Ideology and Politics in Communist China

Abstract

The relationship of "ideology" to "politics" is an important question of general Marxist-Leninist thought which seeks to identify the two. The "party-line" is the practical, operational device for analyzing new or changing situations in Marxist-Leninist terms and for issuing pertinent policy (action) directives to party cadres and other administrators. Mao Tse- tung's views on the relationship of ideology and politics ("the ory" and "practice") were developed in the 1920's and 1930's and strongly influence practice today. The recent completion of the processes of socialization in Communist China has created a new situation in which the Communist party is moving to identify and bring under control the "rightist" and "antisocial ist" elements, and to undertake a "big leap" under the aegis of a new General Line of Socialist Construction. The current political and ideological discussions in Communist China, cen tering on the theme of "revisionism," are directed toward action against "bourgeois rightists" at home and abroad and are re lated to the attack on Titoism and the drive to develop greater "socialist solidarity." In this connection, the Politburo has defined five principal ingredients of "the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism" as a means for judging the correctness of action.