GEORGE JOCHNOWITZ
51
ing, and shelter but for education, culture, and comfort. Nevertheless,
there is something weird about the slogan, "To get rich is glorious."
It
is a reflection of the inversion of a society where people used to believe
that poverty is virtue. Deng Xiaoping kept the o ld Marxist system intact
but turned it upside down. China today believes in capitalism with the
same religious faith that it once applied to its belief in Communism.
Marx, in
The Communist Manifesto,
tells us that the bourgeoisie "has
left no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than
callous 'cash payment.'" Yet it is China today that glorifies naked self–
interest and does not all ow other connections among people to exist.
China's current system has been described as market Leninism. That
is a misnomer. Market Leninism is what Taiwan had in the days of
Chiang Kai-shek. The Nationalist Party, the Kuominrang, was openly
Leninist, and adopted the Leninist principle of "democratic centralism,"
which means strict obedience to the party. What China has today is
Marxist capitalism: the belief that nothing matters but economics-not
culture, not individuality, not biology, not politics. Marxist capitalism is
Marxism with a minus sign in front of it.
The embrace of money is not the only change, however. Life is freer
than before. The first time I taught in China, in
1984,
one never saw a
boy and a girl walking together. Once, a student of mine asked me the
secret of America's wea lth and power, and I answered "freedom." "But
if we had freedom, it would lead to sex," he said . Today there is more
freedom, and it has led to sex. Not only that, it has led to divorce. An
article in the February
23, 2000,
issue of
China Daily
appeared under
the headline, "Bear
It
or Leave
It:
Divorce a Suitable Solution for Sink–
ing Marriage." Accordi ng to the article, the increase in divorces may
lead to a new law making divorce harder.
Another enormous change that has happened in China is the appear–
ance of labor unions. An article in the December
14,
2000,
issue of
China Daily
entitled "Unions Vital to Workers' Rights" tells us, "Trade
unions are being urged to mobilize workers nationwide to help consol–
idate achievements made through the reform and development of State–
owned enterprises," which sounds as if the unions are a tool of the
government. Nevertheless, the article goes on to say that "trade unions
should also focus on safeguarding the interests and rights of workers by
fashioning a more effective mechanism to solve the problems of laid-off
workers and workers' rights violations ." Can it be that China is actu–
ally allowing citizens to organize? It's hard to believe. That would be
tantamount to recognizing that individuals and particular groups have
rights that are not the same as the rights of the People.
