by Wendy Liu
For Those Whose Concept of China Has Frozen in the 1970s and for Anyone
Who Would Like to Know About Today's China.
10. China Is Not Socialist Anymore
The definition of socialism, according to the Columbia Encyclopedia Sixth Edition 2000, is "public ownership of the means of production, a general
term for the political and economic theory that advocates a system of
collective or government ownership and management of the means of
production and distribution of goods. Because of the collective nature of
socialism, it is to be contrasted to the doctrine of the sanctity of
private property that characterizes capitalism."
According to the same encyclopedia, communism in modern usage is applied to the movement that aims to overthrow the capitalist
order by revolutionary means and to establish a classless society in which all goods
will be socially owned.
But China, by ending the proletarian revolution both at home and abroad, embarking on a drive to modernization, taking a pragmatic approach to
develop market economy within the existing political structure and
adapting the political structure to the new market economy, demonstrating
14 years of unwavering effort to join the World Trade
Organization to integrate China's economy with that of the world, and, most manifestly, its
purposeful shrinking of the state sector and continued expansion of the
private one, its several constitutional amendments in two decades to
accommodate and encourage the growth of the private sector, etc.? how can
anyone still call China socialist, much less communist?
Changing Wine and Changing Bottle?
The Communist Party of China (CPC) may still call itself communist and/or may still look and sound red in many ways. But something truly significant
that had happened within this party may have escaped many in the world.
The CPC had always upheld Marxism-Leninism-[Mao Zedong] Thought as its banner and theoretical guideline. At its 15th National Congress in
September 1997, however, Mr. Jiang Zemin, General Secretary of the Party,
changed that by announcing that "Deng Xiaoping Theory" would now be the
guiding ideology of the Party. Explaining that Deng Xiaoping theory
represented the new stage of development of Marxism in today's China, he
declared following in his speech entitled "Hold High the Great Banner of
Deng Xiaoping Theory for an All-Round Advancement of the Cause of
Building Socialism with Chinese Characteristics into the 21st Century"
"In the new times of socialist reform and opening up and the
modernization construction on the new journey astride the century, we must
raise high the great banner of Deng Xiaoping theory and let Deng Xiaoping
theory guide all our causes and work. This is the unswerving conclusion
reached by the Party through history and reality."
"Adhering to Deng Xiaoping Theory means genuinely adhering to Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought; Upholding the banner of Deng
Xiaoping Theory means genuinely upholding the banner of
Marxism-Leninsim-Mao Zedong Thought."
What in essence is Deng Xiaoping Theory but the ingenious pragmatism crystallized by his famous "black cat and white cat" maxim and his
trail-blazing socialism plus market formula? Before Deng, the Chinese
Communist Party dogmatically adhered to central planning and state
ownership of the economy as the flagpole of socialism. But Deng removed the
dogma by first exploring and then concluding that central planning needed
not necessarily be equated with socialism and that market economy did not
necessarily mean capitalism.
By writing the Deng Theory in the CPC Constitution and by upholding the Deng theory as its guiding ideology, the
Communist Party of China now under Jiang Zemin not only officially freed
itself of years of theoretical straitjacket but also found justification
for the privatization of China's economy. And by raising high the banner
of Deng, Mr. Jiang Zemin also showed the world that the Chinese communists
were no longer the communists the world used to know, just as the socialism
with Chinese characteristics was no longer the socialism the world used to
know. It is safe to say that the Chinese communists today represented by
those in Zhongnanhai are more Dengists than Marxists or Maoists. "Old wine
in a new bottle" (jiu jiu zhuang xin ping)t, mocks an old Chinese saying.
With the CPC, however, it is the opposite. The bottle may still look the
same, but the wine is very different now.
And the wine has kept changing. It didn't stop with Mr. Jiang's speeches at the Party conferences. There have been further moves, quiet maybe, but
significant, towards meaningful political reforms.
(To be
continued...)
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