Hu Jintao warns communists, corruption will force the people into revolution

Recently, at a Central Disciplinary Committee plenary meeting and Second Plenary Meeting of the Party Congress, Hu Jintao gave the most severe warning from any Chinese communist leader to date against bureaucracy and corruption: Communist bureaucratic corruption is forcing the people to rise and conduct revolution against the communist party. For the first time, Hu linked CPC's corruption, the people's fight against it, and reform of the political system.

Hu warns that party bureaucrats' corruption is shaking the leading position of the party

On Feb. 19th, at the Second Plenary Meeting of the Central Disciplinary Committee, Hu gave the most severe warning of any communist leader concerning the crisis facing the party as a ruling party. He said, the prevailing existence of bureaucracy and corruption is continuously shaking and sabotaging the socialist system, shaking and endangering the leading position of the communist party; fundamentally shaking and causing the loss of the party's organizational position as a mainstay of society composed of outstanding people from different social strata; and shaking and causing the loss of the party's power to summon the people and cohesiveness in society. What brought about this severe situation is complex, but the main reason, key issue, and crux of the problem is what the majority of leading cadres have seen and are aware of. However, what is a question of life and death is whether they dare to admit it, whether they dare to accept it, whether they dare to reform and whether they dare to change. Any political party, if it doesn't change with the times and reform with the times, will run into problems, will degenerate, and the communist party is no exception.
Hu says reforming the system is the only choice

Hu Jintao points out that the fact is that the Communist Party's self construction has run away from social development; the party's working style has run away from the people; the communist party members' behavior has run away from and counter to the interests of the people; the special privileges of the party have run away from and destroyed the socialist system. Hu also says that the fact is the party has initiated anti-corruption campaigns for over ten years, come up with relevant policies and stipulations, punished a series of corrupt bureaucrats, including over 2.2 million party members and party cadres. However, corruption has not been resolved, and even preliminary success has not been reached. The situation is still worsening and grim.

Hu then points out that the fact is, since reform and opening up, national power has risen, the people's standard of living has risen, and people are enjoying the greatest freedom in history. But the relationship between the people and party and the people and the government is tense, trust of the party and the government has greatly dropped Hu emphasizes that we must not lose this opportunity.

Based on our loyalty and commitment to the people, to the country, to history, our only choise and direction is to reform the system. While we continue to punish corruption, we must combine this with perfecting laws, developing democracy, reforming the system, and strengthening supervision. We must put anti-corruption and advocacy of clean government above all other policies and measures.

Reforming the Communist Party is the primary political task

On Feb. 26th, Hu Jintao again gave a warning at the Second Plenary Meeting of the CPC 16th Congress: the root of social crisis and stability is inside the Communist Party. The reform and remodeling of the party is the number one political task that cannot be delayed.
Hu criticizes the fact that inside the party and among Communist Party leader cadres, a fairly large proportion of people consider their own persons and personal will as the embodiment of the party, as representative of the people, as the embodiment of the law and constitution. This itself violates the principle of Marxism, violates the manifesto of the party and runs counter to the history of human social development.

Warning against continuously intensifying demonstrations in cities and the countryside

Concerning mass parades, demonstrations, mass gatherings happening and intensifying in cities and the countryside, Hu Jintao warns: the scale of all kinds of parades, demonstrations, and mass rallies in cities and the countryside are expanding, forms are changing, people's objectives in their struggle are becoming more sophisticated. From denouncing the party and government bureaucracy, corruption, abuse of power, to protesting that civil rights and people's interests are violated; from criticizing the party and government for deviating from the people's interests and expropriating people's rights to demonstrating and demanding the communist party step down and the government reform, the demands and objectives of the majority of demonstrations and rallies in the cities and the countryside received wide sympathy and support from all of society. What the party and government needs to reflect upon is that the majority of these demands and objectives are correct and rational. It is the responsibility of the Communist Party, it is the defect of party policies or mistakes in implementation, it is the corruption and power abuse of communist bureaucrats that instigated social conflicts and opposition. This time bomb buried under society could explode any time and lead to a series of explosions, which would lead to chaos throughout society and paralyze the administration.

Catalyst leading to an explosive social crisis

The CPC Central Research Office summed up the cause of this explosive social crisis time bomb as the six points below: 1) Demand for political reform has intensified; 2) corruption and abuse of power by party and government departments continues to worsen, leading to public denunciations and opposition; 3) the wealth gap expands, people are forced to fight, which receives wide sympathy and support; 4) economic and financial turbulence could cause social chaos, bank-rushes, and the hording of materials, and eventually lead to total political turmoil; 5) the handling and solution by the party and the government of special influential events may run counter to the people's will and lead to political unrest; 6) party and government decisions on foreign policy may be viewed as not upholding national and people's interests, damaging national dignity, and could lead to social protests, eventually intensifying demands for the party and the government to step down.

A situation of worsening demonstrations

The above quoted official think tank also believes that since 2000, legal public denunciations of government departments and party officials for power abuse, law violations, and damaging civil rights and people's interests have been going up every year: in 2000, there were more than 81,600 cases; in 2001, there were 133,500 cases; in 2002 this rose to 179,600 cases. Apart from the fact that people's understanding of laws have improved and people are able to protect their political rights, economic rights, and social position with the weapon of the law, this also reflects that contradictions between the people and the party, people and the government, between people and party officials are deepening and intensifying. This is a fact and the crux of political and social crises.

The following is a portion of official statistics:

In 2002, there were 56,600 cases of urban parades, demonstrations, and mass rallies in over 410 cities, over 4 million people took part.
In 2002, there were 37,500 cases of rural parades, demonstrations, and mass rallies in over 1,700 rural areas, over 12 million people took part.
In 2002, there were over 400 cases of attacks on the party and government offices, of using force to loot warehouses.

Listen to his words and observe his actions

Recently, at the Second Plenary Meeting of the Disciplinary Committee and the Second Plenary Meeting of the CPC Congress, Hu Jintao gave a warning concerning the crisis of the Communist Party as the ruling party.
Hu's warning is the most severe to date among all CPC leaders concerning bureaucracy and corruption. And he links communist bureaucratic corruption with the occurrence of parades, demonstrations, and mass rallies in cities and countryside around the mainland, and he concludes that the solution to the problem lies in reform of the political system. The CPC must not just reform, he adds, but must also "reshape."
This indicates that Hu Jintao is substantially different from Jiang Zemin. Jiang Zemin avoided political reform everywhere, but Hu Jintao says: Today the Chinese Communist Party must conduct political reform and reshaping. People pointed out long ago, this is the only choice for the CPC.
Just before the 16th Party Congress, Trends Magazine reported on Hu Jingtao's hospital visit to General Zhang Aiping, in which he promised Zhang Aiping that when he came to power, he would conduct political reform. Now that Hu Jintao has come to power, he has talked more than once about political reform. Now all we have to do is observe his actions.