Chapter 14 2. The Chinese model has its own logic

Less than a month after Deng Xiaoping met with Zimbabwean leader Mugabe, I had the second opportunity to translate for Deng Xiaoping.That was September 18, 1985.Deng Xiaoping met with Ghanaian head of state Mr. Rollins.It was a very special day because the Chinese Communist Party held a national congress.It is rare in the history of the CCP to hold a national congress between two party congresses (the 12th and 13th congresses), which shows that some urgent issues need to be resolved at the conference.Deng Xiaoping delivered a speech at the opening ceremony, mentioning that the past seven years have been "one of the best and critical periods since the founding of the People's Republic of China. We have mainly done two things, one is to bring order out of chaos, and the other is comprehensive reform."There are two major points of interest in this meeting: First, there is a relatively large change in the leadership team between the old and the new.The composition of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee has changed a lot. Ten people were removed (Ye Jianying and other older generation politicians), and six people were added (Tian Jiyun, Qiao Shi, Li Peng, Wu Xueqian, Hu Qili, Yao Yilin), and it was decided that 131 old comrades would no longer He served as a member of the Central Committee, a member of the Central Advisory Committee, and a member of the Central Discipline Inspection Commission, and selected a large number of new people to join the central leadership.Substantial progress has been made in abolishing the lifelong system of cadres that Deng Xiaoping had been looking forward to.Looking back, the significance of this political reform cannot be overestimated.The main reason for the collapse of the system in many countries today is that the life tenure of leaders has led to the rigidity of the system and the complaints of the people.Starting from this party congress, the process of orderly political succession in China has gradually taken shape, which is undoubtedly a key measure to ensure the long-term stability of the country.

The second thing to watch is that the meeting proposed the Seventh Five-Year Plan.The seventh five-year plan uses a different name than the previous six five-year plans.In the past, the name was just "National Economic Five-Year Plan", but now it has become "National Economic and Social Development Seventh Five-Year Plan". The content of the plan is not limited to the economy, but must also consider the changes and development of the society. This trend continues to this day. Deng Xiaoping had attended the opening ceremony of the Party Congress that day and went directly to the Fujian Hall to wait for the guests from Ghana.Deng Xiaoping took a short break in the Fujian hall, which lasted only about seven or eight minutes.Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Zhou Jue was just about to report to Deng Xiaoping. Deng Xiaoping said: "I have read the materials sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs." Then he asked three short questions: "Is the political situation in Ghana stable?" Has it improved?" "How is the relationship between Ghana and the West?" Zhou Jue briefly answered one by one.In retrospect, Deng Xiaoping's three questions showed his familiarity with African issues.The biggest dilemma in Africa’s development is mainly political instability, and most of the countries whose people’s living standards are deteriorating. The relationship with the West is always in two extremes, either imitating the West or rejecting the West.From a broader perspective, the entire non-Western world, including China, is actually facing these three problems.The characteristic of Deng Xiaoping's governance of the country is that he is good at grasping the key issues at critical moments, and if these key issues are handled well, the country will be on the right track.The characteristics of China’s rise under Deng Xiaoping’s guidance are that, on the premise of ensuring political stability, we should do our best to improve people’s livelihood, improve the overall national strength, learn from all the beneficial experience of the West, but seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. China strives to gradually surpass the West.

Rollins is a very intellectual and philosophical African leader.The main purpose of his visit to China this time is to learn from China's reform and opening up experience.He visited Nanjing and marveled at Nanjing's achievements in reform and opening up.The Governor of Jiangsu Province held a wonderful theatrical performance for him. He watched the show for a while and lowered his head to think for a while. It is the incompetence of governance, and the people of our country are only emotional, and cannot analyze problems scientifically and rationally. The so-called developed countries have lost their humanity. They have sacrificed humanitarianism in pursuit of the so-called modern civilization and profits. China is in the After experiencing the two extremes of love and hate, under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, we entered the stage of science and reason, our people have not yet reached this stage. Changes in China are what the world needs, especially what the third world needs. I believe that China has combined modernization with rationality and humanity in the process of modernization. Your performance has shown me the perfection that this combination can produce.” Rollins’ words seem to reveal A fact: Deng Xiaoping's restoration of the ideological line of seeking truth from facts is essentially to bring the whole country back to rationality and avoid extremism, which is also the key to China's rapid rise today.

The core content of the China model is to realistically and rationally handle the relationship between economic reform, social reform and political reform.Some people always think that China has only carried out economic reform and social reform, but not political reform. This is mainly because these people have a narrow vision. They only agree with the Western political model. As long as your system is in line with the so-called "democratic system" in the West Not the same, they think that the legitimacy of your regime has not been established, your system is still in transition, and you have not carried out political reforms.They even believe that the Western political model represents the highest ideal of mankind, and what China has to do is to fully "transition" to the Western model and integrate with the West in all aspects of economy, politics and society.Today, when the Western model is in full decline, it is surprising that this view still has a considerable market and influence in China.As one Western "democracy" after another falls into financial and economic crisis, many mainstream scholars in the West today no longer deny the naivety of Fukuyama's view that "human history will end in the Western democratic system." He wrote an article in the British "Financial Times", frankly admitting that "American democracy has nothing to teach China", which shows that he respects facts more than some liberals in our country, and is more aware of the many difficult challenges facing the Western democratic model itself.

In the book "China Touched", I compared the outcomes of the three reform models of socialist countries in the world: the first is Cuba's "conservative reform model", that is, the political system is completely unchanged, and only limited economic and social systems are implemented. The second is the "radical reform model" of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, that is, drastic changes were made to the political, social and economic systems; the third is China's "steady reform model", which is characterized by large Large-scale economic system reforms, moderate-scale social system reforms, and relatively small-scale political system reforms. The focus of political reforms is to pave the way for economic and social development, and ultimately to materially improve people's livelihood.On the whole, the result of the "conservative reform model" is a serious lack of vitality in the economy and society. The cost of the "radical reform model" is enormous.At that time, I also described the Soviet Union’s model of taking political reform as the main axis and using economic reform to assist political reform. The result was that the political process must first be ensured to be irreversible, and everything could be done for this, which violated economic laws and eventually led to the disintegration of the country. The economy collapsed, people's living standards dropped sharply, and the average life expectancy fell below 60 years.Although the Chinese model has deficiencies, comparing the other two models, it is obviously the most successful.China has avoided major turmoil, its economy has developed rapidly, its society is full of vitality, its people's living standards have improved unprecedentedly, and its people's expectations for the future are unprecedentedly optimistic.

China has carried out a large number of relatively small-scale political reforms. For example, it has completely terminated various political movements based on class struggle, so that the people can pursue normal material interests and cultural and spiritual life; victims of previous political movements Rehabilitation, so that their knowledge and talents can be brought into play; the people's commune, a system of political and social integration, was abolished; various grassroots democratic experiments represented by village elections were carried out; the life tenure of leading cadres was abolished; the national civil servant system was established ; within a certain range, a system combining "selection" and "election" of officials has been established; publicity of official promotion has been widely implemented; the household registration and file management system has been reformed; various administrative approvals have been reduced on a large scale; Extensive democratic consultation; the establishment of an administrative management system that basically adapts to China's socialist market economy, etc.China's rapid rise today is inseparable from these effective political reforms.

Anyone with a little common sense about China's political system will know that in China's specific environment, the process of getting out of the old "political system in command" and "planned economic system" can only be a process of political change, because the characteristics of the old system There is no separation of politics and economy (for example, enterprises are the three powers of the party, government and enterprise, and rural areas are the people's commune system that integrates government and society), and the process of China's reform is an interactive process of economic reform and political reform that constantly resolves the separation of politics and economy. .From this perspective, China has indeed incorporated many political reform measures into economic and social reforms, mainly centered around developing the economy, improving people's livelihood and improving social governance. The enthusiasm for improving life, on the other hand, is also a political and social reform that involves the vital interests of most people in China.The reform of our state-owned enterprises is not only the reform of the economic system, but also the innovation of the social system and political management system.Our price reform, housing reform, and bank reform all involve reform in the three fields of economy, society, and politics.Many reforms in China have one thing in common: they are not unidirectional, but comprehensive, and many social construction and political reforms are contained in the "economic" reforms.

In short, various political reforms in China have in fact accumulated quite a lot, and the depth and breadth of the reforms are far greater than what the outside world understands.Most of our political, economic and social reforms are not completely separate, but you have me, and I have you.Although China's unique method of political reform has many imperfections, it still embodies a kind of political wisdom on the whole.It resolves the huge social risks that may be brought about by one-way promotion of political reforms, and avoids political chaos, social unrest, economic collapse, and even national disintegration caused by radical political reforms in many countries.

This also reflects the influence of Chinese cultural traditions. Western culture emphasizes individuality and differences, while Chinese culture emphasizes wholeness and synthesis.Over the past 30 years, China has borrowed many Western practices that emphasize individuality and differences, but China has never abandoned its tradition of holistic thinking and comprehensive governance.In a sense, this also reflects the important political considerations in China's reform process: in carrying out reforms in a super-large "civilized country" like China, the cost of each reform policy must be considered.The best way for China to move forward is to promote political reform wisely and steadily, and strive for greater results at a relatively small cost.

In short, the purpose of all reforms in China is for the self-improvement of China's socialist system, rather than copying Western political systems.Under the premise of adhering to this purpose, reforms in China's economic, social and political fields have basically formed their own logic, that is, overall planning, key points, and gradual progress. The proportion of specific reforms will be adjusted from time to time, and the emphasis should be on economic reforms. If we focus on economic reform, we should focus on social construction if we should focus on social construction. If we should focus on political reform, we should focus on political reform.But now it seems that for quite a long time, we will still focus on the reform of the economic system in terms of the macroscopic grasp of the great cause of reform, because developing productivity and improving people's livelihood in an all-round way will still be China's top priority for a long time .

In the economic field, China has formed a mixed economic model combining the "invisible hand" and the "visible hand". This model is not perfect, but it has laid the foundation for China's rise, which is obviously better than the Western financial crisis. The "Washington Consensus" of crisis.In terms of social construction, we have established a basic medical insurance system covering 1.3 billion people at the fastest speed in the world, while 1/6 of the people in the United States still do not have medical insurance; our home ownership rate has also surpassed all developed countries in one fell swoop. nation.In the political field, although our institutional innovation of "selection + some form of election" is still being perfected, we are no longer afraid to compete with the Western political model that relies solely on elections; our series of five-year plans have been successfully formulated and Implementation, as well as the decision-making democracy and economic and social benefits demonstrated in this process, have made the West look at the Chinese model with admiration. The Third Plenary Session of the Eighteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held at the end of 2013 adopted a decision to comprehensively deepen reforms, the core content of which is comprehensive reforms under the premise of "political determination", especially the five-in-one joint reform.The so-called "political determination" refers to upholding and improving socialism with Chinese characteristics; the so-called "five in one" refers to comprehensive reforms in the fields of economy, politics, society, culture, and ecology. , and give full play to the "tractive effect" of economic system reform on other reforms.This once again embodies the internal logic of the Chinese model's overall planning and emphasis on key points, in order to comprehensively, intelligently and steadily promote various reforms, and finally achieve a comprehensive surpassing of the Western model.