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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 sixth episode.}

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Outlook Weekly is a large weekly news magazine that covers current political and economic issues. It is published by Xinhua News, the official news agency of the Chinese Communist regime. Outlook Weekly is known for its “journalistic, authoritative, ideological, and readable” characteristics. It is also known for “an emphasis on exclusive reports and important news topics, authoritative and in-depth reports on significant domestic and international issues, and accurate and perceptive analyses of development trends of political, economic, and social phenomena both nationally and globally.” [4] The author Yan Haibo is an associate research fellow at the Research Center for Current Issues of the Compilation and Translation Bureau of the CCP Central Committee. Author Jiang Yong is a research fellow at the Economic Security of China Institute of Contemporary International Relations. [5]

In the article titled, “A History of the Party Leadership’s Role in the Financial sector,” Yan states, “Throughout the past years, the CCP has placed great importance on leadership tasks related to the economy and finance. With regard to different situations and tasks during various periods, the CCP has raised different requirements for the work in the area of finance.” “Financial work affects important political and military missions; the guidance that the party provides on financial work can efficiently create unusual combat power.” [6] Yan listed some examples of the CCP taking control in the financial sector to illustrate his point.

“In July 1947, at the Meeting of the CCP Central Committee held at Xiaohe, [7] Mao Zedong again pointed out the importance of implementing correct financial and trade policies, and emphasized that we must strengthen strict regulations under harsh external conditions.” [8]

“In September 1948, at the meeting of the Politburo, the CCP made the decision to have unified leadership on financial work and the issuance of currency. Right before the victory of the revolution, facing the task of taking over city management, the party advised the military leaders that they should ‘be good at handling financial issues.’ Only this unified leadership can meet the challenges of the changing tasks in new situations.” [9]

“In the earlier days of the People’s Republic of China …, the party Central Committee fully realized that, in the economy and in finance, there is essentially a war without gun smoke. Winning or losing this war would directly affect the consolidation and development of the regime, as well as industrial and agricultural production, and the stability of people’s lives.” [10] Therefore, “our party (the CCP) timely established the Central Finance and Economics Commission as a command center to lead the nation’s economic work in a unified manner.” [11]

Based on these, the author explained, “Under complicated political and economic situations, our party (the CCP) assigned tasks relating to the economy and finance as if it were at ‘war.’ This shows our party’s clear understanding and wise insight.” [12] There was an earlier article in Guangming Daily (August 3, 2009) titled, “The International Financial Crisis and National Security Strategy,” that had a more detailed explanation of this conclusion. It said that, “Military force is the foundation for maintaining a nation’s stability. As the national interest continues to grow and our nation’s global impact continues to rise, the crucial position of the military forces in protecting our country’s peaceful rise is getting more obvious. But facing this ferocious international financial crisis, the economists outside the military have not been able to give professional suggestions regarding issues such as readiness, utilization, and development of our military force in fending off this crisis. On the other hand, most of the experts in strategic and military development inside the military lack in-depth understanding of finance and economics, and therefore cannot provide scientific guidance regarding the above issue (the issue of how to develop the national security strategy during the global financial crisis). [13]

In the second article “Control the Leading Role in the Financial Sector,” Jiang Yong made the point that, “Finance is the heart of modern economics. Financial competition is the heart of international competition. Financial security is the core issue of the economic security of the country.” [14]

“China’s economy is currently facing the difficult situation of ‘the pitfall of the US dollar,’ the loss of asset value, and the international financial crisis. This shows that the field of finance cannot just be controlled by financial firms and professional groups; the crucial policies related to financial reform cannot just be determined by financial firms and professional groups, and the degree of success of financial reforms cannot only be judged by these financial firms and professional groups themselves. The ruling party (the CCP) should exercise strong leadership on finance, just as it does with the military, so as to effectively respond to the ‘war without gun smoke.’” [15]

“Finance is a concept in economics, but it is also extremely political. The importance of finance is not only reflected in ‘how to serve,’ but also in ‘who it serves.’ Marxism has a clear understanding of the political characteristics of financial tasks: the main leading role must be held in the hands of the proletarian party, which represents the interests of the majority. It was said in the Communist Manifesto that after the proletarians gain power, this ‘most advanced state’ can ‘control credit and loans, in the hands of the state by owning all of the country’s resources, and through the state banks that own the state capital and enjoy exclusive monopolistic power.’ Marx and Engels also held that one must ‘adjust the field of credit and lending according to the entire population’s interest, and in turn be able to destroy large financial capitalists’ control.’” [16]

 “The CCP is China’s ruling party. The key to doing things well in China is the party. The CCP represents the interests of the vast majority of Chinese people. It stands on the people’s side to protect the nation’s interest, and the largest number of people possible. Currently, the most important task in front of us on the issue of the party leading on finance is how to reflect the party’s mission, fundamental position, and ideological direction.” [17]

“The security of the financial industry directly affects the security of the regime. We need to attach great importance to financial security, and even more so in peaceful times.” “Everything that has happened since the financial crisis explosion started in the United States has told us that the situation of financial security has never been so urgent. The loss that the international financial crisis has caused to our financial assets, and the deeply negative effect that the international financial crisis has had on our economic development and society’s stability, all directly threaten the security of the regime.” “The loss of national interest will definitely be accompanied by a slowing down of economic growth, individuals’ income reduction, unemployment, and inflation. This load will impact every citizen, and therefore the deterioration of the regime’s governance caused by this will threaten the ruling party’s status.” “Therefore, the ruling party (the CCP) must take great care of the economy and finance, and achieve stronger leadership on finance.” [18]

“Looking back in history, the party has always paid great attention to the issue of strengthening the leadership role on finance to enhance the party’s ability to rule. Especially as our country gradually enters the socialist development period, the position of the party, the situations it faces, the tasks that it takes on its shoulders, and the party’s own conditions, have all changed a lot. It is changing from a revolutionary party to a ruling party, and its sole task is now to lead the people to develop socialism.” “A complete implementation of the Concept of Scientific Development in the financial sector will ensure the fast and good development of the economy, protect economic security, and promote a harmonious society. We need to be on guard against those arguments that advocate so called ‘independence’ in the field of finance and secretly resist the party’s leadership.” [19]

“The leadership role that the party takes on financial tasks is all-round and comprehensive. With requirements based on the domestic and international situation, the party will coordinate the financial tasks at a high level, taking the rise and decline of the nation, and the survival and death of the Chinese people into consideration. The party will make sure that the direction is correct, the planning is for the overall development, the strategy is comprehensive, the policies are scientific, and the environment is healthy. The party not only needs to control the CCP’s development of the financial system, but it is also responsible for the policies and direction in the financial arena. With the long-term goal of our country’s socioeconomic development in mind, the party not only needs to propose the development strategy of the financial industry according to the party’s mission, but also needs to formulate major financial policies, be responsible for the appointment and dismissal of important positions, as well as supervise the implementation.” [20]

“Our party made an attempt to strengthen the financial institutions. In June 1998, in order to cope with the Asian Financial Crisis and enhance the leadership role the party had on finance, the Financial Working Commission of the CCP Central Committee was formed. As an agency of the CCP Central Committee, this committee was responsible for developing the party’s ideology, structure, and work style in the financial field.”  “Because some administrative relationship was not clearly defined, this committee was later removed.” [21]

“As a developing country that is gradually opening up and as an emerging market, China is facing more and more financial problems and many economic and social conflicts that involve finance. Therefore the CCP should take control of finance just as it has taken control of the army so as to achieve the CCP’s leadership position on finance. We suggest forming an organization just like the Financial Working Commission of the CCP Central Committee, which is responsible for developing important guidelines, decisions, national financial strategies, and policies, and for supervising the agencies that carry out the work. This will be important for ensuring that the financial work in our country will have the correct direction and that the decisions are made scientifically. It will also be important for ensuring that our country has an undefeated position and an invulnerable position in today’s ever-more complicated and harsh international economy and financial competition.” [22]

The CCP achieves control of domestic and international finance through government actions. One example is the development of the Shanghai World Financial Center. Sun Lijian, the Assistant Dean and a professor of finance at the School of Economics at Fudan University, Shanghai, wrote an article on Xinhua.net on May 15, 2009, titled “The Financial Center Is Essentially Currency Domination.” The author said, “From Central Bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan’s idea of a super-sovereign  reserve currency to Wang Qishan’s request to balance rights with obligations regarding the IMF reformation; from the Foreign Ministry spokesman’s worries about the United States launching a currency print machine to the State Council’s approving the proposal for constructing the Shanghai World Financial Center, we see that China and Asia have already begun to pay great attention to the issue of currency domination. This is a fundamental improvement. This is because Asia, such an economically active region, does not yet have an ‘international currency’ that can play a major role on the global economic stage.” [23]

 “The development of the Shanghai World Financial Center is part of the bigger picture of the strategy for obtaining ‘currency domination.’” The author’s understanding is that, “From the tactical point of view, globalization of the Asian dollar or RMB, and developing the Shanghai World Financial Center do not offer a ‘comparative advantage’ for the current China’s economic growth or for Asia’s financial situation. Strategically, if we ignore currency domination, then the economy of China and even the economy of all of Asia will be in a vulnerable position in the industrial chain of the global economy. They will not be able to hedge against the penetration by the outside crisis, or let outside economic identities reap the great benefits from China and Asia’s economic growth while sharing all the risks at the same time. Thus it will often end up being ‘they receive many benefits, and we take the risks.’” “This is because the Chinese government has realized that following the world’s voice to strengthen RMB appreciation is much better than passively accepting the pressure of RMB appreciation and opening capital accounts.” [24]

Endnotes:
[1] Outlook Weekly, August 17, 2009
http://news.sohu.com/20090817/n266023811.shtml
[2] Outlook Weekly, August 17, 2009
http://news.sohu.com/20090817/n266023754.shtml
[3] Ibid.
[4] Homepage of Outlook Weekly
http://www.outlookweekly.cn
[5] Same as [1].
[6] Ibid.
[7] Xiaohe, or Xiaohe Village, is located in the north of Shaanxi Province. The 1947 meeting held at Xiaohe took place during China’s Civil War period, with a focus on tasks related to the PLA’s strategic transition into a nationwide offensive against the KMT army.
[8] Same as [1].
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Same as [2].
[12] Same as [1].
[13] Guangming Daily, August 3, 2009
http://www.gmw.cn/content/2009-08/03/content_957661.htm
[14] Same as [2].
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Ibid.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Xinhua, May 15, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2009-05/15/content_11376264.htm
[24] Ibid.

Ladies, Gentlemen and Friends,

October is the golden harvesting season. In this great season, representatives from media outlets from around the world have gathered in Beijing for the World Media Summit. First of all, on behalf of the Chinese government and people, sincere congratulations to the World Media Summit! A warm welcome to our participating friends!

In today’s world, with the rapid development of the social economy and technologies, the transfer and acquisition of information has become faster and faster, the global media industry is facing unprecedented changes, and media is becoming more and more important in our social lives. This summit, under the theme of “Cooperation, Action, Win-Win and Development,” reflects concerns about the challenges the global media industry is facing, demonstrates the willingness of all media to enhance exchanges and cooperation and seek common development, and shows the resolve of media staff to commit themselves to promoting world peace and development. I believe, with in-depth discussions and extensive exchanges focused on the theme, the meeting will help strengthen cooperation among media organizations from around the world, boost the healthy and orderly development of the global media industry, and deepen mutual understanding and friendship among people of all nations.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The world is undergoing great development, transformation, and adjustment. With the profound development of multi-polarity and economic globalization, worldwide exchanges of ideologies and cultures are becoming more frequent and active, the concepts of open cooperation and win-win mutual benefit are being commonly acknowledged, and interconnections among nations are becoming much closer. In the meantime, the adverse impact of the global financial crisis continues, development has become more imbalanced among different areas, global issues such as climate change, food safety, and energy resource security have further manifested, untraditional safety threats such as terrorists, cross-nation organized crime, and severe pandemic diseases are still around, regional conflicts and hot issues continue to appear, and unstable and uncertain factors are increasing, creating many challenges for world peace and development.

In the face of unprecedented opportunities and challenges, the world media should keep up with the trend of the times, join hands to march forward, and make efforts to contribute to a harmonious world with lasting peace and common prosperity.

First, the media should use their distinctive assets and advantages to convey the messages of peace, development, cooperation, mutual benefit, and tolerance. All media organizations should be dedicated to the lofty cause of pushing forward peace and the development of human beings, promoting all countries to respect each other and consult with each other on an equal footing politically, to cooperate with complementary advantages economically, to learn from each other and seek a common ground while accepting differences in cultural exchanges, to increase mutual trust and cooperation in maintaining security, and to help each other for advancement in environmental protection, so as to jointly create a better future for mankind. Against the backdrop of the global financial crisis, the world’s media should comprehensively cover the measures taken and the achievements as all countries – in the same boat in times of trouble – have strengthened cooperation and worked together to overcome difficulties. This is the way the media can contribute to the recovery and healthy and stable development of the world economy.

Second, the media should uphold the ideas of equality, mutual trust, mutual benefit, and common development, to better facilitate exchanges and cooperation. The media around the world, regardless of their cultural backgrounds, abilities, and sizes, should respect and trust each other, treat others as equals, seek common ground while shelving differences, and learn from each other through exchanges. The world’s media should fully consider each other’s practical situations, respond to each other’s appeals through consultation, take into account each other’s interests, keep a balance between competition and cooperation, and strive to be mutually complementary, helpful and beneficial. They should share successful experiences, create a favorable environment for development, work together to cope with challenges, and seek common development.

Third, the global media should uphold social responsibilities to promote the true, accurate, comprehensive, and objective communication of information. In today’s world, the radiating effect of the media to international politics, the economy, society, culture, and other areas is increasing and its influence over people’s thinking, work, and life is deepening. Just for this reason, it is more important than ever before that the media should establish and uphold social responsibilities. For the media to be widely accepted and respected, and to increase their credibility and influence, they should constantly abide by basic journalistic principles, and objectively report the reality of the multi-polarity of the world, economic globalization, and diverse civilizations. They should fully reflect the main aspects and trends of development in various countries and passionately encourage the development and progress of developing countries.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Several days ago the Chinese people celebrated the 60^th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. With the unremitting efforts over the past six decades, especially over the past three decades since the reform and opening up, both China and the Chinese people have experienced historical changes. Today, China’s overall national power has significantly increased, the Chinese people live a relatively comfortable life, and the nation has burst forth in unprecedented dynamism and creativity. In the meantime, we soberly keep in mind that China is still the world’s largest developing country, and faces conflicts and problems rarely seen in terms of their scale and complexity. China still has a long way to go before it can build a well off society that can benefit more than one billion people, and achieve basic modernization and common prosperity for all of its people. China will start from its national conditions, adhere to the path of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, promote comprehensive development in the economic, political, cultural, social and ecological arenas, go all out to ensure that the development is for the people, and by the people, and that the fruits of development are shared by the people. China will unswervingly walk along the path of peaceful development and uphold an open strategy based upon mutual benefits and win-win cooperation. China will seek friendly cooperation with all countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence.

In the course of advancing the reform and opening up drive and building socialist modernization, the Chinese government always gives top priority to the media’s development, encourages and supports the Chinese media to play important roles in different areas, such as getting close to reality, life and people, developing innovative concepts, contents, forms, methods, and means, increasing its affinity, attraction, and inspiration to people, upholding social integrity, understanding social conditions and public opinion, guiding (public views on) social hot issues, diverting public emotion, doing well at media supervision, and guaranteeing the people’s right to be informed, to participate, to be heard, and to oversee. The Chinese government supports Chinese media to strengthen its exchanges and deepen its cooperation with foreign media in areas of news broadcasting, human resources, information technology, business development, and so on. Now, more and more foreign media, including the ones represented by most of our friends here, send resident reporters to China, and the number of journalists who visit China temporarily has increased dramatically also. The reporting on China by foreign media covers more and more information and areas, with richer and richer content, playing an important role enabling all people around the world to understand the development and changes in contemporary China. We will continue to make government affairs public, enhance information distribution, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of foreign news organizations and reporters, and facilitate foreign media coverage of China in accordance with China’s laws and regulations. We sincerely hope that the media in the world can make new contributions to increasing the understanding people around the world have of China and to consolidating and developing friendship between the Chinese people and the people throughout the world.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is the inevitable choice for the media around the world to share the same fate with the world’s people and with the development of the era. I believe that through the joint efforts of our participating friends, this summit will certainly achieve great results in strengthening exchanges and deepening cooperation among different media around the world, and will make a significant contribution to the development of the global media industry.

Thank you everyone.

Endnotes:
 [1] World Media Summit Website
http://www.worldmediasummit.org/english/2009-03/19/content_16005787.htm
 [2] Xinhua News Agency, October 9, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2009-10/09/content_12201034.htm

The Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs Advises on Countermeasures in the Battle against Gangsters and Advancing it to a New Level

As reported by Chinapeace (http://www.chinapeace.org.cn/, the website of the Central Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs), the Committee on Political and Legislative Affairs recently published an article “Advice on the Battle against Gangsters and Advancing it to a New Level.” It was said in the article that all the relevant departments in all areas must continue to do well in everything relating to this battle; they must maintain a high and attacking position against gangsters and make sure that the battle is advancing to a deeper level.

We have heard that since this battle was officially announced in February 2006, relevant departments in all areas have used various effective ways and have dealt a great blow to the gangsters’ criminal activities. As of today, 1,221 gang organizations have been eliminated, 12,850 other evil forces (groups) have been eliminated, 87,396 suspects related to these criminal activities have been captured, 104,610 various types of criminal cases have been pursued, and 2,586 different kinds of guns have been confiscated.

The committee pointed out that gangsters are still very active and, in the near future, there will be a lot of criminal activities. Especially since we are affected by the economic crisis, the number of pessimistic factors and social conflicts has obviously been increasing. This, to some degree, contributes to the growth and development of gangsters. In this situation, further continuing the battle against gangsters is a realistic need in order to actively deal with their new directions and changes and to maintain the stability of society. It is also a requirement in order to prevent the gangsters growth in the economic field and for the economy to develop well and quickly. Lastly it is a strategic decision to prevent the gangsters from penetrating the political world and to strengthen the Chinese Communist Party’s dictatorship position in China.

The committee pointed out that we must raise our understanding and pay close attention to those who are in leadership positions. Different levels of the Communist Party Committee members and different levels of governments need to take on the political responsibility of cracking down on gangsters, and effectively strengthening the leadership for the battle against these criminal forces. They must show a clear position in supporting this battle and eliminate resistance in the political law departments. They must care and support the development of different levels in the “office of battling gangsters,” and developing professional teams. They must make sure that the force is there, the money is there, and a strong momentum is there. They must insist on and perfect the responsibility system of “one leader with total responsibility,” supervision, accountability, and periodical reporting. Supervision needs to be strengthened and the system of “one vote rejection” for the social security comprehensive management (Editor’s Note: the “one vote rejection” system refers to rejecting the leader’s promotion or merit award if he does not meet the comprehensive management goal assigned to him) needs to be used well. Detailed methods such as warnings, warning conversations, yellow card warnings, and one vote rejection need to be perfected. For those who, due to their ignorance of the importance [of their work] or their ineffective work, cause gangsters to succeed in what they are doing and lead to severe consequences, one vote rejection must be used. Those advanced groups and individuals who contribute a lot in the battle against gangsters need to be rewarded. We must further propagandize the strong will of the party committee and the government in battling gangsters and create a good social environment for cracking down on gangsters.

The committee emphasizes that we must increase the force of striking and have a more clear emphasis on the targets. Relevant departments in all areas must insist on the principle of “a gangster must be eliminated and an evil force must be proscribed completely,” with each area’s own realistic situations, advancing in the work of attacking gangsters and firmly restraining the growth of gangsters. One must focus on the most important parts, and increase the force of searching and resolving. We must strike hard against those gangs that have infiltrated the areas of construction, transportation, and mining, especially those have who gotten into major national projects; we must strike hard against those gangsters who have disrupted agricultural economic growth, and control village governance; we must strike hard against those gangsters who manipulate the activities of pornography, gambling, and drug abuse and trafficking; and we must insist on fixing all the major security issues that are mainly related to the gangsters. Different levels of Discipline Supervision and Investigation departments, Communist Party Committees, and Political and Legislative Affairs Committees need to be strengthened in digging out those gangsters who are “under the umbrella (of corrupt government officials),” and coordinate and supervise this work well. They must make sure that the investigation of the “under the umbrella” cases and other criminal cases are going on at the same time. One needs to make sure to completely destroy the financial foundation of the gangsters in order to prevent them from emerging again.

The committee emphasized that we must further strengthen prevention and comprehensively treat this issue. The Communist Party Committee members and the local governments must coordinate all areas, insist on preventive issues, and resolve problems with many approaches simultaneously. We need to work hard on all areas including striking, prevention, education, transformation, management,  improvement, and so on. We can integrate various types of methods, including political, economic, administrative, legal, cultural, educational, and so on, to comprehensively treat the criminal activities of the gangsters. We have to do our best to eliminate the soil that helps the gangsters grow and develop. We need to strengthen the supervision of the fields that gangsters are prone to control, including the fields of construction, transportation, mining, entertainment, and others. We need to perfect the system for allowing businesses to enter a field, and strengthen law enforcement, inspection, and supervision. We must firmly prevent phenomena such as forced demolition of people’s homes, illegal mining, business monopolies, and forced trading. The communication between the official branches, including police, justice, jails, forced labor camps, and the residential branches, such as street and community authorities, needs to be enhanced. They can closely cooperate and work with each other. This way the supervision of the people discharged from prisons and forced labor camps can be improved. We need to improve the employment assistance for special groups of people who are currently unemployed and others who just moved into the area, as well as the social security services for these people. We must actively service and manage the migrant population and also do well in crime prevention work regarding the young. We can place the battle against gangsters together with combating corruption and upholding integrity, and further reinforce the education, management, and supervision of leaders. This way we can strictly prevent the gangsters from penetrating into the party organs and government branches and prevent the gangsters from acquiring “safety umbrellas.”

The committee asked us to take another step in perfecting a long-term effective system and building a solid basis. All branches in all areas need to carefully summarize the experiences of battling gangsters and make this battle systematic, standardized, and legal, and, in a timely manner, promote this system into the actual work. We must continue to emphasize the leadership teams’ coordination and instruction and perfect the system of joint meetings among different branches. This way communication and coordination can be improved. We need to actively explore in order to construct a working mechanism between the political branches and judicial branches, and also between these two branches and other branches such as industry, commerce, taxes, construction, territory, finance, culture, and so on. This way we can form a group force, prevent crime, and fight the gangsters together. We need to look at reality, refine all the methods, and constantly perfect the supervision system regarding the processes of investigation, prosecution, trial, and enforcement against the criminals who are gangsters. We need to strengthen the professional forces of investigation, prosecution, and trial in criminal cases against gangsters and continue to work hard on constructing a special force for criminal investigation in related police and security organizations.

Meng Jianzhu: Maintain an Active Attacking Mode and Advance the Battle against Gangsters to a New Level

On July 7, 2009, the Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs held a video and telephone conference on further advancement to thoroughly eliminate gangsters. Meng Jianzhu, a State Council member and a member of the Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs, stated that all localities and all departments must accurately understand the new trends of gangsters’ criminal activities, and take the newly encountered problems during the fight against gangsters seriously. From the attitude of maintaining social harmony and stability and consolidating the party’s ruling foundation, they should fully understand the special importance of advancing the special fight on eliminating gangsters, and earnestly strengthen job responsibility and the sense of urgency. With the spirit of being responsible to the party and the people, they should solidly advance the special fight against gangsters and greet the 60^th anniversary of the new China with a fine job performance.

It is reported that since February 2006, when the Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs extended the special battle against gangsters across the nation, all localities and all departments have organized carefully and arranged thoroughly to initiate swift and fierce attacks against gangsters, and have made tangible progress. The public security bureaus across the nation have investigated a total of 1,221 gangster organizations, wiped out 12,850 evil forces (groups), captured more than 87,000 suspects, investigated, and solved over 100,000 criminal cases, and seized more than 2,500 different kinds of guns; the procuratorial agencies indicted over 1,000 gangster groups; and the People’s court tried 689 gangster-related cases, all of which have powerfully suffocated the gangsters.

Meng Jianzhu pointed out that since our country is in a historic period of economic transition and social transformation, the breeding ground and the environment for gangsters still exists, and the gangster’s criminal activities are still relatively active. Under this circumstance, further promoting the fight against gangsters is necessary to positively respond to the new trends and changes in the gangsters’ crimes and to maintain social harmony and stability; is demanded in order to firmly curb the gangster’s expansion into the economic area and to serve economic development; and is needed in order to firmly prevent gangsters from infiltrating the political sphere and to consolidate the party’s governing base.

Meng Jianzhu emphasized that all localities and all departments should adhere to the “Gangsters must be eliminated; root out gangsters” principle, further strengthen various fighting jobs, and resolutely prevent the gangsters’ spread and development. They should emphasize the focus points, determine to eradicate the tyrants, adhere to the coordination of supervision, and crack down sharply on major underworld organizations. They should persist in completely wiping out, rooting out the “protective umbrella” and destroying their economic foundation. They should stick to the law, pay attention to the cases’ qualities and improve their attack technique.

Meng Jianzhu urged that all localities should be under the unified leadership of the party’s committees and governments. On one hand, they should emphasize cracking down; on the other hand, they should emphasize prevention; with political, economic, social, cultural, and other methods and means, they should integratively manage the problems of gangster’s crimes, and eradicate the ground and conditions for fostering the gangster forces to the maximum extent. He stressed that all levels of Party committees and governments should conscientiously strengthen their organization and leadership during the fight against gangsters, strictly monitor work responsibilities, focus their efforts on propaganda, earnestly strengthen the development of special forces, and ensure the advancement of the fight against gangsters.

Endnotes:
[1] Xinhua, July 29, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2009-07/29/content_11792006.htm
[2] Xinhua, July 8, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2009-07/08/content_11670845.htm

{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 fifth episode.}

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 “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.}

Continue reading →

{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.}

Continue reading →