Part 1: China Restores Pragmatism
This is the first in a series of articles in Asia Times.com about the current politics within China. While there are some clumsy linguistic articulations in it, I find it interesting not least for its clear disdain for what is passing as policy reform in China today. This item from the latter part of the piece gives you a sense of the whole.
The highly lauded "Three Represents" theory does no harm to the new system inaugurated after the 16th Party Congress, but it is no more than ambiguous, prevaricating fluff. Certainly it is much better than the Four Adherences, or Adherence to the Four Cardinal Principles (to keep to the socialist road; to uphold the people's democratic dictatorship and leadership by the Communist Party; Marxism-Leninism; and Mao Zedong Thought). The problem is that no one, neither left nor right-wing nor neutral, can read the mind behind the "Three Represents". [Emphasis added]Posted by Donald Douglas at November 14, 2003 09:28 AM | TrackBack