All posts by XSJ - 7. page

 “It has been sixty years since our country was founded. Still, there are too many things in our country that have not changed. The most fundamental fact is that this country is still led by the Chinese Communist Party; it is a fact everyone knows. What lies behind this fact? For example, our party has over 70 million party members, and it is the largest party. But until today, this party has never registered itself at any of the administrative departments for social organizations. What in turn, lies behind this fact? The thing is, even today, our country does not have any legal provision for political parties. It has been sixty years, but this area is still a blank. Nothing has changed. Our country does not yet have a political party system that complies with contemporary political standards. ‘The state is still the Party’s state,’ and not the ‘Party is a party of the state.’ In the past sixty years, the concept of the ‘party and state leaders’ has never changed. In terms of the financial system, the dividing line between the party treasury and the state treasury has never been established. Let’s take another look. The army with millions of soldiers is still called the liberation army. It has not changed. It is not our nation’s military force in a true sense. The highest leader of the army is still the highest leader of the party. The indistinguishable entity of ‘the party and the army’ has not been replaced by an army under the leadership of the state.  It has not changed even a bit in sixty years. Even within the party, there has been no genuine electoral competition system for sixty years, not to mention at the national level. …The term of consultation that we often speak of, as a matter of fact, is still the secret operation that we have been practicing since the war period. These are the basic facts, and they can be extended to touch upon many basic principles that deserve a thorough discussion. The discussion must be based upon these basic facts. Young people should really learn more about history. I remember at the initial stage of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), several members from different democratic parties wrote a letter to the central CCP committee suggesting that Zhongnanhai (Editor’s Note: the Chinese communist leaders’ compound) be returned to the people. The imperial garden should be preserved as a public cultural memorial. In the early 1980s, the Secretariat of the Central Committee received similar suggestions, with one more item, which was that the organizations of the central CCP Committee should have office signs, such as General Office of the CCP Central Committee, Organization Department of the CCP Central Committee, Propaganda Department of the CCP Central Committee, and United Front Department of the CCP Central Committee. These are all departments of the ruling party; they are not illegal underground organizations. This suggestion was passed around to several members of the Secretariat, but we never discussed it at any conference. (Editor’s Note: putting up a sign for the party offices is an example that the speech-giver uses here to demonstrate that the party’s operation needs to be more open instead of black-box.) These two issues also have not changed in the least in sixty years.”

“Is this kind of lack of change a political privilege? Or is it a political habit, or a political standstill? They need to be studied and analyzed carefully. Do not draw overly generalized and empty conclusions.”

 “I don’t agree with sayings such as ‘Sixty Glorious Years’ and ‘Fifty Glorious Years.’ That is not true. The hard times of the ‘Great Leap Forward’ lasted for three or four years; the ten years of chaos during the Cultural Revolution cannot be labeled as glorious. Even words used in propaganda should be accurate and comply with fundamental facts. If you don’t eliminate those years, the people will remove them from their hearts and the historians will also eliminate them, (not counting them as glorious). Ordinary Party members will do the same. For several years during the 1990s, I said more than once that political propaganda has strayed too far from reality. What does this mean? This is uncivilized, barbarous propaganda. Some years ago, the stevedores’ mishandling of goods on the wharves was called barbarous loading and unloading, and it was then regulated. This barbarous propaganda should also be regulated. … We should indeed have a good celebration of the sixtieth anniversary, but we should also rethink matters carefully. The whole nation and the whole Party should reflect upon (the past sixty years). A governing party, the only governing party of a great country, a party that has governed for sixty years, should, after all, have the courage to rethink these matters. …Here I am saying things that ancient Chinese preached over one thousand years ago. When I think of that, it makes me feel very uncomfortable.”

“Sixty years have passed since the founding of the PRC. In the early years of the New China, there were some political reasons for some policies, but do those hold true for the entire sixty years? Are those political reasons still valid today? Are they still acceptable? If these political reasons still remain tenable, then how can the word ‘glorious’ be applied to these sixty years of state power development, ideological development, and cultural development? A system that tolerates different views still has not been built up. It simply shows that this bit of Stalinism is floating around, which is, ‘As the development of the revolution becomes more successful, the enemy’s opposition becomes more serious.’”

“In our Party there are many people who like to brag that everything is done correctly now, but they don’t present even a basic accounting of why things were not done correctly in the past. People often say that a prodigal who returns is more precious than gold. The preconditions for being more precious than gold are to reflect and to accept responsibility. Our country is such a great and influential country; our party is such a huge party; how can it be acceptable if we always muddle along like this. When the wrong person has been assigned to an (important) position, the person who recommended him/her does not have to be responsible, nor does the evaluation system, or the consultative system. The disciplinary and inspection committee only cares for the investigations and prosecutions but does not consider the negligence of those who were supposed to appoint and supervise these people. They get these people arrested and executed, and then the case is considered to be closed. Moreover, getting them prosecuted is praised as a great accomplishment. With things operated in this manner, how can a country avoid becoming one in which no one takes responsibility? How can our Party not become an irresponsible Party? If things continue this way, doesn’t it mean there are no political ethics to speak of?”

“For sixty years, our country has not developed a social force that can compete with the Communist Party, and that can send reminders to and supervise our Party. When people express different views, because they do not reflect the correctness of the Communist Party, they fall on deaf ears. But the full power to govern also means taking the entire responsibility. That is not the case either. During these past sixty years, how many times was the development of the country hindered, the opportunities for development of both our nation and our people lost, and the constitutional rights not granted! That situation is very immoral.”

“Starting from the time of the founding of the Communist Party, our Party has said that it represents the peasants and the workers. After 1949, it said it represents all the hundreds of millions of Chinese people. Down to the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the PRC, these claims remain unchanged. Everyone knows that for sixty years, China has not established serious and rigorous political procedures to ensure its right to represent the people, whether through elections or other means.”

“Some provincial governors and city mayors from my home province often come to visit me. I always tell them, ‘One needs to go through the electoral process to obtain a position like yours. You need to rely on your own abilities to get elected. You shouldn’t always rely on the behind the scenes operation of the party organization within the People’s Congress delegation. If you rely on that to get elected, you should blush.’ If you count on Party members with the right to vote by imposing party discipline to implement all the party’s decisions, that is just ‘party activities within the legislature.’ That can be regarded as legal, but still, on many occasions, it becomes a method for suppressing dissident views. What other political party is there that can compare in size with the Communist Party? This is a system of unfair competition. It has been this way for sixty years. It hasn’t changed. This system can hardly be defined as serious and rigorous. According to the present election law, this is not illegal, yet it violates political ethics. It is the same as a single political party controlling the election process. This system makes it hard for the views of the people to be expressed. Anyone should be able to see that.”

“For the past sixty years, in response to various crises, including political unrest, internal disputes, pressure from public opinion, and abnormal personnel changes, the Communist party has come up with a standard pattern of emergency responses. The Party has also built up quite a lot of members with talent. With all these advantages, why hasn’t the Party been willing to engage in open inter-party competition? … Today there are still some people who would say conditions are still not ripe for the Chinese people to have genuine democratic elections. That is just like saying that China has many peasants, many poorly educated people, and China doesn’t have a democratic tradition — all these are disadvantages. However, if these disadvantages were to be turned into advantages, then the advantages of the Communist Party organization would disappear. When that happens, why not have a democratic election? When will this unsolvable knot of political ethics be finished with and untied? Sixty years have already passed. How many more decades will we have to wait?”

“Sixty years have passed since the founding of the PRC. We need to return to a fundamental issue. What do the citizens of this country want? What method should be used so that they can express their true wishes? The Soviet Union didn’t know how to answer that question. The state and party collapsed after 69 years. I have never been a populist. On the basis of my decades of political experience, I dare to say that the expression of popular views is part of the ‘infrastructure’ of the country’s political system and also a measure of the country’s progress and civilization level.”

“Nowadays television broadcasts report how people want to become rich and want to improve their lives. That is progress because before people weren’t allowed to say that openly. Who is to be held responsible for not having allowed people to speak? Don’t people today want to get rich? They want to get involved in more social and political affairs; they want more rights, more opportunities to develop. Why aren’t they allowed to say this openly? Who will take responsibility for not letting them speak? Sixty years have gone by. Shouldn’t we say that those errors in handling public opinion were the most serious errors the Communist Party made, which shall be written into the history books.”

 “Many people vulgarize public opinion and use it for their own personal gains. They distort public opinion and hold public opinion ‘hostage’ to oppose reasonable demands for reform and to oppose calls to revise erroneous policies. The consequences are very serious and are an even more serious violation of political ethics.”

“Sixty years have passed. There are many things that should change and can be changed, but that kind of logic makes the changeable become something that cannot be changed or may not be changed. If fundamental political ethics are to be established, there are many obstacles that we must overcome. The first is that for the past sixty years, our Party has bound itself with the state, so that every one of the twists and turns of all these years were all caused by the twists and turns of our Party itself. These twists and turns of our Party brought disaster to the state and to ordinary people. All these years we told the people that if it weren’t for the Communist Party, there would be chaos. The people are very afraid of these twists and turns and want stability — this has become ‘public opinion,’ as our party has continued to be the only ruling party. When will this cycle end?”

“The second has to do with how to enable the people to understand history and understand the true facts. We need to make clear some basic facts. For the past sixty years, the statements we have used most are, ‘The lives of tens of millions of martyrs paid for the red mountains and rivers.’ This is one of the main reasons for the legitimacy of the Communist Party as the ruling party. Tens of millions of people died for the New China. This is a basic fact. Another basic fact is why they made this sacrifice? They came one after another, taking the place of fallen comrades, because the Communist Party had established goals and ideals.”

“History will eventually reveal the truth to the people. If not in sixty years, then in seventy, if not in seventy years, maybe in eighty years, the people will know. In 1991, some experts wrote a report for the Central Committee, which analyzed the reasons for the dissolution of the Soviet Union. According to the report, Gorbachev’s open policy destroyed the Soviet Communist Party and the Soviet Union. I would put a big question mark after this conclusion. I would say that it wasn’t that his open policy went the wrong way, but that it came too late. In many matters, there are  always people who treat a positive experience as a lesson and treat a lesson as a positive experience. It won’t work if they don’t change their (wrong) thought process.”

“Sixty years have passed and there are still many things that have not been clearly explained to the people. When the ‘Decision’ was drafted in 1980, many comrades raised many doubts. They were silenced by the issuance of an order, which stated that these matters should be dealt with very generally and vaguely. That principle is still used today by some people who want to hide the truth and as a shield from taking historic responsibility. This has made the reform of our Party much more difficult. …  In handling the matter of the ‘Gang of Four,’ the Party’s secret intelligence organs played a special role that is hard to explain, but was indispensable. An old marshal used his own relatives to communicate with intelligence organs. That fact was hidden for thirty-two years. Who bears the responsibility for hiding this fact? A leader of the governing party uses his own relatives and intelligence organs and military force to settle an internal party dispute. As some people said, this kind of thing ‘shall never happen again,’ but will it truly never happen again?”

“Sixty years have gone by, and the governing party still finds it inconvenient to explain matters to civilians. It should at least be explained clearly to the tens of millions of party members that, while it praises this special contribution that enabled the country to achieve a new situation, it clearly condemns the methods they used. Only this way complies with political ethics. Today, we still haven’t heard any condemnation of their methods. A party that has governed the country for sixty years still doesn’t pay attention to this. What good is it if the party simply emphasizes the capacity to govern? What will a capacity become if it is a ruling capacity without political ethics as its foundation? What will that capacity become? I think that everyone will eventually think seriously about this issue.”

“Our party has governed for sixty years. At the beginning it said it would make decision-making and the balancing of powers scientific, but what is the party’s actual performance? It has become obvious that political ethics absolutely cannot be ignored. Talk itself is not enough; methods and a system need to be put into practice. …”

“To say that a political party merely has to swear to ‘serve the people’ and thus becomes the legitimate governing party seems immature to me and does not address some fundamental facts.”

“Sixty years have gone by. Anyone who is concerned with the development of the country will be concerned with how to promote the development of democracy. Our ordinary people and social organizations are unable to express their own independent views with respect to the political activities of our country, unable to truly participate in the political process, and unable to exercise oversight over the governing party. The words of these lowly carry little weight. This ‘three unable’ situation cannot last forever. We cannot just keep going on with our usual way of talking, inspecting, and giving instructions. …”

Endnotes:
[1] New Century News, July 30, 2009
http://www.newcenturynews.com/Article/gd/200907/20090730195234.html
[2] Hong Kong China News Agency, August 14, 2009
http://www.hkcna.hk/content/2009/0814/21479.shtml

{Editor’s Note: In June 2006, Beijing released an eight-episode TV documentary series: Preparing For Danger In Times Of Safety – Historic Lessons Learned from the Demise of Soviet Communism. It was a research project conducted by the government think tank, the Chinese Academy of Social Science. Afterwards, the Chinese Communist Party instructed party members across the nation to watch the series and launch serious discussions. The script of the prelude of the documentary quotes Hu Jintao’s words, “There are multiple factors contributing to the disintegration of the Soviet Union, a very important one being Khrushchev throwing away Stalin’s knife and Gorbachev’s open betrayal of Marxism-Leninism.” The full text of the narratives has been translated. What follows is the fourth episode.}

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{Editor’s Note: In June 2006, Beijing released an eight-episode TV documentary series: Preparing For Danger In Times Of Safety – Historic Lessons Learned from the Demise of Soviet Communism. It was a research project conducted by the government think tank, the Chinese Academy of Social Science. Afterwards, the Chinese Communist Party instructed party members across the nation to watch the series and launch serious discussions. The script of the prelude of the documentary quotes Hu Jintao’s words, “There are multiple factors contributing to the disintegration of the Soviet Union, a very important one being Khrushchev throwing away Stalin’s knife and Gorbachev’s open betrayal of Marxism-Leninism.” The full text of the narratives has been translated. What follows is the third episode.}

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After the violent crime in Lhasa on March 14 of last year, all of a sudden the relationship between the Dalai Lama and some overseas “democracy movement” members became very close. The Dalai Lama recently visited many countries. Everywhere he went, he arranged meetings with these members, and either went on stage or had a closed-door discussion with them. There is news recently that the Dalai Lama and these democracy movement members will call a “Global Tibetan-Chinese General Assembly” in Europe, and hold a “2009 Global Congress of the Chinese Pro-Democracy Movement” in Dharamsala, India. It seems like they are completely in accord. Let’s look at the secrets behind this.

The combination of two sides each with their own axes to grind

It has been the Dalai Lama’s favorite trick to provoke the relationship between Tibetans and Chinese, and to undermine the unity between Tibetans and Chinese. He has never denied it. In 1987, he published “Five Proposals for Peace in Tibet,” in which he openly proposed to expel all of the Han Chinese from Tibet. Last April, in a speech at Colgate University in New York, the Dalai Lama exclaimed, “The Han population accounts for the vast majority of this communist country. My home country is currently under the rule of the Han Chinese.” Last October, another leader of the Dalai Lama’s “government in exile,” Sang-dong, talked about the future of Tibet in an interview, “Non-Tibetan people living in the Tibet Autonomous Region should not enjoy the autonomy.”  “All official positions in the ethnic minority autonomous regions should be held by ethnic minorities.” From these words where do we see any hint of “friendship between Tibetans and Han Chinese?” All we see is ethnic hatred.

However the Dalai Lama “woke up” last year. The Dalai clique stirred up the violent crime in Lhasa on March 14, 2008, assaulted overseas Chinese embassies, and disrupted the Beijing Olympics. Their acts angered all the Chinese people including overseas Chinese people and students. Overseas Chinese people and students quickly acted together to expose the Dalai clique’s crimes and lies, protect the passing of the Olympic torch, and express their opinion against the independence of Tibet and their love of the motherland. Their powerful moves shocked the international community and made the Dalai Lama very embarrassed. In June of 2008, he lamented in Australia, “Starting from March 10, no matter where I went, there were protesters following me, Chinese protesters, and Han protesters.” In August he complained again in France, “These young people’s behavior is distressing and incomprehensible.”

At this point, how the Dalai Lama could obtain sympathy from the global Chinese community and reduce resistance to “Tibetan Independence” became an urgent matter. After careful planning and before the Beijing Olympics, he offered the concept of a “Sino-Tibetan Friendship Association,” claiming that Tibetan and Han people must “establish a group and communicate.” In May of this year, he claimed in New York City, “I recently traveled around the world to communicate with Chinese communities and Chinese students in order to eliminate some Chinese people’s misunderstanding.” During a press conference in Denmark the Dalai Lama was more stunning, “One of my goals is to realize ‘Sino-Tibetan unity.’”

However, it is not easy for a separatist leader to turn into a national unity promoter overnight, especially for someone who engaged in separatist activities for decades and still adheres to the separatist stance today. During the several months after the Dalai clique proposed the “Sino-Tibetan Friendship Association,” not many people responded. At this point, some of the self proclaimed “pro-democracy movement” members came on stage. The so-called “democratic movement” members in fact are mostly those who planned and organized the upheaval activities in the eighties of the last century. They later went abroad, cursing, “China will soon collapse,” and claiming, “China is a threat to the world,” in order to beg for support from western anti-China forces so as to survive, dreaming one day they will take control over China. These people have worked about twenty years so far, but the harder they tried, the fewer members they had left. Today there are about a hundred key members in this group, yet they have organized forty to fifty different organizations. Each of them has a title like “president,” “chairman,” and “secretary general.” They became a joke for international society and overseas Chinese communities. A veteran upheaval activist once wrote, “Out of all the bad guys I have met in my life, 80% of them are pro-democracy activists. The bad people on the streets cannot count as bad guys compared with the pro-democracy activists.” Another veteran further said that 95% of “pro-democracy movement members” are bad.

Having reached such a dead end on their path, these overseas upheaval activists are overjoyed to see the Dalai Lama’s “initiative,” viewing it as a new way for them to survive. A senior upheaval activist immediately said, “I hope the Dalai Lama can understand the ignorance and recklessness these young people express.” Several other upheaval activists shamelessly claimed, “We apologize to the Dalai Lama on behalf of the Han Chinese people.” The Dalai Lama knows that these people have a bad reputation in the Chinese community, yet they have a Chinese face and they are in essence anti-China, so this is a group of people that can be utilized. On many occasions, the Dalai Lama has called these people “the Chinese people’s representatives.” The two parties have formed an alliance. With such a background, several “Sino-Tibetan Friendship Associations” formed. All are supported by the “Tibetan government in exile,” and have joined the upheaval activists. These organizations are in fact a common performance platform for the collusion among a few of the nation’s scum. They are actually the propaganda venue for the Dalai clique. Of course the upheaval activists would not miss an opportunity. They have claimed a bunch of titles like President and Secretary-General for themselves. This has also provided them with a way to claim credit in front of their Western master. 

The scheme behind “democracy” and “freedom”

If the Dalai clique made any improvements after they fled China fifty years ago, it is that they learned a few words, such as “democracy,” “freedom,” and “human rights” from the West. They use these words to cover up their true face of separatism. According to the Dalai Lama, at this time, “We must form a united front. The Chinese Communist Party can form a united front to defend its dictatorial regime; we can also form a united front for justice and truth.” “Only when the Han, Tibetan, Uyghur and other ethnic groups in China work together for unity and establish a unified Democratic Front, can we promote democracy in China.”  The upheaval activists immediately agreed, declaring that they would “immediately establish a China Democratic Grand Alliance,” “the political goal being to overthrow the Chinese Communist regime.” Recently, many overseas upheaval activist leaders met with the Dalai Lama. Some claimed, “Only the Dalai Lama has the charm and authority to integrate Chinese overseas pro-democracy forces.” Some have said that the Dalai Lama is “the spiritual leader of China’s democracy movement,” and that a “party” even wrote an article proposing that the Dalai Lama be the “President of China” in the future. In order to please the Dalai Lama, a few veteran upheaval activists openly claimed, “Tibet will be an independent state sooner or later.”

Praised by the upheaval activists, the Dalai Lama got a bit carried away. It seems that he forgot that, not long ago, he claimed he was “willing to solve the problem within the framework of the Chinese Constitution.” He forgot his statement that he was “willing to improve relations with the Chinese Central Government.” The Dalai Lama recently declared to some upheaval activists in Dharamsala that he had “lost hope for the Chinese government, and we will have a longer and harder struggle together.” In the US he called the upheaval activists "real comrades," and declared, “It is time for the Communist Party to retire after controlling China for 60 years.”

Now that they have the slogan, a “leader” and a “unified” political agenda, of course they need a ceremony to celebrate. The Dalai clique claimed that the upcoming “Tibetan-Chinese Assembly” will discuss, “the future of Tibet, democracy in China, and other major issues." Jointly with the “Dalai Lama’s personal secretariat and “the Foreign Ministry of the Tibetan government in exile,” the upheaval activists announced that after the Assembly they will hold a “2009 Global Congress of the Chinese Pro-Democracy Movement” in Dharamsala, India, “according to his Highness, the Dalai Lama’s schedule.” There they will “formally recognize the Dalai Lama’s spiritual leader status for China’s pro-democracy movement,” “create a unified leadership and collective leadership,” and be “fully prepared to take control over China.”

It became very clear that the only purpose of the so-called “democracy” and “freedom” movement is to overthrow the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership, subvert the people’s democratic power and split the PRC, so that this small group of people can take control of China.

The fate of a doomed failure

Though the Dalai Lana and the upheaval activists show their respect to each other on the surface, behind the scenes, they are actually just using each other. A veteran upheaval activist once said the biggest enemy of the “pro-democracy movement” is their own members. They attack and slander each other in order to compete for Western financial support and to protect their own vested interests. These fights not only waste their internal resources, but have also caused the loss of a great deal of outside support. This is the upheaval group’s inadequacy. Of course, they bring it into their cooperation with the Dalai clique. Shortly after some upheaval activists met with the Dalai Lama in November of last year, an article was published on Boxun.com entitled “The Dalai Lama should be invited to directly invest in the Chinese domestic pro-democracy movement.” The article stated that the Dalai Lama is the biggest resource the pro-democracy movement can rely on. As long as they are not selfish, it is not too hard for pro-democracy movement members to beg the Dalai Lama for millions of Australian dollars. After all, the Dalai clique has some financial resources. Another veteran upheaval activist put it in an even more straightforward way, “The Dalai Lama is only a monk who asks for money everywhere. If it were not for the Nobel Prize he won, I am afraid he could only sit in the temple guarding his butter lamps all day. Pro-democracy movement members should learn from the West: cheer him up when needed, but don’t take him too seriously.”

Drifting along in international society for decades, the Dalai Lama knows what the upheaval activists are made of. Of course he will have some reservations when dealing with them. On March 10 of this year, though the Dalai Lama formally met with the delegation of pro-democratic members, afterwards the Dalai clique repeatedly stated the meeting was in response to the other side’s “request,” and the Dalai Lama did not agree to be the spiritual leader of the overseas “pro-democracy movement” as they requested. Some overseas commentators pointed out that, “The Dalai Lama views the pro-democracy movement as a heap of stinking mud. He played along with the pro-democracy activists not because the latter have any force, but to create the illusion that ‘Han people also support Tibet independence.’ On the one hand the Dalai Lama holds the pro-democracy movement in contempt. On the other hand, the Dalai Lama uses it; it was really pitiful and tragic for them.” A former pro-democracy movement member made it clear, “It is a big mistake for the pro-democracy movement to attempt to move closer to the Dalai separatist clique. This will provoke strong opposition from the Chinese people in China and abroad. It will also cause different opinions among themselves, which will lead to a further split of their power. Though the Dalai clique has some resources, they will not easily pay the bill for the pro-democracy movement.”

Obviously, such a “marriage” based on political and financial calculation is simply a self-deceptive show for entertaining and fooling themselves. We do not need to keep watching to know what the end of such a show will be.

Endnote:
[1] From Xinhuanet.com, August 5, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-08/05/content_11831154.htm

 “The Growing Trend of Mass Incidents both Online and Offline” [1]

Some experts have suggested that special attention should be paid to preventing two types of incidents. One type is an incident related to a direct conflict of interest involving the masses, such as elderly insurance reform in enterprises, which involves the interest of a large group. Improper handling might induce a large-scale group event. Mass events reported on the Internet would be especially prominent.

The other type of incident involves a direct conflict of interest triggering mass indirect interest. An example is the Chizhou City incident in Anhui Province a few years ago. A child scratched a boss’s car and the boss beat the child. This was a common dispute, but because one side was a boss, the incident angered many people not directly related to the incident. It eventually escalated to the point that people protested to the government and a police car was smashed and burned. In recent years many important mass incidents have had this nature, i.e. society’s masses bring the discontent accumulated during daily life into a specific incident, which leads to a greater mass incident.

Some experts who study social contradictions believe that real mass incidents and mass Internet incidents all have some direct trigger, but the escalation of these incidents is usually due to accumulated social anger. At present, to address this issue it is necessary to deal with two mindsets and three moods.

Dr. Zhang Haibo of The Social Risk and Public Management Research Center of Nanjing University said that a mass event has two main psychological characteristics. One is “Big events attract (government) attention,” particularly those related to demolition, land acquisition, village management, corporate restructuring, etc. The second is the psychology of “enthusiasm about exposing to the public,” particularly in relation to the opposition between government officials and people, conflicts between the police and the people, and differences between the rich and poor. This type of mentality will make people strive for publicity on the Internet.

At the same time, the government should prepare to deal with three kinds of social emotions: first, for the public’s dissatisfaction with corruption, the government should use system building and increased anti-corruption efforts to respond to the public’s new expectations. For instance, a better solution must be sought to deal with government official’s spending, personal use of public cars, abuse of power, etc. Second, for the public’s dissatisfaction with monopolies, the government should reform and monitor monopoly enterprise’s pay distributions and benefits. This is a high priority task. Third, for the public’s discontent with the appointment of officials, the government should improve credibility when appointing officials, using an open, transparent system to select good officials who people trust.

“Dealing with the ‘Rising Issue of Mass Internet Incidents’” [2]

Some experts analyzed over a dozen mass Internet incidents over the past several years and found those incidents have three types. They demonstrate the nature of the mutual linkage of online and offline mass events.

The first type is “mass Internet incidents with both real and virtual perspectives.” An example is the taxi drivers’ strike in Chongqing City, Sanya City, and other areas. At first, it was a small-scale taxi driver protest. At the same time someone posted the related information online, attracting more attention. Afterwards, two larger scale mass incidents occurred. All the taxi drivers in the whole city went on strike in the real world, and there was mass discussion on the Internet about the taxi drivers. Those two incidents affected each other, worsening the confrontation related to the incident.

The second type is “mass Internet incidents triggered by real incidents,” the “Zhou Jiugeng incident” is an example. The direct trigger was a speech given by Zhou Jiugeng, former director of the Jiangning District Real Estate Bureau of Nanjing City. During a meeting, he made a speech opposing real estate developers paying lower housing prices. He also smoked cigarettes with very expensive brand name. His speech triggered continuous discussions on the Internet, focusing on the government officials’ spending. In reality, there was no mass incident, but the Internet users expressed very strong opinions against it.

The third type is “mass Internet incidents triggered by real incidents and further developed to real mass incidents.” An example occurred during the Olympic torch relay overseas. A Qingdao student, who held up a Tibetan independence banner, was condemned on the Internet. A large-scale protest on the Internet gradually escalated to a “human flesh search” [Editor’s Note: it refers to gathering all possible private information about a person and posting them on the Internet]. When people found out the residence of this student’s parents in Qingdao, some Internet users gathered there to protest. Only after various types of persuasion did it gradually subside.

Multiple grass roots officials in Anhui Province who were interviewed believe the consequences of such "mass Internet incidents" could, in a very short time, result in a large number of people fundamentally changing their view of the party committee and the government.

Some grass-roots officials’ analyses, show that some of the recent “mass Internet incidents” reflect that the impact of the financial crisis has been gradually spreading. The entire social frame of mind has been quietly changing. The Internet users’ behavior has changed, too:

“From talk to action,” Internet users have really started to do something about officials’ illegal activities. In the past, Internet users repeatedly exposed some party officials’ illegal activities, but most of them just “talked about it.” Recently, however, the Internet users have demonstrated the attitude that “they will not let it go until those government officials are dealt with.”

Political awareness and participation are growing. For example, when the list of expenses for some officials traveling overseas was disclosed, some people took action. Afterward, some Internet users actively disclosed lists of names, one after another. The process of “exposure investigation-dismissal” has greatly increased the Internet users’ awareness, and initiative.
…

The interviewed grass-roots officials have summarized the lack of means to deal with “mass Internet incidents” as “three no access” (to the Internet users). The grass-roots party organizations have “no access,” the ideological and political workers have “no access,” and the police, armed forces and other national forces have “no access.”

More importantly, some grass-roots officials have found that partial grass-roots party committees and governments still believe that the current “mass Internet incidents” are only people chatting in their spare time. They are not aware of its psychological impact, which could further lead to political impact on people’s opinions about the government.

This has led to the spread of some negative news or even false news that has Internet users fired up. The local party committee and the government can only rely on the public security Internet police and local propaganda departments to deal with the issue.

However, the above two mentioned departments are very constrained when dealing with mass Internet incidents. The forces of the public security Internet police are limited by existing institutional and technical restrictions. A network police supervisor in Anhui Province said there is no territorial division of the network; yet in reality, the management of public security in each territory follows the principle of territoriality. When mass Internet incidents occur, it is often Internet users throughout the country gathering on the Internet for an event at one location. So far there is no good solution on how to integrate our limited Internet means so that during an emergency we can rapidly give a joint response and effectively deal with the event.

As for the local propaganda department, it lacks the legal means. At present, every day 3,000 new websites are added, of which 90% are commercial web sites outside the state-owned-enterprise system. If they reprint or disseminate false information, they should be managed in accordance with the law. However, at present, we lack the appropriate laws and regulations. In addition, a large number of foreign capitalists have invested in key Internet enterprises in China; since many key Internet sites are funded by foreign investments, they are clearly influenced by the foreign investors.

…

During the research on the Internet, experts have pointed out that there exist two media markets controlling the power of Internet public opinion. One is the top-down “governmental Internet media market,” from the party and government at all levels to release information via authorities’ releases and interpretations, etc.; newspapers, television, radio and other traditional media are the main source of information. Networking and other new media are just spreading vehicles. Another market is the “civil Internet media market,” formed from the bottom-up by Internet users’ postings, comments, and refining information. The grass-roots users and forum owners are the major source of this information transmission.

Experts believe that, currently, the focus and writing styles of these two markets have an obvious difference. In practice, the “governmental Internet media market” plays a dominant role on topics related to important national policies, etc. Internet users, meanwhile, more easily accept the “civil internet media market” on the topics that people are concerned about, such as corruption, the gap between rich and poor, social security, and the gap between urban and rural areas. Another important task during the Internet age is to manage the two media markets so that the party and the government’s voice can be transmitted in a way that everyday people can more easily understand and accept.

“Preventing Internet Public Opinion from Triggering a Media Trial” [3]

With respect to this, the dominant voices of public opinion are full of doubts, criticism, and accusations. When a case is under investigation (or supplementary investigation), the court has not yet opened a case, but the "media trial" seems have already pronounced the verdict. Some media reports and online user comments echo each other freely using qualitative terms, and using strong emotional language to describe the case or the parties, thus imposing a kind of invisible pressure on the judges and the jury. Thus those that should not become the media norm have now become the norm. For example, Liang Li is innocent. Hu Bin should be severely punished. Deng Yujiao acted in self-defense, and Luo Caixia’s educational rights should be protected. Some critics have even used “everyone is the judge” to describe this near mania as a media “feast.”

Looking at the reported comments of some of these cases, its main characteristics are:

Reporting the case sensationally, intentionally highlighting certain facts, only listening to and believing one side, only providing an opportunity for one party to give a statement of the facts and to express their point of view from a legal perspective; selectively choosing the interview material to support their own viewpoint; taking things out of context, and even distorting the original intent of those who were interviewed; speculating on the outcome of the trial; and, without trial, putting a qualitative statement on the case, or convicting the defendant.

Those reports and comments are contrary to the spirit of law, yet they seem to represent a growing trend. They have generated consequences that cannot be ignored, and they have brought a certain threat to justice.

It is a special form of democratic supervision in our country to have the media carry out media supervision of the judicial department. Now supervision by those not in a position of responsibility for some event or phenomenon has become a prominent problem in practicing media supervision. We need to respect the judiciary system, and safeguard the seriousness for media to perform its supervision. It is important to have complete media coverage on all aspects and avoid a “media trial.”

Endnotes:
[1] Outlook Weekly, June 1, 2009
http://news.sohu.com/20090601/n264260209.shtml
[2] Outlook Weekly, June 1, 2009
http://news.sohu.com/20090601/n264260014.shtml
[3] Outlook Weekly, June 1, 2009
http://news.sohu.com/20090601/n264263510.shtml

{Editor’s Note: In June 2006, Beijing released an eight-episode TV documentary series: Preparing For Danger In Times Of Safety – Historic Lessons Learned from the Demise of Soviet Communism. It was a research project conducted by the government think tank, the Chinese Academy of Social Science. Afterwards, the Chinese Communist Party instructed party members across the nation to watch the series and launch serious discussions. The script of the prelude of the documentary quotes Hu Jintao’s words, “There are multiple factors contributing to the disintegration of the Soviet Union, a very important one being Khrushchev throwing away Stalin’s knife and Gorbachev’s open betrayal of Marxism-Leninism.” The full text of the narratives has been translated. What follows is the second episode.}

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The education and training work for all the party members is a foundation project for the party’s development. It was an important strategy task proposed at the 17^th CCCPC. The plan was generated in order to complete this job earnestly, according to the “Constitution of the Communist Party of China” and the party’s internal rules.

1. Guiding Principles and Basic Requirements

1) Guiding Principles

With the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics soaring high, and under the guidance of the Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thoughts of  “The Three Represents,” thoroughly implement the scientific development concept according to the requirements for strengthening the party’s advantage and its ability to rule. Adopt the need for building a study-style political party with the key focus being to study and implement the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the party’s structure. Regarding the party’s central task, implement the party members’ education and training on a large scale, improve the quality of the party members in every respect, provide a strong guarantee on political thinking and the organizations for building a harmonious socialist society, comprehensively construct an affluent society and speed up the advancement of socialism’s modernization.

2) Basic Requirements

a. Persistently take the enhancement of the party’s spirit as the first duty, and adopt the development of ideology/faith education and capability throughout. Persistently fortify all of the party members with the theory of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, teach the party members how to relate the facts and to practice what they learn, unify the enhancement of the party spirit and improve the party’s capability, emphasize party spirit and conduct, be a role model, and maintain and develop communism’s sophistication throughout.

b. Consider human beings as the fundamental source, and improve the ability to implement effectiveness in education and training. Respect the party members’ leadership status, understand the party members’ demands, and thus educate them accordingly. Train them according to their functions, improve education and training during their service, confirm their service during education and training, and stimulate the party members to participate actively and enthusiastically in education training. Make sure the general party members are willing to study, and to study well. Utilize them well.

c. Maintain an overall plan in order to coordinate and achieve frequent education and concentrated training at the same time. Include all party members; find the key points; pay special attention to frequent education and concentrated training using flexible and diverse means; fulfill the party members’ education rights and their study duties.

d. Focus on reform and innovation, and explore and establish new work mechanisms for the large-scale education of party members. Create new training concepts. Improve existing training contents and methods. Integrate training resources, expand training channels, and lead the party members’ education towards the scientific-style, using a systematic and standardized direction.

2. Job Objectives and Key Tasks

1) Job Objectives

From 2009, with the foundation of strengthening periodic education, all the general party members that do not fall into the training scope for different levels of party committee cadres will be trained over the next five years. Through education and training, the general party member’s thoughts and faith will be firmer, and their party spirits will be further strengthened, while fostering their good manners and style. Their working abilities will be further enhanced, role models will become more clear, and the party’s creativity, cohesive force and battle efficiency will constantly be strengthened.

2) Important Tasks

With thorough activities on studying the practical scientific development concept, and with the implementation of the “Opinion on Strengthening Party Member’s Frequent Education” published by the General Office of CCCPC in 2006, according to party members’ true demands, considering their different fucntions, levels and posts, set the plan up scientifically, and steadily implement the party members’ education and training step by step.

The primary elements of the party members’ education and training are: always place education on the theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics in first place; educate the party members with the party’s constitution, the party’s fundamental theories, the party’s elementary knowledge, the party’s history, the party’s direction and policies, and the current situations. Provide education on laws and regulations, and the party’s spirit and discipline, and provide training in professional knowledge and technical skills.

Local villages and towns’ party committees, the residential party committees, and the school party organizations should carry out the education and training of party members from the countryside, the urban communities and all levels of schools. The education and training of the party members from the new economic organizations and the new social organizations should be implemented by upper level party organizations and should be done at least once annually with a minimum of 16 hours of study, and 24 hours of study for their keys members and instructors.

The education and training of party members from government organizations, state-owned businesses and financial institutions should be performed by their work places at least once annually with a minimum of 24 study hours, and 40 hours of study for their keys members

The education and training of party members from other kinds of units should be implemented by their upper level party organizations.

After completing their cadre training requirements, the different levels of party committee cadres that fall into the scope of cadre training should take leading roles participating in their workplace training.

3. Important Projects

1) Regarding the countryside party committee secretary training project, the focus should be on building up a countryside party leaders’ troop that embodies faithfulness, commitment, capability and good conduct, and truly carries out the countryside party committee secretaries’ training. Through the province-level demonstration training, the city-level focus training and the county-level broad training, the countryside party committee secretaries will be organized to participate in the above-county-level party school for the related concentrated training at least once every year for a minimum of 40 study hours. The new incumbent countryside party committee secretaries should be trained promptly.

2) Regarding the new party member training project, the focus should be on strengthening the party member’s consciousness so that they play exemplary roles, further joining their minds with that of the party, and truly carrying out the new party members training. Through concentrated learning, party education, discussion, seminars and theme activity, each new party member should participate in a concentrated training session within a year after they join the party, with a minimum of 24 hours of study. The higher level party organizations should be responsible for carrying out the training of their subordinates.

3) In the college-graduate “village official” party member training project, the focus should be on fostering socialism’s new-rural reconstruction leaders who are good at working with people, and on carrying out the college-graduate “village official” party member training. Adopt training methods like concentrated training in the county-level party school or above, and practice training at model villages, with training sessions run by the outstanding rural officials so they can pass on their experiences, and so on. Organize the college-graduate “village official” party members to be trained before taking their posts, and then once every year during their contracts with a minimum 40 study hours.

4) The party member entrepreneur and employment ability training project should focus on enhancement of the party members’ abilities to achieve well-off lives in the future, to lead others to achieve well-off lives as well, and to carry out the party member entrepreneur and employment ability training. The party member entrepreneur and employment ability training should be integrated into the new-farmer technology training project, the green certificate training project, the sunlight project on rural labor force shift training, the adult continuing education, the re-employment training project, and so on. All levels of party committees should coordinate closely with the departments of agriculture, science and technology, human resources and social security, pay special attention to the countryside party members’ practical technology training, especially the entrepreneur and employment ability training for the unsettled party members, with emphasis on the farmer party members, the unemployed party members and military retiree party members. Work hard to help them master at least one technical skill and enhance their entrepreneur and employment ability.

4.  Work Measures

1) Innovate ways and methods to inspire party members’ internal drive to participate in the education and training

Continue and improve the ways and means of educating and training the party members that have been used long-term and have proved effective. Adapt to the new situation and new tasks and actively explore more pragmatic, effective, flexible, and diversified ways and methods to educate and train the party members.

Actively organize party members to participate in the party’s educational activities. Adhere to the policy of positive education and self-education, emancipate minds, relate to the reality, and focus on solving our own outstanding problems, so that most party members are educated and the public will benefited in the long run.

Establish and enhance a rotational training system for the party members. Strengthen the research on party members’ training needs to develop targeted training programs, determine training content, and train the party members in batches and in rotation. Widely implement the spring and winter training programs for rural party members. Promote a menu option based training model and adopt special counseling sessions, case studies, seminars, knowledge contests, personal experiences, and so on, to enhance the attractiveness and appeal of educating and training party members.

Improve the party officials’ lecture system. Organize party officials at the county level or above and party officials at the grass-root level to give periodical lectures to party members and those who actively apply to join the party. Focus on the hot, challenging, and questionable issues that many party members are interested in; explain the profound theories in simple terms, to inspire the party members in their thinking and arm them with theory.

Widely establish the “Mobile classroom” program for party members. Organize party school-teachers and lecturers, party members who can be used as examples, experts, scientists, technicians and so on to go to the rural areas, communities, businesses, and schools to set up mobile schools and bring the lectures to people’s door steps; strive to achieve that there will be education classes wherever there are party members. The content of “Mobile classrooms” should be close to the party members’ practical needs, teaching the knowledge and technical skills that they want to learn the most and helping them to improve their understanding and enrich their fund of knowledge and capabilities.

Carry out a Party Day theme in education and training activities. Focus on the party members’ practical and work needs to determine a distinct Party Day theme, and organize the members to carry out study, training and exercise activities. Party cadres should take the lead in participating in the Party Day education and training activities.

2) Develop and integrate resources to build a vigorous educational and training environment for the party members
Develop and integrate educational and training resources. Improve their functions and enhance their services; convert the village- (community-) level facilities, party service centers (or stations) and modern remote education sites for village party officials into primary education sites for village, street, and community party members. Highlight the party’s innovative theoretical training and fully realize the important effects that the party schools at all levels have on the party members. Rely on colleges, universities, technical schools, research institutes, society training organizations, science and technology demonstration bases, and so on to conduct the party members’ skill training. Make full use of the patriotism education bases, caution education bases, anti-corruption education demonstration bases, and so on to train the party members on the party’s history, the party’s fine tradition and style, and the party’s discipline, etc. Provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), cities (prefectures) and counties (county-level cities) should establish the party members’ education and training demonstration base if it is practical. Actively advance the party member education and training bases that are jointly established by the army and the people and by the police and the people.

Optimize and integrate the teaching resources for party member education and training. Following the requirements of sufficient quantity, reasonable structure, superior quality, and the combination of both full-time and part-time trainers, optimize and integrate the instructor team. Provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), cities (prefectures), and counties (county-level cities) should set up an open pool of instructors for party members’ education and training and hire people from party schools, universities, and colleges, party officials, model party members, scientists, technical experts, rural local talent, successful business achievers, and so on as instructors. Encourage the establishment of a volunteer instructor team. Improve the instructor selection system, explore the implementation of joint teacher hiring and dynamic management mechanisms, and gradually achieve resource sharing of the high-quality instructors.

Strengthen the development efforts of the party members’ education and training materials. The Central Organization Department will work in conjunction with other relevant departments to develop and edit simple reading materials on the party’s basic information and the party’s history. The local party committees at various levels may compile and develop supplemental education and training materials that are practical, specific, concise, and efficient. The grass-root level party organizations can recommend books and reading materials based on the diversified and individual party member’s learning needs. Fully utilize the books, newspapers, and periodicals to educate and train the party members and promote the establishment of “party member bookstores” in rural areas and communities.

3) Actively use the modern information distribution methods to bring the party members’ education and training to the modern level

Continue to strengthen modern remote education for village party officials and electronic education for rural party members. By the end of 2010, achieve full coverage of all villages for the modern distance education for village party officials. Actively promote the modern remote education network into the party and government organizations, neighborhoods and communities, businesses, and colleges. Emphasize the usage, and strive to expand the scope, audience, contents, methods, and functions of modern remote education services for village party officials and the electronic education services for party members, and continuously improve the education’s quality and effectiveness.

Fully utilize television, the Internet and other mass media to conduct the education and training of party members. Create education programs on China Central Television (CCTV) and local television stations. Integrate the party members’ education training and Internet resources and establish a national party member education website. For local businesses or organizations that have websites, the party organization needs to set up a party member education section. Advocate the establishment of online party schools and explore the use of online learning, “red” text messages [Editor’s Note: an excerpt from an important party leader’s speech or writing], mobile paper and other ways to carry out party members’ education and training.

Actively develop education and training information resources. Provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), cities (prefectures) and counties (county-level cities) should establish a sufficient, content-rich, user-friendly information resource library for the party members’ education and training. They should strengthen the development and use of educational films, distance learning courseware, and other modern education resources to meet the needs of education and training of party members.

5.  Organization and leadership

Party committees (party groups) at all levels should attach great importance to the party members’ education and training, include it as part of the party-building responsibilities, include it as an important agenda item, and conscientiously strengthen leadership. Improve the joint conference system on the party members’ education and training between the central and local party committees at all levels. Under the unified leadership of party committees, the party’s organization department should take the lead, the discipline inspection departments, propaganda departments, party schools, and so on will participate in being responsible for the arrangements, supervision, and inspection of the party members’ education and training. A joint meeting should be held at least once a year to resolve any education and training work difficulties and issues. Party committees at all levels, discipline inspection departments, propaganda departments, and party schools should establish and improve the party member education and training organizations, ensure there is sufficient staff, and supply the needed work force. The grass roots party committees can, based on their actual need, provide for full time and/or part time employees to be responsible for organizing and managing the party members’ education and training.

Properly resolve the funding for party members’ education and training. The membership fees retained by the party committees (party groups) at all levels should be mainly used for the party members’ education and training. Budgeting offices at all levels need to allocate funds for the party members’ education and training in the training budget plan. The state owned enterprises should allocate sufficient party members’ education and training fees from their employee training budget. Public institutions should properly plan party members’ education and training expense through the specified channels. The party members’ education and training expenses at all levels should support the grass roots party organizations in villages, streets, communities and places that have difficulties. The membership fees managed by the Central Organization Department on behalf of the Central Committee should be applied more towards the party members’ education and training in the old revolutionary base regions, ethnic group minority regions, borderlands, and impoverished regions, and especially those areas subject to severe natural disasters.

Carefully supervise and inspect the party members’ education and training. Establish an education and training record system. The organization that undertakes the education and training tasks should establish a student management system and student study status file system, and provide timely feedback of the party member’s training status to his associated party organization. Party organizations at all levels should conscientiously supervise and inspect the party members’ education and training, gather experiences, identify issues and improve our work.

All localities and departments should follow this work plan and take into consideration their own reality to develop a detailed advisory and annual work plan for implementation.

Under the guiding principle of the work plan, the General Political Department of the PLA will design and implement the party members’ education and training work for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the People’s Armed Police Force.

Endnote:
[1] Xinhua, July 26, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-07/26/content_11775323.htm