By Massimiliano Ay, Secretary General of the Communist Party of Switzerland
The Chinese Communist Party, with its 98 million members, has existed for 105 years and has governed the People’s Republic since 1949. Leading this formidable organization is not only a constant challenge but also a complex task that Secretary General Xi Jinping has been successfully carrying out since 2012. The fifth volume of his “The Governance of China” has been published: the complete collection of his speeches and articles.
Secretary General Xi Jinping is well aware that governing such a vast country requires averting the greatest risk: the destabilization of the socialist system.
This risk does not necessarily come from outside but also from within, not only through revisionist tendencies on the ideological front and opportunism in implementing political policies, but also through the selfish, individualistic, and hedonistic behaviors that the market and economic liberalization bring with them: corruption, the loss of the original values of the Chinese Revolution, and the bureaucratic disconnect between the vanguard Party and the people.
To avoid all this, we must systematize not only the thinking but also the concrete experience that the Chinese Communist Party has accumulated over the decades and through the various historical phases it has gone through, particularly during the tenure of Comrade Xi Jinping, who presides over the People’s Republic at an extremely turbulent moment in history, that is, when the Atlantic unipolar system governed by imperialism is in decline, giving way to emerging nations that are giving rise to multipolarity.
This transition phase also entails risks: from economic and trade risks (such as U.S. tariffs or the so-called European “de-risking” driven by Sinophobia) to military risks. It would, in fact, be naive to believe that imperialism would peacefully accept giving up its hegemonic role and could therefore be tamed solely through business dealings.
It is therefore necessary first of all that the stability of the People’s Republic is always guaranteed, but to do so Comrade Xi Jinping is clear that the internal solidity of the Chinese Communist Party must be protected.
From this perspective, the fifth volume of “The Governance of China” offers valuable insights; one need only consider the extensive chapter on legal certainty: indeed, with the adoption of the new Civil Code, based on the Roman legal tradition, China has made enormous strides in the areas of self-governance and systematic democracy, enabling the modernization of socialism and giving it a role in defining the rule of law.
This is also consistent with Chinese diplomatic practice governed by balance and deep respect for international law.
But in the volume we also find other ideas of a different nature, which touch for example on the ideological aspect: in particular the so-called “two integrations” capable of adapting theory to practice in the new historical era. This is an element on which European communists still have much to study.
Comrade Xi Jinping teaches that to the first integration, which unites Marxism with the concrete reality in which one operates, a second integration must now be added, combining scientific socialism with traditional culture, in this case, Chinese culture.
Enhancing not only the patriotic element but also the essence of one’s millennial civilization and national-popular traditions builds the cohesiveness of the masses and increases their revolutionary drive. At the same time, this constitutes a form of resistance against the hegemonic influences of liberal culture, driven with ever-growing aggressiveness by imperialism and global capitalism.
IMAGE CREDIT: Massimiliano Ay, Secretary General of the Communist Party of Switzerland / INTERNET
