David Gosset’s remarks on the report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC
Date：2022-12-16
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Dear friends,
I am struck by the discrepancy between the importance of the text that the report to the 20th Congress constitutes, and the superficiality of the discussions it arouses, with the exception of those held in very small circles.
It is, therefore, a great pleasure for me to have designed this event with our partners. The report is, in my view, fundamental for at least five reasons.
First, it is concerned by the long term since it formulates a vision for the next 30 years. By mentioning the Second Centenary Goal, it projects us in 2049. The third part of a text which contains 15 sections begins with these words: “From this day forward, the central task of the Communist Party of China will be to lead the Chinese people of all ethnic groups in a concerted effort to realize the Second Centenary Goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and to advance the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization.”
We must stop, it seems to me, on the expression of “Chinese path to modernization” – zhongguo shi xiandaihua. It is no longer only modernization that is transforming China from the outside, one might say, a modernization with Chinese characteristics, but Chinese civilization metamorphosing in full awareness into a modernity of its own.
Moreover, this text is obviously a political program. The elements of this program occupy at least 10 chapters out of 15. They cover the social, economic, technological, environmental, cultural fields, and the issues related with security and foreign policy.
However, it should not be seen only as an addition of major political orientations, the text also being the affirmation of a political philosophy which gives it its unity.
We can read in the second part of the report: “Chinese Communists are keenly aware that only by integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with China's specific realities and fine traditional culture, and only by applying dialectical and historical materialism can we provide correct answers to the major questions presented by the times and discovered through practice, and can we ensure that Marxism always retains its vigor and vitality.”
It seems to me that, moreover, it is on a philosophy that this political theory is based. For example, section 2 introduces the notion of systems thinking. “We must apply systems thinking. All things are interconnected and interdependent. We must view them with the understanding that they are universally connected, part of a complete system, and constantly evolving if we are to grasp the laws governing their development.”
Finally, if this report is addressed to the members of the Chinese Communist Party, to the citizens of the People’s Republic of China, it also concerns all of us in a sense, since the notions of “world” or “humanity” are recurrent in it. We read in section 14: “Building a human community with a shared future is the way forward for all the world’s peoples.” And, section 1 states: “Chinese modernization offers humanity a new choice for achieving modernization.”
A long temporality, political orientations, a political theory, a philosophy, and a vision of the universal are, in my eyes, the inseparable elements of a system which is the product of a living civilization but which also knows itself to be in the great historical movement of the world.
I am always somewhat surprised to hear about what some call the opacity of Chinese politics. A fundamental text is offered to us in complete transparency. It is on this that we must reflect, even position ourselves, and not waste time in comments on what are often only rumors, fantasies or even unfounded fears.
