The Janisarries of the Turkish Ottoman Empire are said to have been the first standing army in Europe. The Janisarries where an elite fighting force from roughly the mid-1300’s to the early 1800’s. The Janisarries where made of young men captured and enslaved by the Ottoman Turks mainly from Southeast Europe: Greeks, Serbs, Croats, Albanians, Bulgarians, and others. These young men were taken from their families, converted to Islam, and circumcised. The Janisarries where honed under intense military discipline into a formidable fighting force which pledged its complete loyalty to whoever was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire at the time. Although levied from enslaved peoples and unable to wed until 40 years old, the Janisarries’ privileged social status and material well-being exceeded that of their families left behind and even regular Ottoman troops.
The Ottoman Empire was rife with internecine conflict throughout its long history. The Janisarries were very useful to the Sultans in guarding against internal threats. Despite their military prowess and considerable prestige, the Janisarries were not seen as a direct threat to overturn Ottoman rule. As non-Turks, the Janisarries had little hope of ever gaining the popular support of the Turkish peoples who formed the backbone of the Ottoman Empire, especially the Empire’s military. The Janisarries served a useful role as a barrier between the ruling families and the people.
In recent years in China we’ve seen the Chinese Communist Party seemingly declare a war of attrition against its own private sector. The most notorious example of this is the takedown and temporary disappearance of Jack Ma of Alibaba. Other private sector actors, from real estate developers to celebrities to home tutors have been at times in the crosshairs. Many have seen this as the CCP returning to a more Maoist economic approach. Perhaps it is, and the CCP may ultimately move more clearly in that direction, but perhaps something else entirely is happening. In a country where freedom of self-expression is virtually non-existent, propaganda is rife, and even the most innocuous comment that offends the ruling Communists is routinely harshly punished, discerning historical trends is difficult at best. Without freedom of speech, how does anyone really know what people are thinking?
What may be happening is the Chinese Communist Party is replacing its homegrown private sector with foreign actors. Jack Ma’s spectacular success in building a business empire the last couple of decades made him a threat to China’s ruling families, even as a member of the Chinese Communist Party. Perhaps even more so. Jack Ma’s charisma and business acumen made him a threat to the CCP as the head of Alibaba that the likes of Tim Cook of Apple and Elon Musk of Tesla never could. Jack Ma had one key attribute that Cook, Musk, et al don’t. Jack Ma is Han Chinese.
For all the cowardly subservience and bootlicking of the CCP that Cook and Musk engage in, they’ll never be seen by the Chinese people as anything other than foreign mercenaries. And the CCP will make sure of it. So the CCP can use Cook and Musk and other foreigners who put their blinders on and ignore the CCP’s human rights abuses that have been so well documented to help build China’s economy without fear of nurturing an internal threat, such as a Jack Ma.