From Marx and Mao to Carl Schmitt, the new love of the Chinese Communist Party to justify its absolute power
The news at first glance seems incredible but then, upon reflection, it acquires a precise meaning. Many Chinese intellectuals, no longer able to justify the absolute primacy of the Communist Party based on the classics of Marxism – and not even on the texts of Mao Zedong – are re-evaluating and spreading the thought of the great German philosopher of law Carl Schmitt.
The surprise is obvious since Schmitt, despite having been extensively studied by left-wing thinkers such as Giorgio Agamben and Mario Tronti, still remains the "main jurist" of the Nazi regime, to whom he provided numerous conceptual tools.
It is certainly not the first time that a Western philosopher has obtained the honors of the limelight in the People's Republic. In the 1970s, after the economic turning point desired by Deng Xiaoping, it was also the turn of Karl Popper, on whose thoughts a great conference was organized in Beijing dedicated above all to the concept of "open society".
It was, however, a flash in the pan, since the leaders of the Party soon realized that speaking of an "open society" in a context such as that of Communist China entailed obvious dangers. The episode, therefore, remained isolated and circumscribed.
It is impossible to say now whether the same fate will befall Schmitt. Perhaps not, since some ideas of the German thinker are considered very useful to provide a plausible justification for the over seventy-year presence in power of the CCP, without the citizens being offered any political alternative. And if anyone tries, as seen in the case of Hong Kong, a brutal repression falls on dissidents.
As is well known, Schmitt, in his famous work "Theory of the partisan" , wrote words of great admiration for Mao, defining it as a manifestation at the highest levels of the "telluric partisan". It is a fact, however, that many Chinese intellectuals today no longer find usable references in the writings of the founder of the People's Republic. Nor do they find them in the works of Marx, Engels and Lenin.
Thus, Schmitt's theses are positively evaluated by the younger university professors who are less influenced by the rhetoric of the "cultural revolution". All obviously opposed to an excessive "liberalization" of the country (which became impossible with the ideological squeeze desired by Xi Jinping).
The current president is cultivating a sort of "Chinese dream" that aims at the realization of an alternative economic and social model to the Western one, and very attentive to the specific identity of the great Asian country.
In this sense, it no longer appears sufficient to base the foundations of the state on the traditional founding myths of the "Long March" and the "Cultural Revolution". They are too distant in time and no longer able to fascinate the new generations.
The Schmittian idea of an "absolute Constitution" is then resumed, capable of legitimizing the eternal presence of the Communist Party in power, without any opposition. It guarantees, just as the German jurist stated, the "concrete" political unity of the social order of the state.
And this is a fundamental thesis since, according to some Chinese followers of Schmitt, the true center of the system embodied in the People's Republic does not reside at all in the working class and in the peasant class, which form "the people", but in the Communist Party itself.
The latter has the fundamental task of reaffirming that the State-Party possesses absolute power both over the market and over individual economic actors. This explains the battle that the Party is waging against the new tycoons who got too rich after Deng's reforms. An emblematic case is that of Jack Ma, the owner of the e-commerce platform Alibaba , marginalized for having dared to criticize Xi and his management team.
Naturally, even the most famous of Schmitt's theses, the "state of exception", is exalted. It is on this basis the idea that the Communist Party is entitled to take decisions also outside the law, if they serve to guarantee the stability and progress of the state. And, of course, those who dispute this thesis are accused of treason and conspiracy in favor of the Western enemies of the new China.
Even the Schmittian “friend / foe” opposition is welcomed to favor the primacy of politics, which would have been obscured by the impetuous economic growth of recent decades. And at the same time, in controversy with Western liberalism, criticism of the regime for the constant violation of human rights (including those of the individual) is rejected. At this point it is clear that this is not a mere philosophical and political dispute but rather an attempt to provide the Party with new – and more solid – foundations to justify its eternal power. And it is precisely on foundations of this type that the "power politics" that Beijing is practicing without hesitation is justified. Nor does Carl Schmitt's Nazi affiliation appear to worry his Chinese followers too much.
The post From Marx and Mao to Carl Schmitt, the new love of the Chinese Communist Party to justify its absolute power appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/da-marx-e-mao-a-carl-schmitt-nuovo-amore-del-partito-comunista-cinese-per-giustificare-il-suo-potere-assoluto/ on Mon, 19 Apr 2021 03:54:00 +0000.