Chinese Neo-Leftism

Neo-leftism in the People's Republic of China is an ideological tendency in opposition to capitalism that first arose during the mid-1990s. Most members of this leftwing tendency appear to be scholars in their 30s to early 40s. Neo-leftism is seen as being more appealing to students in China today than liberalism or neoliberalism — problems faced by China during its modernisation, such as inequality and the widening gap between the rich and the poor, are becoming more serious.

Overview

Neo-leftists can usually be divided into two main groups: (1) believers in either postmodernism or Mao's interpretation of Marxism; and (2) those who support Chinese nationalism. For purposes of clarity, this article deals only with the first strain of neo-leftism; for more on the second strain, see the article Chinese nationalism.

Neo-leftism's origins lie mainly in scholarly people who were heavily influenced by the idea of postmodernism in universities in the Western world before coming back to China in the mid-1990s. They tend to think that the social problems faced by China are caused by capitalist loopholes and corruption.

Subdivisions

A sub-group of this strand of neo-leftists are more radical, adhering to Marxism as originally interpreted by Mao and as executed during approximately the first twenty years of the PRC's existence. They believe firmly that China is, and has been for some time, moving away from the communist path, which has resulted and will continue to result in the rise of capitalists who will further exploit peasants and workers, as they did in China before 1949. Similarly to the worldwide Maoist movement, this strain of neo-leftists are against the Chinese government's policy of "openness" and economic reforms; correspondingly, they do not consider Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward to have been wrong-headed.

These neo-leftists are also against capitalist democracy and have nostalgia for the idealism of the "revolutionary Maoism" of a generation ago, in contrast to the corruption and money-centeredness they see in current Chinese society. Many of these neo-leftists also regret the erosion of guaranteed employment, education, health care, and other former gains of the Chinese Revolution that have been largely lost in the new profit-driven economy.

On December 24, 2004, four Chinese protesters were sentenced to three-year prison terms for distributing leaflets] entitled "Mao Forever Our Leader" at a gathering in Zhengzhou honoring Mao Zedong on the anniversary of his death.Maoists in China Get Three Year Prison Sentences for Leafleting: A Report on the Case of the Zhengzhou Four, Monthly Review, January 2005. Attacking the current leadership as "imperialist revisionists", the leaflets called on lower-level cadre to "change (The Party's) current line and to revert to the socialist road." The Zhengzhou incident is one of the first manifestations of public nostalgia for the Mao era to make it to the international press, although it is far from clear whether these feelings are widespread. In any case, it is an example of Marxist Chinese neo-leftism in action.

Current disputes

Chinese neo-leftists are often criticised by liberal intellectuals, who consider China not to be liberal enough, both economically and politically. Liberals tend to think that inequality and the widening gap between rich and the poor are serious problems, but that these problems exist in every developing country and constitute a necessary stage of development.

Liberals also criticise postmodernism, which they argue is inappropriate for China because it is still not developed enough, and at the moment does not yet face some of the particular problems that have occurred in some developed countries that in turn gave rise to postmodernist thought. Democracy and personal freedoms are seen by these liberals to be important for China, although perhaps not attainable in the near future. The liberal critics and Chinese neo-leftists have fiercely debated throughout the mid-1990s and early 2000s.

Current plans for a "New Socialist Countryside could be seen as a concession to neo-leftist ideasIt is significant that the idea of privatising the land has not so far been accepted. Currently it is used privately but cannot be sold, unlike urban property. Britain's Financial Times has been expressing concern at an apparent stagnation in China's economic reforms [2.

Notes

Sources

^* China launches ‘New Deal’ for farmers. (Financial Times, 22 Feb 2006)
^* China is stagnating in its ‘trapped transition’ (Financial Times 23 Feb 2006)

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