July 1st – Heartfelt thoughts of a Party member
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As a member of the Chinese Communist Party, I wanted to say a few things to the Party Central, about the Weng’an (Wengan) incident:
1. There is no Communist Party that fears the people. The magic weapon for the Communist Party’s success during the revolution was trusting in the people, depending on the people, and motivating the people. This will always be the Party’s greatest weapon. The Party should actively dive into the people, and respectfully listen to the voices of the people, rather than simply waiting for problems to erupt before trying to “stabilize” the people. The Chinese Communist Party used to have an unparalleled ability to motivate the people; has this ability or strengthened or weakened? Every Party member should think deeply on this issue.
2. The masses are never unreasonable. They are the most practical and most adorable, and the most reasonable. They understand principal far better than any expert. Don’t lightly use the words “the people were instigated”; the people can never been “instigated”, they comprehend and care about the bigger picture better than we do. As long as we stand on the side of reason, then we don’t need to worry the people don’t understand us, and our conscience would be clear. We will naturally gain the support of the people. On the other hand, if we do not stand on the side of the reason, anything that we try to do will fail. The Northern Warlords tried it and the counter-revolutionaries of the KMT also tried it, and they all failed. The final victory still belonged to the Communist Party.
3. There is nothing that can’t be fully investigated and clarified. No matter how complicated a problem is, no matter how dark the inner story might be, nothing can block the Party Central’s investigation of the truth. The people demand the truth, they demand the real picture, and this is the party central’s strongest support! With the support of the masses, the party has a limitless supply of force. As long as you rely on the people and trust the people, there is no problem that can’t be fully investigated and made clear.
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July 1st, 2008 at 8:09 pm
This post is followed by a number of postings by others, including self-declared party members… many writing how emotional they feel about this subject, and how deeply troubled they are by the current state of affairs.
July 1st, 2008 at 10:01 pm
This is a piece full of the Cultural Revolution rhetorics. A few examples:
1. “The masses are never unreasonable.” I think we know what mobicracy means.
2. The people can never been “instigated”. Well, we know there was an historical event called Cultural Revolution. Some people firmly believe it was instigated by *someone* high up. Or do you think it was just that the people had a slip of mind? Considering sentence 1.
3.There is nothing that can’t be fully investigated and clarified. Even in the West, under an independent public jury, a lot of things can never be clarified, and ends in a “he says, she says” situation.
To a person with a liberal mind, this piece smells of a lot of sinister things.
July 1st, 2008 at 11:02 pm
“There is no Communist Party that fears the people”
When you have a two million strong army behind you there are few things worth fearing.
“As long as we stand on the side of reason”
The people stand as far from the CCP and as near to reason as is possible – and this is still quite a stretch.
“There is nothing that can’t be fully investigated and clarified.”
Strange that this approach has not been applied to the history of communist China as a whole.
Happy Birthday CCP – isn’t about time you started to think about your retirement?
July 1st, 2008 at 11:35 pm
http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/0/4/0/3/8/p40381_index.html
By comparing Korea?s relative level of corruption with that of Taiwan and the Philippines and examining how political economy of corruption has developed over time within Korea, this paper provides a test of existing theories on causes of corruption. I find that inequality of income and wealth best explains the relative level of corruption among these countries and across time within Korea, consistent with You and Khagram (2005). Although developmental state and crony capitalism literature emphasized the ?autonomous and uncorrupt bureaucracy? and ?rampant cronyism and corruption? in Korea, respectively, I find that Korea has been neither as corrupt as the Philippines and nor as clean as Taiwan. Successful land reform in Korea and Taiwan brought about low levels of inequality and corruption, while failure of land reform in the Philippines led to a high level of inequality and corruption. However, wealth concentration due to chaebol industrialization increased corruption in Korea, in comparison with Taiwan.
___________________________________________
@RORAP,
Be patient, FORAP, patience is a good thing.
If Chinese government can not solve the problem of corruption, sooner or later it will collapse. On the other hand, if it succeeds in solving the problem, you will not see democratic system in China within this century.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:38 am
Interesting article Wahaha – thanks.
About the quote above…
Sadly but not unexpectedly, I find no difference in the tenor of the author than with any other religious devotee.
Is it me or my limited exposure but do netizens strive to keep social harmony even to the point of posing as others to make some sort of offering of peace. There’s been examples in the past where person X does something offensive and then there’s apologies by their “family members” posted online. I don’t have the references handy (blush) but one such example was the infamous girl going on about the period of morning for the Sichuan quake. Is my impression valid? With heated/volatile topics, you’ll often have posers making conciliatory messages or even apologies?
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:14 am
CPI —- Corruption Perceptions Index
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781359.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perce…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:World_Map_…
_____________________________________
some of the reasons attributes to less corruptions and the low CPI in developed countries, I think, are :
1) Lot of politicians are millionaires or shareholders of big companys, they dont “need” to be corrupt.
2) Most high rank officers in government have very decent incomes (or even among top income groups in their countries) and high security for their retirement plans.
3) Low level of inequality, so the corruptions at low level is not worth of risking (compared to the security provided by government.)
4) Incomes by civil servants and high rank officers are known to public, which greatly limited their greediness. ( I heard there was such experiment in XinJiang, hopefully it will be carried out all over China in near future.)
5) Most government workers are average in school and college, and usually with no ambition, all they want is a security of payment and retirement plan, which is provided by government. So they wont take big risk to jeoperdise that security
I think some people will put free media as one of the reasons, but after checking CPI, I am not sure if it is oen of the major reasons ( I agree it helps).
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:28 am
@FOARP,
You are so desperate to see the collapse of CCP.
I would like to see there would be at least another one or two political forces are able to take over before CCP collapse.
If CCP collapse like what happened to Soviet communists, people’s life in the west include you and me would be badly affected. you know how isolated Soviet Union was and how integrated with the world China today is.
I always prefer reform than revolution. China had paid too much price(civil wars,Great Leap,Culture revolution etc) for the idea of revolution’s quick fix in the last 100 years.
If your term of retirement with a smooth handover ,then I agree.
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:43 am
@Leo,
I see the poster calls for the party’s openness,rely on people and investigation of the case. He just calls on something similar with “…of the people, by the people, for the people” .
no need 咬文嚼字(what’s the English term of it, FOARP)
just my 2 cents , not criticizing your #2 comment.
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:00 am
I didn’t know Chinese internet debate can be that open about Mao .
http://blog.tianya.cn/blogger/post_show.asp?idWriter=0&Key=0&BlogID=1213389&PostID=14419964
Dose Buxi want to bring up a thread about Mao one day?
Sorry about the out of topic comment.
July 2nd, 2008 at 6:12 am
@BMY,
To be honest, I didn’t really start reading Chinese internet sites until about 2 years ago, and I was really shocked at how open things had become. Open debate and criticism of Mao and anything else really isn’t a problem.
We definitely should have a discussion about Mao, because that’s another point that the West and China tend to agree so greatly on. I don’t know if many Westerners understand that in many of the threads cursing the government for Weng’an, there are many messages from those fondly remembering Mao Zedong… I will wait for the right Chinese article to translate.
@MutantJedi,
Keep in mind that members of the Communist Party is not exactly like being a member of a political party in the West. You’re expected to actually take an oath to serve the party, to preserve its secrets, to obey its orders, etc.
And so for those who’re in the Party, well, of course they are going to feel a) responsible for the fate of the Party, b) conflicted about what is happening in China today. The actions of these Party members will ultimately decide if the Party can and should survive in China.
Frankly, I think it’s a great thing that Party members remember they’re just like the KMT and the Beiyang warlords from the first half of the 20th century: if they do a good job on behalf of the people, they can stay; if not, they will perish.
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:14 am
BMY,
Not only open but diverse and sometime conflicting views on Mao– not difficult to find on serious web sites in China ever since the 1990s. For instance, here are two articles holding the opionions on Mao exactly opposite to the viewpoints presented in the blog link you posted.
http://www.wyzxsx.com/Article/Class17/200806/43623.html
http://www.wyzxsx.com/Article/Class22/200807/43640.html
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:16 am
I don’t really know much about being part of a political party in the West. It always seems so evangelic, like Amway meetings.
I know even less about what is involved with becoming a CCP member. My reaction is to compare it to religion, which may not be helpful to my understanding.
Mao Zedong would be a great topic. I visited the Military Museum in Beijing… but before that I remember watching 感动中国 and listening to the stories of the veterans of the Long March. The diorama of the Long March in the museum was a point of contact with their stories for me. Mao is a fascinating figure in Chinese modern history.
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:20 am
I actually find this article encouraging, if the guy is who he says he is. As a Party member, he seems to be sticking his neck out, but perhaps he’s buffeted by the fact that Hu Jintao has encouraged open discussion on this issue…if only Hu could make that declaration more often…
I agree with Leo that some of the phrases sound like party-speak. But the underlying sentiment is refreshing.
I also agree with BMY…I’d also like to see the CCP go, but to be replaced by something better, and not so as to leave a political vacuum.
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:42 am
Thanks, snow.
I see those two articles are just wholly crap.
The first one talks about the tragedy and disaster of culture revolution like the side effect of medical treatment for cancel.
The second one is a typical culture revolution style if we just change the word of Mao Ze Dong to 伟大领袖毛主席
They are just disgusting.
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:46 am
sorry,I mean “cancer”
I write and speak broken English as you all can see. I am also learning English from everyone here along side with politics. Thanks.
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:15 am
@BMY – Good lord! I hope you aren’t going to copy all the mistakes that I make!
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:30 am
@BMY – Errmmmm . . . . . “Bite essay, chew words”?
I think you’re talking about being pedantic.
Talking Can anyone shed any light on whether Facebook and MySpace being blocked? UP till last year MySpace was permanently blocked and Facebook was unblocked, I think MySpace must have been unblocked for the Olympics, but now it seems both of these websites may be back on the blocked list – or maybe not . . .
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:32 am
I mean – “Can anyone etc.”, and to think I used to be an editor!
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:47 am
Buxi, I think, has done a better job than I would be able to do in the translation not because of the English but the Chinese part. That stated, BMY, tell us: is Buxi’s translation close to or exactly the idea contained in the Chinese?
This is a thing about the English language; it is a language of strong logical categories ontop of flavour and tone and substance. The Chinese language is more on the side of literary writing rather than science which requires its language laid out with cohesion of thought – no two sentences can sit contradictorily on the side of each other – and logical flow.
Take that explanation and position it against Leo’s assertion: “to a person with a liberal mind, this piece smells of a lot of sinister things”. Or, BMY’s “I see those two articles are just wholly crap”. Both statements are defamatory – casting aspersion on the integrity of the “party member”. Leo’s assertion is particularly erroneous because he connects a “liberal mind” to the ability to “smell sinister things”. So a conservative mind, or a Chinese non-liberal mind cannot “smell” those things? What on earth is a “liberal mind”?
Leo’s mistake is to assume that the party member was writing history or offering political discourse. He/she wasn’t. The party member was making an appeal; in another way of saying, pouring out a heart on the Weng’an affair that doesn’t seem right or make sense. Now, that requires no liberal mind. Justice and reason have become ingrained attributes learned and the Chinese learn from their past civilisation to understand that, almost intuitively.
What Buxi has done is to render that outpouring into English, and it reads close to the emotive appeal in the original Chinese. In English, it is a matter of tone and flavour. Chinese writing is especially good in that area – writing as art. Leo should stop chopping up the translation to look for factual or historical errors. That was not the party member’s purpose – to write history. Leo’s rebuttal as well as BMY’s reflect the kind of cynicism that infects nearly all Western writing and also many Chinese discourses each time China’s politics and governance are the issues. They accept nothing in good faith, nothing at all. No, BMY, they are not crap. They are inner thoughts of a person – just as the headline says – and very revealing at that.
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:49 am
@Buxi
“…….because that’s another point that the West and China tend to agree so greatly on. ”
To be honest, Mao is a very controversial topic within Chinese society, conclusions vary from Buddha to devil, it could be quite united in West though. I always argue with myself on this topic and can never draw a conclusion. He was a mixture of extreme Buddha and extreme devil.
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:02 am
Buxi, BTW, just point out an innocent mistake. The actual date of CCP’s setting up is not 1st July. Because those attendances forgot it when the first time they had the chance to celebrate it. All they can sure is in July, so the 1st of July was chosen as anniversary.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:15 pm
@Red,
I think you might misunderstood what I referred to about the crap. I was not talking about the party member’s appeal which I agree with him/her.
I was talking about the two articles snow linked to. I see them from headlines to almost every sentence are fully un true. They are the thought of people but the people who seem have no idea of what happened to the nation and people in culture revolution and what 毛泽东思想 has done to the nation. the first article thinks to 告别毛泽东思想 is a disastrous choice for Chinese people .
All right, this is not the thread to talk about 伟大的无产阶级文化大革命 and 战无不胜的毛泽东思想.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:20 pm
@Red,
BTW, if you have followed the blog closely, you should see I am not in the group of “They accept nothing in good faith, nothing at all.” and also I don’t think Leo is one of either.
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:09 pm
@chorasmian,
Thank you for the reminder on the “official” but not necessarily correct birthday for the Communist Party.
For the vast, vast majority of the people in the West, Mao is seen as being equivalent to Hitler. I don’t think I’m exaggerating too much when I say that. That’s something that’s taken as “common sense” at a very young age.
It’s interesting. Many people in Taiwan were indoctrinated with 6 decades of brain-washing propaganda aimed at Mao Zedong (similar to what we heard with Jiang Jieshi). But today, although most Taiwanese still have a very negative view of Mao… I think overall their impression of Mao is actually more positive than it is in the West.
A mixture of extreme Buddha and extreme devil seems like a pretty accurate description of Mao, in my eyes.
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:13 pm
In my opinion, Mao is just a symbol of united China in the minds of some chinese.
Look, nobady wave little red book any more; no1 try to remember his quotations; no1 take what he said as truth. Chinese treat Mao as a symbol as he united China and he was the first one on earth who said no to West.
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:19 pm
@Red,
I have two Party members in my extended family, all in my parents generation. Both of them have technical backgrounds, and both of them are 科长 rank or less… small officials. (I might have a cousin that recently joined the Party; I’ll have to check.) Both of them are some of my favorite people in my family; they’re friendly, generous, intelligent.
So, that is to say, I believe that many (definitely not all) Party members are patriotic, kind, and have a conscience. And the person who posted this message, as well as numerous other Party members who replied in support, are some of them. But for now at least, Party members are just as “oppressed” as anyone else in China. They have to obey orders and instructions from above, and have little ability to change the policies of the Party that they’re in. They can’t practice religion; they face arbitrary detention above and beyond average citizens.
I personally believe that as an intermediate step to greater democracy, introducing more competition elections within the Party would be a great start.
July 2nd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
@Buxi
“For the vast, vast majority of the people in the West, Mao is seen as being equivalent to Hitler. I don’t think I’m exaggerating too much when I say that.”
– Actually you are exaggerating (too much). For a quite long time (roughly 60’s up to the collapse of the socialist systems in Eastern Europe) Mao did enjoy a reputation (in wide circles of western European society) which would probably make Mr.Wahaha very proud, i.e. as liberator of China (particularily of Chinese women), chief theoretician of guerilla warfare, great poet and so on. Superfluous to say that most of this adulation was as ignorant of facts as are today’s condemnation of the Great Helmsman. But even today, when he is popularily put, as you rightly point out, on a level with Hitler (and more appropriately, Stalin) his image is nowhere near as dark as that of the Nazi leader.
“Party members are just as “oppressed” as anyone else in China.”
– Now this is a very interesting (and quite plausible) statement. Much the same has been said (if you care to pursue the Nazi connection) of lower-/mid-level members of the NSDAP and of the ruling parties of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. Pressure on low-level cadres is not only the source of much anxiety and suffering for said cadres and their families, but also for those who are not even low-level cadres and therefore even more more powerless and disenfranchised. On the other hand this pressure creates a great urge to please those higher up, to anticipate the needs and wishes of the upper echelons of the Party, to show the superiors what a good and valuable cadre you are. NSDAP leaders could rely on lower level cadres to be so eager to please that some of the most hideous directives didn’t even have to be put into concrete words – suggestions sufficed.
Caveat: This is not to suggest a moral equivalency of Nazi/Stalinist crimes with contemporary CCP activity, but organisational structures of political parties and their consequences should not be lightly dismissed.
Finally: Entirely in support of your opinion on the positive value of intra-Party elections.
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:35 pm
@zuiweng
In Jung Chang’s book (Mao:The unknown story), which was a bestseller, Mao was called the biggest mass murderer in history, surpassing even Hitler.
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:46 pm
You guys don’t understand, that’s no CCP any more.
What Mao’s Idea represents is the marriage of maxist ideas and Chinese peasant. That’s long gone.
The political structure in China today is authoritarian capitalist mixed with some meritocracy.
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:47 pm
not very different from Nationalist(GMD) I might add.
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:57 pm
@Rocking Offkey – The KMT has Leninist roots, and for a time flirted with Italian-style fascistism – but this has little to do with its current policies.
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:02 pm
oh, I mean GMT government of old, of course.
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:06 pm
@CLC
You are absolutely right about Rong Zhang’s claims and about the fact that her book was a bestseller, but I would say that the impact of her book on the public image of Mao (in the non-english speaking parts of Europe, at least ) has been negligible.
The literature (academic and “popular”) on the relative murderousness Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Ceaucescu, Franco, Pol Pot, Napoleon and so on, is extensive. I’m not interested in playing one-up-manship with genocide: so-and-so many mio. dead by starvation vs. possibly-more mio. dead by mass executions vs. even-more mio. dead by warfare…
I’m just stating that Mao’s image in Europe is nowhere near as negatively loaded as Hitler’s, publisher’s blurbs notwithstanding.
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:36 pm
@zuiweng,
Thanks for the follow-up. I don’t completely disagree with you… after all, France and Germany bans neo-Nazi symbols, while I assume Mao-stuff is acceptable. Regardless, there’s a clear dramatic gap in perceptions of Mao as it exists in the West and China.
I’m also curious how Russians in general view Stalin.
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:52 am
@Zuiweng,
on a previous thread I didn’t mean the blog did not allow your short good or bad comments of other comments. I This is not my blog and I knew you would have more to share then here you go. I was right.
I enjoy of reading your comments , thanks.
July 4th, 2008 at 2:13 am
I am so impressed with this blog! Some of you live in China obviously and you are young enough to be fortunately able to think for yourselves while others are “huaqiao” and are a little bit dependent on what they hear and read.
I basically agree with Zuiweng but let me give you some personal statistics based on what I have seen here in China.
I have about 450 employees of whom over 120 are CCP members. (none wear gongchangdang yuan lapel pins)
They are all under 32 years of age. Why? They were born and have lived in a time when they were pre-destined to become Capitalists instead of Communists. To support Capitalistic methods it is necessary for individuals to think, make decisions and accept individual responsibility. This is contrary to CCP dogma and requires bravery instead of fear. Mr “Heartfelt CCP” is right. The CCP fears no one.
People born before 1976 know all about fear and had CCP dogma forced down their throats at gunpoint which creates an indelible gash on the human soul and spirit. Most common people from this period can’t be trusted to make decisions or take responsibility. They generally sit around waiting for someone to tell them what to do.
Don’t get me wrong, I have a great deal of respect for the CCP leaders today but they know what I am saying is true and they are scurrying to make changes.
Today these two factions in Communism clash so you have to be careful to recognize where the speaker’s experience base lies.
In 30 years, the post ’76 group will be running the party and the country. They will be hardened Capitalists and there will be no indoctrination of dogma except just before an election to get across the party platform.
For these reasons, the original Chinese Communism from the time of Sun Yat Sen is fading fast.
July 4th, 2008 at 5:56 am
ZT, you touched on what I had in mind earlier. How has the “corporate culture” of the CCP changed over the years?
For the most part, to me, the CCP is a black box. I don’t know what goes on inside of it. Thus I find myself trying to figure out what is going on around the CCP and taking guesses at what the inner workings are.
July 4th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
@ZT,
Interesting point about the Party. Definitely a difference before/after 76 in Chinese society.
A lot of Chinese, when discussing these generation gaps, tend to break society up into decades: ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, etc. “I was talking to a ’90er yesterday; my god they’re so immature…”
I am a ’70er, and the stereotype is that having been raised in an economically difficult time, in a more rigid society, we’re more patriotic, we’re more hard-working, but we’re also more “rigid”. The ’80ers are stereotyped as being raised with luxury; they’re seen as spoiled, selfish, and couldn’t care less about society or anyone else. The ’90ers are stereotyped as ignorant, disrespectful, hip-hopping teenagers who will destroy China.
But my impression is, that’s how older generations always tend to see younger generations… in any society!
July 5th, 2008 at 6:20 am
@Buxi
I agree with you about the 90’ers, the xiao wang. They are just about as obnoxious here in this backward place as they are in the US today. They still respect my gray hair to some extent but most are definitely piyantong just like US kids. they will mature though and become good citizens is my guess.
I am most impressed by Chinese who are 30-35 yrs of age right now and especially those that joined the Party during college. I number about 20 of them among my acquaintances and colleagues. Unanimously, they joined the CCP for economic reasons and they laugh at the wasted timed they were forced to spend learning Party dogma. They don’t go to meetings and I must have heard 100 times, “I love my country but I hate my government”. This sticks in my mind because of the word “hate”. You know in hanyu we rarely use the word “hen”. Strong dislike is always expressed as “bu xihuan”. Maybe I am making too much out something so small but I can read people and I am convinced these are the people who will change the party forever and nationalize China once and for all time.
July 23rd, 2013 at 5:47 pm
A luxurious bag with designs and decorations was the mark of a person of higher social standing, while plain bags indicated peasants
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