The CPC Is a Group of Patriots. Once you really understand the theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics, its founder Deng Xiaoping, and his successors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, you will naturally come to this conclusion: The Communist Party of China is a group of patriots.
There is no doubt that, like Mao Zedong and other revolutionaries of the older generation, Deng Xiaoping is also a committed Marxist. If we make a survey of their course of Marxist thoughts, we can notice that they were first and foremost patriots who embraced Marxism for the purpose of saving the country and the people.
After accepting Marxism, they still bore in mind the historic mission of the Chinese nation as well as of themselves, and fought to save the nation from extinction and revitalize it. The adoption of reform and opening up as well as the initiation of the socialist path with Chinese characteristics under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping were aimed at the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Jiang Zemin became a communist in the struggle for national independence and the people’s liberation. He became a leader in the midst of the wave of Chinese industrialization, and became a Party and state leader among the great storms of reform and opening up.
Hu Jintao is a new-generation communist who has experienced the dramatic historical changes before and after the founding of the People’s Republic of China and before and after the adoption of the reform and opening-up policies, He is a Party leader of the new generation who shoulders the mission of peaceful development and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
This rejuvenation is their common aspiration. In one of his articles, titled “We Are Working to Revitalize the Chinese Nation,” Deng Xiaoping explicitly said, “Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh CPC Central Committee (in 1978), we have been concentrating on modernizing the country so as to revitalize the Chinese nation. Unless we modernize, China will never attain its rightful position in the international community.” The CPC is a group of patriots of this type under the guidance of the scientific theory of Marxism, a group of committed patriotic Marxists.
Therefore, the CPC has never had any ambition encompassing foreign aggression or expansion. Whether it was during the period of liberation or that of the country’s construction and modernization, the Party has always focused on domestic issues. Now it takes development as its fundamental principle of action, and concentrates on construction and development. The CPC members love peace. China will pursue peaceful development and adhere to its independent foreign policy of peace.
Generally speaking, the theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics is a masterpiece shaped by a large group of patriotic communists, including Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. It is a theory spelling out how to shake off China’s poverty and backwardness, and build a modern, prosperous, strong, democratic, harmonious and culturally advanced socialist country.