Aldo Lau

HIS 241 Modern China

April 8, 2004   

The Change of Communism

            The meaning of communism underwent different interpretations through its usage by different leaderships at various time periods.  Before 1949 in China, communism was a cohesive ideology that enticed brotherhood and camaraderie amongst the diverse Chinese population to strengthen itself as a unified nation against external invasions and internal weaknesses.  In the post-1949 Maoist era, communism was a destructive mechanism to subjugate all potential rivals of Mao.  In the subsequent era of Deng, communism is the paradox that is at once both the tool for advancement and constraint for the Communist Party.  Communism in China has been above all else the political philosophy of the then current head of state.  

Before the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, communism was a theological force used to unite the people of China against the common threats that endangered its survival as an independent civilization.  China faced both the perils of external conquests and internal maladies.  Communism was the defensive shield in repulsion of foreign imperialism and capitalist exploitations.  Communism was also the remedy to the retrogression of the Chinese sovereign state.  The detailed principals of practical communism were not a significant matter.  The majority of the population remained uneducated about the true meaning of communism.  The masses of Chinese people only knew communism was guiding their civilization in the creation of a new China.  The establishment of a unified Chinese nation for the Chinese people, free of foreign influences and civil warfare, was the coveted dream of every citizen of China.  Any and all sacrifices to achieve this dream under the communist cause were deemed insignificant.  To become a communist was the equivalent of becoming a patriot.  To be a good Communist and Chinese patriot was to bare arms and join the fellow countrymen in the revolutionary struggle. 

After 1949, Mao bore communism as the weaponry of conquest in his political campaigns.  Communism was no longer a belligerent force for the Chinese people to liberate their indigenous soils, but was to become the foundational principals for a systematic government.  Under the leadership of Mao, the Communist Party was able to defeat its enemies in war, but proved fallible in governance.  When the authority of Mao was marginalized as a result of his failures to manage the prosperity of an entire country, Mao altered communism to become his personal arsenal to remonstrate his impotence at public administration.  Communism once promoted the advancement of China in a modern world, but during the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution, communism propagated mass ignorance and complete Maoist domination of the heart and mind on the collective population.  Communism in post-1949 China was an internal purge of the Party members who are condemned for taking the capitalist road.  The necessity of a pure socialist state was but an excuse for Mao to purge his opponents within the Party and those with questionable loyalties to his cult.  The Maoist era emphasized the strengthening of a cult of Maoism to uproot and convert those without Mao Zedong Thought and absolute loyalty in following his leadership.  Mao demanded blind loyalties from the mass populace, and valued ignorance among his followers to do his exact bidding.  To be a good Communist and Chinese patriot was to worship Mao as the equivalent of a deity. 

Deng interpreted communism as the impregnated force that will give birth to new achievements for China, yet simultaneously also as the constraint of continuity for the Party.  Communism in the Deng era stresses more on building China to become a modern nation and management for perpetual prosperity.  It is a strategy to emancipate the Chinese minds to achieve the four modernizations of economics, science and technology, and management.  There was an emphasis on freedom of thought, democracy, and pragmatism.  Deng wanted to recover the trust of intellectuals for both the Party and the communist reformations.  Reforms were only to be conducted on the terms of the Party, and it was to be at all times under their direct control.  There were also limitations on the progression of democracy and human rights.  The Communist Party cannot totally and blatantly reject communism because it is the source of legitimacy to govern the Chinese people.  Communism is the present stabilizer between innovations for the future and legitimate mandate to govern since the past.  To be a good Communist and Chinese patriot was to reform the country for tomorrow within the boundaries of the Communist Party.

            Communism is the theological embodiment of a socialist dream, yet it has been a political instrument all throughout Chinese history.  Prior to 1949, communism was used to assemble the mass population of a shattered China to halt the onslaught of aliens, and cure the ailment of the Chinese nation.  In the Maoist era, communism was bent into an assault organ for Mao’s monomaniacal quest to become the supreme authority.  And in the Deng era, communism was a compromise between the Communist Party and the Chinese population with its present reforms.  The interpretations of communism before 1949, in the Maoist era, and in the Deng era, were all manipulated to fulfill the interests of the political authorities of their respective eras.