The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has coined and promoted many slogans from Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) time to the present day. A slogan-driven regime treats its people simultaneously as morons and a dangerous rabble.
Mao said that China’s people were “poor and blank” and one could write beautiful things on a blank sheet of paper. In other words, Mao wanted to write his own script on this blank sheet of paper after he prevailed in China’s civil war in 1949. And at times this new script needed to be rendered into easy slogans to follow the supreme leader.
This practice still continues, though not on the same scale. Chinese President Hu Jintao’s (胡錦濤) “harmonious society” slogan is a case in point. Like previous CCP slogans, this too is intended to hide a harsh reality. It tends to paper over the reality of multiple contradictions enveloping China, leading to growing social unrest in the country. A slogan is and was also a diversion when things were not going right.
Hu’s “harmonious society,” for instance, is increasingly acrimonious. This is evident from the harsh treatment of dissidents and protesters. The government is worried about a potential popular upsurge against the CCP’s rule on the lines of similar movements in Arab countries against their corrupt and venal rulers.
Even as China’s oligarchs are trying to clamp down on a potential rebellion by targeting artists, human rights activists and others championing democracy, they worry about an economic slowdown, and its social and political consequences.
In the absence of a popular electoral mandate, China’s rulers have sought to cultivate a measure of legitimacy by, first, rapid economic growth in the hope that some of it will trickle down to the masses; and, second, making China into a powerful nation and thereby channel some of their energies into national pride.
Regarding the first: China’s economy is starting to slow down; while inflation, asset bubbles, structural imbalances, the urban-rural divide and the growing income gaps are creating severe social problems.
China’s rulers are, therefore, worried that their main claim to legitimacy — economic growth and social stability — is whittling down. Since high economic growth is no longer sustainable, the CCP needs a new slogan to divert people’s attention. The “harmonious society” is therefore making a detour to become a “happy” society.
It started with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s (溫家寶) speech at this year’s National People’s Congress defining the party’s goal to make prosperity more “balanced.” The media and propaganda channels took it from there and started a happiness campaign.
As Keith Richburg reported from Beijing in the Washington Post: “On the May Day holiday in Beijing 17 giant screens and thousands of small televisions on buses and subways and in office buildings showed ‘happy testimonials’ from workers.”
“Beijing Television ran a series of short films called ‘Happy Blossoms’ documenting the apparently contented lives of teachers, factory workers and others,” he wrote.
Not to be left behind, the local and regional governments are said to be “drawing up happiness indexes and competing with one another for the title of ‘China’s happiest city.’”
In other words, “to get rich is glorious” is becoming outdated (at least for the aspirational class, as they cannot reach there), and replaced by “happiness.” And the happiest people apparently are low-paid teachers, factory workers and the like.
However, if the CCP is trying to hoodwink the masses with this new “happiness” mantra, while the rich and mega rich are getting richer, it might have another thing coming. The slowing economy has serious social and economic portents, which no amount of “happiness” sloganeering is likely to abate.
On the second point of nationalist pride as an exercise in legitimacy: The CCP has worked on it by highlighting China’s humiliation in the past by European colonial powers, and Japan. At times, it has been taken to a controlled feverish pitch, especially against Japan. Against this backdrop of rage, China has told the world that it will not be messed with any more and that it might be time to right the wrongs of the past.
This is what lies behind Beijing’s claim to a big chunk of the Asia-Pacific region (as its area of influence) and its seas, even though China’s wrath is being visited on its neighbors who have equally legitimate sovereign claims on some of these islands and sea around them.
Take the recent case of Chinese naval boats sabotaging Vietnam’s oil exploration activity in its maritime area, which China regards as its own. Vietnam has accused China of creating confrontation in the South China Sea and escalating regional tensions.
According to the Vietnamese account, three Chinese boats deliberately severed their survey ship’s cable in Vietnamese waters by sailing through the area.
Vietnam has maintained that its navy “will do everything necessary” to protect the country’s sovereignty. China, on the other hand, maintains that the actions of its vessels were “completely” justified. It has warned Vietnam against “creating new incidents.”
The US is said to be “concerned” about growing tensions between China and its neighbors.
Lately, China has indulged in some expansive military rhetoric. Last year, there were statements from some generals about the need to protect China’s far-flung economic and political interests. This year, General Liu Yuan (劉源), son of Mao’s one-time anointed heir, Liu Shaoqi (劉少奇), who was virtually hounded to death during the Cultural Revolution, has penned an essay glorifying war.
“Military culture is the oldest and most important wisdom of humanity,” he reportedly wrote. “Without war, where would grand unity come from? Without force, how could fusion of the nation, the race, the culture, the south and the north be achieved?”
This kind of ideology glorifying military culture and war is frightening — to say the least. And this should also worry the party that has always maintained that it alone commands the gun, and not the other way around.
General Luo Yuan (羅援) has reportedly suggested punishing the US by dumping US bonds, while Major General Zhu Chenghu (朱成虎) wants China to ditch its “no first strike” commitment on the use of nuclear weapons.
As the transition to power of the new leadership next year draws near, China is in a bit of a muddle. There is an ideological tussle — inevitably involving power struggle — going on between the left and right of the party — the former evoking Mao and the latter urging further economic liberalization and political reform within the party.
Liu, the political commissar of the logistics department, is hitching his wagon to the left’s caravan by turning the clock back to the 1950s with a call to “Let’s start again.” Is there an element in this of redeeming his father, who had become enemy No. 1 in Mao’s slogan of “Bombard the Headquarters,” that started the Cultural Revolution in 1966?
If so, even as China faces increasing social instability, the CCP too might be entering a power struggle akin to a new cultural revolution. However, it is unlikely to have the same intensity without the “helmsman.” The ghost of the “helmsman” is no substitute for the real Mao, but, as the proverb goes, China is living in interesting times.
Sushil Seth is a writer based in Australia.
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