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One of the paradoxical effects of the transformation is that some of those who join the party these days--and all Chinese are free to do so except those directly implicated in the excesses of the Cultural Revolution--are joining not out of ideological conviction but out of straightforward pragmatism. Gu Dehua, a 28-year-old tailor in Shanghai who earns about $70 a month, enrolled in the party apparently in much the same spirit as a Western counterpart might sign up with the Rotarians. Did Gu see a contradiction between the Communist vision and his eagerness to collect material possessions? "Communism is the ideal," he explained, sitting in a small room appointed with two TV sets, one color, the other black and white. "But my property is mine forever."
"The party's legitimacy," says one government official, "will come from the success of its policies. As the country becomes stronger, so too will the party." As Leader Deng sees it, that means retiring many of the older officials and replacing them with better-educated, better-qualified young technocrats. Yet rebuilding the party remains an uphill struggle. Despite infusions of fresh blood, nearly half of its members have no more than an elementary education and at least 10% are illiterate. Many are unprepared to deal with directives from government and party headquarters that put a premium on efficiency and management skill.
At the highest levels, Deng has tried to ensure that his reforms will outlast him by weeding out opponents or gently moving them to the sidelines. In 1981 he eased out Party Chairman and Premier Hua Guofeng, Mao's choice for the succession, and installed in Hua's place General Secretary Hu Yaobang. The premiership, which Hua also held, went to Zhao Ziyang, the former governor of Sichuan. Last July, Propaganda Chief Deng Liqun, who had missed no opportunity in recent years to reaffirm "the purity of Communism," was ousted from his post. Deng Xiaoping has defanged other neo-Maoists, or "whateverists" (so called because of their belief that whatever Mao said was correct) by offering them high posts without power. In April, General Secretary Hu launched an overhaul of regional and local party units; later he announced that 40,000 party members would be ousted. In June, eight new ministers were appointed; all were much younger than the incumbents.
This month's party conference is expected to consolidate that process by strengthening the position of the younger Deng supporters of the "third echelon," including Hu Qili and former Youth Leader Wang Zhaoguo. Overall, these personnel changes have been accomplished with notably less of the factional fighting and intrigue that have attended so many of China's ideological transitions in the recent past.