Professor Xie Chuntao raises many eyebrows when he touches on certain topics, including why the Communist Party of China (CPC) remains popular despite making "several serious mistakes". The deputy director of the Party history division of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee also explores issues such as why the CPC has not lost power like its counterparts in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
He asks these questions in the latest national best-seller - Why and How the CPC Worksin China.
The book was published in March, ahead of the 90th anniversary of the CPC that falls on Friday.
Xie Chuntao talks about the history of the CPC. [Zou Hong / China Daily]
"It is natural that the 90th anniversary is celebrated with a show of achievements, that's why some people are 'stunned' that the book somewhat highlights the mistakes the Party made," Xie, who has studied the history of the Party for almost three decades, told China Daily.
"I don't think talking about the Party's errors will tarnish its image. Rather, it shows that the Party is straightforward and objective in its history," Xie, who compiled the book, said.
His work is one of the "red" books - publications about the communist revolution and socialist construction, which are taking up eye-catching slots on the shelves of bookstores across the country.
Sales of the 48-year-old professor's book outstripped most of the "red" books, with at least 200,000 copies sold since it was published, says Zhang Hai'ou, deputy editor-in-chief of New World Press, which published the book and is preparing an expanded edition as well as an English version of the book.
Xie writes that in the 20 years between 1957 and 1976, when leftist ideology was enforced, there had been almost no wage increases for workers and one out of four Chinese people often suffered from hunger. It was the period when the "Great Leap Forward" (1958-1960) and the turbulent "cultural revolution" (1966-1976) occurred.
In retrospect, the top CPC leaders then were pushing those movements out of "good motives" and "good will" amid complicated domestic and international situations, Xie writes.
The "Great Leap Forward" came about largely because, faced with oppressive pressure from the world powers, Chairman Mao Zedong believed China would risk being "dismissed from the earth" if it did not reverse its backwardness rapidly, the book reads.
In the same way, Mao had intended to build an ideal socialist society by starting a sweeping "cultural revolution", Xie writes.
"Good intentions, however, failed to yield good results; they were followed by wrong methods and actions," Xie said.
But even in those tumultuous years, the CPC was leading the way with economic and diplomatic changes that had long-lasting implications.
The country successfully tested its first atomic bomb in 1964, ended its dependence on oil imports in 1965, resumed its legal seat in the United Nations in 1971 and signed the Sino-US Joint Communique the following year.
To overcome the ensuing hardship, senior CPC leaders went through thick and thin with the masses. A well-known anecdote goes that, in addition to reducing his salary, Mao gave up his favorite dish of pork braised in brown sauce during the famine years and had only a bowl of cornmeal porridge for supper on his 69th birthday.
At least 20 million workers who were lucky enough to work in cities during the "Great Leap Forward" returned to the countryside between 1961 and 1963, to show their understanding of the difficulties the country faced, the book reads.
But it was the leadership's acknowledgement of mistakes and learning from them that won the hearts of the people, Xie writes.
Mao assumed the primary responsibility for the "Great Leap Forward" and the central authorities categorically repudiated the devastating "cultural revolution".
"The Party's attitude was not to exaggerate glory and not to deny or evade failure as well as to learn from grave mistakes," Xie said. "That is still the case."
The second volume of History of the Chinese Communist Party (1949-78) published this year devoted about 200 pages - nearly one-quarter of the total - to depict the Party's mistakes, including those in the "Great Leap Forward" and "cultural revolution" as well as their aftermath. It also analyzed the causes of policy failure and the misjudgment of Party leaders, Xie said.
In a chapter about how the CPC manages its colossal team of more than 80 million members - almost the population of Germany - Xie revealed that to become a Party member, one has to go through at least 17 procedures and is subject to about 100 rules and disciplines when admitted.
In recent years, at least 100 Party chiefs at the county level have been penalized for selling office appointments, Xie said. Rules have been put into place to avoid the over-centralization of power of officials at that level, he said.
Instituting regulations to tighten oversight is crucial for curbing rampant corruption, he said.
To combat corruption, the CPC needs to do something about the wages of officials and cadres, said Kerry Brown, a researcher with the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
"They have huge responsibility and very moderate remuneration. This is a recipe for corruption to thrive," Brown said.
Beside corruption, Xie's book also tackles other issues and difficulties challenging the CPC's development, including environmental problems brought by an extensive mode of economic development, and social problems such as the gap between the rich and poor.
Unlike other books on the Party's history, Why and How the CPC Works in China is full of stories with analysis and comments from foreign diplomats and experts, such as Kenneth Lieberthal, director of the John L. Thornton China Center and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and David Shambaugh, professor and director of the China Policy Program at George Washington University in the US.
"By collecting a wide variety of opinions, points made in the book are more insightful," Xie said.
