Maligayang Kaarawan to Deng Xiaoping, Founder and Father of Komunistang Sosyal
Why would we talk about Deng himself as a great man? It was indeed an amazing move when Deng visited the great late Lee Kuan Yew. Why should the whinings of the idiocy of the group called Migraine International be heard? Did Migraine International provide jobs for Filipinos? They're too busy mourning over the decades-old Plor Kontemplasyon - a woman that was proven to be GUILTY by Singapore. If the crime was in China - her fate would even be more sealed! The lessons that Lee gave to Deng proved useful in the movement called Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.
It was in 1979 after the failure of the so-called Great Leap Forward of Mao Zedong. It didn't bring the Communist Paradise it promised. Instead, from CGTN, it's time to think about the pragmatic approach to building a Communist Paradise:
First coined by Deng Xiaoping in 1982, the concept of socialism with Chinese characteristics aims to redefine the relations between planning and socialism, and market economy and capitalism. It has preserved institutions of socialism and public ownership while importing sophisticated management experience and advanced market mechanism from developed countries.
"Planning and market forces are not the essential difference between socialism and capitalism. A planned economy is not the definition of socialism, because there is planning under capitalism; the market economy happens under socialism, too. Planning and market forces are both ways of controlling economic activity," Deng explained.
The existence and growth of private ownership, according to Deng, does not necessarily undermine socialism and promote capitalism in China. "Development is the absolute principle. We must be clear about this issue," Deng said.
The reform and opening-up initiated by Deng in late 1978 adopted elements of the market economy, which became the first major step in the creation of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
"The Chinese socialist system and state governance system did not drop out of the sky but emerged from Chinese soil through a long process of revolution, economic development, and reform," Chinese President Xi Jinping said.
Over the past four decades, the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics has led China to remarkable achievements. China's gross domestic product (GDP) grew from $149.54 billion in 1978 to $14,342.9 billion in 2019, while its GDP per capita rose from $156 to $10,262. By the time the CPC marks its centenary in 2021, China is also poised to finish building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.
The movement in itself has begun to see that while Deng himself didn't like the traditional capitalist approach, he still nonetheless saw how new improvements could bring forth a brand-new Communist state. The real Great Leap Forward from the disaster occurred when Deng saw through Mao's mistakes. Mao was a great military man and much can be learned from his Art of War. However, Mao failed in the Art of Economics. Even Lee was impressed by Mao's military genius but ended up criticizing his lack of vision. Under Deng, it's to greatly improve what Mao started and correct where he failed.
What's really needed for the movement is to learn how to strengthen the Deng Xiaoping Theory. This is what's needed in order to carry out the great deal of the Komunistang Sosyal:
Deng Xiaoping Theory is a complete scientific system that embraces philosophy, political economics and scientific socialism. It covers, among other things, the economy, politics, science and technology, education, culture, ethnic affairs, military affairs, foreign affairs, the united front, and Party development. It provides answers to a number of basic questions about Chinese socialism, including the ideological guideline and nature of socialism, the path and stages of socialist development, the fundamental tasks, the development strategy and driving forces behind socialism, the opening up of socialist countries, the reform of socialist political and economic structures, the political guarantees for socialist development, the diplomatic strategies for a socialist country, China's reunification, the forces to rely on for China's socialism, the military and defense of a socialist country, and the leadership core of socialism.
Deng Xiaoping Theory carries forward and develops Mao Zedong Thought in China's new historical conditions. It is the second historic step in adapting Marxism to China's conditions and is the crystallization of the wisdom of the entire Party. The theory guided China in making a number of major changes from focusing on class struggle to focusing on economic development, from a closed and semi-closed state to reform and opening up, and from a planned economy to a socialist market economy, achieving political stability, economic development, and ethnic solidarity, and enhancing socialist productive forces, comprehensive national strength, and standards of living.
With that in mind, here's what Deng also recommended in order to build a Communism superior to capitalism:
Our current principles and policies were formulated at the Third Plenary Session of our Party’s Eleventh Central Committee, held in 1978. Over the last eight years we have done relatively good work. Before that we lost too much time, especially the decade of the “cultural revolution”, when we created troubles for ourselves with disastrous results. But we have learned from experience: these principles and policies are the product of the lessons we learned from the “cultural revolution”. The fundamental thing we have learned is that we must be clear about what socialism and communism are and about how to build socialism. The way to build socialism must be determined by the particular conditions in each country. I believe you can understand why we propose to build a socialism adapted to conditions in China.
In the past we stayed in a rut, engaging in construction behind closed doors, and many years of hard work did not produce the desired results. It is true that our economy was gradually expanding and that we succeeded in developing certain things, such as the atomic bomb, the hydrogen bomb and even intercontinental ballistic missiles. But on the whole, the economy grew slowly or remained at a standstill for long periods, and our people were still living in poverty. During the “cultural revolution” the Gang of Four raised the absurd slogan, “Better to be poor under socialism and communism than to be rich under capitalism.” It may sound reasonable to reject the goal of becoming rich under capitalism. But how can we advocate being poor under socialism and communism? It was that kind of thinking that brought China to a standstill. That situation forced us to re-examine the question.
Our first conclusion was that we had to uphold socialism and that to do that we had, above all, to eliminate poverty and backwardness, greatly expand the productive forces and demonstrate the superiority of socialism over capitalism. To this end, we had to shift the focus of our work to the drive for modernization and make that our goal for the next few decades. At the same time, experience has taught us that we must no longer keep the country closed to the outside world and that we must bring the initiative of our people into full play. Hence our policies of opening up and reform. Our open policy has two aspects: domestic and international. We began with the countryside, applying the open policy there, and we achieved results very quickly. In some places it took only one or two years to get rid of poverty. After accumulating the necessary experience in the countryside, we shifted the focus of reform to the cities. The urban reform has been under way for nearly three years, but much remains to be done. We also obtained quick results from the open policy internationally.
China lags behind in science and technology. We have quite a few problems to solve, especially the problem of our huge population, which already stands at 1.05 billion. This makes it very difficult for us to raise the people’s income and to eliminate poverty and backwardness in a short time. In everything we do we must proceed from reality, seeing to it that our targets are realistic and that enough time is allowed to fulfil them. In the last quarter of 1984 and throughout 1985 our economy grew at quite a rapid rate, and that caused us some problems. That’s why we needed some readjustment and contraction. But this had its good side too, because we learned from the experience.
On the whole, our goals are not too ambitious. We give ourselves 20 years — that is, from 1981 to the end of the century — to quadruple our GNP and achieve comparative prosperity, with an annual per capita GNP of US$800 to $1,000. Then we shall take that figure as a new starting point and try to quadruple it again, so as to reach a per capita GNP of $4,000 in another 50 years. What does this mean? It means that by the middle of the next century we hope to reach the level of the moderately developed countries. If we can achieve this goal, first, we shall have accomplished a tremendous task; second, we shall have made a real contribution to mankind; and third, we shall have demonstrated more convincingly the superiority of the socialist system. As our principle of distribution is a socialist one, our per capita GNP of $4,000 will be different from the equivalent amount in the capitalist countries. For one thing, China has a huge population. If we assume that by the mid-21st century our population will have reached 1.5 billion and that we shall have a per capita GNP of $4,000, then our total annual GNP will be $6 trillion, and that will place China in the front ranks of nations. When we reach that goal, we shall not only have blazed a new path for the peoples of the Third World, who represent three quarters of the world’s population, but also — and this is even more important — we shall have demonstrated to mankind that socialism is the only path and that it is superior to capitalism.
So, to build socialism it is necessary to develop the productive forces. Poverty is not socialism. To uphold socialism, a socialism that is to be superior to capitalism, it is imperative first and foremost to eliminate poverty. True, we are building socialism, but that doesn’t mean that what we have achieved so far is up to the socialist standard. Not until the middle of the next century, when we have reached the level of the moderately developed countries, shall we be able to say that we have really built socialism and to declare convincingly that it is superior to capitalism. We are advancing towards that goal.
In the course of building socialism and trying to modernize we have encountered some interference from the “Left”. Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of our Party, we have been concentrating on combating “Left” mistakes, because those are the ones we have made in the past. But there has also been interference from the Right. By that we mean the call for wholesale Westernization, which would lead not to socialism but to capitalism. We have already coped with the recent widespread ideological trend in favour of bourgeois liberalization and made some changes of personnel.
In short, we shall unswervingly follow the road mapped out since that Plenary Session. We have been marching down this road for more than eight years. I think there is no doubt that we shall attain the goal we have set for the end of the century. Although the next goal, for the 50 years after that, will be harder to reach, I am convinced that we can reach that one too.
(Excerpt from a talk with Premier Lubomir Strougal of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.)
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