The most important news of 2007: China's new Constitution

By Mary Mostert

There were almost no media reports on it, but China's 17th Communist Party Congress (CPC) adopted a new amended Constitution on October 21, 2007. Should you care about this? Perhaps. It was at the 11th Congress of China's Communist Party Congress, held in 1979, where China adopted free enterprise. That led to a massive expansion of China's economy while we in America enjoyed inexpensive Chinese products that improved our standard of living immensely.

The just completed Communist Party Congress addressed social and political development which they called "the Scientific Outlook on Development." As I researched what that actually meant in practical terms, this new China Communist Party Constitution reminds me a great deal of the four principles that George Washington set forth in the 1790s in his last years as President of the United States. I mention the principles Washington talked about in his 5th State of the Union Address and his Farewell Address in Chapter 28 of my book A Hunger for Liberty Leads to the Declaration of Independence which was published in Beijing last year. It is available in China's largest bookstores, which I can't say is the case for the English edition in the USA.

The four principles George Washington believed were necessary for a strong and free nation are:

1. A strong, well armed, supplied and trained military. Both China and the USA have that.

2. Unity among the people without factional, ethnic and religious hostility. While we seem to losing our historic unity these days, the USA has had only one civil war in its more than 200 years. The ability to live together without constant armed conflict is a major factor in our success as a nation. Unity is a key goal in China's new Constitution. The 20th Century wars when both European and Japanese imperialism devastated China and the adoption of Marxism, which is founded a theory of conflict between the haves and the have-nots were very destructive. Millions of Chinese people died.

The conflict theory was addressed in Chinese communism in 2002 at the Party's 16th Congress by adopting Jiang Zemin's Three Represents." The Three Represents, which were further strengthened in the new Constitution legitimized the inclusion of capitalists and private entrepreneurs within the Communist Party.

3. A strong and free economy. In George Washington's time that concept largely involved the relationships among the factions in the USA — Northern States versus Southern States, Eastern culture versus the Western States culture. Those differences, in the late 1700s, were similar to differences we think are so impossible to solve among the various continents today.

The United States has had, in the past, a strong and a free economy and in spite of a lot of creeping socialism, we still have enough freedom to be able to create and invent. As we have adopted more socialism, China has adopted more capitalism. We are now China's best customer. China's 1.3 billion people now produces goods at a price that make them available to even the poorest among us.

China's new Constitution describes that as an effort to " balance urban and rural development, development among regions, economic and social development, relations between man and nature, and domestic development and opening to the outside world, adjust the economic structure, and transform the pattern of economic development." It foresees "a new path of industrialization with Chinese characteristics, and making China an innovative country and a resource-conserving, environment-friendly society."

4. A Virtuous and Moral People — "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports," Washington observed. "It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends more or less to every species of free government." This is a value that my Beijing publisher, Li Shingbing, and I have discussed by e-mail. It concerns him that moral values, once based on the teachings of Confucius, are no longer known or practiced by the many Chinese youth who have adopted the worst of the American culture.

China's new Constitution calls for the Party to "respect and safeguard human rights, encourage the free airing of views and works to establish sound systems and procedures of democratic election, decision-making, administration and oversight," and uphold "the system of self-governance at the primary level of society." For the first time China's Communist Party Constitution requires that the Party "strive to fully implement its basic principle for work related to religious affairs, and rally religious believers in making contributions to economic and social development" as well as calling for personal self-government.

The New Constitution adopted by the China Communist Party on October 21st so closely mirrors the thinking of George Washington, that we ought to be celebrating with the Chinese. Yet, this momentous event has been almost totally ignored by the media of the world.

While the Chinese still call themselves "Communists" in spite of new freedoms, and we Americans still call ourselves "Free" in spite of a lot of socialism, these days we have a whole lot more in common, words aside, than probably either side realizes. We can, and should be, friends. We have a lot in common.

Perhaps the time has come when we in America should begin to have more interest in China and reach out to the Chinese people who make so much of the stuff we have in our homes these days. We might be able to share with them more of what is good about our nation, instead of just allowing Hollywood and others to send them the worst our culture has to offer.

© Mary Mostert