VZCZCXRO9144
OO RUEHCN RUEHGH
DE RUEHBJ #3477/01 1741713
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 231713Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0214
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 013477 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/24/2031 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV SOCI KCUL CH
SUBJECT: PARTY INTELLECTUAL SEES "LEFTIST" LEANINGS AMONG 
LEADERSHIP, BUT RANK AND FILE DRIVEN BY MONEY 
 
REF: A. BEIJING 3852 
 
     ¶B. BEIJING 4681 
 
Classified By: Classified by Acting Political Internal Unit Chief 
Susan A. Thornton.  Reasons 1.4 (b/d). 
 
 Summary 
------- 
 
¶1.  (C) In a recent meeting with Poloffs, high-profile 
Party intellectual Ma Licheng (protect) maintained 
that it is too early to speculate about leadership 
maneuvering for next fall's 17th party congress. 
However, he provided a general readout on political 
dynamics at the top of the Party.  In Ma's view, the 
center of gravity in the Politburo Standing Committee 
remains on the left of the political spectrum, but 
there are no serious fissures dividing its members. 
He painted a general portrait of a Party devoid of 
idealism whose elites as well as rank and file members 
are motivated primarily by pursuit of material benefit 
and personal advancement.  End Summary. 
 
Leadership Dynamics 
------------------- 
 
¶2.  (C) Ma, a longtime embassy contact, is a former 
senior editor at the Central Committee's flagship 
paper, People's Daily, and a member of the Party.  He 
was forced to retire from the paper because of his 
controversial views three years ago.  Ma would not 
speculate about political maneuvering related to the 
17th Party Congress, stating that it is too early in 
the process and that even knowledgeable Chinese 
observers are in the dark, but discounted rumors of 
serious fissures within the top leadership.  He said 
that Hu Jintao and Zeng Qinghong are still cooperating 
in the interest of Party stability and that Hu 
remained very respectful of Jiang Zemin.  He also 
said, in response to Poloff's question on the role of 
provincial Party leaders and Central Committee members 
in deliberations over the new Politburo lineup, that 
they are not consulted in advance of top-level 
personnel decisions.  "They don't even dare ask about 
such things," Ma declared. 
 
¶3.  (C) Ma painted a picture of a strongly left- 
leaning Politburo Standing Committee presiding over a 
party characterized by a small "reform" faction (gaige 
pai) at one pole, including himself, and an 
unreconstructed "leftist" faction at the other pole 
(zuo pai), with the majority falling somewhere in the 
middle.  Ma claimed that the true leaning of Hu Jintao 
and most of the Politburo Standing Committee was 
toward the left, although Wen Jiabao was "slightly 
better" and Zeng Qinghong was the most reformist of 
the middle group.  Hu backs the reform faction when it 
suits his purposes, primarily in support of further 
market reforms, but he fears that the reformist's 
agenda of political reform will bring the Party down. 
Political reform remains the main fault line and the 
majority of the top leadership favor continued tight 
control over information and political activity. 
 
Ideological Contradictions 
-------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (C) Ma provided a very cynical interpretation of 
the highly-publicized efforts of Hu and other leaders 
to refurbish the image of a badly tarnished Marxist 
ideology, particularly of the recent upsurge in 
political assertiveness by intellectuals on the left. 
In Ma's view, both veteran Marxists and younger "New 
Left" academics are attempting to curry favor with the 
left-leaning leadership in a bid for official status 
and material reward.  Ma said that the prominent 
Marxist economist Liu Guoguang, a former Central 
Committee member and current advisor to the Chinese 
Academy of Social Sciences, was rewarded with a large 
house by the General Office of the Central Committee 
for his recent role in leading the effort to resurrect 
Marxism and attack the views of market reformers 
(reftels).  Ma foresees no crisis of ideology within 
the Party's large middle "faction" in the future as 
the gap between formal ideology and authoritarian 
politics on the one hand, and market economic policies 
on the other, continues to widen.  All major players, 
he said, accept the political imperative of giving lip 
service to ideology in the interest of Party 
legitimacy. 
 
The Only Game in Town 
 
BEIJING 00013477  002 OF 002 
 
 
--------------------- 
 
¶5.  (C) Ma said the Party is proportionately bigger 
now than in the past and has no trouble attracting 
recruits, including among the best and brightest, even 
though idealism is a thing of the past.  The pursuit 
of wealth, status and the good life is the primary 
motivation among Chinese youth and they join the Party 
because it remains the premier channel for achieving 
these goals.  The fact that China is still a very 
backward country amplifies these aspirations.  Ma is 
optimistic that the Party will be able to share the 
fruits of economic prosperity more broadly, noting 
recent policy initiatives to increase incomes and 
lower housing costs, in order to keep this dream 
alive.  This fact, coupled with memories of the 
Tiananmen crackdown and the awareness that the Party 
has the capacity, and the will, to crush resistance, 
augurs in favor of a long shelf-life for the Party 
elite, even as the Party gradually evolves into a 
different type of political organization.  In today's 
China, as in the past, becoming a "guan" (official) is 
the route to the top. 
 
Charity Begins at Home 
---------------------- 
 
¶6.  (C) In illustration of the role that expediency 
and money now play in the internal life of the party, 
Ma disclosed that the Party Committee of Beijing 
University had recently launched the career of a 
student party member who had made a substantial 
donation to the Committee (20,000 RMB) prior to 
graduation.  After Chinese media publicized her act of 
generosity, calling her a model Party member, she 
received job offers from five top organizations.  In 
response to her reques, the University Party 
Committee found her a position as a journalist in Hong 
Kong.  When she returned to Beijing after complaining 
that the job was "too difficult," she was able to land 
another promising position with a finance company. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶7.  (C) Although Ma no longer has direct access to the 
information flow he once enjoyed as a senior editor at 
People's Daily, he remains well-connected through his 
many friends and contacts in the Party.  His cynical 
views on the growing influence of rampant materialism 
and personal interest in the Party and his explanation 
of its staying power echo views we have heard from 
other well-placed intellectuals. 
 
RANDT