Massimo Introvigne | Bitter Vinter
Summing up: uphold Marxism, uphold the Party, uphold the Central Committee, uphold Xi Jinping.
Both Chinese and Western commentators have observed that the substance of the Resolution is in “the two upholds”: uphold the authority of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), uphold the authority of Comrade Xi Jinping. In fact, there are four “upholds,” and they flow logically from each other.
The first “uphold” is “uphold Marxism.” The Resolution reaffirms “our faith in Marxism, the great ideal of Communism.” The first aim of Xi Jinping’s activity, we are told, is “ensuring the guiding role of Marxism in the ideological domain.”
He needs the help of all CCP members. Every Party member should know and study Marxist theory. “The advanced nature of a Marxist party is not a given, but rather cultivated through constant self-reform [this is the official English translation of 自我革命 but Bill Bishop at Sinocism has suggested that ‘self-revolution’ may be more appropriate].” Chinese “must uphold Marxism-Leninism… We must use Marxist positions, viewpoints, and methods to observe, understand, and steer the trends of the times, and constantly deepen our understanding of the laws underlying governance by a Communist party, the building of Socialism, and the development of human society.”
Today as 100 years ago when it was founded, the CCP remains persuaded that “Marxism has brought to light the laws governing the development of human society. It is a scientific truth for understanding and shaping the world.”
Marxism, however, went through difficult times, and now “to uphold and develop Marxism, Marxists from all over the world must engage in extremely strenuous and challenging work, both in theory and in practice.”
It is “in China that Marxism has been fully tested as a scientific truth.” The Chinese experience “has enabled Marxism to take on a fresh face in the eyes of the world, and significantly shifted the worldwide historical evolution of and contest between the two different ideologies and social systems of Socialism and capitalism in a way that favors Socialism.”
This would be good reason enough, the Resolution says, for the second “uphold”: “uphold the Chinese Communist Party.” By succeeding, according to the Resolution, where no other Communist party had succeeded before, i.e., in proving that the Socialist stage of the Communist project may produce one of the strongest economies in the world, the CCP has emerged as “an important force driving human development and progress.” It has rescued Marxism from its crisis, and now we “see Marxism emanate mightier and more compelling power of truth.”
“The strong leadership of the Party, the Resolution says, is the fundamental reason why the Chinese people and Chinese nation have been able to transform their fate in modern times and achieved the great success we see today. Both the facts of history and the reality of today prove that without the Communist Party of China, there would be no new China and no national rejuvenation.”
Third, “uphold the Central Committee.” “The centralized, unified leadership of the Central Committee is the highest principle of the Party’s leadership, and upholding and strengthening this is the common political responsibility of each and every Party member. In upholding Party leadership, all Party members must, first and foremost, take a clear stance in maintaining political integrity to ensure that the whole Party obeys the Central Committee.”
And the fourth “uphold” is, as expected, “uphold Comrade Xi Jinping’s core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole.” “Party members and officials should be educated and guided to have firm belief in Xi Jinping Thought,” and to “rally more closely around the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core.”
The Resolution is much more than a call to obedience. It depicts in the Hegelian terms of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis a great fresco that explains why Xi Jinping is “at the core” through the implacable Marxist logic of dialectical materialism and historical materialism.
Surprises are always possible in China, but it seems that those Western commentators that mentioned in the last few months the possibility that Xi Jinping had been weakened by international pressures and silent but not absent internal resistance were wrong. The Resolution establishes his role as a leader comparable to Mao and Deng, and in fact greater or at least more correct than them, not through an analysis of his exceptional personality or through political argument. It draws the conclusion from a philosophical view of history presented as quintessential Marxist orthodoxy. It seems a very stable foundation for Xi’s power.
Article 8 of 8. Read article 1, article 2, article 3, article 4, article 5, article 6, and article 7
