Two hundred years after the birth of Karl Marx, his ideas are taking a bigger role in the economy and society under Xi Jinping
https://www.ft.com/content/766d2a42-419d-11e8-803a-295c97e6fd0b
Anyone who looks at communism objectively can tell you why it will never work in the real world. People don’t just voluntarily share everything they have on a mass scale; it’s against human nature and common sense. It must be forced upon society by an all-powerful government. And the basic rule, power corrupts, is ever true and fanatically ignored by communist idealists.
So America and China have the same problem?
China’s “Helmsman” President Xi Jinping wants the 1.4 billion people he leads to enthusiastically embrace the teachings of German philosopher Karl Marx, as part of a broader revival of the Communist Party.
China’s strongman leader will make a speech to celebrate Marx’s 200th birthday on Friday, and recently marked the 170th anniversary of his seminal work, The Communist Manifesto, by encouraging senior leaders “to grasp the power of the truth of Marxism”.
To further celebrate China’s favourite Western philosopher, the state broadcaster has been carrying a special five-part program called Marx is Correct, in which Communist Party scholars lecture an audience of teenagers about traditional socialist doctrine. ...”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-04/china-xi-jinping-is-pushing-a-marxist-revival/9724720
It always struck me as strange that Asians would so enthusiastically embrace a European political system.
The NY Times should be very well versed in Communism.
How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm after they've got Daisey Maes?
That is the crux of the problem for communists both old and new
More NYT drivel, trying to say communists aren’t communists.
It would be VERY surprising if they were NOT trying to squelch a young communist movement.
Anyone that thinks this is surprising action by the Chinese government has zero understanding of China and its history with youth and the communist movement.
They DO NOT want that crap back again.
Collective leadership, the idea that decisions will be taken through consensus, is the ideal in the CPC.[47] The concept has its origins back to Vladimir Lenin and the Russian Bolshevik Party.[48]
At the level of the central party leadership this means that, for instance, all members of the Politburo Standing Committee are of equal standing (each member having only one vote).[47]
A member of the Politburo Standing Committee often represents a sector; during Mao’s reign, he controlled the People’s Liberation Army, Kang Sheng, the security apparatus, and Zhou Enlai, the State Council and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[47] This counts as informal power.[47] Despite this, in a paradoxical relation, members of a body are ranked hierarchically (despite the fact that members are in theory equal to each others).[47]
In spite of this, the CPC is led by an informal leader principle, each collective leadership is led by a core, that is a paramount leader; a person who holds the offices of CPC general secretary, CMC chairman and President of the PRC.[49] Before Jiang Zemin’s tenure as paramount leader, the party core and collective leadership were indistinguishable.[50]
In practice, the core was not responsible to the collective leadership.[50] However, by the time of Jiang, the party had begun propagating a responsibility system, referring to it in official pronouncements as the “core of the collective leadership”.[50]
Democratic centralism
Further information: Democratic centralism
The CPC’s organizational principle is democratic centralism, which is based on two principles: democracy (synonymous in official discourse with “socialist democracy” and “inner-party democracy”) and centralism.[51] This has been the guiding organizational principle of the party since the 5th National Congress, held in 1927.[51]
In the words of the party constitution, “The Party is an integral body organized under its program and constitution and on the basis of democratic centralism”.[51] Mao once quipped that democratic centralism was “at once democratic and centralized, with the two seeming opposites of democracy and centralization united in a definite form.”
Mao claimed that the superiority of democratic centralism lay in its internal contradictions, between democracy and centralism, and freedom and discipline.[51]
Currently, the CPC is claiming that “democracy is the lifeline of the Party, the lifeline of socialism”.[51] But for democracy to be implemented, and functioning properly, there needs to be centralization.[51]
The goal of democratic centralism was not to obliterate capitalism or its policies but instead it is the movement towards regulating capitalism while involving socialism and democracy.[52] Democracy in any form, the CPC claims, needs centralism, since without centralism there will be no order.[51]
According to Mao, democratic centralism “is centralized on the basis of democracy and democratic under centralized guidance. This is the only system that can give full expression to democracy with full powers vested in the people’s congresses at all levels and, at the same time, guarantee centralized administration with the governments at each level exercising centralized management of all the affairs entrusted to them by the people’s congresses at the corresponding level and safeguarding whatever is essential to the democratic life of the people”.[51]
Multi-party Cooperation System
The Multi-party Cooperation and Political Consultation System is led by the CPC in cooperation and consultation with the eight parties which make up the United Front.[53]
Consultation takes place under the leadership of the CPC, with mass organizations, the United Front parties, and “representatives from all walks of life”.[53] These consultations contribute, at least in theory, to the formation of the country’s basic policy in the fields of political, economic, cultural and social affairs.[53]
The CPC’s relationship with other parties is based on the principle of “long-term coexistence and mutual supervision, treating each other with full sincerity and sharing weal or woe.”[53] This process is institutionalized in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).[53]
All the parties in the United Front support China’s road to socialism, and hold steadfast to the leadership of the CPC.[53] Despite all this, the CPPCC is a body without any real power.[54] While discussions do take place, they are all supervised by the CPC.[54]
Modern Communism in China
The current constitution was created in 1982 and been continually revised since. The constitution includes many civil rights: free speech, press, worship, the right to trial, and the right to own private property.
However, in practice this constitution has widely not been followed. There has been very little done to ensure that new laws instituted follow the constitution. The judicial system does not provide any particular method for review of new laws.
https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs201/projects/2007-08/communism-computing-china/china.html