This is with reference to the article “China is going ideological” by Stein Ringen, in your newspaper of Apr 11, 2016. In my opinion, the Chinese Communist Party never had a problem with Marxism. It was a party born out of the Chinese need for a revolution. And it went through its own journey of discovering the practical process of making the revolution from scratch. It certainly informed itself of Marxism and made use of it. But it did not start with Marxism. The Chinese Communist Party used the best of the intellectual assets in Chinese history and philosophy. All that it incorporated in its own movement from Marxism was always integrated with its objective understanding of the Chinese reality in a dynamic state, and it certainly found parts of Marxism useful in that. The uniqueness and greatness of the Chinese Communist Party, in my opinion, lies in the trajectory which it has preserved. And that is, apart from individual exceptions, a continuity in its method. Which is that one generation of Chinese Leadership installs the next generation of Leadership which thinks and does differently from the previous generations of Leadership. And by the same token it corresponds more to the changing reality of China itself. This pattern which is not accidental but a product of the thinking and intellectual process and the cultural process of the Chinese revolutionary movement, continues today.
On the way the Chinese Communist Movement has made many experimental policies and ideas but it has always with an open mind learnt from its experiences and made changes in its personnel and policies. At all times with a price, sometimes more, sometimes less.
In my view in the present time, the Chinese Communist Party has already learnt how to enter and participate in the contemporary economic technologies and dynamics globally- in the global marketplace. At the same time they are consciously avoiding paying the price for such development in terms of a corrupted social motivation of worshipping material and monetary success. And putting on the back burner the issue of progress in the human dimension and the social dimension. Their greatness, I think, lies in the fact that they have become aware of the realities as they emerge and they are able to rationally think about the different aspects of reality and make policy changes and corrections without a commitment to any dogma. That I believe is a gift to them from their past intellectual history. And it certainly does not come from Marxism.
In conclusion I would like to add that in the Chinese tradition and that of the Communist Party as well they focus their attention upon existing reality rather than a long-term projection of man’s future in the social dimension; on the scale of man’s evolution which necessarily means taking a longer term view than that which the Chinese Communist Party has been taking. I personally believe that the time has come wherein man is capable of addressing the present reality as well as the evolving reality and have a vision and a policy which embraces both dimensions.
This is with reference to the article “China is going ideological” by Stein Ringen, in your newspaper of Apr 11, 2016. In my opinion, the Chinese Communist Party never had a problem with Marxism. It was a party born out of the Chinese need for a revolution. And it went through its own journey of discovering the practical process of making the revolution from scratch. It certainly informed itself of Marxism and made use of it. But it did not start with Marxism. The Chinese Communist Party used the best of the intellectual assets in Chinese history and philosophy. All that it incorporated in its own movement from Marxism was always integrated with its objective understanding of the Chinese reality in a dynamic state, and it certainly found parts of Marxism useful in that. The uniqueness and greatness of the Chinese Communist Party, in my opinion, lies in the trajectory which it has preserved. And that is, apart from individual exceptions, a continuity in its method. Which is that one generation of Chinese Leadership installs the next generation of Leadership which thinks and does differently from the previous generations of Leadership. And by the same token it corresponds more to the changing reality of China itself. This pattern which is not accidental but a product of the thinking and intellectual process and the cultural process of the Chinese revolutionary movement, continues today.
On the way the Chinese Communist Movement has made many experimental policies and ideas but it has always with an open mind learnt from its experiences and made changes in its personnel and policies. At all times with a price, sometimes more, sometimes less.
In my view in the present time, the Chinese Communist Party has already learnt how to enter and participate in the contemporary economic technologies and dynamics globally- in the global marketplace. At the same time they are consciously avoiding paying the price for such development in terms of a corrupted social motivation of worshipping material and monetary success. And putting on the back burner the issue of progress in the human dimension and the social dimension. Their greatness, I think, lies in the fact that they have become aware of the realities as they emerge and they are able to rationally think about the different aspects of reality and make policy changes and corrections without a commitment to any dogma. That I believe is a gift to them from their past intellectual history. And it certainly does not come from Marxism.
In conclusion I would like to add that in the Chinese tradition and that of the Communist Party as well they focus their attention upon existing reality rather than a long-term projection of man’s future in the social dimension; on the scale of man’s evolution which necessarily means taking a longer term view than that which the Chinese Communist Party has been taking. I personally believe that the time has come wherein man is capable of addressing the present reality as well as the evolving reality and have a vision and a policy which embraces both dimensions.
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