Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Communist party’s policies should be studied
THE Chinese Communist Party (CCP) celebrates its centenary in July.
At its founding in 1921, it openly deferred to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Soviet assistance helped the CCP against the Nationalist Party of China (the Kuomintang), culminating in the 1949 victory of the CCP, which was accompanied by the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. The Kuomintang fled to the island of Taiwan and retained a permanent seat at the UN Security Council.
The CCP inherited a poor and backward country. Its loyalty to the Soviet Union waned after the death of Joseph Stalin. Nikita Khrushchev had a frosty relationship with Mao Zedong, the founding chairperson of the CCP.
Their differences ranged from ideology to China’s opposition to Soviet involvement in the 1956 Hungarian Uprising, when Soviet troops supported the Hungarian People’s Republic. Another reason for Sino-Soviet discord was Khrushchev’s notion of peaceful coexistence among ideological foes.
The Soviet Union under Khrushchev was more pragmatic while China remained dogmatic in its ideology. The reforms China embarked upon in 1978 demonstrate that China had learnt from its initial inflexibility. SinoSoviet antagonism imperilled China’s economic prospects.
China’s relationship with the capitalist West was not cordial, either, because of the communist identity that China assumed after 1949. It is noteworthy, though, that the SinoSoviet rupture benefited the capitalist bloc, and the US exploited it by initiating furtive talks with Chinese leaders with the aim of limiting Soviet influence in global affairs.
Apart from providing an incentive for Sino-American interaction, the Sino-Soviet split shaped how the socialist players chose the liberation movements to support in the developing world.
In some cases, China and the Soviet Union chose opposing liberation movements from one country; for example, among South Africa liberation movements, China supported the Pan Africanist Congress while the Soviet Union supported the SACP and, by the same token, the ANC.
Similarly, China supported the Zimbabwe African National Union and its military wing, the Zimbabwe National Liberation Army, while the Soviet Union supported the Zimbabwe African People’s Union and its military wing, the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army.
China’s contribution to the struggle against colonial and settler domination in Africa reflected China’s own principles. The principles included territorial integrity, sovereignty, and non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries.
Thus, China’s relentless campaign for the unification of mainland China and Taiwan has been central to China’s politics because it incorporates China’s principles.
Territorial integrity means that China considers its territory maimed by Taiwan’s refusal to be recognised as part of China.
Territorial integrity has been central to China’s quest for dominance in the South China Sea. Sovereignty and non-interference exhort foreign players not to meddle in what China considers to be a domestic issue between the mainland and a renegade Taiwan.
While the total reunification of mainland China and Taiwan remains unrealised, the CCP has achieved breathtaking milestones that should inspire even China’s caustic critics.
Its economic growth, averaging about 10% annual growth for four decades, is unprecedented.
With a combination of foreign technology, domestic capital, and labour, China industrialised rapidly and became the factory of the world.
In February this year, President Xi Jinping declared that China had completely eradicated extreme poverty.
Additionally, China hopes to become an advanced economy by 2035 and to be a net-zero CO2 emission economy by 2060. Judging from its achievements in the last 40 years, there is little doubt that China will meet the set targets.
From being a Third World country to being the second-largest global economy, on course to become the world’s biggest economy, China’s achievements are staggering.
The CCP has taken a turn towards prosperity and global acclaim. As it celebrates its centenary and total eradication of poverty, the CCP will resist complacency.
Unforeseen eventualities such as the coronavirus pandemic could shatter its stellar economic performance.
Secondly, global prominence also comes with expectations of responsible global citizenship. China should thus be poised to work with the developing world, Africa in particular, which remains trapped in the circumstances that were characteristic of China from 1949 to 1978.
This, of course, does not spare Africa its role as a primary architect of the continent’s development. Important players such as China could play an ancillary role, offering their experience.
While an unthinking emulation of China’s political and economic system could be injurious to Africa, there are certain aspects of the CCP’s modus operandi that deserve studying.
The enduring nature of policies, the admission of past mistakes in order to avoid them in the future, could help to end Africa’s time-honoured underdevelopment.