SUN WUKONG The party's over
By Wu Zhong, China editor
HONG KONG - The Chinese Communist Party's 88th birthday and a row over
web-filtering software are - strangely - connected issues.
On June 30, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) made a
last-minute announcement to postpone the mandatory requirement that all
personal computers sold in the country be pre-installed with the controversial
web-filtering software, Green Dam-Youth Escort.
Earlier that month, MIIT had ordered that all computers produced or sold in
China had to be pre-installed with Green Dam from July
1 (in Putonghua, the word "Green Dam" sounds similar to Filtering King).
The pre-installation had been postponed, MIIT said, because some computer
producers needed additional time for such a massive installation. "The ministry
will keep on soliciting opinions to perfect the pre-installation plan," a MIIT
spokesman was quoted by the official Xinhua News Agency as saying. No
indication was given of when compulsory installation would be enforced.
July 1 was also the Communist Party's 88th birthday. On the occasion, it
announced that at the end of 2007 it had more than 74.15 million members, and
that each year more than 10 million people applied for membership. This means,
given the country's 1.3 billion people and if those under the age of 18 are
excluded, about one in 10 of the population is a party member.
At a study session of the party's politburo on the eve of the anniversary,
President Hu Jintao, who is also party general secretary, vowed to
"pro-actively promote democracy within the party".
This provides a clue to the link between the party's anniversary and the
backtracking on the MIIT's plan for web-filtering software.
While some overseas reports highlight the role played by pressure from foreign
countries, particularly the United States, the government was concerned about
growing public anger at home which could threaten social stability in the
run-up to the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of
China in October.
Further, of China's approximately 300 million Internet users, a fair proportion
of them could be expected to be party members. While they might have slammed
Green Dam anonymously, critical commentaries on official media such as the
People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency and China Daily were an open challenge to
government policy.
This would have been unimaginable in the times of Mao Zedong from the founding
of the republic to his death in the mid-1970s as the party was known for its
"iron-like" discipline. All party members had to support any decision made by
the headquarters as well as all government policies. If a party member
disagreed, he or she had to raise the matter through internal channels. To make
public any differences with the party was regarded as "rebellious",
"traitorous" or an "attempt to split the party". In Mao's theory, the party was
the vanguard of the working class to lead the proletarian revolution. And as
such, it had to have iron discipline.
To an extent, Deng Xiaoping inherited this idea, though his reforms and
open-door policy marked a 180-degree departure from Mao's "class struggle"
doctrine. In 1987, Deng demanded that dissenting party members be expelled and
he personally ordered the expulsion of Fang Lizhi, Liu Bingyan and Wang
Ruowang, who had openly called for democratization. After the June 4, 1989,
Tiananmen crackdown, then-party chief Zhao Ziyang was accused of "attempting to
split the party" because he opposed the use of armed forces to suppress the
student-led pro-democracy demonstrations.
Still, Deng's economic reforms brought about fundamental changes in society and
within the party itself. To reflect this change, then-party general secretary
Jiang Zemin put forward his so-called "Three Represents" theory in 2002 at the
party's 16th National Congress:
Reviewing the course of struggle and
the basic experience over the past 80 years and looking ahead to the arduous
tasks and bright future in the new century, our party should continue to stand
in the forefront of the times and lead the people in marching toward victory.
In a word, the party must always represent the requirements of the development
of China's advanced productive forces, the orientation of the development of
China's advanced culture, and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming
majority of the people in China.
Simply put, this meant that
the party was no longer revolutionary, rather, it represented the vast majority
of Chinese people. Because of this, the party had to admit members from all
sectors of society. In short, the party was no long "the vanguard of the
proletariat" but an "all-people" party that could include new-born capitalists,
the previous class enemy of the communists.
The "Three Represents" laid the foundation for Vice President Xi Jinping,
tipped to succeed Hu in 2012, to formally declare in late 2008 that the party
had transformed from a "revolutionary party" into the "ruling party" of the
country. And its legitimacy to rule lay in that it represented the vast
majority of Chinese people.
The problem is, with so many people from various social backgrounds flocking
into the party, conflicts of interest invariably had to arise. As such, it is
no longer possible for the party to maintain iron-like unity with iron-clad
discipline.
On the contrary, it becomes natural for party members to hold and express
different views; no policy or decision can please everyone and a "correct" and
workable policy or decision can only be one that is supported by the majority
based on some compromise. Thus, the principle of democracy that "the minority
must be subordinate to the majority" must be upheld.
Likewise, as an "all-people" party, the Chinese Communist Party will have to
choose its leaders through some form of democratic process. The strongman
politics are gone with the passing of revolutionaries like Mao and Deng. Now,
to rise in the party hierarchy, one must show talent and capability to win
majority support among party members. In this way, the party leader will rule
according to the will of the majority.
The Green Dam fiasco sounds the alarm that it is now difficult for the party
and its government to implement policies that are unacceptable to the majority
of party members, as well as to the general public. It is unwise for the
government to forcefully impose policies, as this will only weaken its
governance and in turn the party's legitimacy to rule. For its very survival
and continued rule, the party must promote democracy within the party.
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