From China Elections and Governance:
Does Chinese Communist Party’s reform and opening up policy since the Third Plenum of the 11th Central Committee a correct path to be upheld or a wrong path to be discarded? Over the past two years this has been the focus point of reform contention spreading from the Party to the society. Traditionalists reiterate the line they advocated back in 1989-1991 to criticize reform, asserting that “abolishing the planned economy and opting for the market is tantamount to shift from socialism to capitalism.” They criticized reformist leaders as capitalist roaders who have betrayed Mao Zedong thought of continuing revolution under the dictatorship of proletariat. They condemned continuing pushing forward economic privatization and political liberalization, whose manifestations are said to have abandoned or betrayed Marxist theories of class struggle and proletariat dictatorship. They charged that these two years central authorities have, without reason, put forward slogans and propositions devoid of class and revolutionary characteristics, such as “people-centered policies,” “peaceful rise,” “harmonious society,” and “well-to-do society” etc. They reproached the new party leadership for continuing to practice capitulation and compromise on foreign policies, no longer mentioning about Marxist internationalism or imperialism. “During reform, privatization, westernization, corruptionization, and polarization have basically completed, and have been again and again consolidated by institutional measures under the pretext of reform and opening up, cultivating a class of pro-American bourgeois.” They also asserted that the current problems with the medical and educational systems, the loss of state assets, polarization between the rich and the poor, and frequent mining calamities etc. are all brought about by “capitalist” policies. [Full Text]
