自苏联解体三十余载，中国共产党仍牢牢掌握着国家的最高权力。
这股强大的力量已经执掌了拥有全球近五分之一人口的大国75年之久，超越了俄罗斯境内苏联时代74年的统治记录。
共产党在1949年接权后，虽然经历了多轮自生冲突，但在上台初期通过了一次重大的路线调整，在1978年开始将中国打造为仅次于美国的世界第二大经济体工业强国。
如今，他们目标是创建一个更加繁荣的国家，以“复兴”的名义，庆祝共产主义统治到2049年的百年大庆。能否长久维持权力，依赖于如何应对经济增长放缓及与美国日益激烈的竞争，在这之中，“新冷战”疑云涌现。
毛泽东在1949年10月1日宣布新中国成立后，并非天生就是治理庞大国家的高手，而只是领导革命者。
他曾鼓励知识分子批评党管政策，在1956年的百花运动中，一些人士被放逐到农村或囚禁，随着对政府不满情绪高涨。
1958年，“大跃进”行动试图加速中国工业化进程，结果导致一场造成数千万人饿死的毁灭性饥荒。随后的“文化大革命”，毛泽东激励年轻国人打击资本主义因素，在此期间，知识分子和教师遭到了虐待、侮辱，并被派往农村劳动；有的甚至走向了死亡或自杀。
直到1976年毛氏去世后，中国才重新走上道路，释放经济潜力，并使数以千万计的民众摆脱贫困。然而在冷战时期，共产主义常被视为计划经济体的代名词，而民主则与自由市场相连。
中国共产党打破了这一传统模式——在推动市场化的同时，确保权力不受任何可能挑战其统治的民主运动干扰。西方曾抱有幻想，认为随着国家经济的发展，中国将自然而然地转向民主，如亚洲其他发展中国家所经历的那样，但这只是白日梦。
1989年的天安门事件成为转折点，邓小平领导下的党派经过激烈内论后，向参与抗议的人们动用武力以终结这场风波。这发出了一个清晰信息：经济自由化在所难免，但政治民主化的威胁可能威胁到共产党的地位将被限制。
该党着重强调其对国家现状及未来的重大作用，在经济繁荣转为温和增长期后。他们强化了对言论和潜在威胁的打压，并进一步强调党的中心角色以及习近平的主导权，并加强对经济的控制，遏制了高速发展的科技巨头企业。
这种转变引发了包括部分工人、企业家和外国投资者在内的担忧，认为党正在扼制市场力量在经济需要重新找到脚跟的关键时刻的作用。
政治理论专家丹尼尔·贝尔表示，中国走上了苏联解体前马克思设想的发展路径：一个国家需要先经历资本主义阶段以发展经济，然后再过渡到共产主义。
“有些人认为一旦中国成为资本主义的国家，就放弃了共产主义。但这只是临时状态”，他在2023年出版的《山东大学院长》一书中阐述了自己的观点。
党领导人已经学习了苏联解体的经验，并决心避免在中国重蹈覆辙。然而，他们面临新的挑战，在未来几十年内人口老龄化将加速，而经济与地缘政治雄心可能导致中国与邻国及世界上唯一超级大国美国之间的冲突达到临界点。
新闻来源：www.abcnews.go.com
原文地址：China’s Communist Party has ruled for 75 years. Will it make it to 100?
新闻日期：2024-10-01
原文摘要：
More than three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Communist Party of China retains a firm grip on power. The powerful and feared organization has ruled the nation — home to close to one-fifth of the world’s population — for 75 years, surpassing the 74-year Soviet era in Russia. The party survived years of self-inflicted tumult after it took control in 1949. A major course correction in 1978 transformed the country into an industrial giant with an economy second in size only to the United States. Party leaders now want to build an even stronger China to achieve what they call the “rejuvenation” of the nation by 2049, which would mark the centennial of communist rule. Staying in power that long will depend on how they manage in an era of slower growth and intensifying competition with the United States, one that has raised the specter of a new cold war. Mao Zedong, after declaring the founding of the People's Republic of China on Oct. 1, 1949, proved to be less adept at running a sprawling country than leading a revolution. He invited intellectuals to criticize the party's rule in the Hundred Flowers Campaign in 1956, only to have many exiled to rural areas or imprisoned as protests about the government mounted. The misguided polices of the Great Leap Forward, launched in 1958 to accelerate the industrialization of China, led to a devastating famine that killed tens of millions of people. Then came the Cultural Revolution. Mao encouraged young Chinese to rise up against capitalist elements in 1966, sparking a brutal chaos in which intellectuals and teachers were beaten and publicly humiliated and sent to work in the countryside. Some were killed or driven to suicide. It was only after Mao's death in 1976 that China set off on a new path that has unleashed the country's economic potential and lifted millions out of poverty. During the Cold War, communism was associated with planned economies and democracy went with free markets. The Chinese Communist Party has broken that mold. It has partially unleashed market forces while keeping at bay any democratic movement that could challenge its hold on power. Western hopes that China would inevitably shift to democracy — as many other Asian states did after prospering economically — turned out to be wishful thinking. The student-led protests that occupied Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989 were a turning point. After considerable internal debate, the party leadership under Deng Xiaoping sent in troops in a bloody end to the protests. The message was clear: There would be economic liberalization but no political liberalization that could threaten the Communist Party's position. The party has played up its importance to China's present and future as the economic boom years have given way to a phase of more moderate growth. It has clamped down on dissent and other perceived threats to its rule. It has put renewed emphasis on the central role of the party and leader Xi Jinping in all matters and asserted stronger control over the economy, reining in the country’s high-flying tech giants. The shift has sparked fears among some workers, business owners and foreign investors that the party is restraining market forces just when the economy needs them to regain its footing. Daniel Bell, a political theory expert at the University of Hong Kong, said that China’s trajectory corresponds to the Marxist thought that a nation needs to go through a capitalist phase to develop the economy before transitioning to communism. “There was a view that, you know, once China becomes capitalist, it’s abandoning communism. But that was only meant to be temporary,” said Bell, who outlined his thinking in a 2023 book, “The Dean of Shandong.” Party leaders have studied the end of the former Soviet Union and are determined to prevent a similar outcome in China. But they face a new set of challenges in the coming quarter-century as the population ages and their economic and geopolitical ambitions put the country on a potential collision course with some of its neighbors and the world’s reigning superpower, the United States.
