China’s political center came out swinging over the weekend.  In a sharply worded front-page commentary on Saturday, People’s Daily jabbed at the Communist Party ranks, directing cadres “to firmly grasp the notion of progress while maintaining stability.”  There was a hardline edge in the commentary to be sure, as the paper admonished its audience “not to be confused by hearsay or rumors [and] to keep their attention to central decisions and plans.” Indeed, the same day, central authorities swiped at social media, ordering major websites to shut down comments on postings temporarily.  It’s only rarely that the chief party newspaper comes out with such strong messages. Words are always actions in Chinese politics, and editorials such as this one are meant to referee — to remind the Party ranks of the rules of the match from here on. And with the political uncertainty of last few weeks (and Party Secretary Hu Jintao absent abroad), the need to push reset became all the more pressing.  But this was not the usual exhortation, nor the usual assault on cadre shortcomings. Instead of punching harder, the new Party line is showing clear signs of wanting to shift to a different subject.  The major directive laid down in Saturday’s commentary is this: To move “to implement the spirit of the two sessions”— the recently concluded annual legislative meetings in Beijing that were dominated by the drama of the dismissal of Chongqing Party Secretary Bo Xilai.  Lost in that maelstrom was the mounting consensus that some elements in the Party had to stop focusing on misplaced nostalgia—“red songs” and the like, as Bo and his allies on the Left had been practicing. Politics, the commentary advised, should be pushed into the back rows. Instead, with the meetings concluded and representatives back home, cadres were told that they should concentrate on “keeping the economy running smoothly.”  Rather than fighting over ideology, the essay intoned, “maintaining the continuity and stability of macroeconomic policies” is the best path. In other words, social stability is a means to an end, and that end is to rejuvenate the Chinese economy.  Implied in all of this was that too much of a focus on social stability for its own sake imperils economic restructuring. Focusing on cracking down and anti-corruption campaigns is well and good—and it continues in Chongqing —but the attention should now be paid to “promoting the great cause of reform”—fighting forward, not revisiting old bouts.  That’s not going to be easy. Indeed, the editorial noted that to do all that “while maintaining stability is a test of intellectual ability, and a test of determination and courage.” After all, there’s a reasonable concern among cadres about social harmony—and how to achieve it without alienating those who want more of a voice. Other officials think that law and order is precisely what is needed, no matter where the economy is heading.  But there’s clearly even deeper uneasiness in the leadership at large about the danger to Party unity. The editorial this past weekend is a call by them to end this contest about the political course of the country and get back to boxing with the economy.  The real question is whether cadres will take heed and adjust, or continue to batter each other. This is one fight that the political center clearly wants to stop—and soon.  Russell Leigh Moses is a Beijing-based analyst and professor who writes on Chinese politics. He is writing a book on the changing role of power in the Chinese political system.
A unusual front-page commentary in the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily sends a signal that China's leadership is no longer interested in social stability as an end in itself.