The New Mandarins: A Brief Introduction - Lee Yu See

The Characteristics & Development of Chinese Communist Monopolistic Capital

“In carrying out the socialist revolution, you don’t know where the bourgeoisie is. Well, it’s in the Communist Party — those in power who are on the capitalist road, capitalist roaders are still on the move.” — Mao Tse-tung 1

The official view of the CCP under Mao was that “95% of the cadres are good”. But Shengwulien, formed on October 11, 1967 in Hunan province, a coalition of twenty Red Guard and rebel-worker groups, posited the view that 90% of the cadres are part of a useless bureaucracy. 2

It is the tendency of the author to consider the communist party as the capitalist class in China today. The party cadres are the “new Mandarins”.

The characteristics of this capitalist class and the development of this monopolistic capital in China since 1949 can be briefly stated as follows: 3

The new monopolistic capitalists or the new Mandarins have the following distinguishing features:

1. The new Mandarins hoist the flags of “Marxism-Leninism” and “proletarian revolution” hiding their true face and were both false, deceitful and inflamatory in relation to the working masses.
2. The new Mandarins are integrated with the authoritarian state power. The monoplistic capitalist class would live and grow and perish together with this state power. On the one hand, the monopolistic nature of the economy forms the basis of authoritarian state power. On the other hand, authoritarian politics is the precondition for the birth, the strengthening and the development of monopolistic capital.
3. The new Mandarins are backed up by military might. Mao Tse-tung has said, “political power grows out from the barrel of the gun; the whole world can only be reformed with the use of the gun.” The origin of the monopolistic capital of the communist party (i.e. primitive accumulation) is based on the backing up by military might. All properties were expropriated from those owning them by all kinds of means. Expropriation and control, beautified with words like “collectivization” and “communization” were actually backed by the threat of violent repression.
4. The new Mandarins will ultimately control the areas of culture and education, making both to serve authoritarian politics. In the words of Mao Tse-tung, it is “carrying out dictatorship in every aspect, in the superstructure including every cultural sphere”.

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution may be considered to be a very bold attempt by the monopolistic capital of the Chinese communists to create its monopolistic culture. When the Cultural Revolution was at its height, ninety percent of the publications on sale at the bookshops were the works and quotations of Mao Tse-tung (the head of monopolistic capital) and the other ten percent were works of Marxism-Leninism and policy statements of the Chinese communists.

A Short History of the Development of Chinese Communist Monopolistic Capital

The development of monopolistic capital in China can be separated into four periods:

1. From the seizure of political power in the Mainland in 1949 to the termination of the Land Reform Movement in 1953. At this time, the Chinese communists’ monopolistic industrial capital constituted 70% of the total industrial capital. The remaining 30% was controlled by private national industrialists and commercial representatives. In agriculture, the Chinese communists were unable to bring about an immediate monopolistic takeover. A “land reform” movement was carried out to win over the confidence of the majority of the peasants. At the same time, the communists implanted their machinery for domination in the villages all over China in order to create the basis for the next step of monopolising agriculture (Mao Tse-tung called it the socialization of agriculture).
2. The year 1953 saw the beginning of the mutual co-operative movement. By 1957, the socialist reconstruction of agriculture, handicraft industry, national industry and commerce had been completed. The “communist” dictatorship, backed by violence, used very careful and articulate means to embrace the several hundred million peasants, handicraftsmen, national industrialists and businessmen into the loci of monopolistic state capital. There were many who beat the gongs to give up their properties to the “communists” during the day. In the evening, they buried their heads and cried because they knew that they had lost everything. A few peasants insisted to be on their own but as a whole, the monopolistic state capital of the “communists” had now made up 80% to 90% of the total.

   As soon as such monopolistic state capital was formed, it started to bleed the people. The “anti-rightist” movement of 1957 and the “Great Leap Forward” of 1958 were attacks by monopolistic state capital on the masses politically and economically.

3. Between the “Great Leap forward” in 1958 and the eve of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in 1965, Chinese monopolistic state capital, through “communization,” had matured and towards the end entered a period of decadence. At this point in time, the social contradiction was manifested in the discrepancy between the desires of monopolistic capital and the reality of the social productive forces. Through political pressure the people were forced to exercise their “greatest enthusiasm” and were super-exploited and suppressed so that the accumulation of monopolistic capital might be increased. The “paradise” of “communist” monopolistic capital was to be reached by one attempt. In the end the social productive forces were severely damaged. The economy was dislocated, supplies were extremely inadequate, hyper-inflation occurred and the people were grumbling restlessly. Eventually, Mao Tse-tung and the faction he led, being responsible for initiating the Great Leap, had to withdraw from the front-line of power. Liu Shao-chi and his faction had to deal with the ruins. What followed were: adjustments in the industries, contraction of the scale of the communes, disbandment of the village communal dining halls, the transformation of ownership (from ownership by the whole people to collective ownership or from collective ownership to private ownership), all industries would practise the policy of “rearrangement, strengthening, reinforcement and elevation.” After some time, the intense contradiction was blunted (but not resolved) and the social productive forces were slowly recovered. At this juncture, the monopolistic capitalist class was divided into two camps. The Mao and Liu cliques started off with disagreement over policies but ended in struggling for “leadership.” From 1963 to 1965, both camps vied for leadership of the “Four Clean-Ups” Campaign. It was a rehearsal of a continental fight for power and an overture of the open split between the two camps during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
4. From the Cultural Revolution in 1966 to the present time, there were splits and tremors within the Chinese monopolistic capitalists. They have caused great confusion and degeneration in the arena of economics, politics and culture. The internecine fight within the monopolistic ruling class is one which cannot be settled by compromise. As early as 1959, at the conference of Lushan, Mao Tse-tung had banished Peng Teh-huai, Chiang Wen-tien and Chou Hsiao-chiu away from the top ruling stratum of the monopolistic capitalist class by identifying them as “right-wing opportunists.” Till now, their cases have not been reversed. The episode became an immediate cause of the Cultural Revolution. The essay that fired the first shot of the GPCR was Yao Wen-yuan’s “On the Historical Play, the Dismissal of Hai Jui” and the spearhead of the criticism was directed at the faction which sought to reverse the verdict on Peng Teh-huai. During the Cultural Revolution, Mao Tse-tung’s faction made use of the students’ movement and the mass movement (in reality, manipulation of the students and the masses) to eliminate Liu Shao-chi and Teng Hsiao-ping who were accused of being capitalist roaders. Then Chou En-lai and his clique succeeded Liu and Teng and took advantage of an opportune moment to get rid of Lin Piao. Mao Tse-tung was forced to admit the facts and had to recognise Lin Piao also as a capitalist roader. The Chou clique reinstated Teng Hsiao-ping and many others but soon the Maoist faction created the “Counter right deviationist wind” to combat such developments and succeeded in freezing Teng Hsaio-ping as the “unrepentent capitalist roader.” But as soon as the leader of the Maoist faction passed away, the “Gang of Four” who were closest to Mao Tse-tung were quickly and soundly thrown into the hell of the capitalist roaders by a newly elevated gang of representatives of monopoly capital. During the intrigues and struggles mentioned above the contenders provided “ample and sufficient proofs” to demonstrate the “capitalist nature” of their opponents. In the end, all the people inside and outside Mainland China would be acutely aware that they all are capitalist roaders, they all are part of the monopolistic capitalist class although they may be painted with different colours. The capitalist roaders are still on the move and the struggles among the communists themselves continue. It can be predicted that more vigorous struggles are developing and such struggles will end only on the destruction of the “communist” monopolistic capital by the people.

The Mandarins Before Attainment of State Power

To quite a number of us, from the beginning, the CCP was a bourgeois organism. The party was structured along hierarchical lines. It assimilated all the forms, techniques and mentality of bureaucracy. Its membership was schooled in obedience and was taught to revere the leadership. The party’s leadership, in turn, was schooled in habits born of command, authority, manipulation and egomania. Before the party’s seizure of state power in 1949, the party’s leadership and membership were already manifesting all traits of exploiters and oppressors. On winning power, they became the “new Mandarins”, who began to set up a terrifying totalitarian/bureaucratic regime.

Throughout the history of the communist party, one can trace its totalitarian/ bureaucratic character. It is the task of some of us to examine the history of the CCP in order to fully reveal its totalitarian/bureaucratic past. Our contention is that the present totalitarian/bureaucratic system could be traced back to the history of the CCP, the mode of operation of which was to be attributed to the Leninism-Stalinism to which the Party subscribed. This task of tracing the development of the CCP is yet to be completed. However, we can give a few examples:

In the ‘20s and the ‘30s those communists well versed in Russian, like Chu-chiu-pei and Wang Ming, monopolised the theoretical formulation of the party’s line and policies because there were then very little translations of Marxist-Leninist works. They then posed themselves as theoreticians, feeling and acting superior to ordinary members, and because of their monopoly of theoretical knowledge, they were to be the leadership of the Party. In one case, Chu-chiu-pei translated a Russian work on dialectical materialism and passed it as his own work! 4

The power struggles inside the party were conducted in the main in secret. Very often, dirty tricks were played — in the Gang of Four affair, the Lin Piao affair, etc. there were intrigues and conspiracies. Not infrequently, secret police tactics were utilised. For example, reported by ex-party member Kung Chor, a leader of the Seventh Red Army who now resides in Hong Kong, Mao Tse-tung wanted to reorganise the cadres of the Seventh Red Army. This idea of Mao was objected to by most people and using the pretext that there existed reactionary elements in the Army, more than twenty cadres were physically exterminated. Even more startling was the Fu-tien affair — there were a sizable number of people in the Kiangsi Provincial Action Committee and the Twentieth Red Army being dissatisfied with Mao Tse-tung and they sided with Chu-teh. Mao directed Teng Fa to strike at these dissidents and generated the so-called Fu-tien affair. Supporters of Chu-teh were tortured, the number involved was so large that it is believed that nearly 10,000 were executed, including the General Secretary of the party in the province. 5

During the period of Yenan, reports on the bureaucratic set-up of the CCP are readily available. The first is an essay, “Wild Lilies”, by Wang Shih-wei, translated into English and published in an issue of the New Left Review. The same essay by Wang was quoted by Simon Leys in his book Chinese Shadows. In the essay, Wang talked about the hierarchical pyramid in Yenan. High on the hierarchy were those who were fed better, clothed better. The healthy big sorts were having unnecessary and unreasonable “luxuries” and “pleasures” while sick comrades might not have even a bowl of noodle soup. The existence and prevalence of these and other bureaucratic practices in Yenan were confirmed by Smarlo Ma’s book, Struggling for 18 years.

Smarlo Ma was also a member of the CCP. While he was in Yenan, he found the common cadres of Yenan usually had seven cents a day for their meals, and the troop had only five cents. During lunch time, ten people would get together to form one group to share one small dish. They had to eat red carrots for months in winter, and pumpkins in summer. Those who were graded above department or division head could enjoy “middle stove,” with one bowl of soup and one dish per head. Higher up the grade were minister and regiment “commanders who were offered “small stove” with two dishes and one bowl of soup, and members of the Politbureau and Chairman Mao would have four dishes and one bowl of soup. 6

The division of classes was thus rigidly enforced.

Even the days of Yenan were to be characterised by bureaucratic practices: one should not be surprised by the critiques levelled at the post-liberation regime at various times.

Liu Hsi-ling, during the period of the Hundred Flowers Bloom, 1956, pointed out, “A person’s appointment is not dependent on his virtues or abilities. It depends on his qualification — whether he is a party member or league member — some people join the party in order to enjoy the privileges. There’s no prospect if one does not join the party... there exists a system of ranks. The allotment of tables, desks and paper-baskets by cadres depends on rank. A system of rank has permeated every area of life. When I am sick and want to consult a doctor, I have to have reached the thirteenth rank. How can I reach that?” 7

During the Cultural Revolution, 1967, Yang Hsi-kwang wrote thus: “We really believe that 90 percent of the senior cadres should stand aside...This is because they have already come to form a decaying class with its own particular ‘interests’. The relation with the people has changed from that, in the past, between leaders and the led to that between exploiters and the exploited, between oppressors and the oppressed...” 8

And Li-I-che by 1974 had written the famous big character poster describing how the communist leaders had attained “political and economic special privileges and then extended them boundlessly to their families and clansmen, relatives and friends, even to the degree of exchanging special privileges (among themselves), to obtain for their children actual inheritance of political and economic positions through such channels as ‘taking the back door’”. 9

Li-I-che’s big character poster “Concerning Socialist Democracy and Legal System” and Yang Hsi-kwang’s (Shengwulien) “Whither China?” have been published widely in English and French. The 70s have included the two documents in their book The Revolution is Dead; Long Live the Revolution which can be sent to interested comrades. We now turn to a very short description of the actual practice of political and economic privileges.

The Mandarins: Privileges & Power

Since the downfall of the Gang of Four, the official press in China has released a tremendous amount of information about bureaucratic privileges vis-a-vis the Gang.

The following is but a random sample of privileges (and corruption) depicted by the Chinese official press:

1. Chiang Ching

According to a serviceman at the Tientsin, Chiang Ching stayed at the Hotel for 38 days, during which period over $30,000 RMB were spent, averaging $1,000 RMB per day — exactly one thousand fold of the daily wage of a second class worker.

She alone occupied the whole building but was still not satisfied and had to occupy another building — the theatre and the entertainment room for her own use. The rooms that she used had all to be sterilised, by ultra-violet rays. From where she got off the car to the corridor and the bedroom the temperature must be kept constant. Her bedroom was very special; there were double-glazed windows plus cotton and 5 layers of curtain — later one more layer of curtain was added to cover the wall! In order to keep the air fresh, oxygen was pumped in.

Her clothes were also very peculiar: Every time she came, she brought with her several chests of clothes, to be changed several times a day. That time when she came to Tientsin, June 1974, she spent 760 yuans at the tailor for some twenty pieces of clothing.

She was also demanding in her habit of eating. Not caring whatever season it was she ate what she wanted. When she wanted to eat live shrimps in winter, the servicemen had to break up the ice of the river to catch them; when she wanted to eat “carp” fish at midnight, the servicemen had to forego sleep and rushed to find it for her at once; when she wanted to eat “kit” fish they had to rush to places 200 miles away to buy it; and when she wanted to eat live “jack” they had to send forth boats to catch it along the river.

This serviceman sighed, “This old witch was more than the capitalist.” 10

2. “Political Rascal” Wang Hung-wen

Wang Hung-wen had long been described by the Chinese Communists themselves as a rascal and a political pickpocket.

According to the exposed material of the Treasury Department, Wang’s 4 months of living in Shanghai had wasted more than $23,000 RMB, with an average of $5,750 per month.

This was tenfold his normal monthly salary of $600 as vice-chairman.

As compared to the common worker, this was 180 fold of their monthly salary of $36.

Last year’s People literature (December issue) featured an article on “The Gang’s Banquet”. It pointed out that Wang Hung-wen had held 5 banquets for his guests from Shanghai in the period between January 8th, 1975, when the 2nd plenary session of the 10th Party Congress was called, and January 13th, in the course of the 4th National People’s Congress. In the banquets guests were served abundantly with rare and expensive food and wine.

Where did Wang get all this money? The article said that he reclaimed the money spent on these feasts from the subsidy on “special expenditure”. This well illustrated that Wang was no less blatant than the Soviet Politbureau members in disposing of public funds.

Other sources pointed out that Wang liked hunting, fishing and playing poker. He alone possessed 81 cars and was attended by 10 doctors. The fishing pole and poker he used were both imported from abroad. Last year, he even spent — $360,000 public funds to import glass tiles for a room.

Wang was originally a worker, and had risen to the position of Party Vice Chairman like a helicopter. But the extent of his corruption was even more rapid than riding a helicopter. 11

3. Chang Chun-chiao and Yao Wen-yuan

Chang and Yao were both avid advocates of the struggle against bourgeois rights. Chang, however, was unwilling to see his daughter being sent to the countryside to labour. When his daughter got married, Chang held a big wedding feast and offered her 10 TV sets as wedding gifts.

Yao Wen-yuan was famous for his numerous rooms. Before 1973, his family, five people altogether, lived in a house with more than 60 rooms but still felt uncomfortable. After 1973, they moved to a big house with 125 rooms.

The garden alone was redecorated three times within 3 years. The walls were all demolished and rebuilt to a greater height, with iron wire at the top. The decoration inside the house was of course even better. The 3 redecorations cost the state $130,000. 12

* * *

Some may say now that the Gang of Four was smashed, this corrupt phenomenon in China has gone too. But this is not so. The Gang of Four were toppled but those who defeated the Gang of Four were also part of the bureaucrats. Many of them had once been defeated in the Cultural Revolution during which period the exposures by the Red Guards of their scandalous life were no less inferior than the Gang of Four.

Teng Hsiao-ping

During the Cultural Revolution, Teng Hsiao-ping was referred to by the Red Guards as the “Second Biggest Capitalist roader still on the Capitalist road.” The following were examples of the luxurious capitalistic life style of Teng.

On November 21st, 1965, Teng Hsiao-ping and his family, accompanied by some 20 people made a trip to Kweichow, specially for Juny’s famous “mutton soup”

To prepare for Teng’s visit, Kweichow’s vice provincial chief went to Juny to preside over the meeting of people from various units like urban, commerce, food, other provisions to divide up the work. An electrical heater was specially fixed in the hotel and the floor was carpeted. Puppies, fat sheep, Maotai and Kweichang’s famous product, Teng’s favourite “Dollfish”, and other valuable food were prepared.

Juny’s first class cook was employed to prepare the feast. The feast cost a total of several thousand dollars. In Kweichow, Teng lived a luxurious life like the capitalist privileged class. He alone occupied all the rooms of the 6-storey Golden Bridge Hotel. Each room was delicately decorated: table cloth, blankets, sheets, and carpets were all the most fashionable and high class. Included was a table lamp imported from Hong Kong valued at $2,000, specially bought for use when playing mahjong.

Teng often played mahjong up to midnight so the servants had also to stay up in the night to attend to Teng’s needs.

Teng’s visit to Kweichow wasted a total of $11,000! 13

Tao Chu

When Tao Chu was the First Secretary in Canton, he imported thousands of tons of fertilisers from Hong Kong and exchanged them with districts around the country for pigs, chickens, ducks, eggs, sugar, fruits, etc. Just in a year’s time, the accumulated profits amounted to over $6 million. Tao did not submit the sum to the Centre but used it instead to entertain his guests and lived a luxurious life.

In 1949, Tao Chu invited Teng Hsiao-ping, Li Jien-chuan, Peng-cheu, and some hundred other people to come to Canton to celebrate the Chinese New Year. When these people arrived, Tao brought them to tour around Hainan Island. Before the tour, Tao ordered the various “yuan” on their route to polish their houses and arranged for places where these “guests” would rest. He further sent 6 planes to fly to and from Canton and Hainan.

Tao himself possessed a luxurious flat on the Island, a beautiful villa and entertainment places like a “Water Club” and “Crystal Hall”.

Tao was a dance lover and had spent over 4 million dollars to construct a dancing theatre. Moreover, he imported many American blue movies from Hong Kong to be shown twice a week — the so-called “Internal Movies” which only catered to the upper class people. 14

There existed/exist many big and small Gangs of Four, big Mandarins and small Mandarins, in the central government, in the military regions, in the provinces, cities and yuans. Conspicuous consumption is prevalent among the cadres, especially the senior ones.

On the other hand, among the Mandarins themselves, there exists a tight system of ranks. Their positions are based on their salary and their jobs. Salaries above the 13th grade are senior cadres. The word ‘head’ carries a sense of superiority and of course, there are heads above heads, and when heads appear in public, the order as to who should come first is strictly adhered to. As Simon Leys pointed out:

“To ride in a car marks you as an official, but the model, color and size will vary according to your importance. At the bottom levels one finds Russian, Czech and Chinese medium size cars, cream-colored or grey; at the top one has long black Hung-ch’i limousines, with tulle curtains that conceal the passengers from the crowd.” 15

Political Privileges & Repression

Apart from the economic privileges and benefits, the bosses command political privileges and power. They control state power, dominating the party, the government and the army. They rule the people and are not restrained by them. They can make use of the funds in the treasury and utilise resources and facilities of the country without the people’s supervision. They can prosecute, put innocent people in jail, initiate murders and massacres. They join into gangs, protecting one another, monopolise public opinion, hide the truth, generate false impressions, promote the personal cult, and suppress criticisms.

In the case of Chang Chun-chiao, Yao Wan-yuan and Wang Hung-wen, when they were in control of the Shanghai Revolutionary Committee, they resorted to the rule of terror. Chang directed his special agents to arrest any person at will and this was called ‘dictatorship of the masses’. He directed the newly recruited secret agent machinery to set up ‘small groups of dictatorship of the masses’ to act as watchdogs for him. Using the pretext to defend the headquarters of the proletariat, his opponents and others dissatisfied with him were arrested or executed. Someone criticized him in a big character poster and was executed for being a practising counter-revolutionary. Large groups of old cadres and intellectuals were accused of being ‘traitors’, ‘special agents’ and ‘counter-revolutionary’ and arrested. Many committed suicide as a result of this persecution. Chang himself admitted in a speech that in Shanghai Wah Tung Teachers’ University, nine people killed themselves. Many writers and intellectuals like Pa Chin, Chiu Tan, Liu King, etc. were jailed for several years or sent to hard labour. The Kunming Daily commented “...[the Gang of Four] created all kinds of accusations to harm others, attacked everything and eliminated those who disagreed with them. Those who submitted to them would prosper; others would be destroyed. They twisted the facts and truths were turned upside down in the mass media they controlled. They created rumours and fooled the masses and upheld themselves as people with great achievements....They came together to form a gang in order to serve their private interests. They were authoritarian and haughty. They suppressed the masses and practised personal dictatorship...” The same paper also said “they frequently put a hat of ‘great traitor’ or ‘great special agent’ or ‘great bad egg’ on those who do not agree with them.”

The following are just a few cases of ‘counter-revolutionaries’ revealed by the Chinese official press since the fall of the Gang of Four:

Li Man-chun wrote a big character poster disagreeing with the leadership in the Culture Department’s condemnation of the film ‘Pioneers’ as problematical and in the decision to restrict the showing of it. Li charged that the leaders never uttered a word of self-criticism and their pronouncements had to be followed as if they were words of God. Li as a result was declared a counter-revolutionary.

Chu Kam-to, a martial artist in the Shanghai Opera Troupe, wrote to Mao Tse-tung, questioning people’s motive in praising Chiang Ching, warning him there was a conspiracy to seize power for her. The letter somehow went into the hands of the Gang of Four. Subsequently Chu was arrested on the 9th of September 1975. He was declared counter-revolutionary and his comrades were also carefully investigated.

Singer Wang Kun was jailed for eight years for making suggestions to Chiang Ching. On being released, Wang said he had been forced to testify and admit crimes like ‘splitting the Central Committee of the Party headed by Chairman Mao’ etc. and he was investigated in isolation.

The three cases above were cited from the Chinese official press.

In November 1972 Tang Ching-sin, a 26-year-old male, was imprisoned for fifteen years, after which his political rights were to be deprived for another three years. Tang was suspected of being discontented with reality and as there was a need to pick out a few counter-revolutionaries to be struggled against during the ‘one strike three antis’ movement, Tang’s friends were threatened into providing false but extremely damaging information about him. Tang was eventually found to have committed the heinous crime of telling two stories slandering Mao Tse-tung. Tang’s fate was sealed. 16

Li Cheng-tien, together with two other friends, put up the famous Li I-che poster ‘Concerning Socialist Democracy and Legal System’ along Peking Road in Canton in 1974. Several copies of the poster were also circulated. The poster was condemned as ‘reactionary through and through’. Li was placed under arrest and temporarily detained. As a counter-revolutionary culprit and a ‘negative teacher’, Li was brought to various units and mass meetings for public criticism and humiliation. Within a few months, he was dragged along to attend two hundred meetings, some of which were attended by almost a thousand. Finally, the Mandarins resorted to their usual tactics — Li was taken into custody and subsequently he was sent to the coal mines at Shek Yau Chang to be ‘reeducated by the working class’.

Wang Chun-i, a worker in the Shanghai First People’s Hospital, put up a big character poster in Shanghai in July 1977, accusing the Vice-Chairman of the Shanghai Revolutionary Committee of having invented a false case so that Wang was condemned as counter-revolutionary. Wang was jailed at various times and in 1971, he was imprisoned with his hands handcuffed at the back for fifty days. He was administered electric shocks for forty-five days and given drugs. 17

The six cases above concern individuals, and there are hundreds and thousands of them. As to the massive scale of suppression, one needs only to take a look at the Tienanmen Incident which took place in April 1976, when at least two thousand people were killed. In the Peking Twilight Electrical Machine Factory alone, several thousand workers were investigated in connection with the incident and an atmosphere of white terror prevailed in the factory.

The present bosses may attribute such atrocities and terror to the Gang of Four and their followers but it must be pointed out that in the above cases, Wang Chun-i was suppressed by the executor of the Liu Shao-chi line during the Cultural Revolution while the suppression of Li Cheng-tien continues under the present regime.

The fact is that the present bosses, in the name of suppressing the followers of the Gang of Four, the remnants of Kuomintang, the practising counter-revolutionaries, teddy boys and criminal elements, have held thousands of mass struggle meetings. Massive arrests, executions and cleansing operations have been taking place AFTER the downfall of the Gang of Four.

Such repressions have not escaped the western press, for example Reuters in Peking on 31st October 1977 cabled that in Kunming at least 23 people were executed for political crimes — being counter-revolutionary, distributing leaflets and joining counter-revolutionary organisations. In Shanghai 26 were executed and another 27 had been sentenced to death. According to the same report, during the year following the fall of the Gang of Four, similar actions had taken place in twelve other cities.

Regardless of whether the crimes these people have committed were genuine or faked it would seem unduly harsh to execute them, especially as Han Suyin reported recently that the Gang of Four were still receiving monthly salaries of 200 yuan to lead a comfortable life.

The massive wave of repression was aiming less at the suppression of the followers of the Gang of Four than the radical democratic libertarian forces originating from the Cultural Revolution. (For an elaboration of the development of the radical democratic libertarian forces, please read “Whither China?” by Sheng Wu-lien, “Concerning Socialist Democracy and Legal System” by Li I-che, and “Rationality at Dusk” by Yu Shuet, all of which are collected in The Revolution is Dead; Long Live the Revolution! For a shorter discourse, please read the article by the 70s member Kan San in these pages.) Initially these rebel forces were associated with Mao Tse-tung and his faction, but they developed into a formidable threat for the continued existence of the new Mandarins and monopolistic capital in China today.

Other Privileges

Before the Cultural Revolution, there were the so-called “important” schools, which were also known as “little precious pagodas”. These schools had better facilities, better teachers, and better standards and reputations. Most graduates from the important primary schools were able to join the important secondary schools and graduates from the important secondary schools would be accepted by prominent universities like Tsinghua and Peking. The important schools soon became extremely elitist and only the sons and daughters of the Mandarins were able to join. The sons and daughters of the working masses had to attend the ordinary schools which were discriminated against. These important schools were smashed during the Cultural Revolution but the present bosses are now re-establishing important schools similar to those in the past by providing them with extra finances, additional facilities and teachers with high standards. The twenty important schools being established are mainly located in areas connected with the Mandarins, e.g. Yenan Middle School and four others connected with Mao Tse-tung have been designated important schools; the Seven Years School in Jao Shing Yuen, Shansi Province was picked because this is where Chairman Hua originated; Tangshan Middle School, in May Yuen in Kwangtung Province, where vice-chairman Yeh Chieh-ying originated, likewise has been designated as one; and Nam Hai Middle School has been picked because Chou En-lai was a student of the school.

After the Cultural Revolution, under the slogan of educational revolution, universities no longer accepted current graduates from secondary schools directly. They were required to undergo two or three years of labor before they were allowed to apply for entry into the universities. Many educated youths were sent to the countryside. The official reason for doing this was to educate and reform the youths through working and living with the peasants. However, this should be seen as a way to contain the youths. The political consciousness of the young people had been heightened as a result of the Cultural Revolution. Their presence in the cities would become a nuisance to the local authorities. In addition, there was the problem of providing jobs for the large numbers of youths who had graduated. What better way than to send them to the countryside?

In theory, rustication should be voluntary but in reality, many were given no choice. Yet in many cases the youths were not welcomed in the villages. The peasants resented an influx of young people who were supposed to share the very little that the peasants already had. Moreover, these young people had little experience in agriculture. So to the peasants, these young people were but burdens. The young people might be discriminated against by the peasants. They often received very low work points, and therefore insufficient food. They were given barren lands to be their private plots. They were not given opportunities to express views about the production brigade nor — were they given the right to participate in the co-operative medical service or the poor peasants’ conference or the militia. Youths who had come from the bad “black” categories were sometimes required to work with the “landlords” and “rich peasants” on the holidays. The young people in the countryside were generally unhappy and behaved in an uncooperative way, and did not participate actively in production.

Sometimes graduates from high school would be sent to the “Army for Production and Construction”, which was originally established to accomodate the rehabilitated soldiers. The Army for Production and Construction is organised like an ordinary army and life within it is highly regimented. The main work of the Army is to explore virgin and as yet unexploited land. Members of the Army then live very much in isolation and it is set down that every person can only have a half-month holiday every two years to visit his friends and relatives. But because of the many applications, it is not unusual to wait for five years. Salaries are low and if the Army’s income is insufficient to cover its expenditure, they may not be paid.

However, the sons and daughters of the Mandarins were able to avoid being sent to the countryside and to the Army for Production and Construction very easily.

Methods of Totalitarian Control

The new Mandarins from the CCP, on the seizure of power, established a very tight system of control and domination in China. Part of this system was to put everyone into a specific social caste. The five castes which are known as red categories are workers, poor and middle peasants, soldiers, cadres, and relatives of revolutionary martyrs. There are eight black categories: landlords, the rich, the reactionaries, bad elements, rightist traitors, special agents (of Kuomintang, etc.) and capitalists. In the days of the Gang of Four, intellectuals belonged to the ninth black category. Such distinction in social castes is based on the caste to which a person’s father belongs. If one’s father is a worker or poor and middle peasant, then one belongs to the caste of workers or poor and middle peasants and this virtually says that the person is red and revolutionary by birth. But if one’s father is a capitalist or a member of any black category, then the person will be very unlikely to receive a good education, get a good job or be given proper medical treatment. The person will be condemned to be discriminated against, despised and rejected. The person’s spouse, family, and children will be similarly affected.

The close connection between a person’s caste content and his life is reinforced by the so-called “historical problems and political problems”. “Historical problems” can refer to the origins of one’s family, ancestors and parents or grandparents, friends, or any other social relations. A person may belong to a red category, with parents and grand-parents all having clean historical records; he may never have worked in a reactionary or counter-revolutionary camp; yet he may be ruined if a cousin or an auntie was not historically clean.

As for “political problems”, in theory all anti-Party, anti-Marxist-Leninist and anti-Mao Tse-tung Thought elements were to be politically condemned. However, there were never in existence any permanent objective criteria to enable judgements to be made. Yet, the eight hundred million Chinese people are constantly judged politically by the Party!

It was reported recently in the People’s Daily that the daughter of Wang Hsin-mui, despite being an outstanding member of the Communist Youth League and a good student, was not allowed to attend a gathering to commemorate Mao Tse-tung nor was she allowed to participate in the celebrations at Tienanmen to rejoice at the crushing of the Gang of Four. The reason was simply that there were some historical relations of her father which had to be clarified. With a slip of the pen, the new Mandarins have revealed that the attendance at commemorating gatherings or celebrations is a kind of privilege to be granted to those whose family, historical, and political background has been screened.

Wang’s case is one mild example which the new Mandarins in Peking have not found too embarrassing to publish. There are plenty of similar cases which are worse but not reported. It seems that the new Mandarins in Peking are aware of this particular problem, but great changes are unlikely in the foreseeable future.

To maintain a totalitarian control of the people, the new Mandarins in China have created and perfected, as we have said, a system of tight control. The system consists of a series of interconnected institutions.

1. Police Station. The most basic unit of the Public Security Bureau is the police station. Every commune and every town has at least one police station. The daily work of the police station is to keep records of the local residents and, through the residents committee supervise the five bad elements — ‘landlords, the rich, reactionaries, bad elements and rightists’. Every police station has a dark room where the law-breakers within the locality are imprisoned. But the prisoners do not stay there for more than three days. They are either released or sent to other places. Those who are suspected of committing serious crimes may be sent to a division of the Public Security Bureau directly. Those who have committed less serious crimes are usually sent to the headquarters of the ‘Workers’ Control Troop’ of the locality. If they are not local residents, they will be sent to the short-term concentration camp, from where they will be sent back to their homeland. The same is true for those who do not have any legal rights of residence.
2. The Workers’ Control Troop. The Workers’ Control Troops were established during the Cultural Revolution. For example, in Canton, there is the supreme headquarters of the Canton Workers’ Control Troop. Under the supreme headquarters there are four headquarters of the east, the south, the west and the north. The western headquarters is famous for the cruel treatment of the prisoners.

   The work of the Workers’ Control Troop is complementary to that of the police station, and independent of the police station. Every day the headquarters sends out a number of patrol groups to the streets. They are empowered to detain any suspects of crime. Every member of the patrol groups is equipped with a green helmet and a nightstick five feet long.

   Every headquarters has its own prison. The conditions within these prisons are very bad. There are almost no windows inside them and the prisoners may sometimes find it difficult to breathe. The wardens often mistreat the prisoners. For example, they may use a bag to cover the prisoner’s head and then kick and hit him, or they may hang him on a tree overnight with his body turning upside down. The prisoners do not stay there for a long period of time. They are either sent to the Public Security Bureau or the short-term concentration camp. Every prisoner has to pay for what he eats while he is there.

3. Short-term Concentration Camp. The short-term concentration camp is to receive law-breakers who are not local residents. The system of short-term concentration camp is especially established in Kwangtung since it is near Hong Kong. Large numbers of people who fail in their attempt to escape to Hong Kong are sent to these camps.

   Inmates here are often badly treated, scolded, slapped on the face and kicked at. If the wardens become more nasty, one can be dragged outside and beaten by clubs and hung under a basketball ring the whole day.

4. Labour Reform. Labour reform is to deal with cases of contradiction between the enemy and the People. The term of imprisonment is not fixed. Labour education is to deal with cases of contradiction amongst the People, and of contradiction between the enemy and the People which can be seen as contradiction among the People. The term of imprisonment is usually 3 to 5 years. Although the terms are different, people who receive labour reform or labour education will get the same kind of treatment during this term of imprisonment.

   Those who are sentenced to ten years or above are sent to the outlying areas. In provinces like Heilungkiang and Kwangsi, there are large labour reform camps. Organisational labour is a method used by the government to deal with those prisoners who have finished their sentence but do not want to go back to society because they cannot find work easily and they are discriminated against there. So the government permits them to remain in the labour camp. Their right of citizenship is revived and they receive some kind of reward for their work. The government has also established factories and farms for them to work in.

   After the Cultural Revolution many reform camps were turned into ‘7th May Schools for Cadres’.

   Forced labour first made its legal appearance in 1973. This is for those who have committed small petty crimes continuously. The term of imprisonment is not more than 3 years, usually 2 years. Such prisoners receive better treatment than those mentioned above. They have a rest day every month. If they had work originally, their work unit continues to pay their wages, which they cannot get themselves. After they have finished their sentence, they can go back to their original work units to work.

5. Study Sessions. Closely knit into the system of control are the study sessions on Mao Tse-tung’s Thought. People suspected to have political problems or people required to confess are summoned by the cadres to attend study sessions on Mao Tse-tung Thought. Generally speaking, there are two kinds of study sessions, the ‘soft’ ones and the ‘hard’ ones. The soft ones adopt the ‘mushroom tactics used by Chairman Mao in guerilla wars. Once started, the sessions last for months — ‘the fat becoming thin, thin becoming sick’, and in the end, everyone surrenders. In the hard ones, the principle of ‘being strict to those who resist’ applies — those who fail to confess or explain are considered active against the Party and therefore to deserve no mercy at all. After the sessions, they are arrested and labelled as ‘bad elements’.

Furthermore, the new Mandarins have established a tight system of records of the population of the country. The family background, experience, clan relations and social relations of every single individual are recorded in files which are handled by special cadres in the Party and the Public Security system. When an individual moves to another occupation, the file is transferred simultaneously. One does not know how one is judged in the record, but on the basis of this record, the Party decides the person’s occupational position, social position and political position.

In addition, the new Mandarins have developed other methods of control e.g. food rationing and household registration. Food rationing becomes a means to forestall any rebellion or resistance. When it is combined with the policy of household registration, it becomes a tool to restrict freedom of movement and travel. A system of household registration and control is strictly enforced. The occupation and life of the People are completely controlled and manipulated by the Party. When one is instructed by the Party to work in a certain place and at a certain job, one has to obey. When one moves from place A to place B, formal approval has to be sought from the authorities, otherwise there will be no food coupons. A pass is required in travelling from place A to place B; food coupons usable in particular areas or in the whole country are also required.

The Party and the Fifth National People’s Congress

A few final words may be said about the Fifth National People’s Congress and the Fifth National People’s Political Consultative Conference. Both were dominated and controlled by the New Mandarins; both were controlled by the CCP, the members of which we have earlier identified as the monopolistic capitalist class. The Chinese communist Party is the largest party in the world, with 30,000,000 members. They are scattered all over the country, in the various governmental departments, organisations, factories, shops, schools, hospitals, residence units, as well as communes. The Party has rank and file members in every grassroots unit led by a Party Committee. On the basis of administrative regions, there exists a whole hierarchy of Party Committees, each dominated by and receiving directives from the Party Committee one level above. So, for example, the Party Committee of a commune would be directed by the Party Committee in the Yuen, which in turn would submit to the provincial Party Committee. The provincial Party Committee is responsible to the Central Committee of the Party. As for the Army, the whole country is divided into 12 Military Regions, every one of which has a Political Committee of Party members. Within the Army at different levels are corresponding Political Committees. The Political Committee of the Military Region comes under the Military Committee of the Central Committee of the Party. Various departments of the State Council are directed by respective Party Committees which would lead their corresponding departments at the provincial or municipal level. The various departmental Party Committees in the State Council are in turn responsible to the Central Committee of the Party. The Central Committee of the Party has its power concentrated mainly in the Political Bureau and the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau. Dominating the Political Bureau and its Standing Committee are the Chairman and Vice-chairman of the Party.

So, like a pyramid and a giant octopus, the Party controls the state machine — the government, the Army, the police, and the various social organisations, factories, communes, as well as the residence units of the people.

The Party demands total submission to its ideology and policies not only from the Party members but also from the whole population. Any deviance, obstruction or opposition will incur severe repression in the form of being purged, struggled against, sentenced to labour reform, imprisonment or even execution.

The Fifth National People’s Congress and the National People’s Political Consultative Conference are but rubber stamps to give the new ruling clique and governmental or political machineries as well as policies an air of legality and legitimacy. But the so-called People’s Representatives (a total of 3,497) did not function as the people’s true voice or representatives because the several thousand people only gathered together to listen to reports, to read documents and to study them. No queries were raised; no questioning was made. Everything was decided by the Party’s Central Committee and the People’s Representatives could only praise such decisions and agree with such decisions unanimously.

The Congress “elected” Hua Kuo-feng on the proposal of the Central Committee of the Party to be Premier of the State Council. Hua already is Chairman of the CCP and the Commander of the Armed Forces. When Mao Tse-tung was enjoying his dictatorial rule he was only Chairman of the CCP and Commander of the Armed Forces. Now Hua is also Premier. For a person to monopolise all the three positions is no practice of socialist democracy, however one may define it.

Hua Kuo-feng’s report of the government to the Congress consists in the main details of the struggles against the Gang of Four. No actual figures or documentation of facts or descriptions of actual conditions have been provided on economic construction or political management. Such a report does not allow the people or anyone the opportunity to evaluate the government’s performance objectively and scientifically.

Hua Kuo-feng reiterated the goals of the four modernizations and the continuation of the ten years development plan formulated by Chou En-lai before he died. The plan was formulated without consultation with the people at all. In reality, the people seldom have been provided details of any plans whatever.

The Congress revised once again the Constitution of the State. The Central Committee of the Communist Party discussed and adopted the draft before it was submitted to the Congress. In the Report on the Revision of the Constitution to the Congress, Vice-chairman Yeh Chien-ying spoke about socialist democracy.

He said,

“Chairman Mao astutely pointed out: the people must have the right to manage the superstructure. We must not interpret the question of the people’s right to mean that only under the administration of certain people can the masses enjoy the right to work, the right to education, the right to social insurance, etc. He also taught us that, under the socialist system, the right of the working people to manage affairs of state, to run various kinds of enterprises and to administer culture and education is their supreme and fundamental right, without which they can enjoy neither the right to work, nor the right to education and rest, nor any other right.”

So according to Yeh Chien-ying, in the light of this concept, the following article has been added to the General Principles of the Constitution:

“The State adheres to the principle of socialist democracy and ensures to the people the right to participate in the management of state affairs and of all economic and cultural undertakings, and the right to supervise the organs of state and their personnel.”

In the report, Yeh Chien-ying further added,

“we must earnestly carry out democratic management with the participation of the broad masses, from the grassroots units on up.”

Yeh Chien-ying’s elegant words may be sufficient to convince some to allow the present ruling clique to continue to chart the course of the country, at least for the present time. Indeed even some people in China do harbour illusions about the Mandarins who have taken full control by eliminating the Gang of Four after the death of Mao. But to those people, we would like to raise the following questions:

1. Is genuine socialist democracy possible without the abolition of the State and monopolistic capital?
2. What does “participation in the management of state affairs and of all economic and cultural undertakings” mean? Does it mean that the workers themselves formulate production plans, and how the fruits of labour are to be distributed? Or does it mean that the workers simply help to reach the production targets set down by the Party in the quickest and cheapest way? Does it mean that the People freely choose the delegates to represent them and that these delegates are subject to immediate recall? Or does it simply mean that they choose only from a list approved by the Party? Does it mean that People’s Representatives can speak their minds openly at meetings and congresses or does it mean that they can only say yes to plans and policies proposed by the Party? One here is reminded of the fact that since 1949, successive constitutions have indeed guaranteed, on paper, various liberties and democratic rights to the people, who never felt that they possessed them in practice. One here is also reminded that Mao Tse-tung has in the past also called for criticism and supervision, but just when were Mao Tse-tung, Lin Piao, the Gang of Four and other Mandarins ever supervised by the people?
3. Who are the “people” to whom such “right to participate...” is ensured? Has not Yeh Chien-ying in the same report quoted Mao Tse-tung — “Workers, peasants, urban petty-bourgeois elements, patriotic intellectuals, patriotic capitalists and other patriotic democrats together comprise more than 95 per cent of the whole population. Under our people’s democratic dictatorship, they all belong to the category of the people.”? By rejuvenating the National People’s Political Consultative Conference, an organisational form through which the Chinese Communists forged a united front with the national bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie, are the Mandarins in power trying to show or say that the national bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie also are the People? Again, in the Report on the Revision of the Constitution, in quoting the passage attributable to Mao, “If anyone resorts to what he calls great democracy to oppose the socialist system and tries to overthrow the leadership of the Communist Party we shall exercise the dictatorship of the proletariat over him”, does Yeh Chien-yin mean to identify those disagreeing with the Party line as non-people? If dictatorship is to be exercised, and over anyone who does not conform to the ideology and policies of the Mandarins, then what is the difference between “democratic management with the participation of the broad masses” and domination of the people by Mandarin thoughts and policies?

Having posed these questions, one can speculate that much will remain unchanged while there will be some liberalisation of policies and practice. It must be pointed out however that such concessions made by the Mandarins are an outcome of the demands made by the masses over the years, sometimes through uncompromising means, e.g. at the Tienanmen riot, April 1976. (See Minus 8 for more information on the Tienanmen riot.)

One fundamental question needs to be raised: are the masses in China today satisfied with just letting the Mandarins carry out reformist changes and liberalisation policies or are they ready for a genuine socialist revolution? Such a choice should now be made.

• 1Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung
• 2Shengwulien, “Whither China?”, collected in The Revolution is Dead; Long Live the Revolution.
• 3This discussion is largely based on the article “On Monopolistic Capital in China” written by an ex-Red Guard. Such analysis of the economic system of China as summarised is widely adopted by educated youths in the country. The original article appeared in issue No. 3 of the Northern Star magazine and the English translation in Minus 7, September/October 1977 issue.
• 4See Autobiography of Chan Pei Lan, Chinese trotskyist affiliated with the United Secretariat of the Fourth International, and wife of Peng Shu-tse. The autobiography has yet to be published (Pathfinder Press).
• 5On the Fu-tien affair, see Autobiography of Kung Chor and monograph of the Michigan China Study Centre on the subject.
• 6Smarlo Ma, Struggling For 18 Years, published in Hong Kong; the book is readily available from author Ma who resides in Hong Kong.
• 7Lin Hsi-ling was a student at the “People’s University” and a prominent critic of the new mandarins during the period of Hundred Flowers Bloom. The quotation came from a speech that she made in a debate.
• 8Yang Hsi-kwang actually drafted the famous Shengwulien manifesto “Whither China?” The quotation came from “Whither China?”
• 9See different issues of Minus 7 for more information about Li I-che. The quotation came from the big character poster “Concerning Socialist Democracy and Legal system.”
• 10Information on the corruption and extravagant life-style was so abundant in the Chinese official press, e.g. the People’s Daily, Peking Review, etc. etc. that what have been quoted were but a small fraction of the available information. To what extent can such accusations be accepted as true and accurate? One would expect exaggerations at times but the fundamental point is that the Mandarins possess an endless list of privileges.
• 11See preceding note.
• 12See preceding note.
• 13From Red Guard publications during the Cultural Revolution.
• 14From Red Guard publications during the Cultural Revolution. Tao Chu so far has not yet been rehabilitated.
• 15Simon Leys, Chinese Shadows.
• 16See Minus 8, July/August 1976.
• 17See photographs in Appendix [Libcom actually on this page here]. The photographs were taken by a foreign correspondent in Shanghai.