Part One　China’s Overal Development Strategies

Chapter 1　China’s Overall Development Strategies
– Building Socialism with Chinese Characteristics

I. The color outside the window

On January 31, 2008, accompanied by Chinese consular officials in the US, I paid a visit to the World Affairs Council in Los Angeles, one of the best-known think tanks in the world. It was part of the tasks assigned by the Central Committee of the CPC to introduce the spirit of the CPC’s 17th National Congress to people in the US and Canada.

After entering the building I first held a brief meeting with a charming lady, who was vice president of the World Affairs Council. She extended a warm welcome and explained the lunch arrangements to me. I would give a lecture that lasted five to ten minutes, and then answer questions during lunch.

We then entered the event venue. The lady chaired the meeting. She first introduced the guests to me. These guests included executives from airline companies, banks, and investment firms, professors from universities, movie directors, lawyers, and priests, as well as a former official from the United Nations Development Program. The official told me that he had visited China more than 20 times. Many of these guests were board members of the World Affairs Council, and some were overseas Chinese. It was evident to me that these were eminent figures from all walks of life who represented the US elite.

The hostess then introduced me to the guests, saying that I was a graduate from Nanjing Normal University and my research interests covered the Communist International. They had really done their homework.

I then began my presentation. I did not have any script prepared for the occasion, and I had to improvise.

I began: “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m so glad to have this opportunity to pay a visit to the World Affairs Council in Los Angeles and share my views with you. When I first entered this building, I had this question in mind. ‘Your organization is called the World Affairs Council, so what does the world mean to you?’ In the eyes of an astronomer, the world is nothing but a small sphere; in the eyes of a historian, the world is an art gallery; while for ordinary people like us, the world might be an active volcano or a beautiful garden. Of course we can say that the world is a bridge, the very bridge that connects different peoples from different countries.”

The audience responded with applause.

I continued my speech, “China and the US have so many differences, but our two countries also have things in common. For example, I know that we have guests here from the aircraft manufacturing sector – well, I took a US manufactured plane to arrive in your country (laughters); and there are guests from the University of Southern California, to which we paid a visit yesterday. And some of the guests have studied or worked at Nanjing University – I’m a visiting professor at Nanjing University. That is why it is a colorful world. We have been given the same opportunities, and are destined to deal with the same challenges. That is why communication is important to us and we need to build a bridge. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the World Affairs Council for its hard work on bridge-building. I’m here today to give you a brief introduction to China’s latest developments and its future trend.”

I then explained to them briefly the spirit of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. We then had lunch together, and it was time for taking questions.

The first questions were: What is China’s view on sustainable development? What measures has China taken to promote sustainable development? The questions were raised by a lady and I considered this question a “soft one to start with”.

Then a gentleman asked me another question, which was not “gentle”at all. He asked: “After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, many former communist countries refused to accept communist policies as their official policies; in fact China and Cuba are now the world’s only two countries implementing communist policies. Why is this and has China had any second thoughts? Has China ever considered adjusting its policies?”

I had to admit that it was a sensitive and difficult question. I had to stand by the principles and try my best to give a convincing answer. Anyway I had not been sent to argue with the Americans; I had been assigned to tell the Americans what was going on in China.

I replied: “We chose our development path based on our past experience and lessons learned, and regardless of what development path we have chosen, be it socialism or capitalism, we have to make decisions that are based on our national conditions. That is why we have made it clear that we will follow the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

“The experiences we have accumulated in the past 30 years have shown us that it is the right path. Chinese people today are living a much better life. For example, in the past 30 years China has seen an average annual increase of 9.5% in its GDP growth, while the world’s average is 4% to 5%. The average balance of household savings has seen a 767-fold increase, and the poverty-stricken population in rural areas has fallen from 250 million to 20 million. China’s average life expectancy has almost reached 73 years. In facing the future, China still needs to follow a development path that is adapted to its national conditions. Thank you.”

The audience responded positively. I continued answering a few questions raised by different individuals. Then a gentleman asked me three questions in a row, including this question, “Is it possible that in the next millennium China will hold a perfect and real election based on free will as we do in the US?”

Responding to this challenge, I replied: “Will China become the same as the US in one thousand years, or ten thousand years? We can make a prediction today. It is a pity that there isn’t a flower in this meeting room, but never mind, we can look at one outside the window. What color is it? Is it a single color? Or a combination of different colors – red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue and purple? If the outside world contained only one color, would you feel satisfied at all? This is actually a profound philosophical question. The world is meant to be a colorful world. Each country has its unique national conditions, and is allowed to choose the development path that is best adapted to its national conditions. The US has its glory, but does it not also have its dark side? For example, how long did racial discrimination prevail in the US? When we arrived in the US on this visit, American people were celebrating Martin Luther King Day. If my memory is correct, the US only eradicated racial discrimination when the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964. I know that there are historians and law professionals participating today’s event. You can tell me, by looking at China’s history over the past 100 years, and especially since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, was there any specific Chinese law that said we could have racial discrimination? What I am saying is that every country should have a full understanding of itself, including its strengths and weaknesses. There is little to be gained in criticizing each other; rather, we should learn from each other. Only by doing so will the world become a better place for people from different countries.”

Today I still consider this answer to be correct. Since the reform and opening-up policy was adopted in the 1970s, China has stuck to its development path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, which is the direct outcome and manifestation of the diversity of world civilizations. When looking at China from a global perspective, we have to recognize that socialism with Chinese characteristics has its unique features among the world’s civilizations.

There are many totally different social systems in the world, and we cannot indiscriminately emulate any of them; even in the case of socialism itself, there are various forms and different interpretations around the world. In the 1980s I was once asked this question: How many socialist countries are there in the world? I once wrote an article about the status of socialism in the world, emphasizing that it appeared to be a simple question but actually was a complicated one. It involved providing a definition and a set of standards for socialism. In other words, not all self-proclaimed socialist parties or countries were socialist at all. Of course there is another pertinent question: Who has the right to evaluate the authenticity of socialism?

According to my research findings, there were a total of 15 countries that were recognized by China as socialist countries based on the seven standards stipulated in the textbooks of Marxist philosophy, especially judged by whether a country was run by a communist party. There were once nine countries that were run by communist parties, but they were not recognized as socialist countries by China. There were another 34 countries that were run by nationalist parties and claimed they were socialist countries, followed socialist policies, or treated socialism as their ultimate target; and there were three countries that had “socialist” in their country name, namely the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma, the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, and the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. There were 8 countries whose constitutions clearly indicated that they were socialist countries. It was indeed very difficult to define the precise nature of these states. Many socialist parties or social democratic parties in Europe, Oceania and Latin America were following democratic socialism. However, these countries were not considered by China to be pacticing “scientific socialism”.

In the face of this complicated situation, we can at least reach two conclusions.

Firstly, there was once a time when socialism flourished, and it did represent the lofty aspiration of millions of people. Socialism once served as a banner, a fashionable term. People loved to use the term “socialism”, be they true followers or fake believers. However, the popularity of socialism was no accident.

Secondly, there were so many different socialist parties or socialist countries in the world. They shared great similarities but in some circumstances could be totally different, so how could we evaluate the authenticity of their system? It is up to each individual to have their own judgment, and no one has the authority to make this kind of judgement. As to China, there is not a ready model of socialism that can be simply copied and pasted; instead China has to develop socialism with Chinese characteristics and select its own path based on its unique national conditions.