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Jiang hints at need for change

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE Nov. 8. The Chinese President and the chief executive of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Jiang Zemin, on Friday set the tone for the anticipated new era in the country's politics at the beginning of the 21st Century.

Presenting a report to the 16th National Congress of the CPC, Mr. Jiang delivered a virtual "state-of-the-union" address in which he commended his own ``Three Represents Theory'' that might be enshrined in the party's constitution alongside Mao Zedong's Thought and Deng Xiaoping's Theory.

While the international community is bracing itself for a possible change at the helm of the CPC during the Congress, Mr. Jiang left the issue in a delicate state of political speculation.

However, while setting up new goal posts for the party and the country and evaluating the march of communism and socialism in a historical perspective and in a Chinese context, Mr. Jiang left no one in doubt that the priority task before the one-billion-plus Chinese people was economic growth in an atmosphere of peace at home that required a similar external environment.

Exhorting the CPC to fashion a world view with Chinese characteristics, he pointed out that "socialist modernisation'' and the construction of a ``well-off society in an all-round way'' were the essential ingredients of progress. It was in this context that he outlined the importance of national defence and "army-building'' as also the principle of "one country, two systems'', the latter being the basis of China's endeavours to unify all its territorial entitlements, including Taiwan. China's practice of an "independent foreign policy of peace'' was also underlined so as to complete the picture of a country with a comprehensive domestic vision and an equally important external outreach.

Deng Xiaoping Theory, which introduced communist China to the possibilities of intertwining socialism with some capitalist ingredients in a nation-building exercise, was in a sense refined by the "Three Represents Theory'', while Mao's original contributions of political thought would serve as the backdrop of contemporary history, Mr. Jiang hinted. The "Three Represents Theory'' is, in essence, an exhortation to the CPC to represent three forces in the Chinese society — the advanced production forces, the advanced cultural forces and the overwhelming majority of the people.

While the international community, the West in particular, tends to see the inclusion of the advanced production forces as a subtle invitation to the ``capitalists'' or at least as a hint that China would be willing to adopt capitalist practices in new and innovative ways, Mr. Jiang did not fully define the Chinese world view that he had in mind. Indicating, however, that he was looking at a future horizon different from the one that was dominated by the image of a "Red Star over China" in the mid-20th century, Mr. Jiang suggested in a subtle manner that the CPC should move away from its glass-house and onto a new political turf.

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