Jesuit Father Laszlo Ladany has been a Hong Kong-based observer of Communist China since he was forced to leave the mainland in 1949. In 1953 he founded China News Analysis, the once indispensable weekly through which he provided China-watchers around the world with information on mainland China distilled directly from Communist sources. In 1982, two years before his 70th birthday, Ladany decided to retire from the strenuous tasks of the newsletter and began work on this book.
Ladany argues that one has to know the history and characteristics of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) before it is possible even to begin understanding what has happened on the mainland during the past 40 years; the goal of this work is to provide those insights. The result is a comprehensive history of contemporary China and the CCP, coupled with frequent references to the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Republic of China on Taiwan.
The analysis of the CCP's origins starts in the 1920s, when the party was launched by the Third Communist International (Comintern) held in Moscow. Ladany describes the Communist Party's continuing growth from a "few dozen" members in the beginning, to about 40,000 in 1937, and to 1,210,000 in 1945 when the Japanese surrendered. The statistics illustrate a telling shift: the Nationalist armed forces "had lost 2.4 to 3.5 million soldiers during the war," Ladany says, and the Communist forces had more than tripled during the same period. The CCP obviously benefited immensely from the war with Japan. By the end of World War II it was in control of a large area of China's territory and enjoyed a vastly increased party membership.
Aside from a chronological critique of Communist party history, the work includes useful insights into the lives, policies, and influence of top Communist leaders. Concerning Mao Tse-tung's successful rise to power, for example, Ladany says this was possible in part because he "made Marxism seem Chinese." Moreover, "He could express Marxist categories in Chinese terms, in simple, straightforward, often ... vulgar language, applying Marxist doctrine to the problems of the day in China, using illustrations from Chinese realities and from Chinese history."
Among the Chinese historical figures Mao adopted as his own models were Chin Shih-huang, the First Emperor, who was notorious for having "burnt the books and buried scholars alive," Tsao Tsao, one of the warriors during the Three Kingdoms (A.D. 220-280), and those fictional heroes in the famous novel, Shui Hu Chuan, translated as The Water Margin or All Men Are Brothers. Ladany explains that these men were "well-fitted to inspire Mao and his rough guerrilla fighters." Consequently, for Mao, "traditional Chinese courtesy, politeness and the delicate arts became abominations." Perhaps Ladany should have added that this was a primary reason why Mao did all he could to downgrade Chinese intellectuals and to destroy Chinese culture during his years in power.
On Chou En-lai and Teng Hsiao-ping, Ladany's views fall into a familiar mold. He gives Chou credit for holding out a hand to help those who were purged during the Cultural Revolution as far as he could. But "when they went on sinking he let them go. He could not have done otherwise. He protected Tan Chen-lin as long as he could, but dropped him when it was no longer safe to do so. Many Party and government officials were similarly supported by him at first, and then dropped." This has been the general Communist posthumous tribute to Chou En-lai's character as a survivor and a preserver at the same time.
Teng, on the other hand, is characterized as a "clever politician" who "adopted as his own" the criticisms of his enemies, while implementing his own reforms. To illustrate this, the author cites one of Teng's speeches in which the "Four Cardinal Principles"-the supremacy of socialism, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the leadership of the Party, and Marxism-Leninism- Mao Tse-tung Thought-were used as a concession to the Marxist hard-liners who were opposed to the capitalistic reforms, while Teng also made his own selections from the words of Marx and Mao, "taking what is wanted, leaving the rest." In addition, Ladany points out, Teng advocated what he called "scientific socialism" and dumped traditional Marxism because, as he put it, "Marxism cannot remain on the level on which it was a hundred years ago."
Ladany has provided a valuable resource for those interested in the upheavals and personalities of mainland China and the CCP during the past 60-odd years. For those interested in the current mainland scene, Ladany's explanation of the successive power struggles among top Communist leaders traces a clear picture of how Teng Hsiao-ping's recent attempts at reform came in response to the decades of misrule by Mao Tse-tung.
In the final analysis, Ladany says the ideology of Marxism did not play as important a role in the growth of the Chinese Communist Party as it may first appear. In fact, as he points out in his summary, Marxism in China has had a "battered history" over the decades:
In Yenan times, and later during the Communist rule of the country, the
enemies of Mao were dubbed enemies of Marxism. During the Cultural
Revolution the party's outstanding Marxist theoreticians were sent to prisons
and labor camps. Those at the top, Lin Piao and Chiang Ching, were the only
true Marxists; their enemies were 'sham Marxists.' As soon as Lin Piao and
Chiang Ching had been toppled, they in turn became 'sham Marxists.'
How could the average party man not lose his faith in Marxism?
Indeed, making out where the Chinese Communist Party really stands ideologically has always been difficult. As observers attempt to understand how widespread capitalistic entrepreneurship or a stock market on the Communist mainland will tie in with either Marxism or CCP theory, it will be useful to have Father Ladany's excellent work at hand for historical perspective. —(Dr. Chiang is a senior researcher-reporter specializing in Asian affairs with Time magazine).