community officials being corrupt... They maintain a skeptical attitude towards the inspections they usually see from high-level officials and are not deceived by the deliberately created harmony propaganda.
Of course, there are other purposes for high-level leaders to inspect grassroots communities. When they inspect grassroots communities, they do so as high-ranking officials, being surrounded by people. Local officials have to serve the inspecting leaders well, and there may even be police cars clearing the way. This is the main way to demonstrate the presence of power. It's like the Monkey King coming down from the mountain, with a group of monkeys bouncing around him, and the Monkey King constantly thumping his chest.
That woman who shouted thought that the high-level leaders didn't know about the lower-level fakery. This is her naivety. Don't high-level leaders fake things? Remember the reports of 100,000 jin per mu (a Chinese unit of area) of grain production in the past, as well as the ongoing cover-up of the epidemic. How could the high-level leaders not know! But objectively, she exposed the collaboration between the high and low levels, letting the high-level and low-level officials know that we, the citizens, know that you are acting, it's very fake, and you are ridiculous. This is very meaningful.