Politics of Disillusionment: Chinese Communist Party Under Deng Xiaoping, 1978-89 by Hsi-Sheng Chi

Author:Hsi-Sheng Chi [Chi, Hsi-Sheng]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Media Studies, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781315289038
Google: cKKqDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-07-23T05:16:37+00:00

The CCP as a Modernizing Agent

On the basis of the above discussion, the most generous estimate would put the number of “intellectuals” and “technical experts” recruited into the party during the 1980s at less than 2 million. When measured against the party’s own membership of about 48 million during the late 1980s, this was a very small portion of the total size. Even if this pace had been sustained, it would take the party several more decades before it could produce a fundamental change in its educational profile. But as mentioned before, this pace of recruitment was probably not maintained after 1985.

What kind of educational profile did CCP members have in the 1980s? At the end of 1983, according to party statistics, intellectuals with college cultural level constituted only 4 percent of the over 40 million party members, and those with senior high and vocational school level constituted 13.8 percent.96 In other words, less than 20 percent of CCP members had the educational equivalent of college, middle professional school, or ordinary middle school. On the other hand, about 30 percent had junior high school level, 42.2 percent had primary school level, and illiterates accounted for 10 percent97 At the end of 1986, the party’s data showed about 25 percent of total membership had senior high school level or above, 25 percent had junior high school level, about 42 percent had grade school level, and 8 percent were illiterates.98 Another set of party data suggested that at the end of 1988, about 30 percent of members had senior high school education or above, and about 70 percent had junior high school level or less.99

These figures should not be regarded as accurate, but rather as being suggestive. It is highly doubtful whether the purported improvement between 1983 and 1988 actually happened, because it is known that a large number of people falsified their educational credentials to gain career advantages.

Nonetheless, even these figures seem exceedingly inadequate to allow party members to perform the role of modernizing agents for such a huge population. To justify its role as China’s revolutionary vanguard, the party must be composed of the most progressive elements in the country. This need gained further urgency since Deng’s decision that the party’s historic mission for the next several decades was to build up socialism both spiritually and materialistically. Neither task seems realizable without enrolling a large number of the country’s better-educated young people in a common endeavor.

While it is impossible to decide how many intellectuals should be recruited into the party, the situation in another socialist country, the Soviet Union, allows an interesting comparison. There, in the 1980s, one of every three technical experts in the country with high school or college education was a party member, and one out of every two doctorate degree holders was a party member.100 Although the Soviet Union had a much smaller population, it had a much larger Communist Party proportionately. It also had a far higher percentage of people who had received higher education.

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