Chinese School - Eight-Step program for what ails China

CHINA / Foreign Media on China

Eight-Step program for what ails China
By Edward Cody (Washington Post)
Updated: 2006-03-23 16:38

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/22/AR200603220
2042.html?nav=rss_world

On bus-stop billboards, newspaper front pages and television news
broadcasts, in school classrooms, factory study groups and student
counseling sessions, at forums and meetings all across China, the
Communist Party propaganda apparatus has been spreading the word from
President Hu Jintao: Do good and avoid evil.

Hu's fatherly advice, in the form of eight do's and don'ts, was issued
two weeks ago as an antidote to the corruption and cynicism spreading
across China, a result of the often raw capitalism that has emerged
during 25 years of dramatic economic change. Although his aphorisms may
sound simplistic to Western ears -- "Work hard, don't be lazy" and "Be
honest, not profit-mongering" -- Chinese analysts said they are a
response to a deep-seated desire among people here for a moral compass to
guide them through the unsettling transformation.

"There is a feeling that things have been going wrong," said Kang
Xiaoguang, a social sciences researcher at the Chinese Academy of
Science. "So when I hear him say that, I say, 'Good. It should have been
said a long time ago.' "

Many Chinese would agree. The Communist Party's traditional values of
egalitarianism and service to the poor have largely faded away, they
complain, in favor of a get-rich ideology that blurs the distinction
between officials and entrepreneurs. The strait-laced morals of Mao
Zedong's time, they note, have relaxed to the point that bribes are part
of doing business and prostitution is practiced openly. In addition, the
party's reputation for corrupt land seizures has contributed heavily to
often violent peasant unrest, making the need to re-burnish the
government's legitimacy more urgent.

Since taking over as party leader and president three years ago, Hu has
been reaching for the right formula. Under his orders, the party has been
engaged in an 18-month retraining program to fire up its 70 million
members. Hu has declared that the country must pursue "scientific
development," taking environmental and social concerns into account as
the economy grows. And he repeatedly has urged China's 1.3 billion people
to create a "harmonious society," in which competing interest groups,
such as farmers and businessmen, settle differences without conflict.

"It is a step-by-step program," Kang said. "I think he has a blueprint in
his heart."

Some party analysts have suggested Hu's preaching is not enough, that the
country should slow the pace of economic reforms and reemphasize the
benefits that came with socialism, such as health care and guaranteed
employment. Hu and his premier, Wen Jiabao, have resisted the calls,
which some analysts say have more to do with jockeying for position than
genuine policy disagreements. But the two leaders have clearly indicated
they believe headlong economic growth should be tempered by greater
concern for the people left behind, particularly farmers.

Having risen through the ranks in the Communist Youth League, with its
Boy Scout-like code, Hu, 63, seems to have turned naturally toward a
campaign appealing for cleaner living as part of the answer to corruption
and cynicism. In a speech last year to cadres training at the Central
Party School, he suggested that the solution lies in renewing traditional
Marxist thought, revisiting the best of Mao Zedong's policies and
reviving ancient Chinese culture, including Confucianism. Of the three,
Kang said, Hu looks to Chinese culture as the most likely to provide
moral values.

So when he sat down with a group of delegates to the National People's
Congress on March 4, Hu harked back to a long Chinese tradition that
stipulates leaders are supposed to urge moral conduct on their followers.
"Love the motherland, do not harm it," he said. "Be disciplined and
law-abiding, not chaotic and lawless."

In all, he recited eight such rules, which he called "the eight glories
and the eight shames." The official New China News Agency called them "a
perfect amalgamation of traditional Chinese values and modern virtues."
The People's Political Consultative Conference, the other house in
China's bicameral legislature, passed a resolution saying, "Let it be a
paragon and common practice of the times."

The official People's Daily newspaper quickly filled with statements from
Communist Party cadres describing Hu's ideas as marvelous and saying they
were starting programs to teach the eight do's and don'ts through
schools, workplace meetings and popular performances.

"The characteristics of the economic and social development of our
country in this period made it necessary to set out the socialist view on
glories and shames," the People's Daily said in a front-page editorial
Saturday. "The dramatic changes in society, rapid economic development
and culture clashes have had an effect on people's ideology, living style
and value system. The facts prove that without a healthy social conduct
and good moral standards the overall national strength will not grow and
the people will not be able to stand among other peoples of the world
proudly no matter how developed the economy is."

The official China Central Television, playing its part, broadcast daily
reports on Hu's meaning and how enthusiastically his ideas were being
welcomed across the country. Outdoor advertising also made them available
for viewing across the capital; a poster version was printed as well,
distributed gratis for those who wanted to see the do's and don'ts on
their walls.

Students at Beijing's Fang Cao Di Elementary School were visited by
senior officials -- the children called them "Hu Jintao leaders" -- who
had them memorize all eight aphorisms. Ren Tanyong, head of the
Propaganda Department in Changsha, the Hunan provincial capital,
announced that he was setting up a special program so the city's youth
would get the message. Several professors and school administrators were
quoted as saying Hu's eight lessons were just the thing for China's
spoiled young generation.

But Huang Weiting, deputy editor of the party's Seeking Truth magazine,
said party officials should be looking at themselves as well. "It's a
cadre problem," he said in an interview.

"Eight glories and eight shames are not only a requirement for youth, but
also for every citizen," he wrote this week in the party's Discipline
Inspection newspaper. "Especially party members and cadres should take
the lead."

Despite the noise generated by party propaganda organs, some Chinese
questioned whether Hu's preaching would ever reach officials in the small
towns and villages where disenchantment with the party is strongest. "It
won't even get to provincial capitals," said Kang, the social scientist.

Even in Beijing, a group of recent graduates from prestigious Peking
University, all of whom work in government-connected jobs, said they had
not heard of the eight aphorisms after more than a week of the campaign.
And in Inner Mongolia's distant Tongliao City, Bai Lianhua, a 46-year-old
homemaker, said in a telephone conversation that she had no idea what
they were.

"I guess it's the same kind of thing as the harmonious society, right?"
she said.

Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours

Today's Top News 

� Bush-Hu summit set on April 20 - White House

� Buyers of big cars have to pay more tax

� Ma: Cross-Strait status quo to be kept

� Show tells 2 million years of history

Top China News 

� Chinese ambassador to WTO assails US trade policy

� Japan to freeze loans to China over bad ties

� China shuts down porn websites

� Taiwan's Ma vows to maintain status quo

� Putin confident of energy co-op with China

Chinese School