Political Struggle May Lie Beneath Chinese Premier's 'Reform' Remarks

Remarks on Reform are Deceiving

Epoch Times: Zhu Xueye, a commentator with New Tang Dynasty Television, argues that there’s no realistic expectation that the CCP will implement genuine political reform. If it did, he says, the only changes that would be made would be those needed to survive and prolong the Party’s rule. Lieutenant General Liu Yazhou’s claim that “without political reform China is doomed,” combined with the idea that there is still hope for the CCP to reform, is precisely the impression the Party wants to create, Zhu says.

Political progress is unlikely under any totalitarian regime, and a totalitarian regime is by definition unlikely to change its own system of rule, according to Peter Drucker, author of The End of Economic Man: The Origins of Totalitarianism.

Drucker says that in totalitarian regimes like Nazi Germany, and other fascist and communist regimes, even if a leader wanted to implement a better political system, others would fight him. This is due to the nature of totalitarianism, which is one of “struggle.”

This has held true throughout the CCP’s history, as leaders who have advocated political reform, such as Liu Shaoqi, Hu Yaobang, and Zhao Ziyang, have all failed and been punished for their efforts.

It is highly improbable that Wen Jiabao is at this moment advocating for genuine political reform in China. Because his relationship with the CCP is one in which he and the CCP each take advantage of the other, his remarks are more likely a clever ploy: The people are given the impression that the CCP is progressing toward a great change, but in reality it is panicking about losing control, focused on buying more time while figuring out how to “manage” the mounting powder keg of social inequality and discontent. Read more...

Read the original Chinese article.