Part II of the series discussed how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) obtained its power through the barrel of a gun. The Party claimed that it represented “the people” and thus had full legitimacy to use all means possible, including dictatorship and terrorist killings, to achieve this goal. To maintain its control, justify its legitimacy, and deflect attention from people’s desire for reform, the Party shifted their focus to economic growth. Though many problems surfaced under what has come to be known as the “China model,” such as a high concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, endemic corruption, environmental problems bordering on disaster, unfairness toward foreign companies, and violent mistreatment of dissidents and minority groups, the Party has never stopped proclaiming that it is “Great, Glorious, and Correct,” and blaming others for China’s problems.
The entire Communist system was, during the formative stages of CCP governance, based on Karl Marx’s Communist theory, the bible for the Communist Parties. The CCP later expanded the base to include Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. The CCP’s Communist ideology spread throughout China from the 1950s to the 1970s. By the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976), however, the Communist bubble had burst. Having seen so much violence, the Chinese people no longer believed in a Communist Utopia.