Corruption re-emerged in China in a big way after the restoration of capitalism and remains source of social dissatisfaction today. Here, the November 2023 edition of Struggle Monthly critiques the phenomenon and the Party’s hypocritical and self-serving “anti-corruption” campaigns – Trans.
Anti-corruption
film in a fairy tale
Above: The fist of anti-corruption smashes the wall of 腐败 (means ‘rotten, corrupt’) while the vertical comment in red
reads: 你说这个我都觉得好笑（‘I
think it’s funny, a joke, when you say that’）
Since the restoration of capitalism after 1976, the ideology
of capitalism has also been restored.
It dares not give up Marxism-Leninism-Socialism directly,
but can only distort vulgar Marxism-Leninism through various means. As a
bureaucratic capitalist, it cannot go for the bourgeois form of democracy in
the West, and Chairman Mao said that once revisionism came to power, it would
be the worst kind of capitalism, and that if it engaged in the bourgeois
liberalisation, the 89 Incident[1]
would occur, so it had to bring back the feudal elements at the same time to
serve as an ideological cohesion. The two together have carried out a
counter-attack on the former socialist culture, which has continued to this
day, and it is most obvious and reactionary in the cultural field. Popular
literary works and film and television productions are nothing but the most
shameless and naked deception of bureaucratic capitalism against the working
people.
The Zhongxiu[2]
authorities have a very clever way of disguising themselves. Take
anti-corruption works as an example, how does Zhongxiu tell such stories? The
villains and contradictions in such works are usually the corruption of a
high-powered official at the local level, and the impact on the people is
manifested in the emergence of triad-type bullies or unscrupulous businessmen
who do harm to one side, for example, Zhao Lichun, Gao Yuliang, and Qi Tongwei
in the name of the people are the former, and the latter are unscrupulous
businessmen such as Zhao Ruilong and Gao Xiaoqin.
The positive characters are Sha Ruijin, a minister of the
imperial police, and Hou Liangping, who has a background as a royal relative.
The logic of this kind of story is to let the audience focus on how the
positive side defeats the negative side step by step, and how the positive side
highlights the righteousness of the spirit of anti-corruption. One of the key
characters, and the one with the most sinister intentions, is Chen Yan, a
veteran cadre with genuine communist consciousness, who is used to show that
there is still hope within the party and that it is not completely corrupt. In
the film and TV drama, Chen Yan sits up all night with the workers of the
Dafeng factory in order to stop the demolition of the factory and prevent
conflicts from intensifying, and the image of the communist as being deeply
involved in the people's lives is built up, and the authorities are using this
kind of rare example to prove that this Party, which has already deteriorated,
is still good.
The vast majority of anti-corruption films and TV programmes
follow this narrative logic, which is the most deceptive to the people, making
them believe that the Party is really carrying out a self-revolution, but in
fact it is just internal strife. In connection with the recently released film
"I Am Originally a High Mountain", which is based on the story of
Zhang Guimei, we can clearly see the sinister intention of Zhongxiu's cultural
works under his reactionary ideology, which is to make the people be touched by
those who really do something, so that they can spontaneously defend this
capitalist, exploitative and cannibalistic social system. The "Zero
Tolerance" and "Moving China" productions made by Zhongxiu are
just window-dressing. Those who have really made a contribution to the people
become idols under the propaganda of Zhongxiu, which ultimately serves to
strengthen its rule.
Above: the anti-corruption politician has a sack on his back
with the characters for ‘keeping a mistress’
The same applies to this kind of TV drama, which will try to
portray a clean official who serves the people and is sent by the Central
Authorities to rectify the local situation. Sha Ruijin and Hou Liangping in the
Name of the People are such characters, but in essence, the appearance of these
officials is just a manifestation of the state machinery to maintain its own
functioning, with the aim of removing local corrupt officials who threaten the
overall interests of the general public, and the general public will often be
confused by the illusion of this kind of drama: the Central Committee of the
Party is wise and mighty, and sends inspection teams to solve problems at the
local level. Essentially, these problems are caused by the reform and opening
up of capital. For example, a masked person breaks your leg. You don’t know who
it is. Later, the person who broke your leg heals your leg. , you don’t know
who is the person who broke your leg, but instead you are grateful to him,
whether it is anti-corruption or poverty alleviation. This kind of vicious
method is very deceptive to the people, but the lies will eventually be seen
through.
For the bureaucratic bourgeoisie who truly hold power, the
Discipline Inspection Commission is nothing more than a tool for political
struggle. The real Zhao family will always be at large. Small fish and shrimps
like Arctic Catfish[3]
are no match for thieves like Deng Pufang. As part of the state apparatus, the
Discipline Inspection Commission will also play a certain role in
self-purification, but its role is very limited. This is not self-revolution
under the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is useless to arrest and kill a
group of corrupt officials. Under the dictatorship of the bureaucratic
bourgeoisie, Capitalism and private ownership will continue to produce corrupt
officials. China's revision has long entered the law of historical cycles.
Chairman Xi does not even have the courage to kill corruption, and talking
about self-revolution is just a lie to deceive the people.
This kind of cultural work has given us a lot of food for
thought today. When the class struggle and revolution stop on the road to
socialist development, there will be a regression, and capitalism will
gradually spread from the ideological to the political and economic spheres, as
history after the Cultural Revolution has proved. The experience left to us by
the Cultural Revolution is that after the establishment of a socialist regime,
an ideological revolution must be carried out. After the temporary death of
capitalism, the stench and filth it emits will still affect us. It will wait
for an opportunity to dominate people's ideologies again, and in reality China
completed its own restoration. The chaos and regression in China's ideological
field today strongly prove this.
Above: both cartoons illustrate anti-corruption campaigners
accepting bribes and accumulating wealth.
[3] “Arctic Catfish” is the social media name of the granddaughter of Zhong Gengci, former director of the Freight Management Branch of Shenzhen Transportation Bureau. She outraged Chinese netizens by disparaging the common people ana flaunting her family’s wealth, which she claimed ran to a nine-figure sum. Some netizens found that the IP of "Arctic Catfish" shows the location as Australia. After a rather desultory examination of Zhong Genci’s situation by the Commission for Discipline Inspection, he was expelled from the Party in October 2023.
