By Gai Lin, secretary-general of EU-China Friendship Association
I have come to know many European political parties since I started to work in the European Parliament in 2005. Because of my job, I attended some routine caucuses of the Parliament, e.g. the caucus of Popular Party and caucus of European Conservatives and Reformists. I have also attended several annual meetings, regional meetings and precinct meetings of the British Conservative Party, and canvassed for it in the two European elections. Because the EU-China Friendship Group in the European Parliament is a cross-party organization, its members come from different countries and parties. As the secretary-general, my job is to support them for better work. They would often ask me about the Communist Party of China. Based on the differences between the eastern and western culture and political system, I become increasingly aware of a fact—we need to understand the Communist Party of China from the perspective of the fundamental nature of Chinese civilization.
Adapting Marxism to the Chinese context
Chinese civilization is extensive and profound. Its fundamental nature is being inclusive to external culture and philosophies. Chinese civilization absorbs the essence of other civilizations through incorporating things of diverse nature, and then integrates it perfectly into its own culture; meanwhile, it creates new theories suitable for the real conditions based on the principle of “breaking new ground and advancing with the times”, so it is well established and remains vigorous. Marxismbrims with renewed vigor and vitality after China integrated it into its own experiences and reinvented it. Over the past 100 years, the Communist Party of China always sticks to the principle of adapting the basic tenets of Marxism to China’s specific realities and its fine traditional culture, and keeps adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and new times, thus producing the theory of “socialism with Chinese characteristics”.
Some European Congressman and colleagues have told me that they do not recognize Marxism because its governance in many European countries ended in failure. They also think it is only one of numerous theories and has a lot of drawbacks. A colleague comments that Marxism is overly idealized, and “its Achilles heel lies in the fact that it neglects human nature”. But despite all their doubts about it, all of them are unable to deny the fact that the Communist Party of China insisting on basic principles of Marxism has turned a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country into the independent new China. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has not only lifted new China from the state of “poverty and backwardness”, but also made it a powerful country ranking No.2 in the world in terms of gross domestic product.
Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth. But why does Marxism not work in the west? In my opinion, due to the absoluteness and exclusiveness contained in the western culture and history, the Marxist theory cannot be integrated, innovated and utilized properly there. In China’s cultural context, the Marxist theory is like flowing water, full of vigor, but stagnant water in the west.
The Communist Party of China is different from western political parties by nature.
The fundamental nature of Chinese civilization adapts the concept of “political party” to the Chinese context in the same way. The thought of unification played a key role in ancient China. The concepts of unification, cohesion, unity and discipline are passed down the history to today, and they have transformed the concept of “political party” in nature and attributes in China. Western political parties, more often than not, only represent the interests of some interest groups or privileged strata. For example, the British Conservative Party was Tory party which represented the interests of land aristocrats and upper classes in the earlier period, and now it still represents that of upper classes and capitalists after hundreds of years. The Labor Party, the rival of it, has 90% of its members coming from the trade union. So they only represent the interests of some people. On the contrary, the CPC represents the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people all the time, without any special interests for itself. So we can say it is different from western political parties by nature.
The CPC is committed to its fundamental purpose of wholeheartedly serving the people. However, several questions would be derived from “serving the people” in Europe, e.g. which groups of people have priority in receiving the service and how they will be served. As a result, different parties come into being. For example, most politicians think European integration is beneficial to the European people, but the path to that goal caused some right-wing European political parties to break away from the EPP in the European Parliament and set up European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). Another example is the UK. Some British politicians’ arguments on the issue of Brexit led to divisions inside the Conservative Party, and two prime ministers were forced to resign. The UK held the general election ahead of time and some members even chose to break away from the Conservative Party and set up UKIP. Later, due to the Brexit process in dispute,Brexit Party split from the UKIP.
The CPC keeps stricter discipline than western political parties. Let’s only compare the CPC and the British political parties. A report of the House of Commons points out that 52% of UKIP members, 51% of the Scottish National Party (SNP) members, about 33% of the Conservative Party members and Liberal Democrat Party members, and 23% of the Labor Party members attended one party meeting from 2012 to 2017. Only 49% of the conservative members signed the petition supporting the policy of their political party. Less than half of the liberal democrats, about 37% of the conservative members and 28% of the Labor Party members handed out party leaflets before elections. By comparison, every CPC member, irrespective of position and industry/sector, must join a branch, group, or other given unit of the Party; participate in regular activities of the Party organization; and accept the oversight of the people both within and outside the Party. A large number of facts can testify that CPC members are more serious and disciplined than their counterparts of British parties.
Democracy adapted for the Chinese context
Democracy was likewise adapted for the Chinese context after being introduced to China because of the fundamental nature of Chinese civilization. A well-established view in Chinese civilization is to pursue the most appropriate state in one’s words and deeds, namely the “golden mean”. Democracy is often comparative. Excessive democracy will cause chaos in the society and low efficiency in actions. For example, in the containment of the Covid-19 epidemic, the low efficiency in the western democratic system is evident. The so-called “democracy” in the West hindered the process of bringing the epidemic under control in a prompt and efficient manner when it was rampant across the globe. The consequence was that the epidemic spread more quickly.
The reason for this problem is lack of communication and consultation with the public during the process of decision-making, which led to imbalance between centralized decision and democracy. Demonstrations caused social disorder and even violence, and this is a result of abuse of freedom.
In Chinese culture, democracy and centralization are comparative, so are freedom and discipline. They are contradictory and unified, requiring checks and balances. Democracy finally developed into the democratic centralism in China. Major decisions are subject to voting, individual Party members defer to Party organizations, the minority defers to the majority, the leading bodies and decision agents at all levels are elected, lower-level Party organizations defer to higher-level Party organizations, higher-level Party organizations listen to the suggestions of lower-level Party organizations when making decisions, and higher-level Party organizations solve the problems put forward by lower-level Party organizations under mutual supervision, party committees at all levels shall function on the principle of combining collective leadership with individual responsibility based on the division of work, all Party members defer to the National Congress and the Central Committee of the Party.
In summary, the CPC is completely different from European political parties in nature and attributes since they have different cultural background and civilization. Marxism shows new vitality in Chinese culture, and the socialism with Chinese characteristics has blazed a new trail with the nourishment of Chinese civilization with a long history of 5,000 years. The times are proving the distinct cultural characteristics and advantages of China’s democracy. So long as we build on past successes, keep making innovation and insist on deepening reform, the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era will have infinite possibilities and brighter prospects. (End)
The interview record was first published on January 11, 2022 by China News Service.
