Pierre M Perrolle - Fundamentals of the Chinese Communist Party

The editor wishes to acknowledge the contributions of Lloyd and Chung Richardson who drafted the translation of the Chinese text and of John K. Leung for his editorial assistance, while retaining the responsibility for any shortcomings in the final product. He also wishes to thank Douglas Merwin of IASP and Ying-mao Kau of Brown University for their guidance, support, and patient encouragement.

P. M. P.
March 1976

From 1966 to 1969 the large-scale political turmoil and intense conflicts of the Cultural Revolution in China shattered notions of institutional permanence and unshakable legitimacy that many analysts had come to associate with the Communist Party of China, which had ruled the People's Republic for over fifteen years. Just as the high-level bureaucrats of the Party were shaken from their complacency, it seemed for a time, from the outside, as though it could no longer be taken for granted that the Communist Party would continue to provide the institutional core for political leadership in China. ()

The purge of a limited number of individuals such as that of Kao Kang and P'eng Teh-huai in the 1950s was not a new phenomenon for students of communist political systems. But the wholesale criticism and removal of a large proportion of China's political elite, including such powerful Party leaders as Liu Shao-ch'i, P'eng Chen and Lo Jui-ch'ing, seemed to call into question the future of the Party itself as an institution. ()

Since 1969 the steps taken to rebuild the Party by a gradual reconstitution of Party committees at all levels and the gradual effacement of military power and of the revolutionary committees have made it clear that many observers of Chinese politics had overreacted in writing their obituaries of the Party. The ) The reappearance of numerous Party leaders and the current emphasis on production in economic policy certainly reinforce this view. Yet we should remain cautious of the facile conclusions which may flow from such assumptions and instead focus our attention on analyzing the changes and innovations which have been introduced in the Party since the Cultural Revolution.

Such changes are not easy to identify. Since the Cultural Revolution, the Ninth Party Congress in 1969 and Tenth Party Congress in 1973 ratified two new Party constitutions which are very different from the 1956 Constitution adopted by the Eighth Party Congress. () However, because both these constitutions are short and highly simplified in comparison with earlier ones, and because the accompanying reports on revision are also brief and superficial, analyses of the new constitutions alone are insufficient to carry out an assessment of recent changes in the character and functions of the Communist Party. Other materials must be sought to provide a basis for analysis.

Fundamentals of the Party (Tang ti chi-ch'u chih-shih), which we are translating and publishing here as Fundamentals of the Chinese Communist Party, was published by the Shanghai People's Press in 1974 and constitutes an important source of the type needed to study the revival of the Party. The book, which is aimed at young activists who seek to join the Party as well as being a primer for Party classes at the basic level, represents one of the most comprehensive and authoritative treatments to date of the fundamental characteristics, the theoretical basis, and the organizational principles of the Party after the Cultural Revolution. The fact that the book was prepared by an ad hoc writing group in Shanghai, a city of special political and ideological significance during the Cultural Revolution, where the powerful leaders and theoreticians Chang Ch'un-ch'iao and Yao Wen-yuan are based, may lend added significance to the document. ()

To fully appreciate the significance of Fundamentals of the Party, and of the 1973 Party Constitution on which it is a commentary, one must recognize the ephemeral character of the constitutions of both the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese state. ()

The new 1973 Party Constitution has, of course, in the wake of Lin Piao's demise, deleted reference to Lin without substituting another specific successor to Mao. In spite of this, the new document ought not to be viewed as any more timeless than its 1969 predecessor. The 1973 Constitution is not intended for the indefinite and long-range future. It is fundamentally a statement of political directions in China following the Cultural Revolution and the Lin Piao affair. () Fundamentals of the Party clearly reflects a concern, in its dozens of references to the Cultural Revolution and to the Lin Piao affair, for the immediate implications of those events for the future role and tasks of the Party.