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CAPITALISM WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS
Ranganayakamma
B.R. Bapuji
Introduction
This article is a continuation of our earlier
article More Leaps Backward which
appeared in 1985 (China Report,
May-June 1985). Our earlier article dealt with the developments in Chinese
economy, politics and culture between 1978 and 1983. We incorporated the
developments of that period in our post-script to the first edition of our
Telugu translation of Charles Bettelheim's book CHINA SINCE MAO (Monthly Review Press, 1978). The English version
of Bettelheim's book covered the developments up to February 1978 while the
Telugu version covered the developments up to September 1983. After a gap of
twenty years, we have now brought out the second edition of the Telugu version
and added a long post-script that covers the developments in China between
October 1983 and December 2002. These developments are presented, as far as the
collected data permitted, chronologically and thematically under the title: Exploitation with Chinese characteristics in
the name of 'Socialism with Chinese characteristics'. Barring certain
comments here and there, the entire data presented here are drawn from various
sources ¾ both Chinese and non-Chinese ¾ published during the period covered. The
Chinese sources include Beijing Review and
books published from China under 'China Basic Series'. The non-Chinese sources
include journals like Keesing's Record of
World Events, The
Revisionism
revisited
What follows here is nothing but the
continuation and extension of the various forms of Chinese revisionism, which
Bettelheim demonstrated way back in 1978.
Although, the Chinese Communist Party
(hereafter CCP or Party), until 1976, that is until the passing away of Mao,
could not accomplish wonderful changes, committed many mistakes and did not
have enough clarity with regard to Marxism, it included a group that followed
revolutionary path. The aim of this group was to fight for the emancipation of
the proletariat against the class of exploiters. Whatever mistakes it made, it
used to proceed in the direction of socialist transformation. It initiated both
major and minor socialist changes, with or without sufficient theoretical
clarity, in various spheres of society.
What the Revisionists initiated is to reverse
all the socialist transformations. They, however, do not abandon the word
'socialism'. They have to depend entirely on this term. They repeatedly recite
that the 'Gang of Four' (that is, the supporters of the 'revolutionary line') committed
many blunders which they are now rectifying and theirs is the real socialist
path. They try to sanctify the capitalist terminology by prefixing the
adjective 'socialist'. They call 'market' 'socialist market'! They call
'competition' 'socialist competition'! They call 'price rise' 'socialist price
rise'! They call 'profit' 'socialist profit'! This is how they call everything!
The Revisionists are able to present such
daring false formulations as socialism since the labouring masses do not know
well what socialism is! Any wrong formulation will circulate among ignorant
people without any opposition.
If people facing problems learn the necessary
knowledge, then such knowledge would turn into a great force. Until this
happens, people remain powerless. The Chinese proletariat, which could see a
little of newness of socialism is still far away from the theoretical knowledge
and is helpless. It is needless to talk about the proletariat of other
countries.
Here we will again and again see the hitherto
known fact that the present day CCP had turned into a capitalist party a long
time ago. Further, we will see its anxiety, zealousness and high speed in
becoming capitalistic.
The Chinese Revisionists needed the help of
foreign capitalists in order to destroy at the earliest possible the socialism,
however rudimentary it might be, which the supporters of the revolutionary line
initiated. The objective, which the exploiters of different countries have to
achieve collectively, is to eliminate handful of socialist developments that
occurred in one country! Here we see such total destruction.
In any society, economic, political and
cultural relations are mutually intertwined. It is impossible to separate them.
Yet, we need to try to understand those spheres separately as far as possible.
In order to understand how economy in any
society acts as fundamental force and how it influences political and cultural
spheres, changes in China¾both in the past as well as in the present¾will stand as wonderful examples. Knowledge of
these experiences would necessarily give a new strength to the world
proletariat.
First let us examine the economic sphere.
Comprador-cum-contract economy
At the end of 1980, two trends appeared in the CCP.
One trend argued for giving importance to 'market'. Deng was its leader. The
second trend argued in favour of reliance on centralized State planning. Chen
Yun was its leader. Deng's group, however, enjoyed majority support in the
party.
Free
flow of foreign capital
A change that occurred on a large scale in the
Chinese economy since 1983 was the entry of foreign capital into
On
By
November 1983, the Chinese government bifurcated the functions of 9,028
communes located in 902 counties. The central government confined communes
exclusively to economic functions and assigned the administrative functions of
the communes to 12, 786 townships. The government ordered that the
transformation of communes along these lines must be over by the end of 1984.
December
1983 issue of '
On
On
On
Beijing
Review of
On
The next day, that is on April 28, the top leader of CCP, Deng, when he met Reagan, said
that he was "reasonably satisfied" with the flow of
In May
1984, Zhao, the then Chinese Prime Minister, said in the parliament that
the open door policy must be implemented "resolutely" and bigger
strides must be taken in using foreign capital and importing technology.
"The Special Economic Zone in Xianmen will be extended", he
announced. At the same time he assured that 14 more coastal cities would be
opened to the foreign capitalists.
(In the beginning the Chinese government
permitted foreign companies only in certain limited number of areas¾as if it were a 'minor change'! But gradually,
it is extending such permission to more number of areas. This they call
'open-door policy'!)
Beijing
Review of
In August
1984, while talking to the president of the European Commission, premier
Zhao assured, "
Beijing
Review of
Red
Flag of November 1984 quoted what Deng said at the party's Central Advisory
Commission on
Deng defended the current economic policy and
described the fears of some 'old comrades' about reforms as unwarranted. He
said that the basic means of production would remain in the hands of the State
and there would be "no new bourgeoisie".
In a speech published on
The Chinese government permitted individuals
and companies to carry on money lending business.
At the 4th session of the 6th
National People's Council held in March
1986, Premier Zhao declared that the trend towards liberalization and
decentralization would continue. He claimed that the reforms, including the
"policy of encouraging some people to become prosperous sooner than
others" had increased
(Although the Chinese Revisionists gave
numerous assurances to the foreign capitalists, the flow of foreign capital
into
On
In April
1988, the Chinese parliament made "Sino-foreign joint venture
law" according to which foreign partners are entitled to make managerial
decisions¾including hiring and firing of workers¾without governmental interference.
On
According to Financial Times of
By October
2002,
Other big companies like General Electric,
Samsung Electronics, Toshiba found
The
Far Eastern Economic Review, which
reported all this also informed that one American Company decided to shut down
its plants in
Promotion
of Various forms of private capitalism
When agricultural lands in rural areas were in
the form of cooperatives and communes, the land was the collective property of
the rural, agricultural people. Agricultural people used to work in collective
farms and nobody did own land as his/her private property. Every person had job
security. (All this happened even though the principal that 'every one must do
labour' was not yet properly observed.)
The Chinese Revisionists followed the path of
destroying collective agriculture. They began to break collective farms into
pieces and gave the land on contract to private individuals, groups and
organizations in rural areas. This had, in fact, began much earlier (since
1978).
By
1983 some peasant families in
villages had owned tractors, trucks and other agricultural implements to a
minimum extent. But the number of privately owned agricultural implements
increased gradually.
William Hinton, an American author, who has
been studying
On
Promote
multiform economic responsibility systems centered in contracting through
public bidding. All contracts by tenders. We must encourage competition.
Try to
extent the experiments in putting urban housing construction on a commercial
basis and develop a real estate business.
Strive to
make Special Economic Zones (SEZ) a success, open more coastal cities and
create a new situation in economic and technical exchanges with the outside
world. (This he called 'independent' foreign policy!)
Consolidate
and improve forms of contract system whereby agricultural lands and other
production enterprises in rural areas are assigned to private individuals,
households or groups.
Replace
the system of profit delivery with tax payments in state owned enterprises
since such replacement has more advantages. The enterprises can retain
after-tax profit.
Encourage
individuals and collectives to run small state owned enterprises under contract
or lease or payment of taxes.
Emergence
of contract labourers
At the same conference, Zhao made several
suggestions with regard to employing workers on contract basis: We should
gradually reduce the proportion of regular workers and introduce a labour
contract system so as to sharply increase the number of temporary and seasonal
workers. Enterprises must reduce or stop bonuses or even withhold part of the
wages of the workers when they have failed to fulfill their quotas (of the
state plan) and paid less taxes and earned less profits. (This is to make
workers work more, produce more and bring more profits! In case this does not
happen, Mr. Prime Minister advises the capitalists not to pay full wages to
workers!)
Le
Monde, a French newspaper,
carried a part of Zhao's speech in its issue of
(All this means, it is the managers and
directors who would decide all these matters. The only thing which workers must
do is to come to the factory at the right time, do more work and return home.
They should have no role in any decision. The Chinese Revisionists are
introducing all these regulations with the sole purpose of burying all that had
been done during Cultural Revolution. During Cultural Revolution, workers
initiated great changes with regard to workers' management teams in the
enterprises. Charles Bettelehim's book 'Cultural
Revolution and the Industrial Organisation in
All
powers to Directors !
Beijing
Review of June 18, 1984 carried an article by its economic editor in which he
described the powers of the directors of the production enterprises as follows:
"Director of an enterprise has the power to decide on the production and
sales of products, the purchase of raw and semi-finished materials and the
technical transformation of the enterprise, and to control appointments,
transfers, rewards and penalties among the workers and staff.
(While the fact remains that workers have no
role in the managing the enterprises, the consequences of the appropriation of
all powers by directors will be disastrous. Corruption among directors of the
enterprises would become rampant. There arise opportunities for them to take
bribes in every transaction¾while purchasing raw materials, while selling newly produced goods and
appointing workers. Which means, the very nature of this managerial system
encourages and nourishes corruption in the enterprises. If workers could
intervene in all these matters in the form of 'Workers' Management Teams' by
rotation, the decisions would not be made by a couple of directors and none
would get an opportunity to take bribes secretly.
Public
bidding
According to Beijing Review of
After a week, in its issue of July 30, the
economic editor of Beijing Review
argued as follows: "Some people think that signing contract through public
bidding is a method prevalent in capitalist countries and is incompatible in a
socialist planned economy. This is wrong. Experience has proved that it is an
objective law which transcends the nature of society and can be used under both
capitalism and socialism". (This is their experience because they have
been able to introduce Revisionism easily! Contract system is an objective law,
they say! This means, in order to attach value to any dirty job, add before it
words like 'objective', 'logical', 'rational' or 'socialist'. This is the
tactic, which the Chinese Revisionists are following.)
Emergence
of rural capitalist class
The Central Committee (CC) of CCP in its
document 1 of 1984 announced its policy on private ownership in agriculture.
The system of contracting lands was already there. But now the government
enhanced the period of contract up to 15 or more years. In case a peasant
household wants to withdraw from that contract, it need not hand over the land
to the government. The household can transfer that land to another household
for lease. The second household would pay rent to the government. A national
conference on this policy hoped that leasing or selling of land to other
peasants would encourage a gradual transfer of contracted land plots into the
hands of those skilled in cultivation. (But, there is scope for the first household
to get some bribe from the second household.)
Another aspect of the agricultural policy is
that peasants could fix prices as they wish. They called all such policies
'reforms'. (These are in fact actions that would defend private property rights
and lead to exploitation.)
The conference said that a longer contracting
period was necessary to encourage "more rational and effective use of
land". It would give peasants an incentive to invest more capital and
labour. (This means, the assigned land would become the private property of the
individual or that household.) Around this time, the director of the Rural
Policy Research Bureau said that in future peasants would be allowed to hire up
to seven labourers. (This means, there was permission to hire less than seven
labourers. Now they re raising the number of labourers.)
But none of these rules would be effective. One
would hire as many labourers as he needs but would show the legally permitted
number in the records. Once the system of hiring labour exists, all other
regulations would remain futile.
Disappearance of collective mode of production
implies loss of employment. When the system of leasing the land comes into
operation, the household that took the land for lease would cultivate the land
in 3 ways¾(1) without hiring labourers (2) performing labour along with the
labourers or (3) exclusively by hiring labourers.
But land would gradually goes into the
possession of rich households. A system becomes established whereby all kinds
of agricultural labour are carried out by means of hired labourers.
After the elimination of collective farming,
people who cannot afford to take land on lease and those who cannot sustain
that lease would inevitably turn into hired agricultural labourers. The same
director (of Rural Policy Research) is describing the process of rural
population becoming rich as follows: "Currently, some people are
prospering quickly, some slowly and some not at all. To let all people
eventually get rich, it is necessary to let some get rich first. At the same
time, efforts are being made to let others get rich gradually. To prosper
together does not mean prospering simultaneously".
(It follows that those who take land on lease
make labourers do labour and become rich first. Thereafter, those labourers too
would get rich. After some time all people would get rich! No other expression
except 'senseless gibes' is appropriate to this kind of talk. The director of
the Rural Policy Research is talking so senselessly, thinking that labourers
cannot understand what is wrong in his talk! Thinking that labourers would feel
happy thus, "perhaps we too may get rich after some time, as Mr. Director
said!"
Labourers would really feel happy if they do
not know what 'getting rich' means. One gets rich only if he exploits certain
portion of the labour of the labourers. If the households of masters get rich,
the households of the labourers would remain poor. It will never happen that
all people become rich. All people live happily if we imagine that all people do
labour, that the class of masters and exploitation do not exist!
Capitalism in the rural areas began with such
changes as leasing of agricultural land to private individuals, and permitting
them to hire workers.
In October
1984, a resolution of the CC of the
CCP defined the 'individual enterprises' as an 'indispensable complement to the
socialist economy'. The individual enterprises were, initially permitted to
hire 7 workers and subsequently the limit was abolished. It follows that one
can hire any number of workers. (Still, it is a socialist society, according to
them!)
By the end
of 1984 about 25 million rural families transferred their lands to other
families and started other businesses like workshops and small factories. All
those masters who hired labourers form rural capitalist class. They are called
'prosperous households' in
Extreme
poverty
According to a Chinese official report in 1987, about 100 million people¾mostly rural¾were suffering from extreme poverty. Most of
them belonged to poor peasant families. They could not retain the lands, which
they took on lease from the government. As they could not provide themselves
with necessary resources to carry on agriculture, then transferred the lands to
the rich peasant households, left villages and began to migrate to nearby small
and large towns. (Had those families cultivated those lands collectively,
mobilizing resources would have been their collective responsibility. It would
not have been the responsibility of a single individual family. When land is
collectively owned, the portion of the 'surplus value' would remain with the
collective of peasants since there won't be masters and hence it won't go into
the pockets of the masters. Thus, the collective would be able to mobilize
easily all the resources necessary at the place of production. Then the problem
of 'livelihood' does not arise.)
In March-April
1988, the Chinese parliament made certain laws which: gave a free hand to
managers in running enterprises, hiring and dismissing workers; legitimized the
existence of the private sector and thereby encouraged its expansion; and
legalized the right to buy and sell land.
Dependence
of women
Before the introduction of privatization of
land during the existence of collective farming, women used to work in the
collective farms and earned their own income. But when the same lands were
assigned to individual households, women in a given household would not get a
specified amount of income of their own even though they do labour in their own
contracted land. The entire income would be in the hands of men. Thus, the
privatization and contract system make women dependent on men.
Abolition
of free higher education
On
Law
of inheritance
The CC of the CCP approved
(If it were a society without private property,
property would always belong to the collectives.)
Stock
exchange under 'communist' party rule
On
On October
14, the official Economic Daily
described the development as a means "to relieve our country's shortage of
capital, to develop production and make workers more concerned about the future
of their companies". (The meaning of this statement is that workers would
work hard in order to secure more profits if they too buy shares. When workers
are totally ignorant of economic matters, every false argument would become a
great principle!)
New
code on labour contracts
On
Price
'reforms'
On
Zhao talked about the price reforms further:
Reform in the price system is an essential step in the construction of
"the perfect socialist market system" and the development of a full
"socialist commodity economy". (Add the word 'socialist' before the
word 'market'! Add 'full' before 'socialist'! Full socialist market! Price
reform is meant for such a market in which capitalists can fix prices according
to their wishes!)
On
On
In
defence of stock market
By 1989,
the leaders of CCP described Chinese economy as the elementary stage of
socialism in order to defend the stock markets, business in bonds and sale of
lands to private individuals. As if all these practices are inevitable since it
is an elementary stage in socialism. They said that this stage continues for 50
years and all these practices would continue. (Later, there won't be any need
for 'socialist guise'! It means that they would remove it!)
They also said: This market system and stock
exchanges come under commerce and they are neither socialism nor socialism. Any
society can use these systems. (If these systems can be followed in any kind of
society, why did they say that the stage in which these systems are followed is
the 'elementary stage' and they are inevitable in this stage? They said so
because there is no one to question them. They did not find it necessary to
talk little cautiously while taking such gibes.)
On August
9-11, about 1,000,000 people arrived in Shenzhen from all over
Call
for 'socialist market economy'
The CC of CCP met on Novermber-14, 1993 and released a document on the establishment of
socialist market economy. This document called for better conditions for the
development of a market economy. (Which means, they want to develop better
conditions based on 'competition' and not on 'socialist planning'!)
Inflation
and public order
Speaking at the second session of the eight
NPC, Premier Li Peng expressed his concern over 'public order' problems due to
wide gap between urban-rural living conditions, inflation and corruption. (This
is tantamount to admitting the disastrous consequences of capitalist economic
maladies.)
Rise
in cost of living
According to figures issued in mid-June (1994), the overall cost of
living in the country's 35 major cities had risen by 23% in the preceding 12
months. More particularly, there was a sharp increase in the cost of many
staple foodstuffs.
At the National Conference on Price Monitoring
held in the same month, the State officials warned shopkeepers and factory
managers against unauthorized price rise. (It was the State, which talked about
'price reform'! That is freedom to fix prices according to market! The same
State is warning against price rise! The first act is true while the second one
is false. This is a drama to deceive people!)
Deliberate
destruction of state owned enterprises
According to the official conception, reform of
State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) takes place through a variety of means:
reorganization, merger, leasing, contract operation, joint stock partnership or
sell-off. All these reforms are obviously intended to destroy SOEs deliberately
and convert them into Privately Owned Enterprises (POEs).
The State official who explained the nature of
reforms also uttered some more great words. According to him, laying off of
workers is an inevitable part of the reform process but this would be
"good for economic development and the long term interests of the Working
Class". (Removal of workers is good for workers, says he! This is true in
a sense! If workers, due to removal, are subjected to more sufferings, and
revolt against officials and drag them from their seats of power, it will do
god to workers, isn't it? This official has a very good foresight!)
Privatization
of land
All land in
(The Chinese revisionists are describing all
this as Socialism. They argue like this, 'These properties will be in the
possession of private individuals temporarily for about 50 or 70 years only.
But the State possesses the actual rights; that is people possess them. Hence
this is Socialism'. But, if a contract is extended for 70 more years after the
initial period of 70 years, that property will continue to be in the hands of
the private person. Or, if it is transferred to others it would be in somebody
else's hands. By means of this, the State would only get some 'tax'. Workers
must always be under the private masters. Yet, they say that all the means of
production belong to people.)
Growing
unemployment and plight of the workers
According to Labour Ministry statistics
published in Xinhua on
On
On
Do you know what these laws are? Minimum wages
to workers. Prohibition of child labour.
Eight hour working day. Maternity leave for women workers. Improvement of
workplace safety measures. This is what they discovered after discussing it for
15 years! This is like, to use a Telugu saying, digging at the hill and
catching a rat! Making legislation now means that relevant laws are either
non-existence or non-operational. Even now, we should not hope that these law
would be implemented. Those who sit in the legislature have to play some tricks
and hence they play tricks like "workers' welfare".
Workers'
struggles
Workers do not exhibit resistance proportionate
to their suffering. It is because they do not know whom, how and why they have
to resist. The Communist Party has to educate them. If this does not happen,
struggles of workers won't be strong. In such a situation, they try to adjust
with the problems, however varied their problems are. Yet we can find some
struggles in that ignorance as well.
In June,
1997, many workers held demonstrations at their workplaces in
Some 300 workers had staged protest
demonstrations in Zigong of Sichuan province in support of their demand for the
payment of wage arrears. Police had broken the protests. (We have to assume
again and again that police are present wherever there is a protest
demonstration.)
In September
1997, President Jiang Jemin, gave a call to accelerate economic reforms in
SOEs. The result was millions of workers lost their jobs.
On October
13, People's Daily reported that
50,000 people in
The
Independent of December 5, reported that hundreds of
workers in the city of
On December
8, in Hufei, the Capital of Anhui province, about 400 workers staged a
protest outside the provincial government offices to complain about losing
their jobs.
Further protests during December were held at
many places. On December 26, the
State media reported that President Jiang Jemin had ordered police to step up
efforts to safeguard social stability in the face of increasing labour unrest.
(The president of a 'socialist' country is ordering the police to suppress the
workers' protests!)
In 1999,
in a speech to mark the 78th anniversary of the founding of CCP,
President Jiang Jemin ruled out "full blown privatization". (As it
was the foundation day of the party one should speak like that, shouldn't he?)
He said that some officials had misinterpreted efforts at reform as a call for
total privatization of State firms and he condemned those individuals who had
sold off State assets to enrich themselves. At the end, he preached sermons to
the Party members thus: Retain Marxist outlook! Don't lose faith in the
"final victory" of Communism over Capitalism!.
On
During May
15-17, about 3000 workers surrounded their factory and government offices
in
The International
Herald Tribune of July 19, reported
news of agitation of various sections of people. For example, villagers in the
drought stricken Shandung province had killed one police officer during riots
which began over access to drinking water.
About 1000 workers surrounded a factory in
On
The Far
Eastern Economic Review of
Steel workers, miners and oil men who received
benefits like housing, health and education for 50 years are now deprived of
all those benefits.
Hu Ming, a 63 year old worker who was laid off
after working 40 years in a factory at Tiexi, said to the reporter of the
magazine: "The cadres are eating and drinking in hotels and making stupid
talk". Another worker commented: "This is not a socialist country any
more¾the gap between rich and poor is very wide".
In
The reporter observed that workers with grievances
¾ late wages, pension payments or redundancy ¾ are no longer just getting mad but they are
organizing. For the workers in the first half of 2002 launched a series of
apparently coordinated strikes and demonstrations in several old industrial centers
ranging from Northeast to the southeast. But the protests petered out because
the party officials told the local government authorities to settle them
quietly before they could mar the 16th Congress to be held in
November.
Another significant news was that rather than
being organised by a few intellectuals or political activists, the protests
were about bread-and-butter issues and had large-scale support.
According to the Hongkong based China Labour Bulletin, the mass workers'
protests, which took place, were all economically driven and work-place based.
In 2002, the life of workers in
(Fights among bourgeois leaders do not interest
workers, do they? This worker indeed is right in his thinking.)
Politics of single party dictatorship
In this section, we can see how changes in
economy influence politics. First let us see the attitude of Chinese
Revisionists toward Marxism and what they are saying to people about it.