The Hindu : Jiang Zemin's claim to fame

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 23, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

Jiang Zemin's claim to fame

By C. Raja Mohan

BEIJING AUG. 22. Will the outgoing Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, be elevated to modern China's Communist Pantheon? That is the big question here as China prepares for the 16th Congress of the Communist Party that convenes later this year. What is Mr. Jiang's claim for a place at the highest pedestal in Communist China?

It is based on the theory of ``Three Represents'' that Mr. Jiang unveiled last year. Peering into the future of China, Mr. Jiang said the Party must represent three important trends, if it wants to stay in the driver's seat of Chinese society for the foreseeable future.

One, Communist Party of China must represent the advanced forces of production. Mr. Jiang is saying that the Party must ensure that China stays ahead of the technological curve by persisting with continuous modernisation of its economy.

Second, the CPC must represent the advanced forces of culture. The emphasis here is on developing China's own national culture by absorbing what is good from other cultures, including the Western. Third, the party must represent the broad masses of the population and not just the workers and peasants.

One of the central issues that has come out of the ``Three Represents'' theory: whether the Party must open its doors to entrepreneurs and capitalists. The supporters of Mr. Jiang's theory say, what is important is whether an individual is willing to abide by the rules rather than his class character.

The mass campaign here over the last few months to popularise ``Three Represents'' has generated speculation in the Western media that the idea is likely to be canonised in the upcoming CPC Congress. If ``Three Represents'' is incorporated into CPC's ideology, will the endorsement of ``Jiang Zemin's thought'' be far behind?

The appellation of ``thought'' is not used loosely by Chinese Communists. The CPC today officially invokes ``Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong thought'' as the guiding principles. It celebrates the great contribution of Deng Xiaoping who set China on the course of modernisation nearly a quarter century ago.

Deng's ideas are described as a ``theory'', but have not been elevated to the level of ``thought''. As long as he lived, Deng refused to let his ideas labelled as either ``theory'' or ``thought''. The description of his modernisation agenda as a ``theory'' came after his death in 1997. In adopting ``Three Represents'' as part of its ideological principles, the CPC will be hailing Mr. Jiang's contribution towards a redefinition of the Party's future course. The Party Congress is being eagerly awaited to see if the theory of ``Three Represents'' will gain the higher imprimatur of a guiding ``thought'', and identified with Mr. Jiang by name.

* * *

Western media has been poking fun at Mr. Jiang's experiments with Communist theory and the mass campaign to promote the somewhat awkwardly titled theory of ``Three Represents''. Any mass scale campaign like this invites cynicism. Particularly at a moment when Chinese people are no longer excited by ideology.

Nevertheless, ``Three Represents'' must be seen as a serious attempt by the CPC to come to terms with the changed world. Mr. Jiang's ideas are the product of a study he initiated following the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union. The questions he asked were simple: How do Chinese communists avoid the fate of their fellow travellers in Russia and Eastern Europe? How does the CPC continue to lead China in the uncertain world ahead?

``Three Represents'' provides one set of answers. To be sure, the idea of opening the doors of the Communist Party to capitalists, in trying to represent all sections of the society, is controversial. Others are sceptical of the idea of China learning from other cultures, particularly the Western. Mr. Jiang's ideas may not be entirely satisfying. But no one else has come up with better, or any, answers on the future of communism.

* * *

The strongest criticism of ``Three Represents'' could be that it could begin to transform the Communist Party of China into a Social Democratic Party. This line of argument that the CPC is yielding on its basic moorings is, of course, rejected vehemently by the leadership.

Yet, in the recent years, the ideologues of the CPC have taken a strong interest in the workings of the social democratic parties in Europe, in particular the SPD of Germany. In the end, labelling of the CPC is far less important than the urgent political need to reinvent itself to remain relevant to China's future.

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