Socialism with Chinese Characteristics: A Guide for Foreigners

323 Pages·2021·5.197 MB·English

by  Roland Boer

Roland Boer
Socialism
with Chinese
Characteristics
A Guide for Foreigners
Socialism with Chinese Characteristics
Roland Boer
Socialism with Chinese
Characteristics
A Guide for Foreigners
RolandBoer
SchoolofMarxism
DalianUniversityofTechnology
Dalian,China
ISBN978-981-16-1621-1 ISBN978-981-16-1622-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1622-8
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ForDomenicoLosurdo(1941–2018)
Preface
LetmebeginwithaquotationfromMaoZedong:
Someforeignerssaythatourideologicalreformisbrainwashing.AsIseeit,theyarecorrectin
whattheysay.Itiswashingbrains,that’swhatitis!Thisbrainofminewaswashedtobecome
whatitis.Afterjoiningtherevolution,itwasslowlywashed,washedforseveraldecades.
WhatIreceivedbeforewasallbourgeoiseducation,andevensomefeudaleducation.(Mao
Zedong,quotedinShao2017,2)1
MaowasspeakingtoChinesestudentsstudyinginMoscowin1957,buthiswords
arestillresonanttoday.Formeatleast,thein-depthstudyofChineseMarxism,of
socialismwithChinesecharacteristics,hasrequiredawashingofmybrain,awashing
thathastakenadozenyearsormore.Why?WhenIfirstcametoChina,Ithought
Iwasopen-minded,thoughtthatIdidnotassumetheframeworksandassumptions
with which I had been brought up and educated. How wrong I was. Like other
foreigners,IhaddevelopedanopinionaboutChinathatwasquiteerroneous.Thisis
particularlysoforthosefromthesmallnumberofcountriesthatmakeupthe‘West’
(containingabout14%oftheglobalpopulation).Ihavefoundthatthosewhohave
grownupinsocialistcountries—pastandpresent—finditmucheasiertounderstand
socialismwithChinesecharacteristics.Thisisalsothecaseforthemanywhocome
from developing countries, for there too is a living memory of the experience of
colonialdepredationatthehandsofthe‘West’.Soifyouarelikeme,havingbeen
brought up and educated in one of the few Western countries, then you may well
need to engage in a process of washing your brain so as to be able to understand
socialismwithChinesecharacteristics,orsinifiedMarxism.
Another way of putting it is ‘liberating thought’, a term that became a central
feature of Deng Xiaoping’s tenure and crucial in the launching the Reform and
Opening-Up.ForDeng,liberatingthoughtentailedliberationfromolddogmasand
1Tosetthecontext:thetextIhavequotedcomesfromcommentsMaomadeontheeveningof
17 November, 1957. Mao had led a delegation to Moscow, from 2 to 21 November, 1957, for
a celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the October Revolution, and for two congresses of
CommunistandWorkers’Parties.Healsoengagedinawhirlwindofotheractivities.Aftermuch
anticipation,MaoarrivedatMoscowUniversityontheeveningof17Novembertospeakwithand
answerquestionsfrommorethan3,000ChinesestudentsstudyinginMoscow.
vii
viii Preface
assumptions about what socialism should be and indeed what capitalism was. To
be clear: this is not some liberal ‘freedom of expression’ that simply reinforces
Westernliberalframeworks.Instead,theliberationofthoughtiscentraltothecorrect
theoreticallineofMarxismitself:Marxismisnotadogma,butaguidetoaction,a
methodforanalysisandaframework—inChina—fortheconstructionofsocialism.
By now it should be obvious that I will have much to say concerning Marxism
inthisbook.ThesimplereasonisthatMarxismisfrontandcentreintheChinese
projectofconstructingsocialism.Socialism?Yes:Iagreewiththevastmajorityof
Chinese scholars and common people—along with not a few in many other parts
of the world—that the Chinese project is indeed a socialist project. Thus, if you
want to understand China, you need to understand Marxism, especially Chinese
Marxism.ThosewhoignoreChineseMarxismriskprofoundmisunderstandingsof
Chinaanditspath.MyprimaryfocusistheReformandOpening-Up,launchedby
DengXiaopingandtheCPCin1978.Iwillalsohavemuchtosayatvariouspoints
on the longer Marxist tradition—especially on the development of contradiction
analysisandthetheoryofsocialistdemocracy.Butmyfocusremainsthedistinctly
MarxistprojectoftheReformandOpening-Up.
AsIindicateintheintroductorychapter,thisbookprimarilyusesresearchunder-
taken by Chinese Marxist scholars in order to understand socialism with Chinese
characteristics. This research has thus far been overwhelmingly published in the
Chinese language and has not been studied outside China as much it should have
been studied. Although there are some notable exceptions—Domenico Losurdo,
ColinMackerras,NickKnight,StefanoAzzarà,andBarrySautman—Idonotfind
muchWesternmaterialonChinaparticularlyuseful.Mostoftheselatterworksfall
intothetrapof‘usingWesterncategoriestounderstandChina[yixijiezhong]’.2Even
more,whenanoccasionalWesternMarxistfeelscalledupontoopineaboutChina,we
findthatsuchaneffort‘usesWesterncategoriestounderstandMarx[yixijiema]’.For
thesereasonsandmore,itisnecessarytodeploytheextraordinarydepthandrangeof
ChineseMarxistscholarshiptounderstandsocialismwithChinesecharacteristics.
Many are those whom I need to thank for discussing and debating the material
presented in this book. They include Colin Mackerras, Stefano Azzarà, Antonis
Balasopoulos,YiannisKokosalakis,TamaraProsic,CarstenBoyerThøgersen,Sean
Sayers,GeoffBoucher,JamesJuniper,and—amonglocalCPAbranchmembers—
GrantOsland,PeterRønne,BrynnLewis,AndrewRayment,DarrenWard,andDave.
InChina,mylongpathtounderstandingsocialismwithChinesecharacteristicshas
includedvitalconversationswithYangHuilin,ZangFengyu,ZhangShuangli,Zhang
Jing, Zhu Yanming, Yu Min, and more recently Hong Xiaonan, Fang Yumei, Liu
Guixiang,ChenXiaogui,QuHong,andYanPing.IhopeIhavedonejusticetotheir
manyinsightsandhelpfulcomments,bothwittingandunwitting.Asever,Christina
2In the first Chapter (1.4.1) I provide a typology of sub-genres of many Western works on
China:secularapocalypse(‘Chinadoomer’),dystopianfiction(anditsassociated‘atrocitypropa-
ganda’),ghoststory,conspiracytheory(anditsbetrayalnarrative),Orientalistmystery,andsectarian
intolerance(adistinctfeatureofWesternMarxism).
Preface ix
Pettersonhasheardanddiscussedmostwithme,aspartofthedivisionoflabourin
ourcommonproject.
The book is dedicated to Domenico Losurdo, from whom I have learnt much.
Althoughwemetononlyoneoccasionbeforehedied,thattimewasaweektogether
inChina.Weparticipatedintwoconferences,oneinBeijingandoneinShanghai,
travellingbytrainbetweenthetwocities.Duringthattime,wetalkedmuchandfound
muchcommonground.Atonepoint,Losurdosaidtome:‘Youneedtobepatient;
we are part of the mainstream’. Of course, our mutual appreciation of and desire
tounderstandthemanydevelopmentsofMarxismfromRussiatoChina,especially
duringtheeraofsocialistconstructionafteraproletarianrevolution,meansthatwe
are in fact part of the mainstream. This means too that all of the developments in
ChineseMarxism,andthusofsocialismwithChinesecharacteristics,isindeedthe
mainstream. This book is an effort to present central features of this mainstream
developmenttothosewhomayknowrelativelylittlebutdesiretoknowmore.
Dalian,Liaoning,China RolandBoer
February2021
Reference
Shao,Ning.2017.Maozhuxiyongsanzhongyuyanshuo‘shijie’.Shanghailiusuxuexishenqing
huiyiMaoZedong60nianqianzaimosikedaxuefabiaojianghua:‘shijieshinimende...’Xinmin
wanbao,18November2017:1–2.Availableat:http://newsxmwb.xinmin.cn/xinminyan/2017/
11/18/31334807.html.
Contents
1 Introduction:MarxismasChina’sSpecialSkill .................. 1
1.1 General ................................................. 1
1.2 MarxismasChina’sSpecialSkill ........................... 1
1.2.1 DefiningMarxistPhilosophy ....................... 2
1.2.2 PhilosophyandtheSocialSciences .................. 4
1.2.3 TheGeneralSecretaryasaThinker .................. 7
1.3 ChineseCharacteristics ................................... 8
1.4 HistoricalNihilism ....................................... 10
1.4.1 TypologyofWesternGenres ....................... 10
1.4.2 UsingWesternCategoriestoUnderstandChina
(yixijiezhong) .................................... 13
1.5 Method ................................................. 15
1.6 ANoteonSources ....................................... 17
References .................................................... 19
2 ReadingDengXiaoping ........................................ 25
2.1 LiberatingThought(jiefangsixiang) ........................ 27
2.1.1 LiberationFrom .................................. 27
2.1.2 LiberationFor .................................... 29
2.2 SeekTruthfromFacts(shishiqiushi) ........................ 32
2.3 LiberatingtheForcesofProduction(jiefangshengchanli) ...... 37
2.4 Conclusion:LayingtheFoundationsforCommunism ......... 41
References .................................................... 44
3 ContradictionAnalysis:History,Meaning,andApplication ....... 55
3.1 OpeningRemarks ........................................ 55
3.2 Lenin ................................................... 57
3.3 DialecticalMaterialism ................................... 60
3.4 MaoZedong ............................................. 65
3.4.1 ContradictionandAntagonism ...................... 67
3.4.2 PrincipalandSecondaryContradictions .............. 71
xi
xii Contents
3.4.3 ChineseCharacteristics ............................ 73
3.5 Conclusion .............................................. 75
References .................................................... 77
4 TheMarxistBasisoftheReformandOpening-Up ................ 85
4.1 OpeningRemarks ........................................ 85
4.2 OneBigPotandHouseholdResponsibility .................. 86
4.2.1 ReturningtotheCountryside ....................... 86
4.2.2 CollectiveandIndividual .......................... 87
4.2.3 EqualityandDifference ............................ 88
4.3 Reform ................................................. 89
4.3.1 DeepeningReform ................................ 90
4.3.2 RevolutionandReform ............................ 91
4.3.3 TheWild90s ..................................... 93
4.4 Openingup .............................................. 97
4.4.1 HowtoRelatetoCapitalistCountries ................ 97
4.4.2 Self-RelianceandGlobalisation ..................... 99
4.5 ClassAnalysis ........................................... 100
4.5.1 InternalClassContradictions ....................... 100
4.5.2 InternationalClassAntagonisms .................... 102
4.6 OneCountry,TwoSystems ................................ 103
4.7 Conclusion:OneCentralTaskandTwoBasicPoints .......... 105
4.7.1 ReformandOpening-Up ........................... 107
4.7.2 FourCardinalPrinciples ........................... 107
4.7.3 BothHandsShouldBeHard ........................ 108
References .................................................... 109
5 China’sSocialistMarketEconomyandPlannedEconomy ........ 115
5.1 OpeningRemarks ........................................ 115
5.2 De-Linking:PlanningandtheMarket ....................... 116
5.2.1 DengXiaopingandtheSocialistMarketEconomy ..... 116
5.2.2 MarketEconomiesinHistory ....................... 118
5.3 ContradictionAnalysis .................................... 120
5.3.1 From Ownership to Liberating the Forces
ofProduction .................................... 120
5.3.2 PrimaryContradiction ............................. 121
5.4 IsItSocialist?UniversalityandParticularity ................. 123
5.4.1 UniversalityandParticularity ....................... 123
5.4.2 WhatMakesItSocialist? .......................... 124
5.4.3 ABasisinMarxandEngels ........................ 126
5.5 DialecticalTranscendence:BeyondPlanningandMarket
Economies .............................................. 128
5.5.1 From Temporal Narratives to Managing
theContradiction ................................. 128