“认识中国·了解中国”书系当代中国政治(英文版)(“认识中国.了解中国”书系)

In the past 40 years, the rapid economic growth in China shocked the world. In 2010, China?s GDP reached 39?79 trillion yuan (approximately $6?04 trillion), surpassing Japan?s $5?4 trillion and becoming the world?s second?largest economy after the United States. In 2017, China?s GDP reached 82?71 trillion yuan (approximately $12?2 trillion), narrowing the gap with the United States. People may regard China?s rapid economic development as a miracle, but it is by no means an isolated, one?sided and single development miracle. If China?s economic development is a myth, we may discover its root from not only economy, but from the political code. Contemporary Politics of China, baseing on China?s national conditions and focusing on basic political problems, expounds China?s contemporary political system, political reform, political leadership, political development direction and goals to demonstrate contemporary political civilization construction and its unique political advantage. By reading this book, the readers may understand the contemporary political structure of China and comprehensively know China and its economic development from different perspectives. The preface of the book mainly introduces some important theoretical issues such as the concept of politics, China?s national construction and development, the formation of socialism with Chinese characteristics, Marxism?s political view, the focus and goal of contemporary political development in China, so as to help readers better read and understand this book. 1.The concept of politics In China, the word “politics” was used by the states in pre?Qin period more than 2,000 years ago. For example, in The Book of History, there is a saying that “politics may enrich people?s livelihood”, and in The Rites of Zhou, there is a saying that “governing by setting political prohibition”. Obviously, in traditional Chinese culture, politics means governing the country and benefiting the people. In ancient China, they divided politics into “governing” and “ruling”. “Governing” could be interpreted from the following four aspects. First, it refers to the state?s power, system and laws. For example, it was said that “governing means setting regulating system”,and “it?s flexible to follow the former rules or establish new regulations”. Second, it refers to a kind of governance methods such as rites, music, punishment and politics. They are all very important. Third, it refers to the cultivation of rulers. For example, Confucius said, “the governors must be righteous, for nobody dare challenge the righteous leader”.Fourth, it refers to the governance activities of monarchs and ministers. For example, it was said in The Biography of Ouyang Xiu of History of the Song Dynasty that “all ministers should co?ordinate with the government”. “Ruling” could be interpreted from two aspects. First, it refers to the management activities of governing the country and the people, such as “a man must cultivate his morality and regulate his family, so that he may govern the country, even the world”, and “ruling the people courteously leads to peace and contentment”, which has the same function as “governing”. Second, it refers to the state of stability relative to unrest. For example, people say “harmonious state is shaped by ruling with love and discorded state is shaped by ruling with inhibition”.The combination of “governing” and “ruling” fully embodies the above basic concepts. In the West, the English word “politics” is derived from a Greek word “polis”, which means “city?state”. From the 8th to the 6th centuries BC, some political thoughts gradually came into being with the eme?rgence of city?state system. In ancient Greek, the city?state was an economic, political and cultural social entity with a city as its center, including the acropolis, the urban area and several villages within a few kilometers nearby. It was the earliest form of state. In Athens, ancient Greece, citizens gathered in the acropolis to make common decisions on public affairs whenever official issues were discussed. Politics is a universal activity of human society. People?s sociality determines that people are closely related to political activities and born to be “political”. Therefore, politics, from the very beginning, refers to public activities and their procedures related to national governance, participation and decision. Ancient Greek thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle frequently used the concept of politics. In 386 BC, Plato wrote The State (translated as The Republic) and later The Statesman, which dealt with political issues such as the state, rulers, social division of labor and hierarchical relations. In 326 BC, Aristotle wrote The Politics, marking the birth of politics as an independent science. From the perspectives of the structure and meaning of city?state, Aristotle believes that politics is the governance and management of city?state. This kind of governance and management also means the power of citizens over the affairs of the city?state, because the city?state is “a group of citizens” A RISTOTLE. The politics. Beijing: The Commercial Press,1965:113.. It can be seen from the above that no matter in China or in foreign countries, generally, politics refers to the ideological theories, institutional mechanism and practical activities of national public affairs governance. Politics has distinct publicity and public power, just as Sun Yat?sen, the democratic revolutionist of modern China said, “in a word, Politics means governing the people”SUN Y S. Selected Works of Sun Yat?sen: Volume 2. Beijing: People?s Publishing House,1981:661..Therefore, politics means using public power to manage the affairs of the people. This popular explanation shows that, although politics is closely related to national governance, in the final analysis it must serve the people, benefit the people and be subordinate to the people. 2.China?s national construction and development China is an ancient and civilized country with recorded history of more than 5,000 years. After the prehistoric period, Xia dynasty, Shang dynasty, Western Zhou dynasty, Spring and Autumn period and Warring States period, Qin dynasty was founded in 221 BC and became China?s first unified, multi?ethnic, centralized feudal monarchy. The Qin dynasty laid the foundation of China?s feudal state, which was inherited by the later Han, Tang, Song, Ming and Qing dynasties. In 1840, the First Opium War broke out. Under the invasion of Western powers, feudal China gradually became a semi?colonial and semi?feudal country. In 1911, the revolution led by Sun Yat?sen and the Chinese Revolutionary League overthrew the Qing dynasty, abolished the feudal monarchy and established the Republic of China. Imperialist forces tried to coerce the revolutionary forces to compromise with the governor of Hubei and Hunan provinces and cabinet premier Yuan Shikai. Under internal and external pressure, the revolutionary forces made concessions. Sun Yat?sen issued a statement, saying that as long as the Qing emperor abdicated, Yuan Shikai was in favor of the republic, and they would elect Yuan Shikai as the president. The compromise of the revolutionary forces on Yuan Shikai led to the failure of the 1911 Revolution. It did not complete the task of anti?imperialism and anti?feudalism, and change the nature of China?s semi?colonial and semi?feudal society, nor did it truly realize the reunification of the country. The country was still divided by warlords. In 1921, the Communist Party of China (CPC) was founded, which was inseparable from the “May 4th Movement”. On the afternoon of May 4th, 1919, more than 3,000 students from Peking University and other schools came to Tian?anmen Square with various flags and placards protesting against the traitorous Beiyang Government. Beiyang Government sent troops and police to arrest students and citizens. The students? righteous struggle won wide sympathy from the masses at all levels. All sectors of society protested against the government authorities one after another. On May 7th, the students in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha, Guangzhou, Chongqing and other places held mass gathering and demonstrations, and the influence of the movement spread rapidly across the country. After “May 4th Movement”, advanced intellectuals successively published periodicals, edited books, organized progressive organizations, spread Marxism?Leninism, and publicized the new thought of saving the country and the people. With the development of “May 4th Movement”, Marxism?Leninism was more widely spread in China and it was combined with the Chinese workers? movement to make ideological and cadre preparations for the establishment of the Communist Party. In August 1920, the Shanghai Initiator Group of the CPC was founded. On July 23rd, 1921, the 1st National Congress of the CPC was held in Shanghai, proclaiming the Communist Party of China was officially founded. It is an epoch?making event in the history of Chinese nation. From then on, the CPC had been leading the people in various forms of armed struggle. After the arduous new democratic revolution, Chinese people overthrew the“Three Great Mountains” as imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism, seized the state power, and established the People?s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. The Chinese people became the master of the country. After the founding of the People?s Republic of China, China gradually realized the transition from new democracy to socialism, completed the socialist transformation of private ownership, and eliminated the exploiting class and system. In 1956, China established the socialist system, became a socialist country and embarked along the path of socialist construction and development. After 10 years of efforts, the economic construction had made great achievements, formed the independent relatively complete industrial system and national economic system. Agricultural production increased significantly. Education, science, culture and other undertakings have made great progress. China had accumulated important experience of socialist construction for a big country like China whose social productivity level was very low. However, generally speaking, China?s socialist construction, following the “Soviet model”, was traditional socialist mode, which adopted rigid economic planning system, emphasized political class struggle, implemented dogmatism on ideology and culture, and implicated to a cult of personality. The construction mode led to the occurrence of so?called “Cultural Revolution” in 1966, causing the national economy and political issues in trouble. In 1978, in response to the fundamental shortcomings of the traditional socialist model, China began to implement reform and opening?up policies, which marked a new period of its development. Through reforms on economy system, politics system, cultural system, social system, and ecological civilization system, as well as the comprehensive, multi?level opening?up policies, China promoted the social productivity and developed into a socialist country with Chinese characteristics. With increasing comprehensive national strength, China has made remarkable achievements. 3. The formation of socialism with Chinese characteristics To understand contemporary politics of China, we must be aware that we are constructing socialism with Chinese characteristics. So how did the concept of socialism with Chinese characteristics come into being? In 1982, Deng Xiaoping put forward in the opening speech of the 12th National Congress of the CPC that “we should combine the universal truth of Marxism with the concrete reality of China, follow our own path and build socialism with Chinese characteristics,and this is the basic conclusion we draw from our history” DENG X P. Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping: Volumn 3.Beijing: People?s Publishing House,1993:3..For the first time, the new proposition of “socialism with Chinese characteristics” has been established. Since then, “socialism with Chinese characteristics” has been repeated in the reports from the 13th to the 19th National Congress of the CPC. Such as “advance along the socialist road with Chinese characteristics” in the 13th National Congress of the CPC, “achieve greater victory in the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics” in the 14th National Congress of the CPC, “comprehensively develop socialism with Chinese characteristics to the 21st century” in the 15th National Congress of the CPC, “create a new situation for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics” in the 16th National Congress of the CPC, “uphold the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics” in the 17th National Congress of the CPC, “unswervingly advance along the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics” in the 18th National Congress of the CPC, and “seize decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era” in the 19th National Congress of the CPC. Socialism with Chinese characteristics is not only a grand plan for China?s development, but also a set of major policies for China?s governance. The elaboration of such a grand plan and policies formed the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. In the Study on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics published in 2013, the author elaborated the basic content of theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics which mainly includes the guiding ideology of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the development direction, the general basis, layout and assignment of socialism with Chinese characteristics, as well as its supported power, fundamental approach, inherent requirements, fundamental principles, essential attributes, inevitable choices,leadership core of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Its development is manifested in reform and opening?up, scientific development, the “five?pronged” development of socialist market economy, democratic politics, advanced culture, harmonious society and ecological civilization, and the promotion of national defense, national reunification, peaceful development and the realization of the“Chinese Dream”. By observing and understanding the basic contents of the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, we can clearly see that it determines the cause of contemporary politics of China and establishes the basic political strategy. Firstly, the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese charac?teristics requires that China advances along the political path of building socialism with Chinese characteristics. We will never allow “adopting class struggle as the guiding principle”. Instead, we are committed to building a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful. Building socialism with Chinese characteristics requires adherence to the four cardinal principles and reform and opening?up policy to ensure national economy, politics, and culture, social and ecological progress develop in the right political direction. At the same time, building the socialism with Chinese characteristics also requires us to face the world based on the situations in China. We should keep pace with the times and follow the development trend to actively absorb the essence of the human political civilization and successful experience of other countries, adding distinct features of times and ethnic to the cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics. Secondly, the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics requires that contemporary Chinese political practice must always adhere to the people?s principal position and this practice must work for people and rely on them. People enjoy the principal position as the masters of the country. From the perspective of the cause of the socialism with Chinese characteristics, people actually are in charge of the responsibility of owing the country and they select their representatives based on democratic election. What?s more, they actively administrate the state and social affairs in accordance with laws, and fully exercise the rights of being informed, participation, expression and supervision. As a result, people make democratic policy?making, management and supervision in the fields of economy, politics, culture and social affairs. As the master of the national governance, people maintain the dominant position in the rule of law and play a leading role. The system of people?s congress is the fundamental political system protecting people?s rights to be the master. As the source of strength for the rule of law, people use the rule of law to govern the country. It is imperative that legal construction works for people, relies on people, benefits people, serves people, and protects people. Based on guaranteeing fundamental interests of people, legal construction safeguards the extensive democratic rights and freedom of people according to laws, enables people to shoulder the obligation, safeguards social justice and fairness, and advances common prosperity. We must ensure that people are able to administrate economic, cultural, and social affairs through various channels as provided by law. Thirdly, the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics requires that the key of contemporary politics of China is to uphold the CPC?s leadership, which means the CPC is the core of national politics. According to the Constitution, the CPC is the only ruling party leading all industries in the country. Therefore, the CPC plays a significant social role in real life. Guided by advanced Marxism theories, the CPC aims to serve the people wholeheartedly and regards socialism and communism as its social ideal. It is the essential requirement and nature and historical mission for the CPC to take the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics and develop socialist democracy.Facts proved that under contemporary condition of new era in China, it is the CPC that explores the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. In the further development of Chinese socialism cause, we cannot unswervingly adhere to the principle of building socialism with Chinese characteristics without the CPC. The leadership of the CPC provides strong political and organizational guarantee.Fourthly, the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics requires contemporary China to build a sound and complete political system, so as to make all aspects more mature. The system of socialism with Chinese characteristics consists of fundamental system, basic systems and specific systems. The people?s congresses is the fundamental system. It has three basic systems: first, the system of multi?party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the CPC, and the regional ethnic autonomy system and the grassroots mass system of self?governance at the primary level; second, the legal system of socialism with Chinese characteristics; third, basic economic system whereby public ownership plays a dominant role and economic entities under diverse forms of ownership develop side by side.It has four specific systems as economic structure, political structure, cultural structure and social structure. Adhering to the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, we should combine the fundamental and basic political systems with specific systems, national level democracy with the grassroots democracy, and insist on combining the leadership of the CPC, the running of the country by the people,and law?based governance. It should be noted that the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is distinctive and efficient, but it still needs to be constantly improved to provide a more effective institutional guarantee for the victory of socialism with Chinese characteristics. 4. Following marxism political theory In order to observe and understand contemporary politics of China, we should pay attention to a remarkable feature, that is, contemporary politics of China is guided by Marxism and follows Marxism political theory. The founders of Marxism are Marx and Engels, and Marxism political theory elucidated by Marx and Engels constitutes the mainstream trend of thoughts in contemporary politics of China. Starting from the world outlook of dialectical materialism and historical materialism, Marxism political theory scientifically reveals the nature, characteristics and development regularity of politics. Dialectical materialism believes that the world is made of matter moving regularly, so it follows certain laws. Historical materialism holds that social existence determines social consciousness, and social consciousness reacts on social existence. Productive forces determine the relations of production, and that the relations of production react on productive forces. The basic contradictions of society, namely the contradiction between the productive forces and the relations of production, and the contradiction between economic foundation and the superstructure, promote the development of human society from the lower level to the higher level, which successively passed through the primitive society, the slave society, the feudal society, the capitalist society, to the socialist society and the communist society. From a historical view of the world, Marxism political theory holds that, on the one hand, political consciousness is the reflection of political existence, and political existence determines political consciousness. On the other hand, political consciousness can actively react on political existence. The development of Marxism political theory in practice also includes later Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Marxism political theory puts forward the following main views. Firstly, politics is about the management of public institutions and public affairs. Marx and Engels held that: “With the emergence of cities, there is a need of executive branch, police, taxation, etc. In a word, there is a need of a public political institution, that is, general politics is required.” Public political institution has two basic functions MARX, ENGELS. Complete Works of Marx and Engels: Volume 3. Beijing: People?s Publishing House,1960:57.:First, in the state where people are divided into different classes, it has the function of class ruling;Second, it has the function of managing social public affairs. Just as Engels said,“Political rule is based on the implementation of certain social functions, and it works when implemented. No matter how many governments have risen or declined in Persia and India, they all know very well that they should firstly manage to irrigate by rivers, because they can?t develop agriculture without irrigation.”MARX, ENGELS. Complete Works of Marx and Engels: Volume 20. Beijing: People?s Publishing House,1971:195.If the public political institutions do not organize and manage hydraulic engineering and other public constructions, the ruling class cannot maintain the power. When ruling class ceases its governance, public political institutions will still retain the function of managing social public affairs, which shows that politics is public and arises from the general needs of society and people. Political activities will be accompanied by human society. As long as human society exists, public affairs will exist, and public institutions will be needed. It is the same to politics. Secondly, the core of politics is the state power. In a class society, public political institutions are manifested in the form of the state. If a class is to gain, maintain and consolidate its political rule, it must control the state power and the armed forces. Lenin once pointed out that “the essence of politics is the institution of state power” LENIN. Selected Works of Lenin: Volume 2. 3rd.Beijing: People?s Publishing House,1995:323. , and the state is “the key and fundamental of all politics”LENIN.Complete Works of Lenin:Volumn 4.Beijing:People?s Publishing House,1958:429.. As the core of the superstructure, state power is the most concentrated place of social and political activities. In a state, all political activities, relations, and phenomena are related to state power and take it as the center. Political factors as class, Party, organization, struggle, revolution and compromise are also carried out around state power. Only the ruling class can systematically promote the politics. Therefore, Lenin pointed out that “the function of politics is to deal with state affairs, set the direction and determine the task content” LENIN. Complete Works of Lenin: Volume 31. 2nd.Beijing: People?s Publishing House,1985:128. . Thirdly, politics is concentrated reflection of economy. Politics is closely related to economy. Politics is based on economy and in turn serves economy. Marxism believes that politics is rooted in the relations of production, and political relations are ultimately determined by specific economic relations in a certain society. “Certain individuals who carry out production activities in a certain way would create certain social and political relations. MARX, ENGELS. Selected Works of Marx and Engels: Volume 1. 3rd.Beijing: People?s Publishing House,2012:151. ”“The mode of the production of material restricts the progress of social, political and spiritual life.”MARX, ENGELS. Selected Works of Marx and Engels: Volume 2. 3rd.Beijing: People?s Publishing House,2012:2. That is to say, economic relations determine political relations. However, political relations are not negative reflection of economic relations, but have a huge positive, dynamic reaction. Just as Lenin once said, “politics is the concentrated reflection of economy”LENIN. Selected Works of Lenin: Volume 4. 3rd. Beijing: People?s Publishing House,1995:407. .The so?called concentrated reflection means that politics reflects the fundamental interests of the ruling class in economic relations. The solution of the problems of fundamental economic relations cannot be based on economy alone, but also on political relations. In a class society, the only way to solve the problems of the fundamental economic interests of the working class is to carry out class struggle and seize the political power of the state. As Lenin once said, “politics must take the first place when compared with economy…. A class cannot maintain its ruling power without holding political point of view.”Ibid., 407408. In a socialist society, the solutions to problems in economic and cultural development concerned with fundamental interests of the people, as well as those incompatible problems between economic foundation and the superstructure, must be drawn under the guidance of guaranteeing the state?s interests by political restructure. Fourthly, the key to politics lies in institutions. As superstructure, it is built on certain economic basis. Marxism historical materialism points out that the driving force for social progress is the contradictory between productive forces and the relations of production, and that between economic foundation and the superstructure. Productive forces determine the relations of production. As economic basis of the society, the relations of production determine the superstructure in return. The productive forces determine the relations of production and economic base determines the superstructure and cultural ideology. The structure of a country and society is mainly divided into three parts as economy, politics and culture.It has established the national economic structure, political structure and cultural structure corresponding to the productive forces and economic foundation. Historical materialism also holds that the economic structure, political structure and cultural structure, as the superstructure of the state, are counterproductive to the economic foundation and productive forces. The national superstructure and its systems, which represent the fundamental requirement and direction of the advancement of economic foundation and productive forces, can effectively promote the development of economic foundation and productive forces. Fifthly, politics has objective regularity. Lenin pointed out, “politics is a kind of science and art” LENIN. Selected Works of Lenin: Volume 4.3rd. Beijing: People?s Publishing House,1995:189..Politics is an objective social phenomenon. Its emergence and development are not accidental or blind, but restricted by social material production conditions, and has its own objective and inherent laws. Through social practice, people can constantly reveal, understand and grasp the objective laws of politics. So politics is a kind of science. Related to the fundamental interests of the ruling class, politics is concerned with social life, political environment and the complexity of political situation. People can?t put political objective laws into practice as certain ready?made formula. We should analyze the situation, seize the opportunity, and adjust to local conditions to use political rules more flexibly and actively, in order to make correct strategic decisions to adapt to the needs of political struggle. Therefore, politics is a kind of art. 5. The focus and goal of the development of contemporary politics of ChinaTo understand and grasp the trend of the development of contemporary politics of China, we should not be limited at academic level, but take the reality of China as wide background and focus on solving practical problems existing in China. This requires us to pay close attention to the focus and goal of the development of contemporary politics of China. The focus of the development of contemporary politics of China is the reform of political structure. This is because China?s original political structure is derived from Soviet political structure model, whose characteristics can be concluded as leader centralization, individual arbitrariness, tenure system, the appointment of cadres layer upon layer, lack of democracy and freedom and holding power without restriction or supervision. The direct result of following Soviet political structure model was that we could not effectively select talents by democratic methods, so that mediocre people or even some dishonest people occupied the political positions. As a result, the rigid and lifeless political structure was like a rust?dead machine, which simply lost its function. The Soviet Union initiated the reform of political structure in the mid?1980s, but it did not carry out a solid and effective reform aiming at the drawbacks of the original political structure and finally failed. It shows that the political structure model of the Soviet Union was unfit for the development process of modern society. It was weak and couldn?t conform to the progressive political value orientation. It was also a warning for us that reform on political structure was urgent. At present, China is in the transition period from traditional society to modern society. It is a reform period. We must carry out political reform and realize political modernization described as “eight political characteristics”, namely democratization, ruling by law, decentralization, openness, wide participation,superb supervision, scientific decision?making and effective management. The development of contemporary politics of China has been a highlight of world political civilization. The goal of China?s reform of political structure as well as the goal that the development of contemporary political of China is to achieve,to “improve and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics, and modernize state governance system and governance capabilities”. The success or failure of China?s reform of political structure depends on whether it can improve and develop the socialist political structure with Chinese characteristics. This is because that, among the structure of economic, political, cultural and social of China, political structure represents the nature and main characteristics of China as a socialist country and has the function of ensuring socialist China?s stability, unity, democracy, harmony and long?term security. The overall feature of contemporary political structure of China formed since reform and opening?up is adhering to the organic unity of the leadership of the CPC, the running of the country by the people and law?based governance. The leadership of the CPC is the guarantee of the running of the country by the people and law?based governance. It is an essential requirement for a socialist country to the running of the country by the people. Law?based governance is the basic strategy that the CPC adopts to lead the people to govern the country. The CPC is the core of leadership for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The ruling of the CPC is to lead and support the people to be the master of the country, to mobilize and organize the people as extensively as possible to manage state and social affairs as well as economic and cultural programs in accordance with the law, to safeguard and realize people?s fundamental interests, and to achieve prosperity for the country and happiness for the people. Fundamentally speaking, the development of contemporary politics of China is totally different from that of Western countries. Unlike Western countries and other countries, the political structure established and gradually improved in contemporary China is a political structure with socialist nature. Contemporary political structure of China and political institutions, which combine the basic principles of Marxism with China?s specific political practice, have distinct characteristics of Chinese socialism. The contemporary political structure of China and political institutions have been constantly consolidated and matured during the PRC?s development of over 60 years. In spite of various problems and frustrations during this period, they have on the whole adapted to the development needs of productive forces and economic base, played a positive role and rapidly changed China from a land of poverty and backwardness to a great socialist country. Therefore, the contemporary political structure of China and political institutions supported by the people fully reflect the advantages of the socialist system.