BEIJING - For outsiders who want to learn more
about China but are intimidated by the complexity of the
country, here is a tip: count to three and you are well
on your way to becoming a sinologist. Yes, it is as
simple as that, because the number three is very
important in China - it is omnipresent and repeated
countless times every day on TV, in the press and
billboards across the land. In fact, it is so popular
that the government simply can't get enough of it.
As with most things that are marked with
"Chinese characteristics", Mao Zedong was the creator of
this three-mania. He was credited with the well-known
Three Worlds theory, which divided the nations of the
Earth into three distinct categories. The exclusive
First World consisted of the two superpowers, the United
States and the then Soviet Union, which were locked in a
fierce fight for world hegemony. Western industrial
countries belonged to the Second World that took a long
time making up its mind which camp to root for. And the
Third World, of course, comprised all the rest -
developing countries that looked to China as the beacon
and Mao as the sun. This Three Worlds theory was once
hailed by some as a great contribution to Marxism and
geopolitical doctrine alike. But it later emerged that
Mao's own political secretary, Hu Qiaomu, who was said
to have been the brain behind this "contribution", once
remarked to confidants that it was sheer nonsense.
Internally, Mao told his fellow communists to
observe Three Dos and Three Don'ts: 1) Do adhere to
Marxism and Leninism, don't deviate from the orthodox;
2) Do unite, don't divide; 3) Do be honorable and above
the board, don't try dirty tricks. That warning came
when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the whole
country were thrown into turmoil by Mao's own
unorthodox, unconventional and underhanded power plays
that toppled his opponents and strengthened his position
as the supreme ruler.
In spite of that, Mao's
successor, Deng Xiaoping, deviated sharply from the
Marxist and even Maoist thought that insisted on total
state monopoly of property rights. Deng initiated a
series of reforms aimed at growing the economy,
including opening China to foreign capital. When the old
ideologues called for a return to the orthodox Marxism
that strictly bans private, especially foreign,
ownership of "means of production", Deng defended his
experiment with capitalism by launching his own numbered
policy: the Three Beneficials. According to this theory,
which was later eulogized as Deng Xiaoping Theory - one
rung lower, in Chinese, than Mao's Thought, incidentally
- regardless of whether his market-oriented reforms are
socialist or capitalist in nature, it is a good policy
because it is beneficial to the "growth of
productivity", beneficial to the enhancement of
the "overall national power", and beneficial to
"the improvement of the people's living standards". This
is clearly very much in line with his better-known Cat
Theory that says, "Black or white, it is a good cat that
catches mice."
Then along came the Third
Generation Leader, aka Jiang Zemin, who, according to
the party propaganda machines, "inherited, upheld,
enriched and developed" Deng's pragmatism by launching
his own brand of Threes. This time, it was the Three
Represents: "The Communist Party of China should
represent 1) The development trend of advanced
productive forces, 2) The orientation of advanced
culture, and 3) The fundamental interests of the
overwhelming majority of the people in China." No
definitions have ever been offered on these "doctrines"
- Jiang will have to settle with "doctrine", as the
choice words "thought" and "theory" are already taken.
No "productive forces" are more "advanced" than
Mars Rover, bio-gene mapping technology or
supercomputers that hum away in the United States and
Japan. So do the US National Aeronautics and Space
Administration or those high-tech companies have a
communist representative on the board? Culture is a
harder sell. Are Hollywood's megabudget movies more
advanced than your local rain dances around the totem
pole? Or is Mulan, the fabled female warrior dressed up
as a man, more advanced than Harry Potter, the young
exorcist? More to the point, a representative can only
establish his credentials after the represented agree to
let him, by vote. Now, when was the last time the
Chinese saw a ballot box?
All that doesn't seem
to bother Jiang, though. For unbelievers, he started a
campaign called the Three Stresses - on politics,
loyalty and studies - urging the 60 million CCP members
to study his "important instructions" in order to keep
their faith in communism, and their loyalty to him.
Since Jiang had styled himself the Third
Generation Leader, this presented a serious problem to
his successor, Hu Jingtao, who is the current general
secretary of the CCP and president of China. It just
wouldn't do to break with tradition and part with the
number three. Hu would logically be the Fourth
Generation Leader, but that has no three in it. One
compromise might be 3.5G, but Hu has a better solution.
He has come up with his very own, very original
threeism: soon after taking office, he promised that he
would use his power for the people, anchor his
feelings on the people, and pursue interests for
the people. Yes, it is the new Three Peoples
policy. Although it stops short of stating that his
power is derived from the people - that would stretch it
over to four "peoples" - it still sounds like an
improvement over the party-speak of the past.
Unfortunately, since Jiang amended the constitution of
the republic to include his Three Represents for
eternity, Hu will have to wait a respectable interval
before he can carve his theoretic contribution into the
Law of the Land.
It is an academic challenge to
explain the Chinese fixation with this number
convincingly. No historical, psychological, racial or
ethnological analyses are helpful. The best theoretical
explanation of this phenomenon is that "three" has a
nice ring to it. The numbered policies may be vague,
incoherent and difficult to understand, but they are
easy to remember, even for foreigners.
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