Tuesday, May 09, 2006

China Attacks Its Woes With an Old Party Ritual

On March 9, 2006, Dr. Wenran Jiang was interviewed by the New York Times on the Chinese Communist Party's recent "preserving the progressiveness" ideological campaign.

For 14 months and counting, the party's 70 million rank-and-file members have been ordered to read speeches by Mao and Deng Xiaoping, as well as the numbing treatise of 17,000-plus words that is the party constitution. Mandatory meetings include sessions where cadres must offer self-criticisms and also criticize everyone else.

Dr. Jiang observed that it is an effort to cope with the declining reputation of the party and the distrust of the people toward party officials.

"The executives were asking me if this political movement will affect China's way of doing business," Mr. Jiang said. "The Chinese immediately reassured us that it wouldn't."

You can read the article here.