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Of Mice And Men: How The Chinese Communist Party Views Officials On The Ground

June 27, 2009

Of Mice And Men: How The Chinese Communist Party Views Officials On The GroundMartin McCauley writes: The Communist Party of China (CPC) has managed to avoid public unrest in Beijing and other cities on the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre on June 4. It was expecting some mark of dissent but none has materialised. However, all is not well in the provinces. Tension between Party and government officials and the police, on one side, and the local population, on the other, is approaching boiling point. The greatest threat to Party rule is unrest on the provincial level.

There are now thousands of ‘incidents’ or open protests by Chinese peasants every year. The latest upheaval happened in Hubei province where over 10,000 peasants fought running battles with police. Tension flared after the authorities were accused of covering up the suspicious death of a local young woman. Similar clashes were reported in three provinces last year. Each time the problem appears to have been that the local authorities shielded the rich and influential and ignored the interest of local people who had been targeted by corrupt officials and organised crime groups.

Such is the seriousness of the problem that the CPC has launched a huge campaign to ‘retrain’ local authorities. The goal is to produce a new generation of officials who will be incorruptible and at the same time competent in what they do. Meanwhile the Party has to settle for officials who are ideologically pure but not above board in other things. Confronted with choosing between ‘mice or men’, so to speak, the CPC at the moment opts for mice.

Last month Beijing dispatched about 10,000 officials to the countryside to report on the living standards of peasants and the ‘ability’ of local authorities to manage the situation. No details have been released about the number of people sacked but it is clear that Beijing is looking for men to replace the mice, if we stick to the same phraseology. To this end, thousands of officials at county and village level have been ordered to undergo training courses. The Party has also been recruiting graduates to become ‘village leaders’ (cunguan). Universities are to offer more courses on village life and administration to prepare future cunguan.

Retraining is also seen as crucial for police, judges, prosecutors and others who are involved in upkeeping law and order. Thousands have already attended course at the Ministry of Public Security in Beijing. The goal for officers is to learn to ‘develop harmonious relations between the police and the people’. Police ‘officers should not lose their cool and become emotional when confronted with difficult situations’, admonished the Minister of Public Security. This says a lot about the existing state of affairs between the law enforcement agencies and the peasants. Clearly the situation is becoming critical.
The standing of the judicial system is low. This is due to the number of scandals in recent years involving corrupt judges. However, the goal of the refresher courses is to train judges who give top priority to the ‘Party, the people’s interests, the constitution and the law’. Note that the rule of law comes last. Hence, professional expertise comes second to arriving at judgments which place the interests of the Party in pole position.
This year is expected to give rise to much disorder because of declining living standards. Officials have been instructed to resolve local problems by any means possible. They were told that under no circumstances should resolution of ‘social conflicts’ be passed up the line to Beijing.

The severity of the criticism of local law enforcement officials reveals the seriousness of the problem. The Party’s insistence that ‘red’ is more important than ‘expertise’ will hardly resolve the social contradictions of the countryside. Peasants will still regard officials as there to toe the Party line and look after their own interests.

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