Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Yes, China is Communist


The Indian Communists are scratching their heads: is the People's Republic of China a Communist State? Is the Chinese Communist Party communist or capitalist?
This is  valid question.
The problem of the Indian Communists is that they don't read the Chinese press, they could find an answer.
On November 7, 2011, Study Times, a journal of the Party School of the Central Committee of the CCP, published an article discussing the benefits of China’s foreign policy initiated by Deng Xiaoping. He had proposed: to “hide our capabilities and bide our time.” 
The article explained: “After China started its economic reforms and opened to the world, China stopped using its (Communist) ideological standards to deal with other countries. This has successfully reversed the diplomatic situation, which has been unfavorable to China.”
Even China’s foreign policy is to “hide the (Communist) ideology and modernize China according to its plans while other countries are in chaos.”
The article concluded that the foreign policy “hide our capabilities and bide our time” is very important and necessary when China is in the process of integrating into the international system: “To create a favorable international environment to develop our domestic economy, we should continue to hide our (Communist) ideology so as to minimize the differences (in particular between the U.S. and China).”
Chinascope, the website which published the translation, gives the historical background: “Hide one’s capabilities and bide one’s time” or “Hide one’s ambitions and disguise one’s claws”, comes from a well-known Chinese historical novel, 'The Three Kingdoms' based on real stories from the end of the Han Dynasty (25 AD-220 AD) to the Three Kingdoms era (220 AD- 280 AD) of Chinese history. The kings of the Three Kingdoms were Cao Cao, Liu Bei and Sun Quan. When Liu Bei was seeking refuge in Cao Cao’s territory, he was afraid that Cao Cao would kill him if he did not hide his ambition to unite the whole nation and become king. By working hard in his backyard vegetable garden every day and pretending to be cowardly, he successfully misled Cao Cao, who no long viewed Liu as a competitor. Liu Bei’s strategy was called “hide one’s ambitions and disguise one’s claws”.
The answer to the question of the Indian Comrades is therefore: "Yes, China is Communist today, but it is hiding it".
Well, hiding it, not so well.
In Beijing's recent elections, several independent candidates ran to be nominated as representative to the People's Congress. An article is Chinacope said: "however, the Chinese authorities prevented their nomination. Many found their names had been eliminated from the final list of candidates. On November 8, when the election results for the nomination to the People's Congress in Beijing came in, only the names the government authorities chose appeared. No independent candidates made the list."
Ms. Wu Qing, a professor from Beijing Foreign Language University, told
Voice of America: "University students received tremendous pressure from the university authorities. There were security personnel, secret police, the regular police, and people from my neighborhood at the university. Many students felt unprecedented pressure... The hidden guidelines from the authorities insured that the candidates recommended by the grass roots masses would never make it to the final nomination list."
Does the CPI want to keep emulating the CCP? 
They will have to decide.


Finally, Left finds it right to debate merits of China model
DNA / Satarupa Bhattacharjya
November 11, 2011
For the first time in many years, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) will debate whether the Chinese model of socialism - an inspiration for many in the Indian Left - is the “right” way of achieving an equitable society.
Attempting to review the party’s ideological approach will be its central committee of 80-plus members at a conference of two days and a half, beginning on Friday at the party headquarters, AKG Bhawan here.
“The party never felt the urgent need to really debate this issue as it is feeling now, following the West Bengal debacle,” a source in the CPI(M) told the DNA on Thursday.
Former Bengal chief minister and politburo member Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is unlikely to attend the central committee meeting as has been his practice (with outstation meetings) since the Left’s historic rout in that state in May.
The CPI(M) last held a serious ideological debate in 1968 in Bengal’s Burdhwan district after the Naxalbari uprising the year earlier. The choice then before Indian Communists was to either emulate the erstwhile Soviet Union or China.
Since then, although the CPI(M) claimed to have aligned with neither model completely, instead seeking to evolve an Indian view peppered with realities of caste and religion, the party’s stagnation in West Bengal seemed to have busted the long-held myth.
“We need new ideas to take the party forward. We need the youth to join us and we need to be seen to be one with the masses,” the party source said.
The source said according to reports from state committees, the CPI(M)’s “look East” policy in West Bengal, eyeing China’s development among other nations in south-east Asia, seemed to have propelled the Left government to pursue “reforms” at the cost of “human emotions.”
“What are minimum wages for workers in China? That country’s need to increase productivity has turned it into a capitalist economy controlled by the State instead of market forces,” the source said adding such questions are likely to be raised at the Central Committee meeting.
Once the debate is initiated in the weekend, the CPI(M) politburo will review a draft ideological resolution in December. The draft will to be presented for adoption at the party congress in Calicut in April 2012.
At a time when the Indian Left is desperate to gain lost ground in politics, presenting India’s multi-ethnic, multi-party democracy as a differing option to the Chinese story may be a tactical move. But not everyone within the CPI(M) appears to be convinced, Bhattacharjee for one.
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_finally-left-finds-it-right-to-debate-merits-of-china-model_1610746-al

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