The Washington Post has reported on Monday that China¡¯s Communist Party has
launched a campaign among Party leaders and senior academics to modernize
¡°Chinese Marxism¡± - socialism with Chinese characteristics. The paper said
Beijing is trying to reconcile contradictions between the government's founding
ideology of Marxism and the broadly-implemented free market reforms.
The Post reported that new translations of Marxist literature will come out
and texts for secondary school and university students will be updated. In
addition, the campaign will promote more research on how Marxism can be
redefined to better guide China's current policies.
Obviously private enterprise has become the basis of China¡¯s economy.
The undertaking seems designed as a response to frequent complaints about the
chasm between official discourse of building "socialism with Chinese
characteristics" and the growing reality of unbridled capitalism.
Chinese university students are puzzled at what they are taught of Marxist
theory, and the gap of the free market practices which the top leadership has
adopted.
The Post reported that a prominent university's party secretary recently told
a visitor that his school had resolved the problem by simply teaching
traditional Chinese philosophy, during the time set aside for the study of
Marxism.
One Marxism researcher, Yan Shuhan of the Central Compilation and Translation
Bureau, told Oriental Outlook magazine last month that some local officials had
responded to him by laughing at Yan that "it's already out of date to talk about
and do research on Marxism."
"The theory needs to be innovated on and fully developed," acknowledged Zhen
Xiaoying, deputy head of the government's Chinese Socialism Institute. She
added: "This is the most important stage. We are trying to use Marxism to solve
China's problems. We are not only going to study the basic documents but also to
seek solutions to China's current problems."
Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have publicly praised the
Marxist theory, but have resisted calls to rein in the economic liberalization,
which has produced booming economic growth in China. The Post reported that in a
latest meeting, Hu called for new ways of looking at Marxism doctrine to bring
it into line with China's modern reality.
"In order to build a well-off society in a complete way and promote the
modernization of our socialist society, China must step up theoretical studies
of Marxism and explore the theory on a still broader stage," Hu was quoted as
telling fellow members of the CPC Central Committee's Politburo.
For the past 25 years, China¡¯s leaders have been finding a blend of Marxism
and capitalism to feed into the academic study and actual use. Socialism with
Chinese characteristics is the shining line of this research. The essence of
what the Chinese leadership is doing is trying to build up wealth for its people
first and fast. Singapore-style capitalism is the ideal model,
perhaps.
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