Taiwan Today

After their phony "land reform" and ruthless liquidation of landlords and bour­geoisie in the early 1950s, the Chinese Communists seemed to believe that socialism was firmly established in China and that the shift to pure Communism would not take long.

Thus misled, the Chinese Reds rashly carried out the radical and unpopular policy of the "Three Red Banners" — the General Line, the Big Leap Forward and the People's Commune — in 1958 in an attempt to over­take Soviet Russia on the road to pure Com­munism. Despite regimentation and the threat of labor reform, the people, discouraged by the lack of incentives, and resentful of tyran­nical rule, resorted to sabotage or merely de­clined to do what they were told. The "Three Red Banners" are still mired in the mud into which they fell.

To pacify the people and to save the economy from collapse, the Peiping regime had to give up the operation of industries by the communes, return reserved lands to the peasants and allow them to develop sidelines, and reopen rural markets. For a time, these measures helped quiet the restive countryside. However, Peiping soon discovered that peasants and even Communist cadres were working for themselves, not for the "state", thus undermining the "collective economy", and that there had been a comeback of "capital­ism".

This has led to socialist indoctrination of the whole populace on a monumental scale. In September, 1962, Mao Tse-tung reported on the socialist indoctrination of the people at the Eighth Session of the Tenth Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. In November of the same year, a socialist education movement was launched in some areas of the mainland on an experimental basis. In the spring of 1963, the movement was extended throughout the mainland to eliminate "undesirable tendencies" and "internal contradictions" through "patient persuasion" and "mild indoctrination".

Lengthy Campaign

The emphasis of the so-called socialist education campaign has been on the countryside. The aim is to reform corrupt rural cad­res and keep the faltering communes from falling apart. The peasantry still shows a ten­dency to "do it singlehandedly" instead of "collectively".

In September, 1963, the Chinese Reds promulgated 60 regulations governing the work of rural communes. After a year, these regulations were amended. The Chinese Reds found that the socialist education movement would have to be continued for five or six years longer than they had expected.

Communist documents reveal that this movement is a housecleaning campaign within the party, a measure to eliminate corrupt cad­res, and a class struggle among the people for the purpose of "holding back the influence of capitalism and feudalism" and "suppressing the anti-evolutionary force," The Chinese Reds charged that "undesirable elements" had made their way into party organizations and seized leadership.

Mao Tse-tung himself has said: "This socialist education movement is a significant socialist revolutionary movement. It is a large-scale movement of the masses more compli­cated than the land reform. It involves many problems and a very wide area, and the struggle it has brought about is very sharp... This is a struggle to re-educate the people and to reorganize the revolutionary class force."

12 Undertakings

In this movement, the Chinese Reds have ordered these 12 undertakings:

1. Organization and training of special teams to direct and supervise the movement. Members of the teams are carefully selected and required to study Mao's instructions endlessly. Those who were guilty of misdeeds during the five-anti movement (anti-corruption, anti-speculation, anti-extravagance, anti­ bureaucracy, and anti-dispersionism) are not qualified for team: membership.

2. Holding of meetings of communal cadres together with representatives of poor and lower-middle peasants to study Mao's instructions and party's decisions. Through these meetings, cadres who have committed mistakes are expected to review their misdeeds and spontaneously rectify themselves so as to become a strong leadership force.

3. Visits to the poor to improve their lot and solve their problems.

4. Meetings of lower-level party members to carry out class education. Party mem­bers guilty of misdeeds should indulge in self-criticism and mend their ways.

5. Checks of work points, inventories, warehouses, and state properties by local cadres.

6. Education in socialism, collectivism, patriotism, and internationalism among the people. The demarcation line between capi­talism and socialism is to be drawn clearly. Peasants are to be taught the correct relationship between the state, the smaller group, and the individual. Those who seek to develop pri­vate interest at the expense of collective in­terest are to be persuaded to reform. Those who are inclined to capitalism are to be de­nounced and those who have participated in collective labor are to be honored.

7. Education in the class struggle is to be given to the masses and a demarcation line clearly drawn between enemies and friends. Those guilty of speculation, corruption, theft, embezzlement, and other crimes against the people are to be punished.

8. Organization of poor and lower­-middle peasants.

9. Streamlining of low-level organizations of the party, the Youth Corps, the Women's Association, the militia, and other organizations of the countryside.

10. Replacement or transfer of com­mune cadres.

11. Participation of cadres in collective labor activities.

12. Improvement of management by production teams of the communes, including establishment of production systems and plans.

Class Struggle

The Chinese Reds have been carrying out these 12 tasks in two stages. The first stage included the "four cleansings" among the cadres (involving personal background, class standing, political ideology, and way of working) and the launching of class struggle among the peasants. The second stage was to reorganize the party's low-level organiza­tion. In 1963, the Chinese Reds scheduled completion of the 12 tasks in two or three years; but in 1964, they decided that five or six years more would be required. This in­dicates that the problems facing the low-level organizations of the Peiping regime are se­rious and that the corruption of Communist cadres is deep and perhaps unpreventable.

Implementation of the socialist education movement depends entirely on the lead­ership of the local cadres. The Chinese Com­munist Party, therefore, has demanded that local organizations carry out these seven mea­sures:

1. Cadres at provincial, country, and district levels should cleanse themselves and set an example for the peasants. They should participate in the five-antis campaign.

2. Local cadres in charge of the socialist education campaign should give it their personal attention so as to obtain first-hand experience and solve the problems of the peasants.

3. Publicizing of party policies among the peasants. Perfunctory performance of duties is to be combatted.

4. Organization of poor and lower­-middle peasants into a leadership force and the replacement of corrupt cadres.

5. Strict enforcement of all the regulations pertaining to the movement.

6. Equal emphasis on production and class struggle.

7. Improvement of relations between cadres and the people. Poor and lower-middle peasants are to be depended upon in pushing forward every task.

Control of Cadres

Targets for class struggle are the middle-class peasants and rural cadres.

Ideological indoctrination of unstable Communist cadres is really the primary aim of the movement. As early as April 13, 1963, the People's Daily called on offending cadres at all levels to raise their ideological consciousness and improve their service with self-criticism. The paper stressed the need of weeding out depraved cadres and bad elements in party organizations. This marked the beginning of a rectification. It was follow­ed by a purge of undesirable cadres when the class struggle was formally set in motion in the countryside.

According to Mao Tse-tung's analysis, the middle-class peasants constitute the ma­jority of the rural population. After the "land reform", the rich peasants were liquidated and many previously poor or tenant peasants became middle-class peasants. To facilitate the class struggle, Peiping divided the middle-class peasants into upper-middle peasants, lower-middle peasants, and poor peasants, and pitted the last two against the first. It charged that the upper-middle peasants were leaning to capitalism and undermining the col­lective economy. It asserted that the poor and the lower-middle peasants accounted for 60-70 per cent of the rural population and should be mobilized to struggle against the upper-middle and other rich peasants and to develop agricultural production. Actually, the so-called upper-middle peasants are the most productive. Their purge may result in the de­cline of "capitalistic" influence but also will jeopardize the economy. Peiping's political and economic requirements are eternally in conflict.

Purge of Cadres

Peiping also contradicts itself in its poli­cies toward cadres. It may cultivate a group of cadres in one movement and purge them in the next. The result is the elimination of reliable cadres.

The purge of rural cadres in the current movement is extensive. Despite Peiping's stipulation that the purged should not exceed two per cent of the total, every cadre fears for his job. Because of lack of education, many low-level cadres misunderstand Peiping's di­rectives and follow the masses instead of lead­ing them, thus committing the error of politi­cal deviation. Many seek personal profit and cheat their superiors. The Chinese Reds de­mand that those found guilty of misdeeds return what does not belong to them. This is a threat hanging over most cadres' heads.

In the "housecleaning" drive within party organizations of the countryside, "impure" organizations were disbanded and party members were re-registered. Veteran cadres were replaced and cadres from the families of the poor and the lower-middle peasants took over leadership.

The Chinese Communist method of fan­ning up class struggle is to persecute one group while benefiting another. Each move­ment created more problems than it has solved. When the internal crisis reaches the point of explosion, the Chinese Reds instigate foreign conflict to divert the people's attention and externalize their unrest.

There is clear evidence that the pea­sants of the Chinese mainland are generally opposed to the "class struggle", which creates hatred and antagonism in the countryside. They are fed up with the so-called "class line". Since the completion of "land reform" and "collectivization", all means of produc­tion have been nationalized and the peasants virtually have become serfs, living a life of abject poverty. Since all the peasants are sharing a life of poverty and regimentation, "class" has ceased to exist.

Because "class education" or "class struggle" will have far-reaching effects on agricultural production, the Chinese Com­munists have begun cautiously. They have declared that only a small number of "ren­egades" and "key offenders" will be punished. Individual peasants singled out for cri­ticism will not be arrested and punished at reform, but handed over to the people for reform and supervision after "class struggle". Facts indicate, however, that the "class struggle" is as sanguinary and violent as the no­torious "land reform".

The so-called socialist education movement—which is really a euphemism for "class struggle"—is meeting with strong opposition. So far it has only aggravated the anti-Communist feelings and activities of op­pressed peasants and cadres. Common inter­ests make common friends. The stronger the oppression, the tighter will be the ties be­tween abused peasants and cadres, and the sooner the inevitable failure of the movement.