core values
now inscribed in PRC law
Deng Yuwen 邓聿文
In the wake of Xi Jinping’s re-concentration of power at last October’s Party Congress, the mystically named Legislation Law is to be amended, significantly by inscribing ‘socialist core values’ into the law-making process.
A new Article 7 stipulates that ‘lawmaking shall promote and carry forward core socialist values, persist in governing the country according to a combination of law and virtue...’
The reference to ‘socialist core values' carries us back to the Party's espousal of them early in Xi's first term. In particular, the '12-word values', divided into three levels (national, social and individual): it was noticed at the time (2013-14), even by critics, that 'democracy, freedom, equality, justice, rule of law, which had previously been seen as “patented” vocabulary of Western capitalism, had joined the core values of socialism'.
So wrote Deng Yuwen 邓聿文, a sharp, contrarian analyst then attached to the central Party School, 'now a researcher at the New York-based think tank China Strategic Analysis'. His article 'Three major drawbacks of "core socialist values"' appears below, my translation of Deng's text as reprinted in the Financial Times (Chinese ed.) The original, with official layout, subheads etc., appeared originally—amazingly by today's standards—in People's Daily, 24 December 2014.
Deng Yuwen
Three major drawbacks of ‘core socialist values’
The CCP recently issued its socialist core values ’in 12 words’, a major step in building a socialist core value system. Xi Jinping pointed out in two recent speeches that socialism should attach great importance to cultivating and promoting core values, so that like the very air they are all-pervasive; the Party has also switched on the propaganda machinery to ensure they enter hearts and minds. It was in the service of socialist core values, reportedly that China recently launched a large-scale anti-vice campaign.
The core values ’in 12 words’ are: prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony, freedom, equality, justice, rule of law, patriotism, dedication, integrity, and friendship. As the Party's core values, they are divided into three levels: prosperity, democracy, civilisation and harmony as value targets at the national level; freedom, equality, justice, the rule of law are value orientations are level of society; patriotism, dedication, honesty and kindness are value guidelines at the level of individual citizens.
Popular responses to the core values put forward and advocated by the Party vary, but in general, the evaluation is not high. To be fair, on its face, the text displays progress: while the core values are dubbed ‘socialist,’ they don’t include such things as ’loving the Party’ or ’loving socialism’, which are much stronger than the ’five topics, four beauties and three loves’ or the ’eight honours and eight shames.’ Loving the party, loving socialism were, given the Party’s past thinking, quite likely to be loaded in among the socialist core values. But they were not on this occasion: on the contrary democracy, freedom, equality, justice, rule of law, which had previously been seen as ’patented’ vocabulary of Western capitalism, are part also of the core values of socialism. This is where it makes progress.
Not all will agree. Opponents argue that whatever fine expressions and nice words the Party may say, they fail to enact them, or they say one thing and do another; if you really believe it will go ahead implementing freedom, democracy, equality, justice and the rule of law, you are either a fool or naive. Given consistent CCP practice, it is hard to call this a mistaken interpretation. However, it should be recalled that last year, society was anxious about the CCP’s ’three prohibitions’, ’seven unspeakables’, its opposition to constitutionalism, etc., and then, after the New Year, it issued and promoted its socialist core values in ’12 words’, comprising freedom, democracy, equality, justice, rule of law, which are usually cast as Western values. What does this mean? The CCP having been opposed to freedom, democracy, constitutionalism, for six months, then it has to turn around and recoup the same good ’values’ it had opposed. That is, although in its bones the Party does not want to implement freedom, democracy or constitutionalism, it also realises that they are the desire of the people, are the trend of the times. Becoming aware of this, people would not be so desperate about China’s future.
Of course, the socialist core values ’in 12 words’ were not proposed just here and now, but appeared in the report of the 18th Party Congress. The Party had ideas still earlier of constructing a socialist core value system. In October 2006, the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixteenth Party Congress explicitly proposed building a socialist core value system, In his ’25th June’ 2007 speech, Hu Jintao too stressed the need to vigorously build a socialist core value system, to consolidate the Party's whole common ideological foundation as striving for national unity. As scholars have revealed, the Fourth Plenary Session of the Seventeenth CPC had wanted to refine the socialist core value system, but the views were not very consistent and no takeaway was arrived at.
The reason the CCP tried so assiduously to build its system of socialist core values is very simple: there was a need for social integration and recognition of the regime. Any society needs its mainstream values to be recognised, and abided by, by a majority. Ideas can be diversified, as can interests, but there must be a majority of the whole society who recognise and obey the values; only then can it have genuine stability and order. Western mainstream values are freedom, equality, fraternity, or freedom, democracy and constitutionalism. China also had [mainstream values] prior to reform, after which society went into transition. As the old value system and values of mainstream were seriously maladapted to the needs of the new situation, they were abandoned by society and the ruling party itself, but new mainstream values could not be quickly proposed or formed; a values gap appeared in society, and money became the de facto mainstream value in this period of emptiness. There are many reasons for the current spread of corruption, mental decadence, absence of faith, the popularity of all kinds of pornography and a series of other ugly phenomena; [and among them] the lack of a convincing value system that society can believe in is an important factor.
It is not that the CCP has failed to see the harm of the lack of mainstream values in society, nor that it did not want their early construction, but core values not are something to be had by simply wanting; neither the CPC’s own reform objective, nor the system it ultimately seeks to implement were very clear: hence it would be an empty promise to build a core value system at this time. It was only at the 18th Party Congress that the Party, having explored for 30 years, thought it had found a way to revive China, namely socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the institutions and systems to establish it; it hence needed a corresponding value system to occupy the thinking of society as a whole. This made it urgent to produce a clearly defined core system of socialist values.
No such issue of 'core values', a value system initiated and constructed by a ruling party, exists for Western states. Their mainstream values formed naturally in their social development. Constructing such mainstream values textually could be done only by a socialist or authoritarian state: its core value system could be used as a banner, leading and consciously indoctrinating people. The Party's discourse was very clear that the core value system of socialism is the essence of socialist ideology, the common ideological foundation of the whole party unity and struggle of people of all nationalities. It has core status in the value system of Chinese society as a whole, and plays a dominant role in determining the basic features and basic direction of the whole value system. Hence it is to be solemnly propounded.
In Party discourse, the socialist core value system embraces four basic aspects: the guiding ideology of Marxism, the common ideal of socialism with Chinese characteristics, with patriotism as the core of the national spirit of reform and innovation as the core spirit of the times, and with the ’Eight Honours and Eight Shames’ as the main content of the socialist concept of honour. These relate to each other as soul, theme, essence and foundation, together forming the complete system of core values.
The expression ’in twelve words’ of the Party's socialist core values inherits relations between state, collective and individual, making prosperity, democracy, civilisation and harmony value targets at the national level; freedom, equality, justice, rule of law as social dimension values; and patriotism, professionalism, trust and friendship as value guides at the individual citizen level, it is in order to emphasise that national collective and individual interests relations should be properly handled. But the three have different implications, the state level being pursued as a value objectives, at the social level as value orientations to be advocated, and as a value guide to be complied with only at the individual level.
As we all know, in terms of binding force, objectives, orientations and guidelines differ in what they require of people: guidelines are strongest, followed by goals, and orientations weakest. In other words, in terms of the role they actually play, value guidelines at the individual level may fail; this is harder in the cases of the value goals and orientations at the state and social levels respectively. It can hence be seen that whenever national TV publicises avatars of socialist core values, it does so only in terms of personal level patriotism, professionalism, honesty and friendship. Never mentioned are democracy at the state level or freedom in the social dimension.
As noted above, the CCP’s core values are a hodgepodge, of Marxist guiding ideology, republican ideals with Chinese characteristics, and the spirit of the nation and of the times. This is why, for all that they embrace universal values of freedom and democracy, they are not accepted in society. In addition to such a long list being difficult to remember, this refinement of the core values has the following defects:
(1) it’s inappropriate to juxtapose 'wealth and power' (富强) as national level, first-tier core values: it is merely an outcome of realising other values and cannot be a value objective in its own right
(2) the values of freedom, justice and the rule of law, while in the social tier, should be objectives pursued by the state too: safeguarding individual freedom, ensuring social justice and the rule of law, are duties it is necessary for the state to perform; from this perspective, freedom should be ranked first of the state’s core values
(3) while dedication, integrity, humanity, etc., may be advocated as values, they are primarily required for practical morality. They are not suitably proposed as core values, which are in general values of prime significance for social development
Hence, if the Party wants, in light of the current social situation, to promote socialist core values, and gain their acceptance by a majority in society—not least the growing middle class—then their contents should mention only ’freedom and democracy, justice, rule of law.’ It would then be acceptable even if, taking national circumstances and ethnic identities into account , they were coupled with ’patriotism and harmony’.
