The Theory of China Model and the Rise of China 9781844643714, 9781844642717

Since the process of opening-up began, China has followed a unique path that's combined progressive economic polici

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The Theory of China Model and the Rise of China EDITORS IN CHIEF: ZHAO JIANYING, WU BAO TRANSLATED BY JIANG FANGFEI

The Theory of China Model and the Rise of China Editors in Chief: Zhao Jianying, Wu Bao Translated by Jiang Fangfei

Acknowledgements We sincerely appreciate the input of China Social Sciences Press's President Zhao Jianying's support for this project and Xia Xia, Yang Yang and Zhou Guanghuan in the department of international Cooperation & Publishing at CSSP served as the editors, making the proof-reading. They have done much work in arranging the preparation of the English version. We also sincerely appreciate the hard work of the translator, Ms. Jiang Fangfei and the final proof reader, Miss Jane Yang. Without their diligent work, this English version would not exist. Finally we especially appreciate the financial support in the publication of this book from CASS Innovation Translation Fund.

Januany 23, 2016

Contents

Having a Correct Knowledge of the People's Republic of China in the 60 Years .................................................................................................. 1 The Political Model of China's Development .................................................... 3 I. The Most Successful Industrialization in History............................................. 3 II. Reform of Political Structure Protects People's Rights and Releases Social Vitality .............................................................................................................. 6 III. Political System with Chinese Characteristics Pools Financial, Resources of the Masses and Guarantees China's Leapfrog Development ......................... 10 Socialism With Chinese Characteristics And the Development Path of Contemporary China ....................................................................................... 14 I. The Introduction of the Development Path of Contemporary China ................ 14 II. Connotation and Denotation of Contemporary China's Development Path.... 15 III. The Process of Exploration and Development of the Socialist Path with Chinese Characteristics................................................................................... 20 Explorations and Establishment of the Socialist Economic Mechanism with Chinese Characteristics .......................................................................... 25 I. From the New Democratic Economy to the Socialist Planned Economy......... 25 II. Establishment, Accomplishments and Limitations of the Socialist Planned Economy .......................................................................................................... 28 III. Transition from the Socialist Planned Economy to the Socialist Market Economy ......................................................................................................... 30 IV. Development and Improvements of the Socialist Market Economy .............. 34 The Effects of the China Model on Africa.......................................................... 38 China's Administrative Reform: Course, Strategy and Breakthrough ........ 4 7 I. The Course of China's Administrative Reform ................................................. 4 7 II. Highlighting the Government Reform: the Important Symbol of China's Reform Entering into Strategic Transition ..................................................... 48 III. The Government-centered Administrative Reform: Strategy and Breakthrough .................................................................................................. 49

New China in the past Six Decades and its Cultural Issues ............................ 60 Contribution of China's Political Model to the World Politics....................... 70 I. China's political model is addressing a series of critical issues posed by the development of the world's politics .................................................................. 70 II. Political Practice: Principled, Comprehensive, and Constant ......................... 71 III. Consciously Sticking to the Path with Chinese Characteristics ..................... 76

China's Path-from the Perspective of Social Forms and Modernization ... 78 I. Ethnic or National Contradictions and Social Fonn Contradictions ................ 78 II. National Independence and Modernization ..................................................... 82 III. Socialism and Modernization ......................................................................... 86 IV. The Dual Mandates of China's Road .............................................................. 89 The Socialist Outlook on Cultural Development with Chinese Characteristics................................................................................................... 92 I. Raising the Socialist Outlook on Cultural Development with Chinese Characteristics ................................................................................................... 92 II. Basic Meaning of the Socialist Outlook on Cultural Development with Chinese Characteristics ................................................................................... 97 III. The Theoretical Implications of the Socialist Outlook on Cultural Development with Chinese Characteristics .................................................... 104

Let History Illuminate the Road Ahead: The Market Economy Direction of China's Reform ................................................................................................. 108 I. "Crossing the River by Feeling for the Stones": Exploring a Path for Survival ............................................................................................................. 108 II. Identifying Targets of Market Economy Reform Step by Step ....................... 111 III. From "Incremental Reform" to "All-around Push-on" .................................. 114 IV. The Challenges in Improving the Market Economy....................................... 116 V. Conclusion: Let History Illuminate the Road Ahead ....................................... 121

Reftections on the China Model ........................................................................... 124 I. Essential Characteristics of China Model ......................................................... 125 II. China Model Attracts Global Attention ........................................................... 126 III. China Model in the Context of Globalization ................................................ 127 Painstaking Exploration and Successful Introduction of the Road of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics ........................................................ 130 I ......................................................................................................................... 130 II ......................................................................................................................... 134 III ......................................................................................................................... 138 A Probe into the Concept of China Model ......................................................... 141 I. When was the concept of China Model proposed? ........................................... 141 II. Can we use the concept of China Model? ....................................................... 144 III. How to define the scientific connotation of China Model? ............................ 147

Having a Correct Knowledge of the People's Republic of China in the 60 Years Chen Kuiyuan Fonner Vice Chairman of the CPPCC, Fonner President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

When looking back at the last 60 years of the People's Republic of China (PRC), we find a brilliant phase of history, which all the Chinese people and the members of the Communist Party of China (CPC) are so proud of. These six decades parallel any boom period in China's history in terms of what we have achieved, and are unique compared with what major capitalist countries have experienced since their establishment. Looking at the history of the international communist movement, we see the failure of the world's first socialist state 18 years ago: the automatic dissolution of the Communist Party of Soviet Union under pressure, the breakup of the socialist economic and political system and the social order, the separated country and the people in trouble, after which the socialist states in Eastern Europe even regressed to capitalism by themselves. It was the worst time in the course of international socialism when China also faced serious challenges. However, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee, we made it through the 1989 political turmoil. Now, the socialist China led by CPC is standing in the forefront, just as the Chinese poem in Song Dynasty goes, "shock troopers in the forefront hold the red flag up in hands.'>® The economic crisis has two folds. For one thing, it results from the escalation of inherent contradictions in capitalism, which is beyond change by our will. For another, it is a platform imposed by western capitalism to maneuver and exploit people in the West and the third world. The Western authorities will not ease its control over the third world. Since the waterloo at the Korean War, the American military, in light of the low morale, set up huge ~D So how to understand the historical dimension or dimension of values is not that important. How to properly use historical dimension is what matters. Although capital globalization has improved China's social productivity and civilization, it has suppressed and rejected Chinese capitalism. Undoubtedly, suppression and rejection held sway in this process, which has been proved by the Chinese modern history. Therefore, social contradictions should be neither oversimplified nor placed over ethnic or national contradictions. Moreover, the comparative advantage of bourgeois society could not deny the legitimacy of China's anti-aggression war. The war was not to safeguard the conservative feudalism, because it was triggered by ethnic-national contradictions rather than social contradictions. China's fights against imperialist invaders did not necessarily suggest that China rejected the advanced production modes and modernization or intended to secure its backward feudalism. In fact, anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism were just two sides of the equation. Ethnic-national contradictions must come before social contradictions. For Chinese intellectuals, anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism movements were for the same destiny. If imperialism cannot be knocked down, then feudalism cannot be overthrown.00 As some scholars have stated, social contradictions could not eliminate nor solve national contradictions. On the contrary, social contradictions could only be addressed after national contradictions. In other words, national contradictions had a high stake in the East-West relation.® Eastern countries prioritize ethnic-national contradictions. This is consistent with the objective laws of historical development of human society outlined in the historical materialism. From the perspective of world history, Marx spoke highly of China's anti-colonialism movement. Marx condemned the idea of "xenophobia mentality of barbarians" held by the colonialists. Instead, he noted that "whatever be the social causes, and whatever religious, dynastic, or national shape they may assume, that have brought about the chronic rebellions subsisting in China for about ten years past, and now gathered together in one formidable revolution the occasion of this outbreak has unquestionably been afforded by the English cannon ... ".00 The direct cause of revolution was "European interference, opium wars, and consequent disruption of the existing Government, the flow of silver out of the country, disturbance of the economic equilibrium through the introduction of foreign manufactures, etc. What seemed to me a paradox was that the opium animated instead of stupefying".® Marx believed that ''the next uprising of the people of Europe, and their next movement for republican freedom and economy of Government, may depend more probably on what is now passing in the

According to them, the bourgeoisie established modern countries or bourgeois states to safeguard their property and interests. Moreover, modern countries are compatible with the modern private ownership. Braudel has explained this as "capitalism only triumphs when it becomes identified with the state, when it is the state". The reason is very simple. Capital, as primitive and vulnerable as it was, could not thrive nor reach overseas without state's support and protection. So to realize modernization, a national state should first achieve independence. In the world history, nation-state is the vehicle of modernization. Since the industrial revolution, world historical development has proved that a nation or a state has a principal stake in productivity development. If nation-state improves productivity, the world productive force can develop as well. The industrial revolution has intensified global communication that leads to fierce competitions among all countries. These competitions have, in return, justified the leadership of state.CII This is true both to the West and East. Lenin also recognized the universal features of nation-state. According to him, capitalism has defeated feudalism during the past several hundreds of years, an era also characterized by national movements. Lenin said that, "the tendency of every national movement is towards the formation of national states, under which these requirements of modem capitalism are best satisfied. The most profound economic factors drive towards this goal, and, therefore, for the whole of Western Europe, nay, for the entire civilized world, the national state is typical and normal for the capitalist period".® Even though Western bourgeois nations have initiated national movement, however, they don't have a monopoly over national movement. Eastern countries have the same need and condition to develop capitalism and achieve modernization. The American scholar C.E. Black has analyzed the universalities of modernization and pointed out three essential criteria for modernization, one of which is "the creation of a national state with an effective government and a reasonably stable consensus on the part of the inhabitants as to ends and means".® As for the relationship between modernization and national independence, Marx always prioritized national independence. Based on which, Marx stated that, Eastern countries must gain national sovereignty as to modernize themselves. According to Marx, ® That is to say, man's mental production and cultural activities are, in the final analysis, determined by his material production practices. Marx and Engels also stressed the counteractive role of mental production and cultural activities in material production and economic activities. Engels, in his letter ® Since the opening of the Third Plenum of the 11th Central Committee of the CPC, both the second-and third-generation Chinese leaderships (led by Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin respectively) adhered to the basic ideas of Marxism, emphasizing that the relationship between economic progress and cultural progress and between material civilization and spiritual civilization must be understood and handled properly, and that a

® In the 12th Party Congress, he re-emphasized that "Our material civilization will be undermined and led astray unless spiritual civilization is built and strengthened. Our revolution and building wouldn't have been successful if we had relied solely on material conditions. In the past, no matter how small our party was, and no matter what difficulties we encountered, we had remained strong and powerful. This is because we had Marxism and communist beliefs. Once we have a common ideal, iron discipline will follow. This is our real strength, regardless of the past, present or future. It is a pity that some comrades have cast aside the truth, and therefore, find it hard to dedicate themselves to the building of spiritual civilization.'t® In his 1992 Southern Inspection Tour, Deng pointed out that "Guangdong should strive to catch up with the 'four small dragons' in Asia in a 20-years' time. Not only should we push up the economy, we should also create a good social order and a good social mood. We should surpass them in material development and cultural and ethical progress, this and this alone can be regarded as socialism with Chinese characteristics.•>® The third-generation Chinese leadership led by Jiang Zemin carried on and developed Deng's idea of handling the relations between material civilization and spiritual civilization and between cultural progress and economic progress in the great practice of building socialism with Chinese characteristics. In his speech on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, Jiang said: "The socialism with Chinese characteristics is an integrated whole of socialist economy, politics, and culture," and "We should not only build a socialist economy and politics with Chinese characteristics, we should also build a socialist culture with Chinese characteristics." Later, he reiterated

Q) Selected Works ofDeng Xiaoping, Vol. 2, Beijing: People's Publishing House, 1994, p. 208.

® Selected Works ofDeng Xiaoping, Vol. 2, Beijing: People's Publishing House, 1994, p. 367. ® Selected Works ofDeng Xiaoping, Vol. 3, Beijing: People's Publishing House, 1993, p. 144. @ Selected Works ofDeng Xiaoping, Vol. 3, Beijing: People's Publishing House, 1993, p. 378.

The Socialist Outlook on Cultural Development with Chinese Characteristics

95

the importance of advancing spiritual civilization and cultural development at the 14th Party Congress, and the Third and Sixth Plenums of the 141h CPC Central Committee. At the 151h Party Congress, Jiang systematically elaborated on the guidelines for building a socialist culture with Chinese characteristics at the primary stage of socialism: building a socialist culture with Chinese characteristics is an essential part of building socialism with Chinese characteristics and an important indicator of the country's overall national strength. The 161h Party Congress Report further stated: "In the present-day world, culture is interactive with economic and political activities, and its status and functions are becoming more and more outstanding in the competition in overall national strength. The power of culture is deeply rooted in the vitality, creativity and cohesion of a nation. All Party members must fully understand the strategic significance of cultural development and make socialist culture develop and flourish.'>(!) Assertions as such revealed the peculiar status and role of culture in the contemporary era, indicating that the Chinese Communist Party has realized the ever growing ties between culture, politics and economy. After the 16th National Congress of the CPC, the Chinese leadership headed by Hu Jintao adhered to the guidance of dialectical materialism and historical idealism, and proposed new notions and ideas of developing the socialist advanced culture in accordance with the new characteristics and trends of human practice. This has not only enriched the concept of the scientific outlook on development but has deepened our understanding of the socialist outlook on cultural development with Chinese characteristics. According to Hu Jintao, a nation without cultural foundation or continuous cultural innovation would never rise up in the world as a strong power. By associating cultural development with cultural innovation, he lifted cultural quality, foundation and innovation up to a height of achieving national revival. From then on, the Chinese Communist Party has attached greater importance to cultural development and has taken extensive and effective measures to promote the building of a socialist culture. The Fifth Plenum of the 16th CPC Congress, for instance, incorporated the cultural system reform into the important task of improving socialist market economy, and identified the outline and goals of deepening the reform. The Central Committee's Decision on Strengthening the Party's Governing Capability passed by the Fourth Plenum of the 16th Party Congress put forth the idea of deepening the cultural system reform and liberating and developing the cultural productive force. The Fifth Plenum of the 161h Party Congress required that a system of public cultural services be built, cultural undertakings and industry be actively promoted, and more and better cultural goods be produced to meet the growing needs of the masses. And the Several Opinions on Deepening the Cultural System Reform jointly issued by the Central Committee and the State Council further raised the necessity of ® and that "The present culture is actually a cultural stream that is forever in a flux. It is constantly undergoing innovations and renewals.•>® This indicates that culture is actually a creative force that evolves in constant innovations and changes, and that the human history of cultural development runs a long course of constant accumulations, innovations, reforms and regeneration. It becomes increasingly apparent that at present, cultural innovation has become the basis for the creativity of a nation state that has a direct bearing on the national revival of the Chinese nation. As put by Jiang Zemin, "Innovation is the soul of a nation's progress, and an inexhaustible motive force for the country's prosperity," "(We should) promote innovation in institutional, technological, cultural and other fields by ways of theoretical innovation," and "This is the way of governing the Party and the state in the long run.'>® With regard to some characteristics that have emerged in the new period, Hu Jintao set forth the goal of advancing China into the rank of innovative countries by 2020. In order to achieve the goal, he made it a special point that "(We should) try to develop an innovative culture and foster innovation in the whole society." The l'f'- Party Congress report also stressed that cultural innovation should be stimulated in content and form, structure and mechanism, and means of dissemination from the high starting point of our times, so as to invigorate our culture. All in all, in the contemporary era, culture is a foundational, pervasive, general and orientational force; it is also a productive, attractive, cohesive and creative force.