{"id":65494,"date":"2021-07-03T15:00:48","date_gmt":"2021-07-03T05:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=65494"},"modified":"2021-07-06T14:05:26","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T04:05:26","slug":"the-great-glorious-and-correct-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-great-glorious-and-correct-party\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018great, glorious, and correct Party!\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

The official English-language translation<\/a> of Xi Jinping\u2019s 1 July speech marking the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s foundation is worth close reading for its pointers to the future. At around 5,200 words, the speech took Xi an hour to deliver. Given the significance attributed to the CCP\u2019s centenary, it is intended to be a substantive expression of China\u2019s place in the world, the party\u2019s place in China, and Xi\u2019s place in the party. Here are my top 10 takeaways.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Party has in the people its roots\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Running the speech through an online text analyser shows that the word \u2018Party\u2019 is used 84 times and \u2018people\u2019 is used 73 times, most typically together:<\/p>\n

As we have fought to establish and consolidate our leadership over the country, we have in fact been fighting to earn and keep the people\u2019s support \u2026 The Party has always represented the fundamental interests of all Chinese people; it stands with them through thick and thin and shares a common fate with them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This continues a longstanding propaganda line to conflate the party, the country and the people, meaning that opposition to the CCP will inevitably \u2018hurt the feelings\u2019 of 1.4 billion souls. In a speech filled with lies perhaps the biggest porky is that:<\/p>\n

The Party has no special interests of its own\u2014it has never represented any individual interest group, power group, or privileged stratum.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Breathtaking!<\/p>\n

\u2018China \u2026 is advancing with unstoppable momentum toward rejuvenation\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Rejuvenation\u2019 is mentioned 26 times. Xi\u2019s signature goal is \u2018rejuvenation for the Chinese nation\u2019 and specifically rejuvenation from the humiliation of foreign imperialists, whose bullying meant that \u2018China was gradually reduced to a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society and suffered greater ravages than ever before.\u2019<\/p>\n

While \u2018the Communist Party of China has secured extraordinary historical achievements on behalf of the people\u2019, rejuvenation has not yet been attained. What exactly would a rejuvenated China look like? Xi does not say. It is the journey to that goal which focuses the party and Xi\u2019s leadership is indispensable to the task. \u2018Struggle\u2019, another Xi leitmotif, is mentioned 13 times. It is a mobilising call, harnessing the people to seek rejuvenation. In this way, the party justifies its place and its actions and sets out what the people must do in taking \u2018well-coordinated steps toward making our people prosperous, our nation strong, and our country beautiful\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018Without the Communist Party of China, there would be no new China\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some Australian state premiers and university vice chancellors may cling to the hope that China will, someday, pluralise, liberalise and become more like Singapore. They should read this speech. Xi makes the case not only for the CCP\u2019s iron control, but for an even more centralised version of party rule:<\/p>\n

We must uphold the core position of the General Secretary on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole, and uphold the Central Committee\u2019s authority and its centralized, unified leadership.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Xi stresses that China\u2019s best way forward is through more intense central party control of the military, of business and of Chinese people at home and abroad. \u2018With strengthening the Party politically as our overarching principle, we must continue advancing the great new project of Party building in the new era.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Marxism works\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

We must continue to adapt the basic tenets of Marxism to China\u2019s specific realities and its fine traditional culture. We will use Marxism to observe, understand, and steer the trends of our times, and continue to develop the Marxism of contemporary China and in the 21st century.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Xi is a Leninist by instinct and a Marxist by adoption. We underestimate the role of both ideologies in shaping Xi\u2019s behaviour and in equipping the CCP with a powerful instrument of control by indoctrination. There are many instances in the speech where Xi instructs his audience to \u2018uphold\u2019 the basic tenets of Marxism, socialism, Mao Zedong thought and other party doctrine. Xi has sent the Chinese people back to their ideological books. We can dismiss that from our vantage point, but the party\u2019s ideological roots structure intellectual approaches in everything from military strategy to economic planning and are a powerful instrument of social control.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Party came to recognize the irrefutable truth that it must command the gun\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the journey ahead, we must fully implement the Party\u2019s thinking on strengthening the military in the new era as well as our military strategy for the new era, maintain the Party\u2019s absolute leadership over the people\u2019s armed forces, and follow a Chinese path to military development.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Xi stresses that the People\u2019s Liberation Army is the party\u2019s military and says, \u2018We will take comprehensive measures to enhance the political loyalty of the armed forces.\u2019 Don\u2019t underestimate how deep into PLA life that party instinct reaches. A recent Global Times<\/a><\/em> report<\/a> noted a concerning level of \u2018mental health problems, including anxiety, phobic anxiety, and paranoid ideation\u2019 among PLA Navy submariners. The solution?<\/p>\n

The PLA not only arranged medical professionals to take care of soldiers\u2019 mental health, but also take care of soldiers\u2019 mental health during daily political work, which is an advantage of China\u2019s system.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One wonders if that level of brainwashing will help to produce the \u2018world class\u2019 military Xi wants.<\/p>\n

\u2018on a collision course with a great wall of steel\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The official English translation of Xi\u2019s speech says:<\/p>\n

We will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate us. Anyone who would attempt to do so will find themselves on a collision course with a great wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Xi may have resorted to even fruitier language. Media reports have him saying<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Chinese people will absolutely not allow any foreign force to bully, oppress or enslave us and anyone who attempts to do so will face broken heads and bloodshed in front of the iron Great Wall of the 1.4 billion Chinese people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Either way, it is a remarkable statement, one more usually expected from North Korean leaders \u00a0than from the leaders of the \u2018world\u2019s second largest economy\u2019. Australians may reflect that a \u2018great wall of steel\u2019 will surely need a great deal of iron ore.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Party has always placed the united front in a position of importance\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Few Australians had heard of the United Front Work Department until a couple of years ago. Now we understand the role it plays globally as part of the CCP\u2019s overt and covert influencing campaigns. This is an ominous element to Xi\u2019s speech:<\/p>\n

The patriotic united front is an important means for the Party to unite all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, both at home and abroad, behind the goal of national rejuvenation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And later:<\/p>\n

We should strengthen theoretical and political guidance, build broad consensus, bring together the brightest minds, and expand common ground and the convergence of interests, so that all Chinese people, both at home and overseas, can focus their ingenuity and energy on the same goal and come together as a mighty force for realizing national rejuvenation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the eyes of the party, there are only \u2018overseas Chinese\u2019, not citizens of other countries who happen to be ethnically Chinese.<\/p>\n

\u2018It takes a good blacksmith to make good steel\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Xi stresses that the CCP must constantly reform itself to be an effective ruler.<\/p>\n

We must tighten the Party\u2019s organizational system, \u2026 remain committed to improving Party conduct, upholding integrity, and combating corruption, and root out any elements that would harm the Party\u2019s advanced nature and purity and any viruses that would erode its health.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Decoded, this means that Xi will continue purges of the party, PLA and security apparatus to strengthen his own control and prevent any alternative power sources from consolidating. Incidentally, this is the only use of the word \u2018virus\u2019 in the speech. So much for the party principle of \u2018upholding truth\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018We will ensure social stability in Hong Kong\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The saddest paragraph in the speech is this one:<\/p>\n

We will stay true to the letter and spirit of the principle of One Country, Two Systems, under which the people of Hong Kong administer Hong Kong, and the people of Macao administer Macao, both with a high degree of autonomy. We will ensure that the central government exercises overall jurisdiction over Hong Kong and Macao, and implement the legal systems and enforcement mechanisms for the two special administrative regions to safeguard national security.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Could more lies be packed into two sentences?<\/p>\n

\u2018We must take resolute action to utterly defeat any attempt toward \u201cTaiwan independence\u201d\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Taiwan, Xi\u2019s language is somewhat less alarmist than we have seen recently by at least saying that his aim is to \u2018advance peaceful national reunification\u2019, but this is four words out of 5,000 the broader effect of which is to promote a more nationalist, belligerent party-state intent on \u2018advancing with unstoppable momentum\u2019.<\/p>\n

Then there is this on Taiwan:<\/p>\n

All of us, compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, must come together and move forward in unison. We must take resolute action to utterly defeat any attempt toward \u2018Taiwan independence,\u2019 and work together to create a bright future for national rejuvenation. No one should underestimate the resolve, the will, and the ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This points to the sense of urgency which Xi has brought to the Taiwan question, as well as a call to Beijing\u2019s supporters in Taiwan that \u2018unison\u2019 is needed to move on the issue.<\/p>\n

Then there is the theatre of the speech at Tiananmen Square: the goose-stepping soldiers marching with fixed bayonets, the smiling, colour-coded crowds looking again like North Korean dance troupes clapping in unison, the jet flypasts, the politburo lined up in parade-stand pecking order, Xi in his Mao suit and clenched fists. \u2018Long live our great, glorious, and correct Party!\u2019 he cries.<\/p>\n

Xi says, \u2018Through the mirror of history, we can find where we currently stand and gain foresight into the future.\u2019<\/p>\n

Australia has never more desperately needed foresight into the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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