A lively back-and-forth between two communist veterans — Wang Huning, the acknowledged “deep thinker” of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Sitaram Yechury, the general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), enlivened a week-end interaction on the sidelines of a conference of political parties in Beijing.
The animated discussion with Mr. Yechury took place, when Mr. Wang — recently elevated to the apex seven member standing committee of the CPC Polit Bureau — pulled aside representatives of 26 communist party leaders for a separate no-holds-bar meeting of comrades at the conference.
Apart from Mr. Wang, five others including Mr. Yechury spoke on the occasion. The rest were Communist party leaders from Cuba, South Africa, Russia and Britain.
This was Yechury’s poser
A source privy to the meeting told The Hindu that Mr. Yechury sought clarity on how the Community of common future, proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping would be different from the “interdependent and interconnected world” proposed in 1987 by former and last Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), Mikhail Gorbachev. Within four years of the Mr. Gorbachev’s utopian prognosis, the Soviet Union had collapsed.
Mr. Wang reassured his Indian guest that the CPC was acutely conscious of the flawed formulations of the Gorbachev era, especially the former Soviet leader’s inability to grasp the “contradictions” in the Soviet Union, which needed to be resolved, before a new path could be excavated. During the 19th Party Congress of the CPC in October, Mr. Xi recognised that the “principal contradiction” in the new era in China was “between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life.”
Marxists have concluded that contradictions are ‘dynamic opposing forces’ prevailing in society. By identifying and solving the “principal contradiction,” society develops peacefully. Left unsolved, it can lead to chaos and eventually revolution.
Exploring “a multipolar world”
Mr. Yechury also probed deeper into the CPC’s perception of a “multipolar world,” in view of relentless pursuit by the United States towards concentration of global power. The discussion also covered other big questions facing humanity: international terrorism and engendering a conflict-free world.
Analysts say that Mr. Wang, a former Dean in Fudan University’s law school in Shanghai, has acquired a high profile on President Xi’s watch.
On Sunday, he surprisingly delivered the keynote speech at the World Internet Conference, near Shanghai. The audience included top CEOs of the cyber-world — Apple’s Tim Cook and Google’s Sundar Pichai.
Notwithstanding major internet restrictions in China, Mr. Wang called for “balanced internet rules” that are “more balanced and better reflect the interests of all parties.”
For that “ideological backing”
The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported earlier that Mr. Wang’s rise “reflected the pressing need for [Mr.] Xi to have someone at the top to provide ideological backing for his ambitious reform programmes.”
Known as a formidable intellectual, Mr. Wang has steadily cemented his place in China’s power circles. He has been credited with arming former President Jiang Zemin with ideas for his “Three Represents” code. He had also advised Mr. Xi’s predecessor, Hu Jintao — the architect of the Scientific Outlook on Development.
In a famous article that he published in Fudan University journal in 1988, Mr. Wang underscored that as China modernises, “the scope of the policy-making by the political leadership will expand without precedent,” requiring the steadying presence of a centralised leadership armed with a broad vision and high sense of responsibility.
