New CPC resolution provides insight into China's Marxist past
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The Communist Party of China's Central Committee Resolution on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party Over the Past Century is only the third of its type.
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A statue of Mao Zedong in China (Reuters)
In November, a resolution on China's history was released noting that "the Party is great not because it never makes mistakes, but because it always owns up to its errors, actively engages in criticism and self-criticism, and has the courage to confront problems and reform itself.”
The statement is only the third of its kind and demonstrates how China is attempting and fighting to blend Marxism, Confucian thinking, and the legacy of contemporary history, An article on Foreign Affairs (FA) says.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) released Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era in November. The text tries to highlight a defining moment in the party's history, looking back over the last century and setting the basis for the present dominant ideological framework.
According to FA, the text solidifies Xi's position and highlights the impact of the ideology on China's vision of itself and its "global mission." Unlike in Russia, where political systems revolve around the president, Xi has opted to strengthen the influence of the party rather than the state. Xi is depicted in the resolution as a corrector of others' faults, cleaning up the mismanagement and corruption of expelled political figures like Bo Xilai and Zhou Yongkang.
The resolution urges China to form a high-income, and socialist society, capable of "protecting the rights and interests of workers and consumers."
The new resolution clearly indicates that China has always been Marxist. It represents a more explicit expression by Chinese leaders of a worldview formed by the Marxist concepts of "struggle" and "contradiction."
The resolution adopts an anti-liberal narrative, merging chosen aspects of Confucianism and Marxism, claims while contrasting China with the [western] liberal world order that reigned in the second half of the twentieth century, FA claimes.
Threats from the outside, as articulated in the Resolution, invoke China's experience in the Opium Wars and World War II, that "constant concession will only invite more bullying and humiliation," The article concludes.
