From the Eighth Congress to the Ninth Congress

Abstract

Any intelligent CCP cadre, when looking through the Party Constitution of the Eighth Congress [of the Chinese Communist Party (1956)] and making a close comparison with the Party Constitution of the Ninth Congress [1969], will no doubt be unable to avoid a shock of surprise and a sigh that "the present just isn't like the past." Some may say, "The Party is already dead!" And it is true, today's "Party" is not the same as yesterday's "Party," at least judging by the two Party constitutions. In the new Constitution, there is no "nation" [kuo-chia], nor is there any "people" [jen-min], and even "the working class" [kung-jen chieh-chi] has been replaced by the "proletariat" [wu-ch'an chieh-chi]. According to the Constitution of the Ninth Party Congress, Party members have only obligations, no rights; basic-level Party organizations have only responsibilities, no power. No longer is there collective leadership, and in some places there is only an oligarch, a dictator, a leader worshipped as an individual who is no longer among the masses, but who remains high above the masses. No longer is there supervision from below, but in some places only orders from above. "Inner-Party democracy" has been totally buried, and all that is left is centralism. The new Party Constitution not only concentrates political power in the hands of Mao [Tsetung] and Lin [Piao] but also attempts to guarantee that the group now in power will remain in power forever. Even if Mao and Lin were never to convene a national congress, lower-level Party organizations and Party members in general could do nothing about it!.