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The Structural Evolution of ‘Criticism and Self-Criticism’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Extract

“ Criticism and self-criticism,” or inner-Party struggle as it is sometimes called, has always been a major mechanism of inner-Party decision making and discipline among Chinese political elites, but during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution it emerged as a form of mass mobilization and education as well. I shall argue here that this came about as a result of political decisions made in the context of a series of non-reversible structural changes in the Chinese system of communications

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1973

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References

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9. For instance, in June 1957, two deputy chairmen of the Democratic League were accused of leading a nation-wide clique to overthrow the Party; neither admitted this, and so “the campaign against them was pushed relentlessly forward until January 1958 when Shih Liang claimed that they had confessed their crimes and their clique had been destroyed.” MacFarquhar, Roderick, The Hundred Flowers (London: Stevens and Sons, 1960), p. 263Google Scholar . Similarly, Ch'en i sought to exempt Liu from criticism by alleging that ” Liu and Teng have been thoroughly defeated and have confessed their crimes.” In the first case confession resulted in punishment whereas in the second Ch'en meant it to result in the accused's atonement In general, once confession or self-criticism is accepted as adequate or satisfactory, the process of criticism and self-criticism of the particular individual concerned comes to an end and a decision is made on the individual case. But the process of criticism and self-criticism continues on policy issues raised by that individual's mistakes.

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21. According to Chang Kuo-t'ao's account, this is the way the 1937 dispute between himself and Mao was resolved. When a stalemate developed with Mao in control of the Politburo and Chang in control of the 2nd Provisional Central Authority, Chang simply stopped attending Politburo meetings for three months. When Mao sent Tung Pi-wu to ask him to stop “sulking,” he replied: “I don't want to attend Politburo meetings, or to receive comrades to discuss Party affairs. Furthermore, I wish to withdraw from the Central leadership of the Party. I'm now teaching economics with you at the North Shensi Public School; isn't this just fine?” Chang's Introduction in Collected Works of Liu Shao-ch'i, p. vii. For a more detailed account of this episode, see Kuo-t'ao, Chang, “Wo-ti hui-i,” Mingpao yüeh-k'an VI: 2 (1971), pp. 8590Google Scholar .

22. Newspaper circulation increased from 3·4 million in 1951 to 15 million in 1958; magazine circulation jumped from 900,000 to 17 million over the same period: Yu, Frederick T. C., Mass Persuasion in Communist China (New York and London: Praeger, 1964), p. 90Google Scholar . China claims that her radio transmitting power is now almost five times greater than the total transmitting power under the KMT in the 20 years 1928–47. The Great Leap Forward of 1958 produced more than a million radios; 10 years before, there were scarcely more than a million sets throughout the whole of China: Howse, Hugh, “The use of radio in China,” CQ 2 (1960), pp. 5969CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

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26. I owe these points to a personal communication from Alan Liu. Two other scholars have also noted that efforts to increase the flow of information between elites and masses through multiplicative media have tended to be combined with an increase in political control, making the communicative process increasingly one-way. Houn, F. W., To Change a Nation (New York: Free Press, 1961), pp. 230–37Google Scholar , and Townsend, James R., Political Participation in Communist China (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1967Google Scholar ), last chapter .

27. For example, in 1954–55 the “propaganda outlines” (hsuan-chuan ta-kang) and “propaganda handbooks” (hsuan-chuan shou-ts'e) periodically diffused through organizational channels by the Central Propaganda Department during mass movements were superseded by Party newspapers such as Chung-kuo ch'ingnien (China Youth), Hsüeh-hsi (Study) and later Hung ch'i (Red Flag). , Yu, Mass Persuasion in Communist China, pp. 8889Google Scholar .

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34. That Mao reserved his opinions is revealed by a passage in Liu's first self-criticism: “As Mao was not in Peking then [1962], I went to him and delivered a report. Afterwards I learned that Chairman Mao was not at all in agreement with my appraisal of the situation.” Collected Works of Liu Shao-ch'i, III, 361 (emphasis added). Mao also permitted Chiang Ch'ing to prepare the original attack on Wu Han in secret, as she revealed in a speech in 1967: “I asked the Chairman if I could reserve my opinion. He said I could…Because he promised me to reserve my opinion on it it gave me courage to proceed with writing that article and to keep it secret. The secret was kept for seven to eight months during which the article was revised countless times.” See above, n. 31. Nor did Mao reveal the existence of this article to Feng Cheng when he asked the latter, on 10 October 1965, to carry out a rectification campaign against Wu Han.

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36. There were 19 central work conferences in 1960–66: one in 1960, three in 1961, four in 1962, three in 1963, four in 1964–65, and four in 1966, according to Chang (ibid.). In addition to work conferences there were a number of other meetings, some with institutional labels, such as “enlarged Politburo meetings,” others known only by the place and time they were held.

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54. “ Mao's speech to the 1st plenary session of the OCP's 9th OC” (28 April 1969), in Issues and Studies, March, 1970.

55. In Liu's formulation of the pre-Cultural Revolution pattern, “Leaders in the Party and higher-level organizations should pay more attention to democracy, and subordinates in the Party and lower-level organizations … to obedience.” Collected Works, I, 397. The post-Cultural Revolution pattern follows Mao's prescription, “Concentrate the great authority, diffuse the small authority.” Quoted in Schurmann, , “Organizational contrasts between Communist China and the Soviet Union,” (unpublished paper, Hong Kong, 03 1961), pp. 2930Google Scholar .

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