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Can Marxism-Leninism Survive Economic Reform?
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11771 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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4 / 1987 |
2,425 Words |
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Franz Michael
Franz Michael is professor emeritus at George Washington
University's Institute for Sino-Soviet Studies and is the
author of many books and articles on China, the Soviet Union,
and East Asia. |
For the men who rule China today, the paramount issue is whether they can lift the Chinese economy out of the nadir into which it had sunk after 30 years of communism under Mao Tse-tung and bring it to a competitive level without destroying the Marxist-Leninist system itself, the source of party power.
Nearly seven decades after the Bolshevik Revolution and more than 40 years since the end of World War II, it has become evident that the economic tenets of Marxism are seriously flawed. The economic policies based on these tenets have not only failed to achieve the promised results but have led to stagnation and suffering in all communist countries.
What singles China out from this general malaise is not only the gravity that the crisis has reached there because of the utopian vagaries of Mao, but also and audacity with which the post-Mao leadership under Deng Xiaoping is experimenting with innovations that are supposed to transform economy and society within the framework of Marxism-Leninism.
Can this be done? How far can these economic and social changes go without affecting the status of the ideological and structural framework of Marxism-Leninism itself? Or has the line between a free and controlled economy already been overstepped in China?
These questions are important not only for the future of China but for the whole communist orbit and, in turn, for the free world.
Why Hu was forced out
The forced resignation of General Secretary Hu Yaobang, the number two man of the ruling troika in China, appears to be of primary importance for any assessment of Deng's experimental policies and their chances for success within the Marxist-Leninist order. It has been widely reported that Hu was forced to step down because of his inability to handle the massive student demonstrations in December 1986 and January 1987 demanding "freedom and democracy." It was widely held that this embarrassing outbreak provided the opportunity for the opponents of Deng's policies of economic reform to bring their opposition into the open.
The so-called conservatives, under the guidance of Peng Zhen, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, were critical of the speed with which Deng's reforms were introduced and the danger they represented
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