The Uranus-Pluto square alignments in 2012 to the Chinese Sun augurs the daunting likelihood of a ferocious battle over China’s future at the commanding heights of the Communist party. This struggle has been kept under wraps since 2010, although most Chinese citizens are likely aware of the political tension brewing in Beijing by interpreting the party leader’s recent telltale proclamations on “unity of the leadership” and “the great harmonious society.” However, the Uranus-Pluto alignment indicates that the battle for the Communist party top slots is out in the open, and all past assumptions about its outcome have been upset and overturned.
During the Uranus-Pluto alignments from 2012 – 2015 we can expect an escalation of political infighting and the intensification of ideological disputes that preceded the Cultural Revolution that began in 1966 (during the Uranus-Pluto conjunction). At stake is not only the balance of the party’s leadership, but also the country’s future direction—whether China will take a more nationalist path and continue with its revival of “Red Culture”, or continue on the road to liberalization and structural reform both at home and abroad. In sum, this is the party’s most crucial moment since Deng Xiaoping set out to transform China after Mao’s death. The Communist party’s determination to engineer a flawless transition of power in November 2012 is rooted in China’s bitter historical familiarity of abrupt and violent change. The only certainty is that the proverbial “gloves” are coming off, and the prospect for revolution and overthrow of the “old order” is looming.
Uranus-Pluto alignments have always historically correlated with the rise of the bourgeois class from it proletarian roots and the often botched attempts by government in tackling problematic social issues in response to this. Therefore it is likely the Chinese government will make some disastrous attempt to the deal with the nations swelling property bubble, and what the Prime Minister calls the “uncaged tiger” of inflation (now at 5.5%, its highest level in nearly three years).
As a power struggle for leadership begins to ensue this year, there will be a radical change in vision by its captains of industry and finance in the nation to shift China away from its current unsustainable model, where growth is propelled by vast investment and export-led manufacturing, towards one where domestic consumption plays a bigger role. But that will require the building of viable health-care, pension and social-security systems to reassure and persuade its growing middle class to save less and to consume more. However, as the economy continues to slow down as the Global Recession intensifies, raising taxes will be deemed as the only viable solution in order to build the proper social safety-nets to appease the anxieties of its emerging middle class. The incursion of more taxes will summon a grass-roots movement in China demanding greater political say and representation.
