Liaoning,
and Guangdong called for a thoroughgoing re-interpretation of the Four Principles upon
which the Chinese political system is based. The article and photo appeared in Nanfang
Daily and in A May 2000 report from U.S. Embassy Beijing
Summary: Lagging political reform is the biggest obstacle to China's economic and social progress over the next decade according to a December 1999 Chinese Academy of Social Sciences poll. The fifty academics and think tankers polled point to corruption, unemployment and the environment as areas that are steadily worsening. But only one-fifth expect a severe crisis within the next decade. Some Chinese, including a former Guangdong Party Secretary, have called for a thorough reinterpretation of China's guiding ideology to accommodate the needs of reform.
A December 1999 poll of fifty Chinese academics and government researchers indicates that the biggest constraints on China's economic and social development in the first decade of the new century are:
The experts also pointed to rising income disparities as a source of social discord.
Sixty-four percent of the experts believe that China will be able to avoid a full-blown crisis arising from these domestic problems during the coming decade of the new century. Twenty percent of experts believed that such a crisis was inevitable or nearly so. The survey concluded, "Chinese development and reform have already entered a new stage. If in this new stage, the social and political system are not reformed, not only will reform itself be threatened but also social stability and China's prospects for development as well."
The same fifty researchers rated the most serious social problem China faces today as:
The poll was conducted by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences researchers and the Communist Party journal Fortnightly (Banyuetan). The fifty academics were drawn from fields such as economics, sociology, demography, law, education, journalism, military affairs and international relations. Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Sociology researchers Hu Gang, Zou Xinhua, and Lu Hongxin analyzed the data.
The poll was discussed in "Challenges Facing China in the New Century: Analysis of a Poll of Fifty Experts" (pp. 112 -123) by Lu Jianhua of the Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The article appeared in "Chinese Social Situation Analysis and Forecast 2000" [2000 Nian: Zhongguo Shehui Xingshi Fenxi yu Yuce], an annual white paper written by Chinese Academy of Social Science academics and government think tankers that was published in January 2000.
Lu wrote "This poll shows that the experts put lagging political reform as the biggest constraint China faces in the first decade of the new century. The experts apparently expect that political reform can lead to the melioration or solution of China's most serious problems. Political reform is very important for putting the entire society on track for healthier development. The experts affirmed that how to accomplish and implement the reform of the political system remains a very important topic for further research."
The experts were asked whether the array of problems that constrain China's development are being solved, are unchanged, or are getting worse. The problems that the academics see as getting worse are in order:
When calling for more thoroughgoing reforms that would impinge on the existing ideology, people tend to speak carefully. (For example, Chinese scholars who research the environment and agriculture are aware that the private ownership of land would very likely improve agricultural conservation and environmental practices since there would be someone playing the role of owner.)
Some however, are more blunt. A former Guangdong Province Party Secretary in a April 29 article (summarized below) that appeared in Southern Weekend (Nanfang Zhoumo) suggested a through reinterpretation of China's ideological foundations -- the Four Cardinal Principles in order to accommodate the needs of reform. The Four Cardinal Principles are upholding socialism; the people's democratic dictatorship; the leadership of the Communist Party; and Marxist Leninism Mao Zedong Thought. (Nanfang Zhoumo, a nationally circulated weekly newspaper, is a publication of the Guangzhou Municipality Communist Party Committee.) The former provincial party secretary's argument is essentially that the kind of ideological flexibility Deng Xiaoping showed in his "socialism with Chinese characteristics theory" can be used to reinterpret old principles into whatever is needed to achieve democracy and rule of law.
The retired provincial party secretary wrote "We can't take whatever theory or statement Marx, Lenin or Mao put forth on some occasion in the past as the remedy for the problems of today. Whoever tries to do this is not a Marxist. After all, if there could be no new development there would be no Deng Xiaoping theory. We can't just accept all Mao's theories -- this means that we can't accept those elements in Mao Zedong thought that are incompatible with Marxism or are obsolete. We can't just accept all that Lenin said either. In Lenin's ideology, too, there are elements that are incompatible with Marxism that we must reject. We can't accept all that Marx said, either. Marx himself was against taking Marxism as a dogma."
Chinese ideological discourse increasingly refers to Marx and Engels and much less to Lenin and Mao Zedong. Now the word comrade is hardly used at all and the word citizen (gongmin) is used more often than before. The twin tides of the movement from planned to market economy and from comrade (a member of a collectivity) to citizen (an individual) are moving China towards more openness and political reform.
Perhaps, as Mao Zedong always insisted, the consciousness of the people is the most powerful force of all. Indeed, an argument for political reform based on Marx's idea that the economic relations in society determine a political system is convincing to many Chinese. Economic reform has brought much greater economic freedom and diversity, the argument goes, and so there must come much greater opening and democracy in China's political life. Embassy officer has found that nearly everyone he meets, loyal party member or critic of the regime find convincing this Marxist argument for democratic reform in China.
As a prominent Chinese academic told a U.S. Embassy Beijing officer recently, if the interests of the Communist Party and the entire nation continue to diverge there will be social instability and the existence of the Party itself will be threatened. If the Party can gradually accept democratic reforms, the researcher went on, the Party can continue in power indefinitely, the academic said.
The Four Cardinal Principles Reconsidered" by Ren Zhongyi, former Party Secretary
of Heilongjiang, Liaoning,
and Guangdong called for a thoroughgoing re-interpretation of the Four Principles upon
which the Chinese political system is based. The article and photo appeared in Nanfang
Daily and in
See also:
"Grave Concerns" by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences researchers Zheng Yisheng and Qian Yihong argues that Chinese environmental problems cannot be solved without a through reform of China's political and economic system. They wrote "There cannot be a clean environment without clean government." The book is summarized on the U.S. Embassy Beijing web page at http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/english/sandt/index.html
See also:
PLA Navy Captain Wei Chungguang in his "Competition in the Pacific: Problems of Maritime Security for Modern China" argues that China's most critical problems are the deterioration of the environment and the exhaustion of its natural resources. The book is summarized at
The trend towards greater individualism is reflected in recent Chinese literature where there are increasing numbers of books exploring the private and most personal areas of people's lives. The best-selling young writer Yu Jie in his "To Say or Not to Say" and "The Bird is Willing but the Wings Are Weak" is remarkably frank about the political blockages in Chinese society today. One of Yu's themes is how dishonesty and corruption often arise in China today because people are afraid to say what they really think. The two books are discussed on the
Beijing Bookworm section of the U.S. Embassy Beijing webpage at http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/english/sandt/yujietwo.htmlSee also: Is There a Right to Privacy in the PRC?