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Qiushi on Universal Values

[Editor’s Note: Qiushi, a Communist China periodical on political theory, published an article criticizing "universal values" at the theoretical level. The article argued that "universal values" is just a fantasy term that the capitalists use to cover up the reality of the capitalist political and economic system, where money controls everything. It denounced the elite group in China that promotes "universal values" and declared that it is the most dangerous enemy of the Chinese people. The following is an excerpt from the article.] [1]

In recent years, with the support of vested interest groups, the elite in China who promote universal values have been having a field day. They never fail to mention the West in their speeches and writings. At first, they worked along with vested interest groups to sell Western economics as the mainstream economic theory. At the same time, they marginalized Marxist political economic theory. After they helped the vested interest groups gain enormous wealth through different forms of privatization, these elites then sold capitalist political reform packages. In their vision, China should follow the example of the former Soviet Union, adopt multiparty politics and a separation of powers, and thus become a true capitalist society. Then they could obtain [the Chinese people’s] acknowledgement of the profit and power that they stole [from the Chinese people] during privatization, and realize capitals’ total control over political power. It is with this background that the vested interest groups and the elite are actively promoting universal values.

I. An Analysis of Universal Values

What are universal values? Like other concepts sold by democratic elites, these values are abstract and mysterious. There is not even a unified definition. In general, universal values include democracy, freedom, human rights, equality, and universal love. It is not hard to tell that these so-called “universal values” are nothing but universal capitalist values. Calling the capitalist values universal values is the [capitalists’] game of putting old wine in a new bottle.

Capitalist thinkers first invented the capitalist value system during the period when they replaced feudalistic private land ownership with the capitalist private relationship. They wanted to break the feudal aristocracy’s monopoly and pave the way for capitalist development. The most prominent of these values are natural rights, liberty, equality, and universal love. These abstract concepts appear to be above social classes and look fabulous, but the capitalist groups have always used them to serve their own interests. These values have never been above social classes [and thus do not apply to the working class].

Capitalist equality is a new classification system that the capitalists invented to replace the feudal aristocracy. Its common yardstick is money. Capitalist equality has never been applied to the working class who are employed and exploited. In the name of equality, capitalists completed the sheep-devour-men enclosure movement [2] and seized monopolist control of social wealth. Capitalist equality has never included, and does not even dare to include, economic equality. However, without economic equality and without an equal distribution of wealth, there will be no true equality of political rights, and no true equality of anything. In the employer-employee relationship, capital and labor and business owners and workers have never been equal. With the capitalist monopoly, the inequality between capital and labor can only increase. Creating inequality in the name of equality is the capitalist’s version of equality.

Under the capitalist system, the concept of liberty is used as a superficial and abstract term to signify the capitalists’ freedom to exploit the working class. Whoever has the capital has the freedom to exploit the surplus value from laborers. Whoever does not have capital has no choice but to sell his own labor. He is thereby deprived of his freedom not to be exploited. The only freedom left for him is to choose which capitalist exploits him. As long as the capitalist system of private ownership remains, the nature of freedom is merely to guarantee the capitalists’ right to exploit the working people. The working class may still have a little freedom, but they are not allowed to jeopardize the freedom of capitalists to exploit them. Taking the U.S.’ freedom of speech and conduct, they are bound by the limit of not hurting the fundamental interests of big business monopolies and not endangering capitalist private ownership.

The capitalist universal love is even more hollow. It is so abstract that it becomes completely absurd. During the capital accumulation era, when did the capitalists demonstrate universal love? During the early stage of capital accumulation in the U.S. and Europe, it was all about blood and fire, as well as the escalation of economic disparity. Was there a single trace of universal love?

In the privatization process from the Soviet Union to Russia, social productivity and the national economy suffered a severe setback. In a very short time, public wealth moved into the hands of a small number of people and a capitalist monopoly quickly took shape. At the same time, the cost of living skyrocketed by a multiple of several thousand, instantly robbing people of their life’s savings. As a result, even the average lifespan of the Russian people decreased.

The ultimate result of capitalist development is, for sure, just a small group of rich people in one country and a small number of rich countries in the world. In this absolutely-not-equal process, where is the universal love that transcends class boundaries?

Similarly, under the capitalist value system, the so-called liberty, equality, universal love, and democracy are masks for shielding the real nature of capitalist autocracy. Any democracy that dares not touch private ownership and dares not promote fair distribution of wealth is ultimately a hypocrisy. The [Western] democracy has now shrunk to just a money-controlled election that happens every few years. It does not dare to give people the democratic rights to monitor and impeach officials. It can, in the best case, be called a “diluted” democracy.

II. Dissecting Universal Values

Let us take a closer look at universal values. Once we remove its fancy wrapping, we see its real nature. The structure of universal values is similar to a four-layered crispy ice cream sandwich. We will look at each layer.

The crispy outside layer is a mixed bag of abstract concepts of liberty, democracy, human rights, equality, and universal love. It looks pretty and tastes delicious. This carefully designed crispy crust is what enables universal values to lure people.

The second layer is a free economy and a Western-style democratic political system. A free economy boils down to a private market economy with minimum government interference. The western democratic political system, though under the cover of multiparty politics and a separation of powers, is, in reality, a dictatorship by one party (the capitalist party) and money.

On the surface, capitalist countries have multiparty elections, and people have votes. The capitalist system, however, has turned elections into a money-burning game. Big business and financial institutions control the two most important factors that influence an election: money and the media. Through the control of these two factors, capitalist groups guarantee that power remains in the hands of their own representatives. They are able to minimize people’s power in an election by limiting the candidates’ pool to a small circle of pre-picked candidates.

The capitalist multiparty system is design so it will never harm private ownership. The U.S. government has brutally persecuted the Communist Party because it wanted to overthrow the country’s capitalist employment system. Harry Truman once revealed that the U.S.’ two- party system is the collaboration of the two parties. The capitalist separation of power and checks and balances are just a formality. Money controls all three branches. They are powerless in the face of interest groups’ money. The separation of power and multiparty politics are designed to maximize profit for businesses. Although the second layer of the universal values still looks pretty, it gives off the stench of money.

The third layer of the universal values ice cream will shock many kind people because it demonstrates a naked combination of money and power. This layer reveals the top secret of the capitalist political and economic system as reflected in universal values. The supreme principle of capitalism is protecting private ownership and the employment of labor. To do this, political power protects capital and helps capital obtain a bigger profit. This requires the system to combine power and money into a seamless entity.

The U.S. system is a good example: Goldman Sachs’ executive became the Secretary of Treasury overnight. After they retired from their government posts, government officials become highly paid Wall Street executives. The distance between U.S. government officials and businessmen is nothing more than a revolving door. This is a true system unifying power and money. The U.S. Council on International Education Exchange (CIEE), the Trilateral Commission, and the Skull and Bones are elite groups consisting of government officials and business elites. Most U.S. politicians need to join these groups first. Then they can win an election.

Behind these elite groups are foundations. The U.S. foundations control not only the country’s economy, but also the elite groups through which they can choose those who represent their interests. Behind the foundations are the big financial capitalist families. They are the country’s real bosses. Using foundations and elite groups, the real bosses control the country’s politics and the economy from behind the scenes. Elections, multiparty politics, and the separation of power are all just illusions. The unity of power and money is the true nature of capitalism. Money worship is a hardcore capitalist principle.

The fourth layer of the universal values ice cream is its inner core: hereditary aristocracy in economic and political power. The system replaced the open feudal heredity with hidden heredity. Family businesses are a common phenomenon in the West. Statistics show that three-quarters of the companies in the Western countries’ secondary market and two-thirds in the primary market are family-owned companies. In the U.S., up to 96 percent of all businesses are family-owned. The top ten families in the West are the Rothschild, DuPont, Onassis, Rockefeller, IBM’s Watson, Galvin, Ford, Marcus, Disney, and Morgan families. These top-ten families literally control the Western world’s economy.

Like the economic heredity, the political dynasty phenomenon in Western countries is also widespread, including the Aquino’s in the Philippines, Lee Kuan Yew and his son in Singapore, Sukarno and his daughter in Indonesia, the Nehru-Gandhi family in India, the Bhutto family in Pakistan, and the Bandaranaike family in Sri Lanka. In the U.S., Japan, and U.K., political families are just as common and powerful. Research data shows that over the past 400 years, 1,000 families mainly controlled England, while the whole U.K. was in the hands of 2,500 families. The U.S. is managed by the 60 most powerful families.

One can see this reasoning: in the money-is-king Western capitalist countries, a few financial oligarchs represent the supreme money power. Money power controls both the economy and politics. Thus, these families realize their heredity through both economic inheritance and their succession to political power.

III. Why China’s Vested Interest Groups Actively Promote Universal Values and Capitalist Political Reform?

From the above analysis, we learned that the capitalist system’s core is the integration of money, power, and family dynasties. This is why it is attractive to the vested interest groups in China and leads them to sell it in China. The essence of Neoliberalism reform is to replace state ownership with private ownership, to replace distribution according to work with distribution according to ownership of the factors of production, and to replace social equality with inequality. The nature of private ownership is the minority exploiting the majority. The result is that a few people quickly take over the public’s wealth. The Neoliberalism economic theory provides legal protection for this greatest robbery in history. It lets a few rich people and foreign capital work together to take away a lion’s share of the public wealth.

While making money using unconstitutional means has been easy, this practice violates the Constitution and socialist principles. It makes the rich and the powerful elites lose sleep at night. As long as China’s Constitution declares that China is still a socialist country and as long as China still has some socialist framework, these vested interest groups cannot legalize their illegal robbery. There is always the possibility that, sooner or later, those people who are awake will go after them. The safest thing for them to do is to overthrow China’s entire political institution and completely adopt capitalist economic and political systems. That is why the likes of “Pan Ren Mei” (“潘任美”) [3], who devoured large state-owned properties, try so desperately to sell universal values and the Western system. Their purpose is to legalize their privileges and their money [obtained through illegal means] through total Westernization.

To keep their stolen money, the elite who espouse “universal values” and the powers behind them have begun an all-out campaign. Those who have stolen state property recognize that, if China does not start capitalism in the political arena, the government could take back the profit they obtained over the last thirty years. Therefore they are trying every means to change China’s color. They have hijacked China’s core interests. Not only do they plan to silence the voice of China’s socialism completely; if needed, they plan to break up China and eventually drive China into total collapse.

These political elites are an absolute minority in number. If a majority of the Chinese people wake up, these political elites will no longer have an advantage. The reason that these people have been able to rob from and suppress the majority is that they use sophisticated lies and an approach that divides people. Calling for economic liberalization, they have achieved a market economy; using the Neoliberals’ theory, they have introduced the freedom to exploit others; and, arguing to establish modern enterprises, they have transformed state-owned enterprises into their own private companies. Now they are using fancy rhetoric to advance political capitalism. They are trumpeting universal values and democracy to deceive people so they can reach their goal with the least resistance. In fact, the elites’ techniques are not that advanced, but they control the media and use the media to channel public views and monopolize information. The U.S. capitalists have used the same method to brainwash the American people. As a result, the American people have no idea that the authority to issue currency is in the hands of a handful of capitalists.

IV. The “Universal Values” Group Has Becoming the Most Dangerous Enemy of China and the Chinese People

The members of the “Universal Values group” are members of vested interest groups and their spokespersons. They want to adopt the capitalist political and economic system in China. Through long-term careful preparation, they have gained strong control over China’s economy, politics, media, education, and culture. They have formed a union of elites from those areas and consolidated their power (the data that the Boyuan Foundation has compiled is very telling). The universal values elites have also established an alliance with international capitalist conglomerates and formed a common interest with them. By domestic consolidation and foreign connections, these elites now possess the power to sink China.

China’s elites who promote universal values are foreign agents by nature. For their personal gain, they will sell off China’s national interests, transfer the Chinese people’s wealth to foreign companies, use the Chinese people as guinea pigs for genetically modified food that foreign companies have engineered, and are willing to let the boat of China sink to the bottom of the ocean as long as they can make money. They know no limit when their personal interest is involved. For these elites who promote universal values and are willing to trade people’s lives and health for money, will they really promote democracy? Their reckless conduct even angers some scholars who dream about multiparty politics. If these elites succeed with their goal of political Westernization, China faces not only just an economic setback and a loss of wealth; the country is in danger of total extinction.

Using their control of the media, these elites promote their evil agenda in a wrapping of democracy and freedom. They brainwash people and wear camouflage to deceive people. They practice capitalism under the name of socialism. They have used privatization to create the most widespread corruption in China, and then blamed the Communist Party and the socialist system for it. Their dirty tricks are unprecedented. To disguise their real traitorous nature, they launched a media campaign to ridicule patriotism. Looking at these elites who espouse universal values, which one does not hate patriotism?

These elites’ goals, and their power, determination, and deceptive nature make them the most dangerous enemy of the Chinese people and Chinese nation.

V. Real Universal Values Can Only Be Realized in a Classless Communist Society

In a society that has class conflicts, universal values that are beyond classes do not exist. Real universal values can only exist in a society that eliminates class and can thus have no class conflicts. The only society that satisfies this condition is the communist society that Marx theorized. The funny thing is, the promoters of universal values are those vested interest groups and their spokespersons who support capitalism and exploitation. Those who oppose using universal values to hoodwink the working people are the real Marxists who strive to establish universal values in communist society.

In the socialist stage, there are no universal values above classes, either. The advantage of socialist values over capitalist values is that they place the majority’s interests first. The capitalist universal values always place the minority’s interests first. The socialist values that are based on Marx’s, Lenin’s, and Mao’s theories are founded on public ownership. Compared to capitalist values, which wear a fake universal values coat, the socialist values are more universal.

The basic meaning of democracy is majority rule. Under a real democracy, people not only have the rights to elect officials, but also have the right to choose who they work for. They not only need political equality, but more importantly, they need economic equality. This is only possible under public ownership. Those elites who espouse universal values and who oppose, badmouth, and hate Marx’s, Lenin’s, and Mao’s theories and the socialist system, are the real enemy of freedom and democracy.

Endnotes:
[1] Qiushi Online, “The Truth about ‘Universal Values’ – The Group Promoting Universal Values Is the Most Dangerous Enemy of the Chinese People,” September 4, 2013.
http://www.qstheory.cn/zz/wwtj/201309/t20130904_267843.htm.
[2] In England in the18 th and 19th centuries, the “Enclosure Movement” involved the aristocracy enclosing land and driving the farmers out to allow for better raising of crops and animals, especially sheep for their wool. See, for example:
http://www.celdf.org/article.php?id=638
[3] The “Pan Ren Mei” Case (“潘任美”事件): In February 2014, a Chinese posted articles on the Internet criticizing Ren Zhiqiang, Chairman of a state-owned enterprise Huayuan Real Estate, for selling Huayuan’s real estate properties at a price significantly below fair market value to Pan Shiqi, owner of SOHO China, a private company in the commercial real estate business. The accusation stated that, in several sales, Ren effectively passed a huge amount of state assets to Pan. Many Chinese joined on the Internet to denounce this huge corruption case. However, Ren denied wrong doing and, as of May of 2014, no official action had been taken against Ren or Pan.
http://wapbaike.baidu.com/view/10118449.htm