Foreign Perspective

China 'best served' with CPC at the helm

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-23 08:59

How can the CPC play an effective role in helping to strengthen people's moral values in today's China?

Not withstanding all of China's historic economic success, I say that economic growth is the CPC's second most important accomplishment. The first and most important accomplishment is the opening-up of the Chinese people's minds, giving increasingly greater freedoms in all aspects of personal and social life.

Values are hard issues in all societies, and in the age of the Internet and the mobile phone, it is easy for people to gravitate to their parochial interests at the expense of a wholly unified society. This is not necessarily a bad thing. People should be allowed to find their own values and ideals. A rich vibrant society does not speak with one voice. Yet, all must conform to the standard norms of behavior that enable societies to function for the benefit of all.

Certainly China's ancient civilization offers enduring values and profound ethical ideas. Religion, in all its many and variegated expressions, works for some. Others seek to advance their own careers, say, in science or education or healthcare, and as such they contribute to an advancing society. All of these can facilitate social progress. China must not make the mistake of trying to coerce everyone to conform to the same values or ways of thinking. The "cultural revolution" proved for all time the monumental folly of imposing arbitrary values.

I applaud the CPC's commitment to improve quality and standards in all areas, such as purity of food and medicine, integrity in scientific research, and honesty in sports. The CPC must lead China to world-class levels in all its social outputs, and not simply seek growth and profits at all costs. The future of China depends on this.

What kind of a role should China play in the world? How can the CPC help the country improve its image?

In an incredibly short period of time, China's power in the world has increased dramatically - in politics, defense and international affairs, as well as in economics, business and finance. As such, China must shoulder more responsibilities on a global basis, perhaps sooner and to a greater degree than China's leaders feel comfortable doing.

China must recognize that the stability of the world requires that all nations have peaceful policies, internationally with other nations and domestically with their own people. China must look to the future, not to the past, in its dealings with countries that flout international norms. Countries that do not benefit their own people do not reflect China's system or new way of thinking. China has progressed greatly in its international respect.

The best way for China's image in the world to continue, to improve is for the Chinese people to participate in, and excel in, all arenas of high human endeavor: economics, business and finance; science, technology and new knowledge creation; and media, entertainment and sports. When people around the world read that Chinese scientists are publishing more papers in high-level journals, or Chinese pianists and violinists are performing with leading symphony orchestras, or Chinese peacekeeping missions are supporting UN resolutions, all these greatly improve China's image. These are the real stories of New China.

China is criticized for its human rights policies. You comment on China's human rights in the Western media and even debate this sensitive topic. What is your approach?

Human societies are complex and trade-offs are required. All social, economic and political goods cannot be maximized at the same time. The key is to optimize these diverse goods and optimization requires good governance. In China, good governance drives the social contract between the CPC and the people. But good governance is always on trial and the social contract must be continuously renewed.

Here is the social contract from the perspective of China's leaders. The economic human rights to a decent standard of living and the social human rights to personal and social freedoms of more than 1.3 billion people are more important than the unfettered political human rights of a relatively few people. In order for China to continue its remarkable development, and to continue to increase the personal and social freedoms of its people, political stability is required. There can be no progress without stability, and instability, which China endured throughout much of the horrific 20th century, both imposed by foreigners and severely self-generated, has been a national scourge. Political stability requires a one-party system, which itself requires limitations of certain political rights, such as assembly, and restrictions of media freedoms, namely, political debate. Yet, today, the Chinese people have more personal and social freedoms than at any time in their 5,000-year history.

Whatever we may say in the West, a significant majority of the Chinese people support the one-party system led by the CPC - notwithstanding all China's problems, including social inequality and corruption. This is confirmed by independent Western surveys. Yet, political reform is essential - improving transparency, the process of governance, and people's oversight of government - so that social and political democracy as well as economic prosperity can continue to develop.

But this argument does not give the CPC a "free pass". Because certain human rights are restricted in order to maintain the CPC's mandated and enforced ruling party status, the CPC has, as I've stressed, a higher obligation to benefit citizens. The CPC must improve the lives and uplift the spirits of the people - and this applies not only to enhancing standards of living but also to assuring the dignity and integrity of human beings. Fifty years ago, the CPC ruled by affirming its leftist ideological purity and self-claimed social superiority. Now CPC leaders state openly that the Party's ruling legitimacy is based solely on its performance. "The CPC will continue to be the ruling party," a Chinese leader told me, "only if the CPC serves the people, not ourselves."

Can the CPC win the battle against corruption?

Corruption is a human frailty and no political system is immune. When economic systems change, when vast state resources are privatized, fortunes are made with astonishing speed-such that powerful behavioral forces can overwhelm morally weak officials. A combustible mixture of greed, envy, and anxiety over eroding power lead some to fall victim to baser instincts.

Corruption is ubiquitous in China and noxious to the Chinese people. It transfers resources illegally from general society to venal individuals, effectively stealing from everyone. It pervades commerce and government and has proved maddeningly resilient to attack. Corruption is a drag on the economy and a scourge on society. It distorts economic decisions and undermines economic efficiency, and it threatens political stability and delegitimizes the State. Corruption, rightly, engenders public anger.

Some say that corruption in China is the enduring, corrosive impact of the "cultural revolution", which decimated Chinese culture and destabilized Chinese society-so that there remains little immunity to moral diseases of avarice and greed. Others, primarily leftists, blame the market economy, which, they say, promotes wealth and individualism at the expense of socialism and collectivism.

The solution, China's leaders rightly conclude, lies in deepening reform, not backtracking from it. Senior leaders do not whitewash the problem: they are aware of its gravity and serious about curtailing it. Former president Jiang Zemin, President Hu Jintao and Vice-President Xi Jinping all have fought corruption. To China's leaders, corruption impedes China from becoming a great nation.

Though corruption can never be eradicated, it can be controlled most effectively with a press/media that is free to ferret out, scrutinize and expose dishonest officials. Corruption flourishes in dark crevices, shielded by the shadow of authoritarian protectionism. Only the bright light of an investigative free press, working without restriction or fear, and the enforcement power of an independent judiciary, operating under a rule of law, can root out corruption. Only the media has the motivation and the manpower, and the temperament, to reveal corruption comprehensively. As the freedom of the press/media to report corruption increases, the severity of corruption decreases. The Chinese government does permit, and even encourages, anti-corruption investigative reporting. This marks progress in the CPC's long war against corruption, but more is needed.

Reporting corruption can be a conundrum. If reporting is too timid, corruption will remain concealed and flourish. If reporting is too intense, social confidence can waver and central authority may be undermined. It is a conundrum that is not going away.

Some in the West wonder whether a "Jasmine Revolution", which has engulfed the Arab World, will affect China. What do you say?

Though China and many Arab countries have one-party-rule political systems, in China there are fundamental differences. Here are three. First, the CPC has delivered unprecedented economic growth. Second, the CPC has enacted political reform, such as by enforcing strict age and term limits for officials and even for State leaders, and by facilitating public input to government, especially through the Internet. Third, whereas more than 50 percent of young people in the Arab world are unemployed, China gets about 80 percent of university graduates employed in one way or another. So while a "Jasmine-style Revolution" is unlikely in China, China's leaders are ever watchful and they will not take chances.

That said, China has its own set of serious problems, including worker discontent and the growing gap between rich and poor. China's historic challenge is to bring about two massive transformations: the permanent migration of roughly 400 million rural citizens into urban areas, and massive industrial restructuring so that Chinese enterprises can generate higher gross margins by technological innovation, branding, etc., and thereby pay workers higher salaries. China's future cannot be like its past.