Communist Party of China

The Communist Party of China ({{zh-stp |s=????? |t=????? |p=Zh?ngguó Gòngch?nd?ng}}) is the ruling party of the People's Republic of China. The party was founded in 1921, and fought the Kuomintang during the Chinese Civil War. With more than 63 million members, the Communist Party of China (CPC; CCP for the unofficial name Chinese Communist Party; or the somewhat derogatory Chicom) is the largest political party in the world. Men and college educated are more likely to join because of economic benefits. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/china/v002/2.2walder.html Authoritarian in structure and ideology, it continues to dominate the government. In periods of relative liberalization, the influence of people and organizations outside the formal party structure has tended to increase.

Criticism and support

There is a variety of opinions about the Communist Party of China, and opinions about the CPC often create unexpected political alliances and divisions. For example, many chief executive officers of Western companies tend to have favorable impressions of the CPC, while many revolutionary Maoists and other Marxists have strongly negative opinions. Opinions about the CPC also create very strong

Related Topics:
Chief executive officer - Maoists - Marxists

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divisions among groups normally ideologically united such

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as conservatives in the United States.

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Conservatives - United States

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Many of the unexpected opinions about the CPC result from its rare combination of attributes as a party formally based on Marxism which has overseen a dynamic market economy, yet maintains an authoritarian political system. Wheras many Trotskyists argue that the party lost its Marxist credentials in the 1920s and adhered to a state capitalist political doctrine.

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Marxism - Market economy - Trotskyists - State capitalist

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Western human rights activists tend to see Chinese events as examples of state oppression, whereas most Chinese (including many of those who are anti-government or anti-CPC) tend to see China's troubles as stemming from anarchy and the lack of social institutions that would defend China from outsiders or prevent one person from forming a cult of personality. For example the defense of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 was that the government was trying to prevent another Cultural Revolution and the mass slaughters that occurred at the hands of the Red Guards in that era.

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Human rights activists - Anarchy - Cult of personality - Cultural Revolution - Red Guards

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Supporters of Tibetan nationalism, the Republic of China on Taiwan, and Taiwan independence, neoconservatives in the United States and Japan, along with most left-wing forces in those same countries, are among the groups which have opposed the CPC government as a totalitarian regime. They refer to the events of the Cultural Revolution, Chinese famine of 1958-1961, and Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 as examples. They note that millions of people died in the Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward under Communist rule and see the current Chinese government as a continuation of the Chinese governments of the 1950s and 1960s. This issue is dealt with in more detail in the article History of the People's Republic of China. In addition, some within this group, especially American neoconservatives, argue that the Communist Party of China is a grave threat to peace because what they see as its totalitarian nature.

Related Topics:
Tibetan nationalism - Republic of China on Taiwan - Taiwan independence - Neoconservative - United States - Japan - Left-wing - Totalitarian - Cultural Revolution - Chinese famine of 1958-1961 - Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 - History of the People's Republic of China

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Some of the opponents of the Party within the Chinese democracy movement have tended not to argue that a strong Chinese state is inherently bad, but rather that the Communist leadership is corrupt.

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Another school of thought argues that the worst of the abuses took place decades ago, and that the current leadership is not only unconnected with them, but were actually victims of that era. They have also argued that while the Communist Party may be flawed, it is comparatively better, with respect to improving the general standard of living, than any other government that has governed China in the past century and can be put in more favorable light against most governments of the developing nations. Finally, it has been argued that despite its flaws, the Communist Party is better than its alternatives, and that a sudden forced transition to democracy would result in the economic and political collapse that occurred in Russia in the 1990s, and that by focusing on economic growth, China is setting the stage for a more gradual but more sustainable transition to a more liberal system. This group sees Mainland China as being similar to Spain in the 1960s, and South Korea and Taiwan during the 1970s.

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Developing nation - Democracy - Russia - Spain - South Korea - Taiwan

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As with the first group, this school of thought brings together some unlikely political allies. Not only are most members of the Chinese government members of this school of thinking, but it also include business conservatives in the United States and pro-free trade liberals.

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Of course many of these people stand to benefit financially from the logical conclusion of their supposedly pure philosophy. For example, the conservative business people probably like China because it has no labor unions, no environmental regulations, no legal protection of workers rights, no high wages, and many of the other things they are constantly saying they dislike about the United States in the pages of Business Week, Fortune, Forbes, and the Wall Street Journal. Neo-liberals like the idea of centralized control which has whiffs of British colonialism and imperialism, in that it's purpose is obstensibly to 'educate' the 'savage' and 'civilize' the 'undeveloped'. Thus many surface arguments about the PRC are perhaps subconsciously motivated by other factors.

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Some of the ideological justifications for this school of thought comes from the Kirkpatrick doctrine which makes a strong distinction between authoritarian regimes and totalitarian ones.

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