Jeremy Bradshaw
Thursday, Jan. 22, 2004

Yet the one institution to oppose any change to itself is the very one that has masterminded China’s Great Leap in to chaotic capitalism -- the Chinese Communist Party.

Its members make up 10 percent of the country’s adult population. It still retains control of every political institution in the country. Its ideology is still Marxism “with Chinese characteristics.”

Its key priority today is -- as it was when in 1949 Mao Tse Tong took over the country -- stability.

Only once has its authority been seriously challenged -- when in June 1989 students demonstrated in Tiananmen Square calling for greater democracy.

The ensuing clamp down and slaughter of hundreds of the protesters that followed shocked the world.

But in a bid to “buy” support from the masses, China’s leaders unexpectedly liberalised its centralised economy. It was as if a cynical bargain was struck between Beijing’s gerontocracy and the Chinese people: we let you grow rich, but you let us govern. Western market economics with Communist rulers.

Remarkably, this “pact" has worked well: ordinary Chinese people give the impression of being uninterested in politics. Nearly everyone from hotel janitor to floor sweeper is more interested in making money than democratising the Communist Party system.

Surprisingly, the Party’s policy is officially: “It’s good to get rich."

The Challenge

“We have given the people prosperity and they are grateful to us,” says vice-minister Zhang Zhijun, who advises the foreign minister on policy. But China’s leaders give every sign of knowing that they are living on borrowed time. Why?

First, the party’s ideology is hopelessly outdated.

The party has a crisis of legitimacy, some say.

“The Communist Party is in danger of becoming irrelevant,” says Adrian Peter, a Beijing-based journalist. “It is only in the last year that the Party has allowed businessmen to become members. It is as if the Party officials wanted to retain all the wealth for themselves -- but then discovered the real money was being made by a new generation of entrepreneurs who had no time for the party or its backward ideology."

No wonder the Party is now seeking to co-opt China’s new-rich by amending party rules to allow “capitalists” to join the rank and file Communists.

“The scary thing for the party bosses is this: whereas party membership was once a great honour and privilege, China’s new entrepreneurs know that its money that buys influence nowadays and not party membership,” says Peter.

Second, at every level Beijing’s leaders are losing control over the Middle Kingdom.

Market reforms have meant decentralisation from Beijing to provincial governments. The internet has reduced the state’s grip on the media. A quasi-market economy has destroyed the power of street committees or worker’s committees to control ordinary people’s lives.

Now everyone has the right to work wherever they so chose. Individualism is fast becoming the creed, fed by Western fashions and consumerism.

Better Educated

Third, a better educated and better travelled population has a new middle class -- a new generation reared on Hollywood films and American junk food. Whilst numerically representing only a small percentage of this still mostly rural country -- around 75 percent are still peasants -- the new-rich represent a serious threat to the Communist Party.

Their effect is already being felt.

Campaigns against official corruption, incompetence or abuse of power are a direct response to the anger felt by China new bourgeosie.

“Whilst the economy booms they are contented; but once it crashes as it is sure to do sooner or later there could be trouble,” says Peter.

Fourth, economic development is very uneven. Half of China’s GNP comes from just six of its coastal provinces. Western China is backward and impoverished. There are 130 million migrating unemployed in China. Last year the closure inefficient state enterprises added 10 million more.

“We urgently need to create more and more jobs,” says Zhang.

A Fresh Approach

China’s Communist Party needs new ideas. As President Hu Jintao and premier Wen Jiabao enter their second of administration, the new fourth generation leaders have signalled that they want “xinsiwei” or “fresh approaches to doing things."

This has led to new approaches in Chinese foreign policy. Hu’s pro-active stand in helping resolve the North Korean crisis was unprecedented.

But Premier Wen now says that “national interests and economic fundamentals” must assume a higher priority than traditional concern for solidarity with the Kim-il-Jong Stalinist regime.

This more “liberal” approach has led to xinsiwei in Sino-Japanese relations, which have for decades been poisoned by China’s demands for a full apology for war-time atrocities. Beijing has also established new links with its old enemy, India.

Domestically, the Hu-Wen team have launched a “close-to-the masses crusade." This has meant adopting novel solutions to problems such as Aids.

Last October for the first time, the authorities admitted that there were near to a million HIV-Aids carriers in China and agreed to assist in the provision of medicine. More recently the authorities admitted to mistakes in the handling of the SARS outbreak and promised to learn the lessons.

The leaders have taken strenuous steps to be seen to be responsive to the concerns of the down-trodden. This was shown famously when premier Wen was told by a migrant worker that her husband’s salary was held up by his boss. Wen ordered immediate action -- and the husband was paid within six hours.

However, none of these policy approaches recognises the one obvious fact: only democratic institutions provide an effective mechanism to produce fully accountable government.

But Wen has publicly said that there are limits to his reforms. The Chinese, he argues, lack the "suzhi" or qualifications for universal suffrage elections.

“You have your way, we have ours “ says Zhang. “Just watch, we’ll find our way. Our’s will be the Chinese way”.

Editor's note:
Harry Wu reveals the real China – Click Here Now

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