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A day for celebration? Today, on July 1st, the Communist Party of China celebrates its centennial. It has thus lasted longer than any comparable organization; the Communist Party of the Soviet Union survived only 79 years. The Chinese Communist Party has thus proven that socialist systems can also be long-lived and not just cause hardship but also, in the best of cases, are capable of bringing prosperity and cosmopolitanism to the world.
But these 100 years are of course not the shining history that today’s propaganda campaign wants you to believe. From its rise to power in 1949 to the reform era starting in 1978, it has rarely made people’s lives better but more often than not changed it for the worse. Other countries, which also have been battered by war, had already reached their economic miracles during this period. The CP’s rule, on the other hand, began not only with lost years but even with human and economic regressions.
Therefore, our first article on this anniversary also reflects upon the relationship between the “Great Helmsman” Xi Jinping and his political ancestor Mao Zedong. We present you a preview of the new book “Xi Jinping – the most powerful man in the world” by journalists Stefan Aust and Adrian Geiges. Our preview not only takes a look at the past but also aims to give a better understanding of today’s regime: “China’s cult of Mao is gradually being replaced in China – by a cult dedicated to Xi Jinping himself.” Xi not only knows about the horrors of the Mao era, but he has also experienced them himself. Yet he doesn’t shy away from amassing a considerable amount of power himself.
Our second article to this great anniversary is dedicated to the period of China’s gradual opening to the world since the early 1980s. Frank Sieren sheds light on another topic of great tension which defines Chinese politics today: A struggle between opening and surveillance. Modern China allows its citizens to freely travel and invites investors into the country- a crucial difference from the Soviet Union. But the resulting contrasts are all the more perplexing. A free market, but unfree citizens. Socialism, but rampant egoism and high innovation without an open society.
And we conclude with a portrayal of a person who warns against this mixture of influences: Cai Xia, once a leader of the Communist Party’s inner circle. A staunch communist, who has now defected to the USA. With great concern, Cai observers the increasing totalitarianism and a fundamentally aggressive stance in Chinese politics. She believes that her homeland is no longer on the right path.
All this reveals how many issues the CP is actually currently facing. Behind a beautiful facade of the celebrations, those in power are fully aware of these predicaments and are working on solutions, as we have pointed out in our articles on the CP anniversary. On Thursday, we’ll tell you about the splendor the Party has displayed for its anniversary. And, of course, we’ll continue to keep you updated on the latest political developments.
Finn Mayer-Kuckuk
Book excerpt
Persecuted by Mao, revered like Mao: Xi’s Relationship with the Great Superfather
Disclaimer: The following excerpt is a translation provided by China.Table and no authorized translation by the publisher or authors of the publication.
Mao was a monster – and Xi Jinping is fully aware of this fact. After all, he and his family members were persecuted, imprisoned, tortured under the rule of Mao, and his half-sister even took her own life as a result. Occasionally, people in China are being told it was actually not Mao himself, who was responsible for the worst crimes of the Cultural Revolution, but his wife Jiang Qing as well as three other members of the so-called “Gang of Four.” But this excuse is so absurd that Xi Jinping is wise enough not to repeat it. On the other hand, one hardly ever hears him repeat the well-known phrase of reformer Deng Xiaoping: “Mao was 70 percent right and 30 percent wrong,” even though it continues to be quoted in the official Chinese media. Whereby high Chinese functionaries have repeatedly told us in private conversations: Deng meant it the other way around – Mao was 70 percent bad and 30 percent good. But putting it this way could shake the people’s faith in the party.
September 9, 1976, Sichuan University in the city of Chengdu: Lectures were canceled. At 3 p.m., all students were supposed to gather. Nothing out of the ordinary, thought English student Jung Chang, back then this was everyday life at Chinese universities. With her face contorted in pain, the faculty party secretary stepped in front of the students, her halting voice croaking from the loudspeakers, “Our great leader, Chairman Mao, our venerable eminence -” At this very moment, everyone present realized what had happened and began to sob. Mao was dead.
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