TIE LIU
BEIJING, Sep. 17
The Chinese Communist Party's 17th Party Congress will take place in Beijing next month, which is a key event for all who are concerned about China's future and development. I would like to offer some important and necessary suggestions to those participating in this critical Congress.
Considering both the history and the reality of China, for the sake of the nation's rise and long-term peace and stability, the Chinese Communist Party should change its name to the Chinese Democratic Party or the Chinese Social Democratic Party.
The CCP supposedly follows Marxism, but even its founders, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, had already abandoned communism in their later years. They disbanded the Communist League, and never founded a Communist Party. Friedrich Engels, one of the founders of Marxism, is supposed to have said, "I planted the seed of a dragon, but it turned out to be a flea."
But Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, for their own political purposes, picked up the ideas of class struggle, violent revolution and dictatorship of the proletariat and used them to build their communist parties into forces of violence and dictatorship. They started revolutions aimed at eliminating private ownership, and established social systems that rejected advanced productivity.
However, the bourgeoisie and private ownership, which represent advanced forms of productivity, cannot be eliminated by violence. For scores of years, China carried out violent revolutions including the 10-year land reform (1927-1937, also known as the 10-year civil war), the 3-year revolution (1945-1949, also known as the second civil war between the Kuomintang and the CCP), and violent movements for land reform, nationalization of property and the establishment of collectives after 1949.
Although many people died during those periods, the system of private ownership was never eliminated. As a matter of fact, it now exists everywhere in China and is much stronger than before 1949. It is destroying the barriers set up by the communist movement.
Today's biggest group of "bourgeoisie" is made up of communists who hold the ruling power, and thousands of real capitalists who became rich under China's "opening up" policy. The Chinese word for "communism" means "sharing property equally." The Communist Party is not wise to keep this name, as people are wondering whose property the authorities want to share equally, the former or the latter?
Also, sharing things equally implies violence, dictatorship and instability. If the ruling party continues to be referred to as the "party to share property equally," it will be an open provocation to a stable and unified state. It goes directly against President Hu Jintao's professed ideals of people-oriented government, establishing a harmonious society and taking a scientific approach to development.
Moreover, the revised Chinese Constitution now clearly stipulates that private property should be protected.
Secondly, the Chinese People's Liberation Army should change its name to the Chinese People's Defense Army. The original name implies a state of civil war, class hatred and oppression. Otherwise, why should it be called the "liberation" army?
Who does the PLA still need to liberate today? Are they workers, farmers or intellectuals? Through many years of fighting and plundering the revolution overthrew the dictatorial Kuomintang and the corrupt regime of Chiang Kai-shek. Then, through violence, it stole the property of the bourgeoisie, confiscated the land of the landowners, and liberated the oppressed, enslaved and suffering ordinary people. Do these people need to be liberated once again?
Or does the PLA intend to liberate people all over the world? In the past, Mao Zedong deceived the Chinese people by telling them that two-thirds of the world's people were living "in deep water and hot fire." But since China opened its doors, its people began to realize that those living in capitalist countries have far better lives than people in socialist countries. (The Chinese people now realize that Mao's comment was actually only referring to the "deep water" of swimming pools and the "heat" omitted by central heating.) Nowadays, not even a 3-year-old would buy this lie.
Or does the PLA want to liberate Taiwan? Taiwan has always been part of China's territory. Chiang, who took the KMT to Taiwan, has passed away, and his descendents now are mostly common people. Meanwhile, the formerly dictatorial KMT has lost power to the Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan, which has an elected government today. Does this need to be destroyed by means of war?
Moreover, are the people living in Taiwan still oppressed today? In 2005 I went to Taiwan for a two-week visit. From that trip, I realized that ordinary people there enjoy much better lives than people in mainland China. An ordinary worker's monthly salary in Taiwan is no less than NT$15,000 (about 3,750 yuan, or US$450).
The so-called Taiwan issue is merely an issue of different political systems. This should not be resolved by means of war, but by competing in serving the people well and developing a better economy. Therefore, it is not an issue of liberation; it is an issue of unification between two political systems. We can only solve this conflict through negotiation, dialogue and reconciliation. Take the case of West and East Germany, for example. Didn't they accomplish unification without the use of guns or bombs?
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(Tie Liu is the pen name of a writer in Beijing. He formerly worked for the "Chengdu Daily." This article is edited and translated from the Chinese by UPI Asia Online; the original can be found at www.ncn.org. ©Copyright Tie Liu.)
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