Archives Management 2020

"Are you sure we really want to go through these volumes?" Li Weixiu held a few volumes on the table and said, "I really don't want to go through these old volumes, it's too much trouble."

"How are you going to write your party history paper without going through these? Rely on fantasy?" Li's friend Hu Ning picked up the yellowing volumes, which had been dormant for a long time.

"I don't know how to tell this story any other way." Li shrugged and said, "Besides, it's not like these are the only volumes we have. I have more from the same era."

"I hope it's a real history dossier and not an artificially created historical myth." Hu Ning sighed a little, all governments like to deify certain things to consolidate the legitimacy of their rule. He grabbed the volumes from Li, looked at the table of contents, and said, "Let's see if we can find anything good."

"Oh, I definitely will, I'm just not that into history." Li smiled and said, "It's not like I have to be an expert on the topic, I'm writing a fictional story."

"You're going to write? Write what fictional story?"

"For example, the legendary story of Fu Zuoyi's peaceful liberation of Beiping, persuaded by the unification of the great motherland and the bright and correct Chinese Communist Party?" Li smiled knowingly.

"Actually, I'm not writing about that. Well, maybe I am, but it's going to be a little fictionalized version." Hu Ning said. "If we don't know that Fu Zuoyi is stockpiling arms and power stations in Suiyuan."

"I've never heard that rumor. Are there any sources that say so?"

"Yes, unfortunately, there are some. The old dossiers in these volumes will tell you the story." Hu Ning laughed and said, "This is why Fu Zuoyi accepted the military reorganization of the Chinese Communist Party only after the Chinese Communist Party had achieved successful strategic goals in the Korean War; he was only trying to sway left and right before that. Of course, Chinese history textbooks and propaganda agencies would have people believe that the historical myth of the peaceful liberation of Beiping is like Deng Xiaoping's market-oriented reforms."

"So the myth isn't entirely accurate?" Li asked.

"Yes, for some reason it is not recounted as true historical truth. For example, what is your opinion of Deng Xiaoping's market-oriented reforms that he started before the Cold War?"

"I think they're great and necessary, like many reforms they were... rushed into place. They're not perfect, and they're certainly not without their problems, but I don't see why they should be discredited."

"Rather than being discredited, it was actually glorified. Who were the first people to get rich from Deng Xiaoping's market economy reforms? Would I and you be the first to get rich if we went back to that era?" Hu Ning shook his head to refute his claim.

"How could you say that? They're a historical fact and their achievements speak for themselves."

"Historical facts? They were people who became richer during the reforms and who were either part of Chinese bureaucratic cronyism, embezzlement of state assets or smuggling. These people were able to smuggle jade by train in that era, what kind of people would we be in that era? It would be people who became destitute in the reform. How many people were laid off and unemployed from state-owned enterprises in China in the twenties and nineties?"

"I don't think..." Li's eyes widened in realization. "You're saying..."

"The lives of these ordinary people were just crushed. How many more prostitutes and jerks did China have after the market reform? No one cares. Even now, Deng Xiaoping's market reform is still glorified as a good thing that benefits everyone, for the simple reason that all people now benefit from the market economy. As for those who became destitute in the reform most of them simply do not live now, let alone have any voice." Hu Ning paused for a moment and then said, "Just like what happened in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union countries suffered in the market, people will later historical sources cited countless documents to argue the market economy and planned economy, people will criticize and curse the genocide and political cleansing after World War I, but will anyone care about the old people of the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries who froze to death in the winter of the reform? Does anyone care about the young men and women who became prostitutes and cheap laborers and sold their bodies around the world?"

"Well, I... I don't agree with this. But, I can see your point..." Li admitted.

Hoenen began to open the file and said, "I'm sorry, I'm a humanist. I just can't understand how people can be aware of the brutality and slaughter of those fascist and authoritarian socialist governments, but turn a blind eye to the people who are trapped in poverty and hunger in a capitalist market economy. Those people have been fighting repeatedly for decades to express their political positions and smear their enemies, liberals have repeatedly attacked the long-dead Soviet Union and mocked socialists with the Great Purge, famine and Cold War, socialists have repeatedly attacked the U.S. and mocked liberals with promiscuity, excessive political correctness and cyclical economic crises...and as for nationalists and racists in various countries They repeatedly advocate war, plunder and mass murder against minorities and other countries, while rejecting other nationalities and trying to sexually assault women of other nationalities. I sometimes wonder what they take these words and human life for. A tool to express hatred? Do they not realize that every human being is a unique person, not an interchangeable tool, not a slave to be exploited?"

"That's a rather flippant remark to make when discussing such a horrific and complex issue." Li said.

"Forget it, I feel like I'll either get a mental illness or become anti-human if I think about this problem." Hu Ning said self-deprecatingly, "I'm too pessimistic about the future."

"How so?"

"The future is a festering boil of human problems that will eventually boil over, in ways both small and large. It's a wonder any of us survive the constant slaughter."

"That's a rather bloodthirsty outlook." Li said.

"It's a realistic outlook. In a world where only the strong can survive, what chance would I have to make a living?" Hu Ning thought about it and said, "Now the world in the international situation and social thinking at all no change or progress, the country although affected by the political system and economic system is ultimately determined by the ruling group and the national environment."

"What do you mean?" Li asked.

"The world now resembles the world before World War I. The Russian Federation retains its military power but its economy and diplomacy are in trouble, and China is now ruled by an authoritarian government that severely restricts cultural creativity and encourages foreign economies. If the West is too strong, it will seek to isolate China, and if China is too strong, it will seek to isolate the West. As this happens, the world is heading toward a dramatic reshaping. European countries still maintain their influence over the former colonial countries, and except for a few regions with more than twenty countries, the vast majority of the world's countries do not have an autonomous industrial system and production capacity. The world is still a dangerous place, but it's a less dangerous place because there are fewer countries in it. Countries have lost their value, they're just another form of population a place to be ruled."

"So, what's your point?" Li asked.

"The future development of the globe will become more and more intense, coupled with periodic outbreaks of economic crises, the vast majority of the world's countries will become worse and worse. At the same time, global wealth is increasingly concentrated in a few people. Do you find that China is becoming more and more like the United States in terms of social form and economic development, while the political system is becoming more and more conservative or even reactionary?"

"Well, China and the U.S. are two different countries with two different histories and social structures, so it's not that simple." Li admitted.

"The United States is stagnating or even declining. After the collapse of the Soviet Union the United States still clings to neoliberalism and financial economics, where markets and private property are not the solution. What is the answer to this development? Although all know that the United States will one day not be able to pay off its national debt with the U.S. national debt to GDP ratio is not heavy, but the United States if playing the role of world police one day it will collapse. The U.S. empire is becoming increasingly unpopular as it enters its twilight years, and it faces the potential of an aggressive rising power, namely China. The American capital consortium continues to enjoy unparalleled freedom and the Chinese bureaucracy continues to enjoy unparalleled power, but it is a freedom enjoyed by a world population with declining living standards and slowing world economic growth. The rich and powerful have always known that the world would one day be a better place, but they have never imagined that the world would be a worse place for it. The question now is: Will a world in which a small select few enjoy all the benefits of the modern world, while the masses still struggle to survive and live in a world of increasing inequality and oppression, be a better world or a worse world? The future is something that we, as intellectuals, can only dream about."

"You make it sound like we have a choice." Li said.

"There would have been, labor rights would have had to be fought for, and how could one expect minimum wage increases without fighting for them when the overall employment population in China is several times the overall jobs? The Chinese labor force is simply the most docile indentured slave in the world, receiving wages that are lower than those of African countries under purchasing power working 12 hours a day with one day off a week." Hu Ning said.

"How can you say that? Surely you don't think that all the problems in Africa are due to European exploitation." Li asked.

"The development of African countries is certainly affected by European exploitation, but the treatment of workers and staff in these countries is better than the Chinese workforce as a permanent member of the five! Not to mention other developed countries, the same population as China's India, India, although there is bad security and other problems, but they are a geographical area of workers are closely united, together is strong alone is weak. Not to mention that India also has a Marxist wing of the Communist Party of India that goes to parliamentary elections and a Maoist wing of the Communist Party of India that is in armed struggle. If one of these parties were to come to power and stay in power for a long time, India would explode with potential no less than that of China."

"So your saying that China may not be perfect, but the alternative is even worse?" Li asked.

"What I mean is that China is now on a dangerous path to become like the United States or the former Ming Empire, where on the one hand the military is powerful and influential all over the world, while on the other hand most of the people are proud of their ignorance and hatred, the standard of living is limited to decent standards, most of the wealth is monopolized by a few bureaucrats and capitalists, and the country is monopolized by dozens of political families. "

"That's a pretty extreme position. I would agree with the first point, but I don't think the second or third point would be good things. What's your evidence for the second point?" Li asked.

"I'll give you three sources. The first is a book published in 1975, a collection of political essays by Mao Zedong. The second is a famous essay by Karl Marx on "capitalism versus communism. The third is a collection of letters written by Karl Marx to his friend Friedrich Engels." And lastly the state would be run by a class of professional politicians who would be above and beyond the will of the people." Li said.

"You get the idea. Hu Ning said.

"Oh, you mean the "Manuscripts of Marx and Engels." My professor showed us those..." Li said.

"Yes." Hu Ning explained, "What are the three most essential characteristics of a Marxist socialist state? A state with fewer of these three characteristics is definitely not socialist, otherwise, Bismarck and Wilhelm II also used the term socialism."

"Okay, let's see. A communist state would have a centralized plan and predictable outcomes. There would be no private property. The state would own and control everything. And lastly the state would be run by a class of professional politicians who would be above and beyond the will of the people." Li said.

"You get the idea. But communism means the common ownership of the means of production by the whole population. The three characteristics of a socialist state should be the economic basis of public ownership of the means of production, class struggle and the use of the working class, the workers' and peasants' alliance as the class basis of the state. Ownership and control of products, capital, land, assets, etc. by society, whose management and distribution is based on public interest. In contrast, there is no state apparatus in the Marxist conception of history in a communist society. Marx and Engels themselves did not have a one-party dictatorship and supported universal suffrage and freedom of association. The working of the means of production by workers, both individually and through their labor unions, and the self-management of the society they live in by the citizens, both of whom have an interest in making sure the society works well. In this, the working class is the only class that can truly unite the people, since the capitalist class divides them against each other. Class struggle, therefore, is central to Marxism. The bourgeoisie, on the other hand, insists on opposing public ownership and using all means to uphold its own property and social status by embracing private ownership, just as the aristocracy of old Europe in the 19th century insisted on opposing universal suffrage and the multi-party system in order to preserve its own illegitimate power rather than stagnate historical development. It is absurd for the bourgeoisie to support universal ownership of all people in political power on the one hand and oppose universal ownership of all people in the economic base on the other. However, is China now a socialist country?" Hu Ning asked.

"I don't think so, but I also don't think that it is a capitalist country. How would you even define capitalism in this case?" Li inquired.

"The true socialist market economy was Yugoslavia under Tito, and the socialist market economy lies in the fact that its market mechanism is used to distribute capital goods and the means of production. The profits generated by socially owned enterprises were distributed to the people as a source of public finance or as social dividends. That is, there was no reinvestment into a state of expanding net corporate income or no private entrepreneurs for personal consumption. Monopoly state capitalism, on the other hand, is a system of state capitalism in which the state not only has an economy controlled by the state government, but the state as a whole can be seen as a huge corporation that extracts surplus value from the labor force and invests it in future production. The state enjoys an absolute advantage in the management of the enterprise or the state holds a controlling stake in a public company." Hu Ning continued after a pause, "So it is now clear whether China is a state capitalist or socialist market economy."

"No, it's not." Li said, "You do realize you're saying that we're living in a kleptocracy, right?"

"The state is the largest appropriator of wealth. In a state capitalist, the state is the biggest appropriator. In a socialist state, it is the people who are the biggest owners. There is no absolute distinction." Hu Ning said, "If anything, the state is even more powerful now under Xi than it was under Mao."

"What's your evidence for that?" Li asked.

"My evidence is that the state has successfully expanded itself to control more and more of the economy through the mechanism of the market. The means of production are more concentrated than they have ever been. More wealth is sucked up by the state-driven market every year than is added by the private sector. On the other hand, the market is manipulated by the state to benefit the private sector. The wealth of the country is not evenly distributed because public resources like land, raw materials, and intellectual property are not being utilized in a way that promotes economic growth for the entire country. The result is what many in the West would describe as the 'tragedy of the commons.'"

"So, you're saying that we're witnessing the corporatization of the state?" Li asked.

"Yes, I hope I'm wrong." Hu Ning began to concentrate on the dossier and ignore Li's inquiries. "Please, make your report. I think we're done here."

"I think you're being too pessimistic, and when we move up in bureaucratic politics, we can change all that." Li said.

"Pessimistic? Me? I don't think so. The reason people think we're pessimists is because we're always looking at the worst case scenario when it comes to politics. That being said, why do you believe we can be promoted up there?" Hu Ning asked.

"That's where you don't understand human affairs and bureaucratic politics, now that the Chinese Communist Party wants to promote a new group of bureaucrats. Have you noticed that there are almost no people born in the 1960s in Xi's generation of Politburo leaders?" Li asked.

"There are a few, but they're all from the Western regions." Hu Ning said, "They're more familiar with the capitalist system."

"And you notice there are some top positions being filled by transferring people from the military and aerospace instead of promoting those born in the sixties. Do we bet? I bet the next generation of Chinese Communist Party leaders won't have anyone born in the 1960s." Li said, "By the time Xi retires, there will be more people from the military and aerospace in a Politburo position than there will be from any other branch of the government."

"Why do you say that?" Hu Ning asked.

"In order to prevent the emergence of a twenty large spawn to power like the Soviet Union, those in the sixties were young when the US was winning the Cold War versus the most chaotic time for policing in China, would you trust them if you were the leader of the Chinese Communist Party?" Li asked.

"I don't think that's a fair comparison." Hu Ning said, "Those in power are more qualified than those of their predecessors. And compared to the chaos of the past, the world is more peaceful."

"That's not a fair comparison either," Li said, "Peace is an illusion, in 2018 the United States launched a trade war it was decided that the United States and China will open a new round of cold war, the winner takes all the losers, which is exactly 70 years with the 1948 West Berlin crisis, a new cycle of historical logic."

"The fact that you're comparing the current internal situation in China to a conflict that happened outside of China's borders is a sign of how out of touch you are with reality. The United States is still the world's superpower. Its economy is much larger than that of China. Not to mention its military might is much more significant." Hu Ning said, "You're wrong to compare the two. The United States is a much larger country with a stronger economy and military might than China. It is the leader of both the UN and NATO, two of the most successful international organizations. It has built hegemony economically, culturally and militarily, and its social model is different from the Soviet Union's, which is why it can't shake its rule no matter how many slums it has or how much criminality it has. China, on the other hand, now has even new social problems and some people are closing their eyes and pretending to be blind. If China does not take the opportunity to solve these new problems it will collapse like the Soviet Union did. The logic of history is such that there is no such thing as eternity, old problems are replaced by new problems, and old policies are replaced by new policies. The point is that old policies must be abandoned to reform, it is a matter of Tocqueville's paradox, the heavier the oppressive rule is pressed the greater the moment it explodes."

"I will grant you that, but you're placing too much emphasis on the importance of hegemonic stability and not enough on the power of the people." Li said, "We're witnessing a fundamental shift in the balance of political forces, as America's role as the guarantor of global order unravels, China will step in to fill that role. The root cause of the Soviet Union's defeat in the Cold War was the loss of internal support from all sectors of the population; we can see from history that powerful regimes have been pluralistic and open in times of strength, and increasingly restrictive in times of decline. The Soviet Union did the opposite, regulating speech in times of strength and freedom of expression in times of weakness. This prevented it from paying attention to hidden problems and people's grievances in times of strength, and instead was unable to address problems that arose in society in times of weakness."

"I agree with the point that speech should not be regulated even if some people interpret freedom of speech as the ability to curse at will. Otherwise, not hearing the true voice would be like Machiavelli's words in his monarchy about falling into the illusion of peacetime." Huning agreed adding, "It is important to have at least the support of the people or the support of the rulers and elites. Human beings will always remember what they have lost and forget what they have gained, and the new generation will be more radical and seek their rights than the old, which is the reason for the historical development and the nightmare of the rulers."

"The nightmare of the rulers?" Li asked, "Isn't everyone seeking to topple the current system and be part of the next great upheaval? What makes you think it will be any different?"

"What is different now from the pre-World War I pattern of world powers is nuclear weapons, without nuclear weapons the ruling class is of course willing to start a world war and the complete destruction of thousands of human lives. But except for the crazy no ruling class is willing to start a nuclear war, because the first to be attacked and destroyed by a nuclear war is the ruling class." Hu Ning sighed and said, "If China and the United States did not have a sudden collapse or concede defeat, the next two generations would have to experience a new round of Cold War that would be even more boring and brutal. But the U.S. government still has the power to blockade and suppress the Chinese government, and the vast majority of the world's countries and resources are still controlled by it."

"But isn't the U.S. looking weaker and weaker? China is becoming more and more powerful." Li said, "I think it's only reasonable to conclude that it's only a matter of time until China topples America's status as the sole superpower. And that's not to mention China's ever growing influence in Russia and elsewhere. With a weaker America, there will be more opportunities for China to fill the power vacuum."

"This is the appearance that China's economy is beginning to replace the United States but it is a complete failure in culture and politics. Even the majority of the population in East Asia rejects or distances itself from it, and Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, which are of the same nationality as it, have a strong centrifugal force. If the U.S. were to give up its role as the world's policeman and concentrate on blockading China, just as it did in the 1980s when it united with Russia against the Soviet Union, abandoned the Eastern European countries and stopped NATO expansion to cooperate with Russia against China, united with the Southeast Asian countries to use racism to exclude China, shifted the world's manufacturing industry to India and Southeast Asia, used South Korea, Japan and the European Union to suppress China's economy, and used nationalism and neoliberalism to internally dismember multi-ethnic countries, can China defeat the United States?"

"I think you're over-exaggerating about the United States' current position. It is true that the U.S. is currently involved in a state of open conflict with a nuclear armed Russia, a rising authoritarian regime in Europe and a potential enemy in the form of a demographically growing and economically powerful China, but it is not the only super-power in the world, there is the European Union and a host of other major powers. The U.S. is not going to collapse anytime soon." Li countered, "The more China rises, the more the United States is threatened with its status and its institutions being challenged. The more the United States reacts with militarism, the greater the threat it poses. It is a classic double-edged sword."

"You're making the classic mistake of treating power in relative terms. A powerful China is a threat no matter how much weaker the United States is. A weak Russia is a threat only when it is on the verge of becoming a major economic and military power. A powerful Russia and a weak China are both threats to the United States as they both seek to gain relative advantage over it. As the U.S. weakens, the threats become more dangerous. And the more serious the epidemic is in the United States, the more it shows the mastery and cold-bloodedness of the American bourgeoisie over the country, which is unable to create benefits for them in the so-called free capitalist market economy are the weak; when the virus epidemic swept the country, the American bourgeoisie was certainly willing not to blockade the cities to let the virus kill the weak, that is, the elderly and the unemployed, just like the Eastern European countries and the former Soviet Union countries in the It is a screening of the weak, and for them it saves money and creates jobs and profits. As for the extreme ideological confrontation with the police, that is the problem of the U.S. federal government, not to mention that the U.S. police are also commercial employees and not civil servants. The more the US dies with the more chaos, the more money left over for the neoliberals and plutocrats. As for, the dead are money, weakness, numbers in the eyes of those people." Hu Ning said.

"And what sort of future do you see for China?" Li asked.

"A more just, rational and peaceful world." Hu said. "Justice for the Chinese bureaucrats, who can interpret laws and regulations as they please, but never specify and define a hierarchy. Rationality for Chinese capitalists, the cruel rationality of watching ordinary people become indentured slaves or freeze to death. Peace for the Chinese militarists, the peace of conquering the world and invading other countries to advance." Hu said.

"Don't you think there might be another way?" Li asked.

"How?" Hu demanded.

"Launch a nuclear weapon?" Lee laughed.

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