SPEAKING
FREELY Smoke and mirrors fail the
CCP By Brett Daniel Shehadey
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Please
click hereif you are interested in
contributing.
Imagine a poster
with headlines that read: "What the CCP [Chinese
Communist Party] can do for you!" It would capture
all of the utopian Chinese communist promises from
the early years of the civil war propaganda,
through the first series of five-year plans and
redistribution of property. Add that to the Great
Leap Forward; skip past the years in between and
look at the mighty rise of wealth that was only
made possible through the great socialist market.
Then, set your eyes to rest on the present, where
large buildings touch the heavens, trains reach
speeds of planes, and
the entire world
revolves around you. All thanks to the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP).
No, do not look at the past years of
loss. Gloss over the resulting famines as
natural hardships. Do not fixate on the setbacks
that helped shape this great adventure. Set your
gaze to the future. Look at how far we have
come. We are almost there. Just give us a little
more time. - Your humble servants at the CCP
The above might capture a pure
representation of the current state of political
China, as sponsored and presented by the CCP. The
last portion is emphasized against the growing
unemployment in the cities, the massive income
gap, corruption, human rights abuses, widening gap
between the number of marriage age females to
males, scandals, and more.
Would anyone in
their right minds vote for this group of power
thieves? Politicians break promises all of the
time. What makes this case so interesting is that
the rulers still believe and they are still
pretending to be "communists" in spite of the fact
that they are now capitalists with great personal
gains and wealth. Then there is the consideration
of dynastic trends of a "red aristocracy". In the
new China: one man faces starvation on a farm and
another dies of the cold and another in Shanghai
cruises around in a Ferrari - likely a young party
member.
The big lie:
We, the Chinese Communist Party
(CCP), are made up of the [peasant]
proletariat-"proletarian dictatorship".
We are all socialists!
We will
stamp out corruption.
We represent you.
We can give you what you need.
Considerations:
Why is there even a Chinese
"communist" party today?
Is it possible
to protect the party integrity and include the
people?
If there needs to be a CCP, why
have all Chinese nationals been bared entry to
its membership?
Sowing seeds of
revolutionary
self-destruction Indoctrination of
revolutionary socialism aside, the party faces
growing political instability. A look at the
conditions on the ground does not restore
confidence in a dream that is falling apart. The
foundations of the CCP rest on a combination of
promises of great wealth and prosperity. Ones that
appeared to be steadily coming true at that time.
The CCP survival was also founded on the
public's fears-the fear of censorship, defamed
reputation, imprisonment, or worse. But, as hope
can falter, fears can be overcome. Playing a power
base on emotions is always going to be
problematic.
Moreover, a fundamental
ideological fallacy within the CCP pitches
capitalism and socialism together. Simply
redefining the contradiction as a "Chinese
characteristic" (or social market economy) is not
sufficient to solve the contradiction. More
accurately, this combination of injecting
appropriate levels of capitalism under a socialist
infrastructure was done for the purposes of
necessity and then later as a form of reward
and/or appeasement to the people. The idea picked
up swimmingly after Tiananmen Square: why offer
them a stick when you can offer them a carrot
instead?
Economic gain of the people is a
socialist tenant, one might argue. Deng Xiaoping
was pragmatic in his reasoning that it did not
matter what he engineered if it would aid
communism and as long as it worked. So the CCP
shifted from an isolated command collective
economy to being a global free market trading hub,
and it offered its people economic gains instead
of political ones. Everything is about expansion
now (as if to make up for the lost years). On that
front, no one can argue with that success.
Unfortunately, the CCP has to a great
extent, taken the enormous risk of affixing party
legitimacy with financial growth. This makes some
sense, since the promises of utopian communism
require a sufficient economic egalitarianism that
could not otherwise be reached, and certainly not
in stagnation or decline. Nor is China anywhere
ready for the "great leap" that might justify its
means with glorious ends. Nevertheless, such an
attachment to free-market success will no doubt,
become problematic should China undergo a series
of economic hardships in the future. Anything
severe will tip the balance of this tenuous and
faulty arrangement of their financial legitimacy.
More promises of prosperity through Hu
Jintao's "scientific development concept" have
been introduced in response to anger over the
rampant economic inequalities. A plan for shifting
from an export to an import or domestic economy is
in the making, with the understanding that the CCP
can engineer sustainable growth.
The party
legitimacy still rests on the success of these new
"financial" measures and now, even more so on
transferring state wealth into individual
benefits. China's adaptive models of quasi central
socialism may have catastrophic results; running
the risk of over-reaching commitment to pensions,
health care, unemployment insurance and other
programs for over a billion people does not seem
even close to possible regardless of what the
party leadership promises. Will this transition
from public wealth and modernized infrastructure
to increased social welfare benefits be quick
enough to satisfy and appease the people?
Meanwhile, the party is estranged from any
direct access with the people since the
counter-revolutionary and counter-culture years.
Now, the risks of economic failures to deliver on
its promises guarantee crack downs and at least
the hope of political reforms.
Another
troublesome behavior pattern, aside from
purchasing ensured loyalties of the people, is the
use of foreign affairs as a distraction of
domestic troubles. Greater territorial ambitions,
an avarice eye to oil and mineral resources, and
incitement to ethno-nationalism reeks of
reactionary rather than progressive attitudes:
An unconventional way
out Legitimacy depends on social
inclusion-individual empowerment and not
individual oppression. All citizens of China must
be part of the CCP, even as the name implies. They
must be able to address their concerns through
some political participation and see them being
met. They need more than a puppet "United Front".
There is one small step the CCP could take
to ensure a longer and more peaceful reign. The
CCP should be divided into two officially
recognized representatives: conservative
communists and progressive reformers. This
division already exists within the echelons of the
CCP, so the alteration would simply need to be
institutionalized, set down in the constitution
and confirmed by precedent.
Effectively,
there could still remain a one party system and
two competing factions. Justifying the CCP's
existence on two competing models ensures greater
innovation, participation and consensus. Making
this feature public will channel all political
innovations through these two schools and the
coalition building would be made public.
There could also be a slow transition that
gradual includes the people through a latent form
of democracy in the one party system. If it is
conformity and cohesion that the CCP wants, then
the next group of elections from the people might
claim this or that ideology but they would run as
a CCP member.
Naturally the conservatives
would at first hold the most power in the
transition and a balance of small economic and
political reforms could evolve at a cautious pace
with those of a more liberal bent. They would
start out with the president and premier posts.
The two competing groups would now officially be
sponsored to represent the varied interests of
society.
Even if this was done fairly, and
for show initially, recognition and some inclusion
would still be better than denying the party
fractures that threaten to destabilize the party
now, or the separation of the CCP from the input
of the people. A lack of political innovation and
being out of touch with the people will result in
the party's stagnant "hold the line" approach of
CCP rule. This was noted in the tone and language
of Hu Jintao's outgoing speech as General
Secretary.
This massive political reform
provides the needed release valve to vent the
pressures stirring from within the one party
consensus environment. Short of another party
purge and risking a civil war among the top
players, any failure to enact this political
reform of a proto-parliamentary setting, will
likely result in increased instability. Shaming
and barring political reformers in the CCP will
become just as useless as shaming economic
reformers was in the past. Greater corruption,
criticisms, labels, house arrests, and greater
social unrest are the guaranteed outcome.
An even more radical proposal was
presented by General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, before
his 16 year house arrest and death in 2005. He
proposed a full Western-style democratic
transition and he cautioned a cynical fall of the
CCP that failed to politically reform.
It
is unconvincing that the CCP will be able to
maintain its grip on power through suppressing its
own membership and using scapegoats and trickery
forever. Even foreign wars and plunder will not
resolve the deeply needed political adjustments
that continue to be ignored or delayed. The
situation is very simple: if the CCP does not
redefine itself, it faces an impending extinction
from within and amongst the masses-destroyed by
the same revolutionary fervor that helped create
the the party.
Speaking Freely is an
Asia Times Online feature that allows guest
writers to have their say.Please
click hereif you are interested in
contributing. Articles submitted for this section
allow our readers to express their opinions and do
not necessarily meet the same editorial standards
of Asia Times Online's regular contributors.
Brett Daniel Shehadey is a
writer and commentator, and holds an MA in
Strategic Intelligence from AMU and a BS in
Political Science from UCLA.
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