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Deng Xiaoping's Legacy--Eclipsing Mao's Memory
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11293 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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5 / 1986 |
2,756 Words |
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Tamio Shimakura
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After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Party Central Committee held in December 178, it became clear that Deng Xiaoping would come to power. Since that time his administration might best be characterized by the slogan shi shi qiu shi, which translates roughly into "China must achieve, based on the facts, what it should do and facts must be the very basis of practice."
This slogan has its origins with Mao Tse-tung. During the period between the Great Cultural Revolution and the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Party Central Committee, the group that dominated China was an unproductive one, strongly tied to leftist ideals but little concerned with business development. They held a basic idea about modernizing the nation and thought of themselves as leaders of real ability.
After Mao's death, those who tried to sustain his philosophy and its heritage governed on the basis of ideological thought and formulated measures which were not founded on experience or gained inductively through facts and practice. Men of business thought the Maoists' way of running the country to be too unrealistic, but many people who were actively engaged in production modernization came to support shi shi qiu shi.
Although this slogan was originally Mao's, the Cultural Revolutionists adopted a policy quite contrary to it. Deng has turned it to his own advantage, making use of it as a shield against revolutionists. It was very natural to use Mao's words during the period when Mao's influence was still strong.
The practice of basing actions on facts has been embraced not only by those who promote China's modernization but also by socialists, even those of a materialistic bent. In light of this, Deng's strategy--using Mao's slogan to undermine the radical idealists who aimed at succeeding Mao--was quite adept maneuvering.
This method of developing reasonable policies based on practical business experience was not intended solely to circumvent the Cultural Revolutionists. Rather, the government wanted to experiment on a model for a start, and then, after critical study of the results, to fix what could most likely be applied in other situations; once settled confidence was gained, the results would be diffused over the rest of the country. This is a traditional working method of the Chinese Communist party.
The Third Plenary Session of December 1978 decided on a policy of reform of the people's commune system and development of an "open door policy" toward foreign countries. Though the policy developed during the five years following the plenary session, experimentation on model commune districts always preceded the spread of the resultant fruits over a wider area. Specifically, the slogan shi shi qiu shi was put into practice
A production contract work system for each farmhouse has replaced various kinds of production responsibility systems and has eventually led to the dissolution of the people's communes. Thanks to the new system, agricultural production has increased by record-breaking amounts in consecutive years. As a part of the external "open door policy," "economic special districts" and "fourteen coastal open cities for promoting of economy and technology" were designated. In addition, three to five wide river delta areas
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