Unifying Power: The Ruling Power of the Chinese Communist Party in Controlling Society—Anatomy of the Chinese Communist Party (11)
Author: Quantum Leap
The so-called “unifying power” refers to the government’s ability to organize and mobilize the whole society, which includes two aspects: mobilization and control. The strength of a political party or government’s unifying power over society depends on the breadth of its grassroots organizations and the depth of its grassroots penetration. Generally speaking, the more developed the roots of grassroots organizations are, the deeper the penetration of grassroots power into the bottom of society, the stronger the unifying power will be.
Although the unifying power is a kind of government’s ability to rule the society, it has different connotations in democratic countries and authoritarian countries. In democratic countries, the unifying power of the government is not aimed at controlling the people, but is expressed in a perfect legal system and sound rule of law, as well as the conscious compliance with the law by the entire population; whereas in authoritarian countries, the unifying power of the government is centered on power, with violence as the basic form, and aims at controlling the people, serving to force the people to submit to the servitude of the authoritarian regime.
The unifying power of the CCP to control the entire society, spanning all aspects of political, economic, cultural, and social life, is all-encompassing and unparalleled by any other regime in the world. From prosperous cities to sparsely populated mountains and forests, whenever there is an independent, secessionist, or out-of-control region or organization, the CCP will find ways to eliminate it as soon as possible. The CCP’s comprehensive siege of the Falun Gong group is a clear example of this. The CCP’s strong unifying power is manifested in three main aspects.
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The Historical Tradition of “Armed Separation
This terrifying “unifying power” of the CCP was developed during the “armed cession” (the so-called “liberated areas”) under the Kuomintang government. The CCP’s ability to mobilize and control society in the areas under its jurisdiction (called “mobilizing the masses” in CCP terminology) was much better than the Nationalist government’s “unifying power” over the whole country. For example, the influence of the Kuomintang government on Chinese society at that time could only be sunk to the county level, and below the county level (especially in the vast rural areas) was held by the red gentry and the gentry class. In the “liberated areas” of the Communist Party of China, the Communist Party of China completely eliminated the gentry class, mainly landlords, rich peasants, retired bureaucrats, and cultural elites, through the “land reform” movement, thus destroying the secular layer of protection that had existed in rural society for thousands of years. The CCP’s influence on the rural areas below the county level could then reach the bottom of society unimpeded.
It can be seen that the strong unifying power was a very important factor in the CCP’s victory over the Kuomintang rule.
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Dense Organizational Structure like a Spider’s Web
The CCP is a bandit group that brings the power of “organization” to the utmost, and is known for its tight organization and discipline in its history of growth. The CCP has a unique organizational system in the world, with well-developed roots and branches, and its strong unifying power comes from its cobweb-like organizational structure. A triad group, with a tightly organized system, exudes an evil nature that is unparalleled in the world, and is invincible in its evil deeds. It can be said that “organizational” power is one of the most important assets of the CCP to seize power and consolidate it.
According to the latest data from the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, by the end of 2021, the total number of CPC members was 96.712 million (the total number of Party members alone can be ranked in the top ten of the world’s most populous countries), and there were 4.936 million grassroots organizations, including 278,000 grassroots Party committees, 316,000 general branches, and 4.342 million branches. There are 3,198 local committees of the Party at all levels nationwide, including 31 provincial (district and municipality directly under the central government) committees, 397 city (state) committees and 2,770 county (city, district and flag) committees. Nationwide, 9034 urban streets, 29,649 townships, 114,065 communities (neighborhood committees) and 49,1129 administrative villages have established party branches, with a coverage rate of more than 99.9%. In addition, there are 745,000 grass-roots party organizations in organs, 949,000 grass-roots party organizations in institutions, 1,532,000 grass-roots party organizations in enterprises, and 171,000 grass-roots party organizations in social organizations, basically realizing that all of them should be established. (See Guangming Daily, 2022.6.30)
The CCP’s organizational roots are so well developed that even the former Soviet Union sighed to itself. The density and breadth of its distribution in society, like the roots of trees rooted into the ground, reaching into all corners of society, is staggering! The CCP’s philosophy of organizational development is: “To ensure that wherever the Party’s cause develops, organizational construction will follow, and the role of Party organizations and Party members will be brought into play.”
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Impermeable all-round control
When the CCP seized power on the mainland and changed its status from bandit and traitor to master of the country, it was well aware of the fatal threat to the regime posed by the “independent kingdom” of armed secession, and therefore the CCP would not tolerate others copying this model to deal with it. Therefore, after the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, it did its utmost to exterminate all dissenting forces, from the “anti-rebellion movement”, “land reform”, “three anti-5 anti-rebellions”, “four clean-ups”, “anti-rightist”, and “anti-corruption”. “, “anti-rightist”, “socialist reform”, “public-private partnership ……, etc., the “unifying force” was brought into play. The “unifying force” was exerted to the utmost, extending the tentacles of control to all corners of society.
The reason why the Chinese Communist Party was more wary and defensive of any dissident forces (including religion) than the Kuomintang government was that the Chinese Communist Party won the battle of turning around by relying on this kind of cutthroat independent kingdom. By the same token, one of the fundamental reasons for the success of the Xinhai Revolution was that the Qing Dynasty had lost control over the grassroots of society, and the “unifying power” had shrunk considerably, with a large number of autonomous regions appearing throughout the country. Therefore, once the revolutionary fire started, these out-of-control regions declared their “secession” and “independence” and soon became one, and the Qing court’s military strength was a drop in the bucket. Therefore, in the eyes of the Chinese Communist Party, fragmentation is both a magic weapon for fighting and a curse for sitting on the mountain.
Today, the CCP’s control over the whole society has reached an unparalleled level, the most prominent manifestation of which is the all-round surveillance of the people: the use of a dense “firewall” to imprison people’s information and thoughts, the use of 2 billion cameras in cities and villages to monitor people’s whereabouts, the use of cell phone spy devices to steal and track people’s privacy, the use of the ubiquitous network police to clamp down on people’s freedom of speech. This unifying power, which covers all corners, brings the CCP infinitely closer to the highest dream of dictatorship: control the sky from above, control the earth from below, and control the air in the middle!
From the above analysis, we know that the “unifying power” is also a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it is strong enough to maintain the authoritarian regime, but on the other hand, it cannot overcome the huge contradiction between efficiency and resources. The stronger the unification power, the more resources it consumes, and when the resources can no longer keep up with the demand for unification power, the unification power will collapse in an instant.
Thus, the CCP’s Achilles’ heel is not at the top, but at the grassroots. As long as its roots at the grassroots are cut off, causing widespread “soil erosion,” its middle and upper echelons will wither and die without blood transfusions and nutrients.
