Foreign Perspective

Both China and the CPC experience big changes

By Ma Yujia (China.org)
Updated: 2011-06-28 10:32

In an interview with the China News Service, two famous China watchers from the US political establishment reflect back on the great changes China and the CPC have undergone over the past 30 years.

Under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC), China has transformed from an isolated, backward nation to a key member of the international community boasting the world's second largest economy.

Watching the country undergo such breakneck development is enough to make the most seasoned China watcher a bit dizzy.

The speed of China's development is astonishing and rarely seen in other nations' history, Brent Scowcroft, former National Security Advisor to President Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, told the China News Service. And they believed that with the rapid growth, the CPC has also changed a lot, and will continue to develop.

Richard Bush, director of the Brookings Institution's Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies, agreed.

Although the CPC has encountered a lot of obstacles in the past, he said, the Party formulated wise strategies for development, allowing millions of Chinese to pull themselves out of poverty and live a better life.

After drastic changes in Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the 1980s, the CPC saw the potential dangers and flaws of the traditional socialist system, Bush explained. He added that the Party learned a lot from that history and made some changes in its leadership.

Now, the CPC has realized that it is a must to set up an effective public feedback mechanism to evaluate its leadership performance in China. And the Party is carrying out different kinds of feedback systems to monitor and manage Chinese officials.

As to the future of China's development and the leadership of the Party, Scowcroft thought that the CPC still faces with lots of challenges in keeping social stability and further putting forward political reform.

Scowcroft said that he had been to Party School of the CPC and found they talked a lot about this issue. In terms of political reform, he thought the patience is necessary.

Bush pointed out that the biggest challenge for the CPC is how to draw up the proper international strategies in accordance with China's rising status.

In history, some countries would try to overthrow the existing international system and build up the grand new system due to their increasing national strength, while other nations would choose to adapt to the system and then reform it. Bush said that he hoped China would take the latter.