Communist China is Still "Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones"

By Huang Nian

United Daily News, November 24, 2021

 

After the meeting between President Joe Biden of the United States and Chinse President Xi Jinping on November 16, China’s official press agency, Xinhua News, released “Resolution of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century.” This document contains 36,000 words and is the third “historical resolution” of the Chinse Communist Party.

 

The Communist Party’s first historical resolution was released in1945, which established Mao Zedong’s status. However, it failed to foresee that Mao would almost bring the party and the country to perish. The second historical resolution was released in 1981, at which the Communist Party self-examined and redeemed itself from the mistakes it made from establishing its power over the last thirty years. Although the Communist Party attempted to take a step forward in its second resolution, the Communist Party seemed to be “crossing the river by feeling the stones” and taking another step backwards in the third recent resolution. 

 

The third historical resolution is still intertwined with struggles of power and political lines, but it is different from the last two resolutions in the fact that this resolution focuses more on individual power rather than on the choices and changes of political lines.

 

Regarding the Communist Party’s political line, in order to not conflict with resolutions from the previous thirty years, the 70/30 percent principle was used. This laid out the achievements and mistakes of Mao, although the criticisms were more severe than expected. For instance, there were strong condemning remarks no less than the second resolution, with phrases referring to, “the Great Leap Forward, the people’s commune, and other errors…,” “Comrade Mao Zedong’s errors in… theory and practice have become more and more serious,” “Comrade Mao Zedong made a completely wrong estimate of the party and the country as he launched and led the Cultural Revolution…”, and even explicitly said his errors caused “a decade of civil strife.”

 

In other words, this resolution does not promote Mao while degrading Deng Xiaoping, but instead confirms the wrongdoings of Mao and reiterates the “total denial of the Cultural Revolution” so as to establish the Communist Party’s “unswerving adherence to its ideology.”

 

Nevertheless, it is clear to everyone that Mr. Xi’s power deployment is “Mao Zedong style.” For instance, Mr. Xi ordered the removal of the restrictions on the term of office of national leaders and promoted a personality cult around himself. Therefore, this resolution particularly shows contradictions in the Communist Party’s route guidance and power deployment. 

 

The resolution may have denied Mao’s political and economic style, but it shows that the Communist Party has reverted to Mao’s model of power. Though the resolution continues Deng’s political line, it violates Deng’s power prohibition against life tenure and personality cult. Clearly, there is a big contradiction within the resolution.

 

Since 2018, Mr. Xi has vigorously advocated returning to Marxist ways and the implementation of "the basic principles of Marxism.” This resolution has repeatedly affirmed "Marxism-Leninism," and even called it "a Marxist programmatic document.” This puts Marx and Lenin at a higher pedestal than Mao and Deng and also as the originators of Mr. Xi’s political ideology. Mr. Xi can then be portrayed as the “Marxist of the 21st Century.” In turn, Mr. Xi can override the Mao-Deng dispute and create a superior political image in himself, while continuing in office in the 20th National Congress. 

 

However, bringing Marx into the picture would only make the contradiction even more obvious. Mao had always referred to himself as the guardian of Marx’s fundamental principles and was no doubt the chief advocate of “Marxism in China.” Yet, Mao was not able to establish the rationality of his power and political line by being a follower of Marx. Moreover, Deng actually was the mastermind behind the idea of “putting Marx and Mao in a cage.”

 

The real reason why Mao failed is because he established his power model on the pretext of Marxism-Leninism. Now, if Mr. Xi bases the legitimacy of his power and political line on “Marxism-Leninism,” wouldn’t he be treading in the fatal footsteps of Mao? If the Communist Party chooses to use Maoist dictatorship to rule China again, it would be hard for China to become a reliable, respectable and lovely country, and even less likely a revived or great country.

 

The most important issue for Mr. Xi and the Communist Party is not power, but the choice of “method” and “direction”. In other words, they must make a choice between “Mao and Deng.” It is impossible for the Communist Party to advocate a return to the “old era” of “Marxism-Leninism/ Maoism” while at the same time advertising the “new era” of “socialism with Chinese characteristics”. That is because the core of “socialism with Chinese characteristics” is precisely “putting Marx and Mao in a cage.”

 

China’s vision to pursue prosperity, power, revival and greatness is its own right. No one should interfere other than hoping for the best. However, to achieve this goal, China must pay attention to its method and direction.

 

If the Chinese Communists want to find a political guidance that surpasses Marx, Mao and Deng, it would have to embrace the fact that freedom is the essence of human nature and democracy is the direction to modern civilization. As this resolution shows, Mr. Xi’s desire to use Mao’s power model to promote Deng’s governance structure may still result in a period of “tough exploration” of “crossing the river by feeling the stones.”

 

From: https://udn.com/news/story/7339/5905577

〈Back to Taiwan Weekly Newsletter〉