UNDERSTAND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE UNITED FRONT IN THE NEW ERA

UNDERSTAND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE UNITED FRONT IN THE NEW ERA*

May 18, 2015

In the new era, what role should the united front serve in the overall work of the Party and the state? This question has always been on my mind.

Thinking about it, I am led to recall three statements by Mao Zedong. The first goes, “… the united front, armed struggle and Party building are the Chinese Communist Party’s three ‘magic weapons’, its three principal magic weapons for defeating the enemy in the Chinese revolution.” This is from his 1939 article “Introducing The Communist”, which for the first time described the united front as a “magic weapon”. The second sentence – “Politics means making more people support us and fewer people oppose us” – comes from his discussion on politics during the Yan’an period (1935-1948). The third sentence – “United front work is the most important work” – was said during the early years of the PRC. 

What conclusions can we draw from these three statements? In brief, rallying public support and pooling the strength of the people are our top political priorities as they determine the success or failure of the cause of the Party and the people. The united front is designed to create great unity and solidarity and aims to garner public support and build up our strength. This is a major issue of strategic importance that our Party must invest real efforts to address in governing the country. 

Throughout the periods of revolution, construction and reform in China, the Party has always kept the united front and related work high on its agenda. It has combined all the forces that can be united and brought into play all the positive factors that can be mobilized, creating favorable conditions for sustained progress in the cause of the Party and the people. 

Now, in the new era, our Party shoulders new missions and have new tasks to fulfill as domestic and international situations have changed greatly. The greater the change, the more efforts we must exert to further develop the united front and engage ourselves better in related work. The Party’s central leadership has repeatedly emphasized the importance of the united front and related work over the years. In general, Party committees at all levels have paid high attention to the united front and related work, and firmly implemented the Party Central Committee’s decisions and plans. However, some of us are not giving enough attention to the united front and lack enthusiasm in related work. Their thinking and their approach are misguided. 

First, they belittle the united front and overlook related work. Three misunderstandings are the main reasons for this. 

One, underestimating the weight and influence of prominent non-CPC individuals. Some say that the Party was weak and lacked capable people in the past, so we needed their support then; that today there is a host of able people within the Party, and the united front is no longer essential. 

It is true that our Party has a much greater pool of talented members from all professions than in the past. But still there are a large number of people of high-caliber outside the Party. For instance, more than 89 million, or 75 percent of intellectuals, are non-CPC members. The other political parties in China, in particular, boast hosts of talented people. 

During my overseas visits, many leaders of developing countries expressed their admiration for our system of multiparty cooperation, saying that they lack political forces like China’s non-communist parties that could fully cooperate with the ruling party, and that conflicts between political parties make it impossible to achieve results but create social and political unrest. 

Just imagine what China’s political environment would be like if the non-CPC political parties and other members of the united front had not shared weal and woe with our Party but disagreed with us or opposed us. Political stability would be impossible, and without stability nothing could be achieved. Sometimes people do not realize what treasure they already have and take it for granted until they lose it. This is why we should never underrate or overlook prominent non-CPC individuals at any time. 

Two, deeming prominent non-CPC individuals as cause of trouble. Some officials, though acknowledging the importance of the united front, feel it is difficult to interact with these people. They are not like our Party members, who will act to order or face disciplinary action. Some officials think that seeking consultation with prominent non-CPC individuals is asking for trouble and it would be better to make all decisions by ourselves. For them, the less trouble, the better. But this is wrong. 

We often say that the sea is vast because it embraces many rivers. Since the united front is an essential part of our work, we will surely meet and work with all kinds of people. It is only too natural. Otherwise the united front would be meaningless. It is beneficial to hear their opinions and criticisms – even if some are unpleasant to hear – as long as their intentions are good. And the time spent on soliciting their ideas and winning their support is well worth it. Just as good medicine tastes bitter, good advice is harsh to the ear. We Chinese Communists should be broad-minded enough to accommodate different opinions. We should take fair criticism on board and put right the mistakes that are pointed out, and tolerate unfair criticism and give critics proper guidance. It is wrong to distance ourselves from advisers to avoid trouble. 

We develop socialist democratic politics and promote socialist consultative democracy for the very purpose of drawing on collective wisdom to avoid serious mistakes. Democracy and consultation are two key means by which the Party exercises leadership; they help united front members accept the CPC’s views and rally around the Party to follow its lead. 

Liu Shaoqi once said that doing united front work does invite trouble, but it also saves trouble; it invites small troubles, but saves big troubles. I would say when we go into politics we should not be afraid of troubles, as only in this way can the country be governed well. There is no politics that is free from troubles in any country, not to say a country like ours with more than 1.3 billion people. 

Three, deeming prominent non-CPC individuals as negative or even dissenting elements. For example, some officials dislike those working in the non-public sector, crudely labeling them as plunderers of social wealth and creators of disparity between rich and poor. The fundamental reason for this is that they are mistaken about our country’s basic economic system, believing that the non-public sector is prone to problems. 

Our Party has repeatedly emphasized that we must uphold the basic economic system in which public ownership plays the dominant role and develops alongside other forms of ownership, but some of us still take a biased view of the non-public sector. Combining the socialist system with the market economy and allowing the public and non-public sectors to develop together are our Party’s great innovations for unleashing and developing productive forces. Today, non-public economic entities make up about 90 percent of all market players, contributing over 60 percent of China’s GDP. As long as CPC leadership is upheld, and as long as public ownership plays the dominant role while other forms of ownership develop together, the strengths of socialism will continue to grow, and the foundations of our Party’s governance will be more solid. 

Admittedly, those in the non-public sector are not without their shortcomings. But we should not indiscriminately condemn people who have actively engaged in the development of the non-public sector in response to the calls of our Party. On the contrary, it is precisely because of their shortcomings that we need to give them guidance and help. We should reach out to them and win their wholehearted support. If some of them break the law, let the law handle them. 

Some officials indiscriminately regard certain ethnic minority people as the same as the “three evil forces of ethnic separatism, religious extremism and terrorism”, viewing their differences in belief as political antagonism. Of course it is absolutely essential to take resolute action against the “three evil forces”, but we cannot equate these ethnic minority people with the few bad apples. 

To protect people’s lives and property, and prevent the “three evil forces” from making trouble, appropriate precautionary measures are necessary. However, we need to properly implement the policies without overreacting. In some places, discriminatory measures and selective law enforcement are directed against people from certain ethnic minority groups, who are required to go through extra safety checks when boarding airplanes or checking in at hotels. This hurts them deeply. Only by relying on the people of all ethnic groups, including minority groups, can we safeguard ethnic solidarity and deter separatism. We should not discriminate against religious leaders and believers just because we Communists are atheists, or because religious extremists and particularly external hostile forces use religion to infiltrate China. The more that hostile forces try to make an issue of ethnicity or religion in China, the tighter we should unite all ethnic groups like the seeds of a pomegranate and the closer we should rally religious believers around the Party. 

Second, they are incompetent in work related to the united front. It is never easy to succeed when working in such a particular environment. Many officials know little about this work, neither do they know how to unite prominent non-CPC individuals. They have the “magic weapon” at their disposal but do not know how to wield it. This is attributable to the following:

One, incompetent leadership. United front work is highly political. Forming alignments with prominent non-CPC individuals on a strong ideological and political foundation is a major task. The lack of such awareness has led to two phenomena that require our attention. 

In the first case, some officials neglect ideological and political guidance and pay no attention to what prominent non-CPC individuals think. Some allow egregious views to be expressed, mistaking this as democratic politics and open-mindedness; some dare not criticize erroneous views for fear of offending others, or do not know how to raise criticisms; some are poor at explaining principles on major issues through reasoning, thus unable to convince others.

In the second case, some officials are inconsiderate and domineering in their work, demanding complete obedience from prominent non-CPC individuals. They treat organizations from other political parties as their subordinates, intervening in their internal affairs and even deciding everything on their behalf.

Tolerance of these two phenomena will hinder the healthy development of the united front. 

Two, inadequate understanding. United front work bears on the implementation of policies. The various relationships and issues in united front work mostly rely on policy to adjust and address. But some officials have ignored the study of policies, their ignorance causing serious and sometimes preposterous results.

For example, when some non-CPC deputies to people’s congresses and non-CPC members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) became involved in corruption and other criminal cases, our investigations showed that one major reason was that these deputies and members had been nominated not in accordance with policies and regulations. The risk was present at the very beginning. 

Some officials think ethnic and religious issues are too sensitive, and distance themselves from those issues as best as they can. When things go wrong, they do not attempt to resolve problems in accordance with policies and laws, but try their best to cover them up or settle things with money if concealment is impossible. 

Others have the habit of solving problems by giving administrative orders. They handle sensitive issues simply by issuing orders and plugging holes, rather than addressing the root causes. This will just aggravate the situation. One Party committee, when assisting the re-elections of local committees of other political parties, asked them to simply swap their chairpersons, claiming to be inspired by Chairman Mao Zedong’s repositioning of the eight military area commanders. Such meddling is doomed to go wrong. 

Three, inappropriate approach. Working successfully with the united front is quite an art. It engages with an unusual group of people, and therefore appropriate approaches and methods are necessary. Some officials do not know how to talk sincerely and open-heartedly with prominent non-CPC individuals. They obfuscate with official jargon, read from their prepared notes, and leave immediately after finishing. Their words are dull and full of banalities, and make anyone listening feel like outsiders. 

We must be aware that many new groups are emerging in society, and quite a number of them are still out of reach. We have not established ties with them, are not able to communicate with them and win them over. Hostile Western forces are intensifying their efforts to pull these groups to their side. Unless we do better in our work, the people in these groups will become more estranged from our Party. 

The above are some of the existing problems relating to the united front, but they are not all. These problems will impede or ruin our efforts to develop the united front. We must find the crux of the problems through careful analyses, and take proactive measures to solve them. 

In the new era, we must master the complexities of united front work, adhere to the principles, adopt the appropriate methods, and uphold the leadership of the Party, which is most fundamental. The united front is under CPC leadership. In united front work, the policy and measures adopted should be conducive to upholding and consolidating CPC leadership and governance. At the same time, we must make it clear that CPC leadership over the united front is primarily political, namely in terms of political principles, political direction, and major principles and policies, that this leadership is conducted mainly by Party committees rather than any department, and by the collective rather than individuals. We should resolutely adhere to the Party’s leadership, but in the process, we should respect, protect and give consideration to the interests of our allies and help prominent non-CPC individuals solve their problems. This is our Party’s responsibility and an important prerequisite for the Party’s leadership over the united front. 

To be more successful with the united front in the new era, we must correctly deal with the relationship between consistency and diversity. The united front is the unity of consistency and diversity; it would not have been established or developed with only consistency or diversity alone. “There would be no diversity without unity, and no unity without diversity.” Consistency and diversity are not static, but historical, concrete and developing. Some officials pursue too much consistency, and others let diversity develop unchecked; the results will undermine the foundation of the united front. The key to correctly handling the relationship between consistency and diversity is to seek common ground while shelving differences. On the one hand, we need to consolidate the common belief and political foundation, both consolidating existing consensus and promoting new consensus. This is the basis and prerequisite. On the other hand, we should fully promote democracy, and respect and accommodate differences. We should take an unequivocal stance against anything that is detrimental to CPC leadership, socialist political power, and national systems and the rule of law, and harmful to the fundamental interests of the people, never letting it prevail in the name of diversity. This is our political red line, and it must not be crossed. On top of that, for all other issues of diversity, we should try to find the greatest common ground through patient and meticulous work. As long as we see to it that the political red line is not crossed, we will be able to create a wider inclusive circle with a longer radius. 

To be more successful with the united front in the new era, we must succeed in befriending prominent non-CPC individuals. This is an important part of working with the united front. Party and government leaders, and officials of united front work should master this approach. We conduct united front work not for window dressing or good name, but for pragmatic reasons, because it plays a role, a big role, and an indispensable role. In the final analysis, the job with the united front is to win over more people; we use the united front to strengthen the forces to achieve our common goal. 

Including members of other political parties, prominent individuals without party affiliation, people from ethnic minority groups and religious circles, people from New Social Groups, and people from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas, the united front has hundreds of millions of people. As long as we unite all these people, we will have a stronger force to fight for the realization of the Two Centenary Goals and the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation. In a sense, to evaluate our performance concerning the united front, we need to consider how many friends we have made, whether they meet our expectations, and whether they are close to us. The first is about quantity, and the others are about quality. As the saying goes, “Even one enemy is too many, and one hundred friends are too few.” We should have a wider circle of friends. The more friends we have, the better it is. In particular, we need to make friends with those who speak their mind and offer forthright criticism. To make such friends, we should expend more time and make greater efforts. We should meet more often with prominent non-CPC individuals, talk heart to heart with them, offer more help to them, and treat them with respect, equality and sincerity; we must not patronize them or intimidate them. Of course, officials do have such personal friends, but this friendship is subordinate to the Party’s relationship with them. We should uphold principles, discipline and rules. We should never treat prominent non-CPC individuals as our personal resource. Instead, we should make a large number of sincere friends for the Party.

∗ Part of the speech at the Central Conference on the United Front.

(Not to be republished for any commercial or other purposes.)