Communist China has experienced significant economic growth since opening the door to greater reliance on free markets and increased individual liberty, rather than central planning. That makes a new Bloomberg Businessweek article pretty disturbing.
At the end of September, Chinese officials gathered in Shijiazhuang, in Hebei province, to discuss their shortcomings in Maoist-style self-criticism sessions. Under the watchful eye of President Xi Jinping, senior Communist Party members admitted to sins ranging from excessive ambition to detachment from the people.
“Formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism, and extravagance,” are “undesirable work styles,” that are “harmful, stubborn in nature, and prone to relapse,” Xi warned the Hebei party secretary and other assembled provincial cadres, reported the Xinhua News Agency on Sept. 25. “Party members and officials should be taught to look in the mirror, straighten their attire, take a bath, and seek remedies,” Xi said.
Much to the consternation of those who hoped the new leadership would adopt a more liberal approach, Xi is promoting what some Chinese scholars are calling a Maoist restoration. While authorities clamp down on the Internet and lash out at foreign pharmaceutical companies and infant formula makers, they’re resurrecting party slogans and practices used decades ago. …
… At the center of Xi’s rectification campaign is a hoary Maoist doctrine known as the “mass line.” That means making sure the Communist Party of China learns from and remains close to the people, or as Mao Zedong himself put it, “from the masses, to the masses.”
Of course, if the Chinese decide to go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, they ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow … except perhaps Thomas Friedman.
