我们当下的恐惧与期待

Imminent Fears, Immediate Hopes

我們當下的恐懼與期待

Xu Zhangrun 許章潤

Translated with Commentary and Notes by Geremie R. Barmé

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Yet again people throughout China — including the entire bureaucratic class — are feeling a sense of uncertainty, a mounting anxiety in relation both to the direction the country is taking as well as in regard to their personal security. These anxieties have generated something of a nationwide panic. This is primarily due to the fact that in recent years our National Orientation [立國之道, literally, ‘The Way to Establish the State’, a term popular among Confucian-oriented thinkers from the Republican era (1912-1949). The Communists claim sole proprietorship over the expression, its articulation and its contents. By using this and other expressions related to modern Chinese history, Xu indicates that he doesn’t limit himself to the Party line] has betrayed the Basic Principles that I outline below. In fact, we now seem to be heading in the opposite direction from the one that we have previously been taking. In my opinion, these Basic Principles should not be compromised, and under no circumstances should they be undermined. They are the principles central to the policies formulated by the Communist Party following the ‘Cultural Revolution’ and during the years that it slowly and painstakingly managed to regain a measure of political legitimacy. Throughout the three decades of the Open Door and Reform era [c.1978-2008], these Principles proved to be the most appropriate political approach; they reflected a minimum consensus arrived at by the entire populace on the basis of which the country could enjoy a form of peaceful co-existence.JFb免费翻墙网

包括整個官僚集團在內，當下全體國民對於國家發展方向和個人身家性命安危，再度深感迷惘，擔憂日甚，已然引發全民範圍一定程度的恐慌。蓋因近年來的立國之道，突破了下列底線原則，倒行逆施，而這曾是「文革」後執政黨收拾合法性，並為三十多年的「改革開放」證明為最具正當性的政治路線，也是全體公民和平共處最低限度的社會政治共識，本不該動搖，千萬不能搖撼。JFb免费翻墙网

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1. Four Basic PrinciplesJFb免费翻墙网
一、四條底線

So, then, what are the Four Basic Principles?JFb免费翻墙网
那麼，是哪四項底線原則呢？JFb免费翻墙网

First Basic Principle: Security and Stability

For four decades the present system has enjoyed a legitimacy based on maintaining basic security and stability. This is why, in the wake of the Catastrophe [of Mao’s rule and the Cultural Revolution] over some four decades hundreds of millions of Chinese have supported the policies of Reform and the Open Door.JFb免费翻墙网

What we need is continued social order and a clear vision for the nation’s future. There must be an end of the tendency to pursue new and repeated ‘Political Movements’ [that is, mass moblisation and voluntarist campaigns with short-lived political aims] as well as ‘Lawlessness’ [here Xu uses a well-known two-part pun or double-entendre: 和尚打傘 (無髮/法無天) ‘A monk in the shade of an umbrella (no hair/law 髮/法 and no sky above 天/ limit to power)’. This saying was famously used by Mao to describe his limitless power and authority to Edgar Snow on 18 December 1970, but Snow misunderstood him completely. By using this expression he is comparing Xi Jinping to Mao], and that includes repeated cycles of ‘Strike Hard’ campaigns [that have been launched variously in 1983,1996, 2001 and 2010] aimed at crushing criminals and underworld gangs. It is important [for the government] to confront increasing signs of social anomie and maintain social order, while at the same time promoting social reconciliation. Only by so doing can they vouchsafe the basic conditions of normalcy that allow the Common People to go about their daily business.JFb免费翻墙网

Admittedly, these public goods as ensured by the government are legitimate; they are essential for the broad spectrum of needs essential for normal life: basic social order, a fair society, employment opportunities, as well as the chance to live with dignity. It is inevitable that with the passage of time and given changing circumstances, people’s aspirations are bound to evolve. In the absence of ‘high-tier public products’ [that is, freedom of expression and an independent judiciary, in short, real democracy], the people of China who have experienced so much turmoil and suffering in the past require the base-line guarantees of safety and stability.JFb免费翻墙网

Overall, the Basic Principle of Security has been assured, even desirable. After all, people just want to have a peaceful life, make enough for food and clothing and enjoy a measure of prosperity. All of these things are premised on individuals enjoying a settled environment and living in a reasonable society. Nonetheless, this kind of stable environment [we have] and the ‘Stability Maintenance’ [維穩, short for 維護國家局勢和社會的整體穩定, ‘Protect the Overall National Situation and Maintain the Stability of Society’. Although this policy evolved in the wake of the Protest Movement of 1989, and was a particular feature of the Hu Jintao-Wen Jiaobao decade of ‘Harmonious Society’ building from 2003 to 2012, its origins go back to the early reform period when, faced with political challenges and pressures, Deng Xiaoping declared that ‘Stability Comes First’ 穩定壓倒一切] policies that have been developed to maintain it, have in turn generated new problems and revealed their own limitations, creating in fact deadly lesions that threaten the political legitimacy [of the party-state] itself.JFb免费翻墙网

Moreover, for over three decades, in particular following [Deng Xiaoping’s Tour of the South during which he invigorated the process of economic reforms that had stalled following 4 June 1989 and the ideological squabbles that ensued in] the spring-summer of 1992, the ruling Communist Party has pursued economic growth or, as the formula goes ‘Devoted Itself to Development, Focussed Its Energies on Construction’. Such a policy was pursued for twenty years and overall it enjoyed for the most part the active collaboration of officialdom and the society as a whole. Despite a few clashes, the average Chinese has been of the opinion that no matter who was in power, or who fell from grace, given the orderly succession of bureaucrats, a general feeling grew up over time that national policy priorities would continue to focus on substantive nation building. Thus, when it came down to it, most people were willing to put up with the existing political arrangements, in other words: ‘You hold onto the reins of power; I’ll enjoy my personal life’. This official-popular consensus and collaboration produced the social stability and security that I have been discussing here. That’s to say, it’s not so much about ‘This Dream’ or ‘That Dream’, rather it’s been about growing the economy and developing the society with an emphasis on nation building. Don’t launch any more political campaigns; let us continue to enjoy a peaceful life. This Basic Principle is the starting point for the [generally held] view that [the power-holders] were fulfilling their moral duty [to the people]. It’s on the basis of this premise that the common citizenry of China accepts Your Rule.

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