Posted on 01/07/2002 8:49:19 PM PST by super175
Policy hawk John Foster Dulles was never China's favourite American official. It was he who, as former president Dwight Eisenhower's secretary of state, refused to shake hands with then-premier Zhou Enlai at a meeting in 1954.
Dulles considered communism, and communists, evil. But, regardless of one's views of Dulles as a Cold War warrior, his policy has special relevance for China as it prepares for a transition from a third to a fourth generation of party leaders.
Dulles enunciated the policy of "peaceful evolution" rather than war as the means for freeing the "enslaved people" in the Soviet Union, China and other communist countries. He predicted that, by the third or fourth generation, party leaders would lose their communist zeal and gradually change colour, allowing their people to become free. And he wanted the US to do whatever it could to facilitate this process.
He certainly made an impact on Mao Zedong. The party chairman, fearful that the US was out to subvert China with "sugar-coated bullets", launched repeated purges of his top associates, whom he feared would betray the communist cause by turning revisionist.
Mao's fears appeared to be confirmed in 1956 when Nikita Khrushchev, who had succeeded Josef Stalin as Soviet leader, denounced his predecessor. Soon, Mao concluded that Khrushchev had betrayed Marxism and had turned into a revisionist. He wanted to make sure that would not happen in China.
During the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, Mao's fanatical Red Guards dubbed the head of state Liu Shaoqi "China's Khrushchev", while Deng Xiaoping was labelled the "No 2 party leader taking the capitalist road". Both men, along with many others, were purged.
Although Deng survived to become China's paramount leader after Mao's death, he, too, was worried about peaceful evolution, especially after the crushing of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in June 1989. Like Mao in his later years, Deng, too, picked and then discarded a series of successors. He criticised both Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang for having failed to oppose bourgeois liberalisation.
"The Western countries are staging a third world war without gun smoke," he warned in November 1989. "They want to bring about the peaceful evolution of socialist countries towards capitalism."
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Deng's fear of peaceful evolution became even more marked. While he continued to press forward with economic reforms, he was insistent that the Communist Party must maintain its monopoly on political power.
The struggle against bourgeois liberalisation, he said in 1992, must continue for 20 years or longer. "The imperialists are pushing for peaceful evolution towards capitalism in China, placing their hopes on the generations that will come after us," Deng said.
"Comrade Jiang Zemin and his peers can be regarded as the third generation, and there will be a fourth and a fifth. So long as we of the older generation are still alive, no change is possible. But after we are dead and gone, who will ensure that there is no peaceful evolution?"
Deng was speaking in 1992, when he was 88. Afterwards, he became increasingly frail and inactive. He died in 1997, apparently satisfied with the performance of Jiang Zemin as the core of the third generation of leaders.
But Mao himself considered Deng a revisionist of the first order. One of the first things Deng did after gaining power was to give up the idea of class struggle, something that Mao considered indispensable.
No doubt there are still some in the party today who consider that Deng had paved the way for peaceful evolution in China with his economic reforms.
As long as Deng was alive, Mr Jiang refrained from ideological innovation. But his recent proposal for admitting capitalists into the Communist Party was openly opposed by conservatives who, no doubt, considered this to be travelling down the capitalist road.
Other party members, reluctant to voice opposition in public, privately deplore allowing capitalistic exploiters of workers to join a party meant to work for the interests of workers. Soon, Mr Jiang is expected to step down to make way for a fourth generation.
Those leaders, when facing new problems, will need to make adjustments not just to policies but to basic ideological doctrines as well. Since these decisions will be made by Chinese for the welfare of China, there is no reason to oppose them on the grounds of peaceful evolution.
As long as the decisions lie in China's own hands, there is no need for Mao to turn over in his mausoleum. But John Foster Dulles, who died in 1959, may well be resting in peace with a smile on his face, content that what he had predicted in the 1950s is coming to pass almost half a century later.
Frank Ching (frankching1@aol.com) is a Hong Kong-based journalist and commentator.
China must realize that reform and changing things does not mean that they are somehow becoming 'subjects of the west'.
This is the exact problem. It often puts China in a contrarian position, to everyone's dislike.
Like I said before though, we need not suggest a new directional path for China, only that they keep on moving on the road that is there already.
What do you have to say about the resistance to such things?
China is one of the countries with the longest histories in the world. The people of all nationalities in China have jointly created a splendid culture and have a glorious revolutionary tradition.
Feudal China was gradually reduced after 1840 to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country. The Chinese people waged wave upon wave of heroic struggles for national independence and liberation and for democracy and freedom. Great and earth-shaking historical changes have taken place in China in the 20th century.
The Revolution of 1911, led by Dr Sun Yat-sen, abolished the feudal monarchy and gave birth to the Republic of China. But the Chinese people had yet to fulfil their historical task of overthrowing imperialism and feudalism. After waging hard, protracted and tortuous struggles, armed and otherwise, the Chinese people of all nationalities led by the Communist Party of China with Chairman Mao Zedong as its leader ultimately, in 1949, overthrew the rule of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism, won the great victory of the new-democratic revolution and founded the People's Republic of China. Thereupon the Chinese people took state power into their own hands and became masters of the country.
After the founding of the People's Republic, the transition of Chinese society from a new- democratic to a socialist society was effected step by step. The socialist transformation of the private ownership of the means of production was completed, the system of exploitation of man by man eliminated and the socialist system established.
The people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants, which is in essence the dictatorship of the proletariat, has been consolidated and developed.
The Chinese people and the Chinese People's Liberation Army have thwarted aggression, sabotage and armed provocations by imperialists and hegemonists,safeguarded China's national independence and security and strengthened its national defence. Major successes have been achieved in economic development.
An independent and fairly comprehensive socialist system of industry has in the main been established. There has been a marked increase in agricultural production. Significant progress has been made in educational, scientific, cultural and other undertakings, and socialist ideological education has yielded noteworthy results. The living standards of the people have improved considerably.
Both the victory of China's new-democratic revolution and the successes of its socialist cause have been achieved by the Chinese people of all nationalities under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the guidance of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, and by upholding truth, correcting errors and overcoming numerous difficulties and hardships.
The basic task of the nation in the years to come is to concentrate its effort on socialist modernization. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the guidance of Marxism- Leninism and Mao ZedongThought, the Chinese people of all nationalities will continue to adhere to the people's democratic dictatorship and follow the socialist road, steadily improve socialist institutions, develop socialist democracy, improve the socialist legal system and work hard and self-reliantly to modernize industry, agriculture, national defence and science and technology step by step to turn China into a socialist country with a high level of culture and democracy.
The exploiting classes as such have been eliminated in our country. However, class struggle will continue to exist within certain limits for a long time to come. The Chinese people must fight against those forces and elements, both at home and abroad, that are hostile to China's socialist system and try to undermine it.
Taiwan is part of the sacred territory of the People's Republic of China. It is the lofty duty of the entire Chinese people, including our compatriots in Taiwan, to accomplish the great task of reunifying the motherland. In building socialism it is imperative to rely on the workers, peasants and intellectuals and unite with all the forces that can be united.
In the long years of revolution and construction, there has been formed under the leadership of the Communist Party of China a broad patriotic united front that is composed of democratic parties and people's organizations and embraces all socialist working people, all patriots who support socialism and all patriots who stand for reunification of the motherland.
This united front will continue to be consolidated and developed. The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference is a broadly representative organization of the united front, which has played a significant historical role and will continue to do so in the political and social life of the country, in promoting friendship with the people of other countries and in the struggle for socialist modernization and for the reunification and unity of the country.
The People's Republic of China is a unitary multi-national state built up jointly by the people of all its nationalities. Socialist relations of equality, unity and mutual assistance have been established among them and will continue to be strengthened. In the struggle to safeguard the unity of the nationalities, it is necessary to combat big-nation chauvinism, mainly Han chauvinism, and also necessary to combat local-national chauvinism.
The state does its utmost to promote the common prosperity of all nationalities in the country. China's achievements in revolution and construction are inseparable from support by the people of the world. The future of China is closely linked with that of the whole world. China adheres to an independent foreign policy as well as to the five principles of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence in developing diplomatic relations and economic and cultural exchanges with other countries; China consistently opposes imperialism, hegemonism and colonialism, works to strengthen unity with the people of other countries, supports the oppressed nations and the developing countries in their just struggle to win and preserve national independence and develop their national economies, and strives to safeguard world peace and promote the cause of human progress.
This Constitution affirms the achievements of the struggles of the Chinese people of all nationalities and defines the basic system and basic tasks of the state in legal form; it is the fundamental law of the state and has supreme legal authority. The people of all nationalities, all state organs, the armed forces, all political parties and public organizations and all enterprises and undertakings in the country must take the Constitution as the basic norm of conduct, and they have the duty to uphold the dignity of the Constitution and ensure its implementation.
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CHAPTER I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES
Article 1. The People's Republic of China is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants. The socialist system is the basic system of the People's Republic of China. Sabotage of the socialist system by any organization or individual is prohibited.
As long as this document remains, China will maintain State run churches, State run companies (51 %ownership) in natural resources and State run media outlets.
No leader in China will reform China unless this document is changed. All laws in China are enforced under the intent of this document.
no doubt true too. Although 'peaceful evolution' is not as satisfying as a daisy cutter dropped on the Forbidden City.
It has been widespread in Chinese publication for almost 50 years. However, there is no official, historic record supporting this story.
>>He predicted that, by the third or fourth generation, party leaders would lose their communist zeal and gradually change colour,
This is one of the reasos Mao started the cultural revolution,
>>No doubt there are still some in the party today who consider that Deng had paved the way for peaceful evolution in China with his economic reforms.
No doubt. I believe even Deng himself knew that he opened the door for the peaceful evolution. What he tried to do was to prevent it from happening before he was about to see Marx.
>>Like I said before though, we need not suggest a new directional path for China, only that they keep on moving on the road that is there already.
China is moving towards that. The only threat that may hinder the move is the problem of internal stability or threat to national security or integrity from the outside, like Taiwan declaring independence.
>>What do you have to say about the resistance to such things?
The resistance will be from all walks of life all all kids of reasons. The most dangerous move will be the radical westernization like what Zhao Ziyang's associates did over ten years ago. Also a multi-party system can not gain popularity among the party members. The practical way to establish a democratic system in China is to make the CCP itself a democratic party with factions representing different groups of interests. The competing factions within the ruling party can function just as well as competing parties. Advocating multi-party system will not succeed.
Deng was an anti-Soviet guy who repeatedly insulted Khrushov in 60s. He told some Japanese leaders that China's perminant enemy is Russia. Deng did deprive many hardliners of power, but never "killed" them. Physically drestrying political opponents is not what Deng would do.
>>Jiang seems to have been a closet hardliner who survived Deng just like that guy who talks about nuking LA.
Jiang is neither a hardliner nor a liberal. He is simply a politican.
The answer is very simply. "Your son has accepted the party's charter, dutifully carried out all tasks the party assigned to him and done a great job in serving our party's interets. Therefore he is the model member of our great party. I would recommend he be promoted to the politburo. A capitalist? Fine. We'd rather cultivate our own red capitalists than white capitalists. Anyone how has doubt on his loyalty to the party, talk to me"
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