The Chinese Reassessment of Socialism PDF
Preview The Chinese Reassessment of Socialism
The Chinese Reassessment of Socialism, 1976–1992 The Chinese Reassessment of Socialism, 1976–1992 Yan Sun PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY Copyright(cid:211) 1995byPrincetonUniversityPress PublishedbyPrincetonUniversityPress,41WilliamStreet, Princeton,NewJersey08540 IntheUnitedKingdom:PrincetonUniversityPress, Chichester,WestSussex AllRightsReserved. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Sun,Yan,1959– TheChinesereassessmentofsocialism,1976–1992/YanSun. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. eISBN 1-4008-0789-1 1.Communism—China. 2.Socialism—China. 3.China—Economic policy—1976–. 4.China—Politicsandgovernment—1976–. I.Title. HX418.5.S87 1995 335.43¢45—dc20 95-6349 CIP ThisbookhasbeencomposedinAdobeGalliard To my parents Contents Preface ix CHAPTERONE TheAffirmation,Development,andNegationofMarxism 3 CHAPTERTWO FromtheWhatevertotheDialecticalMaterialistApproach 22 CHAPTERTHREE CompetingModelsoftheSocialistEconomy 52 CHAPTERFOUR TheReassessmentoftheSocialistEconomicSystem 85 CHAPTERFIVE TheNoncompetingNatureoftheSocialistPoliticalSystem 121 CHAPTERSIX TheReassessmentoftheSocialistPoliticalSystem 153 CHAPTERSEVEN TheReconceptualizationofSocialism 183 CHAPTEREIGHT TheResponsetothe‘‘Liberal’’ReassessmentofSocialism 214 CHAPTERNINE TheChineseandSovietReassessmentsofSocialism: AComparison 237 CHAPTERTEN ThePost-MaoReassessmentofSocialismandthe ChineseSocialistExperience 258 Notes 277 References 329 Index 341 Preface MY FORMER classmates and mentors at the School of Foreign Affairs in BeijingwillbequitesurprisedthatIhavewrittenabookonChinesepoli- ticsandsocialism.WhilestudyingthereIwasknownforhavinglittlein- terestorcapabilityintherequiredpoliticsclasses.Onepoliticsinstructor even admonished me that if I could not master Marxist analytical tools, I would never be able to write analytical reports on world affairs. She insisted that I would see the empirical relevance of such tools once I leftschool. Theirrelevanceactuallybecameapparenttome,however,evenbefore Ileftthatschool.In1984,duringaspecial politicalreportsession,a re- port by Deng Liqun was read to us. The report criticized a couple of little-known graduate students who had presented papers challenging Marx’stheoryofcognitionatarecentacademicconferenceinGuilin.The gist of their challenge was that whereas Marx would say that the moon existedbeforeandwithoutone’sseeingit,theyarguedthatthemoondid not exist for them if they could not see it or if they chose to close their eyes. Deng warned us that graduate students, with their typical active minds, should guard against such dangerous discussions. Deng’s report seemedtometobefocusingonaridiculouspieceoftrivia,butitalsoset methinking:Whywasanobscureargumenttakensoseriously? ThecampaignagainstspiritualpollutionalsooccurredwhileIwasat- tendingthatschool.WhileIandmostofmyclassmatesbarelynoticedthe campaign, our Canadian instructor took it rather badly, to our puzzle- ment. Even though we assured her that we were used to such irrelevant campaignsanddidnottakethemseriously,ourinstructordecidedtore- turnhome.WhenanotherpoliticalcampaignsweptChinainlate1986,I wasstudyingatJohnsHopkinsUniversity.Evenfromadistance,thistime Icouldnothelpbutnoticeit.Thequestionagaincametomymind:Why were those “bourgeois liberals” and their ideas taken so seriously? After all,mostpeoplewouldnotevennoticethemiftheywerenotsingledout incampaigncriticisms. But what finally set my mind on the topic of this study was an article that I read for a course for which I was serving as a teaching assistant at Johns Hopkins. Discussing post-Mao Chinese pragmatism, the article flatlysaysthatevenChina’sforemostthinkersandwritersonlycomplain abouttheproblemsoftheirsystem;theydonotanalyzeorknowhowto analyzethedeepercauses.Becausetheydonosoulsearching,theydonot truly learn from the past. Having just witnessed the flourishing of ideas
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