Red sails in the sunset

China's Communist Party opened its 15th congress yesterday with a rallying cry from President Jiang Zemin. But it was not a call for tighter ideological control. Far from it.

Instead, Jiang, in his keynote speech to the congress opening session, effectively rolled back communism.

This does not mean that the world's largest communist party will not survive the 20th century. It will. But when the new millennium opens, the party will exist only nominally. The name and the basic tenets will be there. But that is all.

There is a certain symmetry to the timing of this phenomenon. Communism started in China at the beginning of this century. And its effective demise will coincide with the end of the century.

In one sense, Jiang's speech was a typical example of Marxist oratory.

All the expected words and phrases were there. But when one cuts through the slogans, it becomes apparent that he has, in fact, given a new sense of adventure to the nation.

He made it clear that he will now embark on a very daring course of switching over to a free economy, and he is prepared to accept any innovation in moving towards this market system. He has made it equally clear, though, that grave dangers lie ahead. And he warned people that they must be prepared to face these dangers. The more China moves away from the genuine Marxism- Leninism it advocated in Mao Zedong's heyday and adopts capitalist economics, the more pain it will suffer in terms of soaring unemployment, bankruptcies and other problems.

Meanwhile, it was noticeable that Jiang still must rely to a considerable extent on the prestige and name of the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping. And this is why Deng's philosophy of socialism with Chinese characteristics has now been enshrined in the Chinese constitution. Jiang is, nevertheless, in full control. He runs the party. We should make no mistake about that.

-- The Hong Kong Standard