The People’s Republic of China
celebrates the 67th anniversary of its founding today. Who can
forget Mao Zedung’s stirring words delivered on 1st October 1949,
that "today the Chinese people have stood up"! Mao’s words have enthused millions
of Chinese throughout this period. But doubts still linger about its survival. It
is a matter of historical record that the Soviet Union lasted for 74 years and
on its demise the Soviet Communist Party crashed into oblivion. The People’s
Republic of China has been in existence for nearly 67 years and therefore if we
were to follow the Soviet analogy; the People’s Republic should survive for at
least another 7 years, if not more. The Chinese leadership is not only
conscious of the analogy, but more importantly also aware of the significance
of the dates. It is common knowledge; that nothing concentrates the Chinese
leadership’s mind more than to ensure that there is no repeat of the Gorbachov
fiasco in China. It is said that the Chinese have commissioned a vast number of
studies to determine what actually went wrong in the ex-Soviet Union and what
led to its collapse. The Chinese leadership is determined not to commit the
same mistakes.
The question therefore is: what is China like today? What is the nature
of the Chinese state? After so many years of following Deng Xiaoping’s
reformist economic policies; it is certainly not any more a Marxist-Leninist
State in the pure classical sense of the term, having largely abandoned
Marxist-Leninist tenants. It is also not Confucian in nature, nor is it a
functional democracy with free elections, free speech as is commonly
understood. The present Chinese leaders themselves like to describe China as a
‘Socialist state with Chinese characteristics.’A common definition of socialism would indicate that it is a political doctrine under which the means of production should be in public [state] rather in private hands and that it would usher in a classless society, where inequality would be minimized, if not totally eliminated. But that is hardly true of Chinese society today, for under decisions taken at the 3rd Plenum of the Chinese Communist Party [CCP], not only is private ownership of the means of production emphasized, but even the pricing policy would have to be ‘market driven.’ At best it can be surmised that China today has a mixed economy, with a large number of state owned enterprises [SOEs], but that which function and are largely capitalist in orientation and practice.
The other pillar of socialism is that it is supposed to promote a
classless society with inequality reduced to a bare minimum. In the China of
today, to the contrary, there is increasing evidence of growing inequality. The
gini co-efficient for China, the internationally accepted measure of inequality
within a country, was between 0.46 and 0.49 in 2007; the highest for any Asian
country[i] and could be approaching 0.61. [ii]
According to the UN, if the gini co-efficient touches 0.44, danger signals on
internal stability should start flashing. This inequality is further
highlighted by the fact that the richest 10 percent in China own 45 percent of
the country’s wealth; whereas the poorest 10 percent own only 1.4 percent! [iii]
At the same time large income disparities exist between urban and rural
residents, between regions and in minority areas. In addition there are about 200
million internal migrant workers that are treated as second class citizens as
they are denied health care facilities, on par with local residents, and their
children often end up in sub-standard schools. The Chinese National People‘s
Congress [NPC] has 83 billionaires as its members, as opposed to none in the present US
Senate and House of Representatives. In recent times, both the New York Times
and Bloomberg were denied visas for their Beijing staff as they had published
articles that highlighted the wealth of family members of former PM Wen
Jiabao estimated at US$2.7billion and of other leading personalities of the regime.
Clearly therefore the China of today is
not a socialist country, even though some sections of the leadership may
encourage the singing of Maoist songs, glorification of Mao’s memory and the
waving of the red flag. But what are the ‘Chinese characteristics’ of socialism
that Deng first emphasized way back in 1978? The present governing group too
underlines this aspect.China is governed by 7 members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo as also 25 members who constitute the larger full Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]. They are unelected, for they ‘nominate’ themselves from the larger full Central Committee. From the apex level downwards there are thousands of officials, party members who control all the levers of power. They are all members of the CCP, the membership of which is increasingly seen as a vehicle for personal advancement, for pelf and for family gain. Determined not to commit the same mistakes as Gorbachov did in the ex-Soviet Union, the Chinese leaders have further tightened their grip on the levers of power, rather than to go in for even a limited version of liberalism or democracy. The power of local party officials has also not been touched. The People’s Armed Police is increasingly deployed to quell any disturbance or arrest any suspected trouble-makers. The judiciary, subservient to the state, too plays its part in ensuring domestic ‘weiwen’ or the maintenance of stability. It is not surprising therefore that the annual budget of the People’s Police [US $ 124billion] is larger than the budget for the PLA [US $ 119billion].
In the present Chinese system the armed
forces [PLA] are key instruments of the Party and firmly under its control
through the mechanism of the Central Military Commission [CMC]. All decisions,
pertaining to the PLA, must have the imprimatur of the CMC. And in the past,
the PLA has not hesitated to open fire on its own people as we witnessed in the
Tienanmen massacre of 1989. It was the PLA that rescued the Party from going
the Soviet way. Should the necessity ever arise again in the future therefore,
the CCP can rely on the armed might of the PLA to control the situation.
The CCP also sees itself as a vehicle for the promotion of Chinese nationalism. Since Socialist ideology all but died at Tienanmen, the Party has latched on to nationalism as its core belief in the hope of retaining the support of the Chinese people. This in turn has led to the adoption of hardline foreign policy postures, as witnessed in the position taken by the Chinese government in the South China Sea issue. This in turn means that China cannot afford to make territorial compromises which impinge on its image of a strong and a powerful country.
The Chinese leadership also maintains a tight grip on the means of
communications. Despite vast technological advances in the field of information
technology, the Chinese leadership have instituted what is known as a ‘Chinese
firewall’ to prevent the dissemination of information. Information security has
been elevated to become one of China’s core security concerns. According to
Amnesty International, China probably has the largest number of journalists and
cyber journalists in the world that are incarcerated. Although the number of
internet users in China in 2015 was expected to reach 750 million or about 52
percent of the population, yet the internet content is vigorously censured. As
the Vice-Minister from the State Internet Information Office, Ren Xianliang
explained the aim is to have ‘cyberspace with Chinese characteristics.’ In
addition all Chinese journalists are required to pass an ‘ideology’ exam before
receiving accreditation. The CCP also sees itself as a vehicle for the promotion of Chinese nationalism. Since Socialist ideology all but died at Tienanmen, the Party has latched on to nationalism as its core belief in the hope of retaining the support of the Chinese people. This in turn has led to the adoption of hardline foreign policy postures, as witnessed in the position taken by the Chinese government in the South China Sea issue. This in turn means that China cannot afford to make territorial compromises which impinge on its image of a strong and a powerful country.
However the Chinese state allows its citizens to travel and study
abroad. Unlike the Soviet Union there are about 120 million Chinese tourists
that travelled abroad in 2015; mainly to Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, South Korea
and Singapore and spent about US $215 billion. Similarly, again unlike the
Soviet Union, there are about 1.4 million Chinese students studying abroad, of
whom about 304,040 are in the US alone. This large turn-over is on an annual
basis. Almost all of China’s neighbors that Chinese tourists prefer visiting
are practicing democracies. China is the only major state in Asia [Vietnam apart] that is not a functioning
democracy. Similarly while in the US,
Chinese students would undoubtedly imbibe the spirit of democratic functioning
and witness at first hand the respect for individual freedom and rights. A
fairly large number of students do return home and they could become, in the future, the
agents for change.
Till China’s economy gallops along developing at 7 per cent annually,
there is little chance that domestic dissidence will get out of hand. The dream
of China emerging as a strong and one of the most powerful states in the world,
has strong and a very wide resonance amongst the Chinese people. It is a proud
moment for them. But China’s Gorbachov moment will arrive, if either the
economy starts to slow down irretrievably and begins to show signs of faltering
or if China suffers a major foreign policy and military fiasco as the Soviet
Union did in Afghanistan. 
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