In a report dated May 28, 2024, Ren Zhongyi is considered as one of the representatives of the progressive faction within the Communist Party of China.
Since the establishment of the CCP, Ren Zhongyi worked in Heilongjiang Province for 26 years. He later served as the First Secretary of Liaoning Provincial Committee (1978-1980), the First Secretary of Guangdong Provincial Committee (1980-1985), and a member of the Central Advisory Commission (1985-1992). On November 15, 2005, Ren Zhongyi passed away in Guangzhou at the age of 91.
According to Du Daozheng, the president of “Yanhuang Chunqiu,” in July 2004, Ren Zhongyi wrote a significant article titled “Ren Zhongyi Talks about Deng Xiaoping and Guangdong’s Reform and Opening Up” and called me long-distance to say, “This is specially written for your ‘Yanhuang Chunqiu,’ and it can be considered my ‘political testament.’ I hope you won’t change a word and publish the entire article.” This article was published in the 8th issue of “Yanhuang Chunqiu” in 2004.
In summary, the article expressed hope that the CCP could pass through the hurdle of political system reform.
Ren Zhongyi said, “If politics and the economy are not aligned in the long term, I think it is the most serious imbalance… Even if the economy temporarily improves, it will still decline. If political reform does not keep pace, ultimately, significant problems will arise. This is not something that can be changed by individuals’ subjective will.”
“The ultimate goal of political reform is to establish a democratic system.” “A society ruled by guns and pens is by no means a democratic society and will not enjoy long-term stability.”
There are two main reasons:
Ren Zhongyi experienced two rounds of political persecution: the first was during the Yan’an Rectification Movement in 1943, enduring a year and a half of persecution. The second was during the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, enduring over five years of persecution.
In the 1940s, CCP leader Mao Zedong initiated the Yan’an Rectification Movement.
At that time, Ren Zhongyi worked in the CCP Ji’nan Office. He recalled: In November 1943, I was transferred to the Northern Bureau Party School of the CCP to participate in rectification studies. Soon, the “struggle against wavering thoughts” began. Everyone had to write their own history, confess their problems, and pledge absolute loyalty to the party without any ambiguity or doubts. The examiners scrutinized and questioned every aspect of each person’s history, and if the answers were unsatisfactory, they were suspected or confirmed to have issues and were subjected to so-called “struggle sessions.” As a result, many “spies” and “traitors” were extracted through forced confessions.
“During my ‘struggle,’ the ‘active elements’ engaged in a ‘wheel war’ against me (taking turns interrogating me day and night, pressuring me to confess), and at one point during a month, I only had a few intermittent hours of sleep (only allowed to doze off for a few minutes each time).”
The head of the Party School, Yang Xianzhen, urged me to be completely “open.” I suggested, “I hope the Party proceeds cautiously, very cautiously.” He said, “The Party demands your full confession, complete confession.” I said, “I trust the Party.” He said, “The Party believes you have problems!” I said, “I believe in Chairman Mao.” He said, “Chairman Mao believes you have problems!” He also asked me, “Do you know where you’re staying?” I said, “It’s the Northern Bureau Party School.” He said, “What Party School, it’s the ‘Ge Bie Wu’ (Soviet secret service, later transliterated as ‘KGB’)!” When I heard this, I was extremely shocked, feeling like my brain had exploded.
After enduring “struggle” and “house arrest” for a year and a half, no evidence was found that he was a “spy” or a “traitor,” and he was finally liberated.
During the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, Ren Zhongyi served as the First Secretary of the Harbin Municipal Committee. He was branded as the largest capitalist road taker in Harbin.
Ren Zhongyi once talked with his secretary Pan Dongsheng about being attacked over 2,300 times during the various struggle sessions of the Cultural Revolution, concentrated in the first three years. Small-scale struggle sessions involved hundreds of people, while large-scale ones included over 100,000. Pan Dongsheng was amazed at how he could remember them so clearly. Ren revealed that after each attack, he would make a mark in a notebook. One time, when the rebels discovered his “secret,” they loudly questioned, “Are you trying to keep track of all your crimes?” He replied, “I am just recording how many times I received ‘education,'” and this explanation helped him get through.
During a large struggle session, amidst the clamor of the rebels, Ren Zhongyi was ordered to stand on a wooden chair wearing a three-foot tall hat inscribed with “Down with gangster Ren Zhongyi” in bold characters. His hands were tied back, and he was forced to bend over while a bucket of pitch-black ink was poured from the back of his neck, flowing from head to toe.
Photographer Li Zhensheng of the “Heilongjiang Daily” captured this insane scene through his lens. In Time Magazine’s summary of the 80 major events of the last century published in 2000, China’s “Cultural Revolution” was represented by Ren Zhongyi’s image. In 1998, when Li Zhensheng saw Ren Zhongyi, he gave him this photo, on which Ren wrote behind: “The tragedy of the Cultural Revolution must not be repeated.”
Pan Dongsheng recalled that Ren Zhongyi mentioned more than once the significant regression caused by the Cultural Revolution in China’s economic and social aspects, bringing disaster to millions of families, dealing a fatal blow to traditional culture, and even creating certain cultural gaps. Ren had said, “The Cultural Revolution is the ‘Great Revolution of Culture,’ the memory of the Cultural Revolution must not fade away. Remember this history, summarize the experiences and lessons of this history, and prevent the recurrence of the Cultural Revolution.”
Mao’s ten-year Cultural Revolution brought the CCP to the brink of destruction. Following the Cultural Revolution’s end, in order to save the CCP from its peril, Deng Xiaoping began “rectifying chaos and returning to normal” and implementing reforms and opening up.
In 1978, Ren Zhongyi was transferred to Liaoning Province as the First Secretary of the Provincial Committee. During his tenure in Liaoning, he accomplished three significant tasks: first, reversing the wrongful case of Zhang Zhixin; second, supporting the discussion on the standard of truth; and third, loosening the economy.
During the Cultural Revolution, Zhang Zhixin was arrested for opposing Mao’s extremely left policies, labeled with the crime of “Opposing Mao Zedong, opposing Jiang Qing, and attempting to rehabilitate Liu Shaoqi.” He was arrested, sentenced, tortured, throat slit, and shot. At that time, Mao’s nephew Mao Yuanxin served as the Liaoning prefecture, with Hua Guofeng concurrently serving as the Minister of Public Security. Zhang Zhixin’s death was directly related to Mao Yuanxin and Hua Guofeng.
After the Cultural Revolution, Hua Guofeng became the Chairman of the CCP Central Committee, Premier of the State Council, and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Reversing the wrongful case of Zhang Zhixin faced considerable resistance. However, Ren Zhongyi, under immense pressure, successfully overturned the case.
After the Cultural Revolution, Hua Guofeng instigated the “Two Whatevers”: “Whatever decisions Chairman Mao made, we must resolutely safeguard; whatever directives Chairman Mao issued, we must resolutely follow without any doubt,” severely constraining people’s thoughts.
In May 1978, the “Guangming Daily” published an article titled “Practice is the Sole Criterion of Truth,” directly targeting the “Two Whatevers,” meaning that if Mao’s decisions and directives were proven wrong in practice, they should be corrected.
When this article was published, many leaders at the central level and in provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities hesitated and refrained from expressing their opinions. Yet, Ren Zhongyi quickly showed his support for launching a substantial discussion on the standard of truth.
In the autumn of 1978, during his inspection of Liaoning, Deng Xiaoping remarked, “Let some people’s lives improve first.” Ren Zhongyi understood this as an initial drive to make some people affluent. Many people were influenced by extremely leftist ideologies and were averse to discussions on becoming wealthy. Therefore, Ren initiated a successful large-scale discussion in Liaoning on the themes of “Daring to be Wealthy, Being Capable of Being Wealthy, Allowing People to Become Wealthy, and Knowing How to Be Wealthy.” During his tenure in Liaoning, he restored free markets considered as the “tail end of capitalism” in both urban and rural areas, permitted individual business operations, loosened state-owned enterprises, and even proposed establishing economic special zones in Dalian.
In 1980, Ren Zhongyi was transferred to serve as the First Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Committee.
At the time, the core leadership of the CCP led by Deng Xiaoping provided special policies for Guangdong. Deng hoped for Ren to successfully establish the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in Guangdong and chart a path for reforms and opening up.
After arriving in Guangdong, Ren Zhongyi made bold experiments in economic system reform utilizing the policies provided by the central government, daring to be a pioneer in the nation’s economic system reform.
However, some of his initiatives faced strong opposition from conservative elements within the CCP. Some even said, “Apart from the red flag, the special zone no longer has the taste of socialism.” Thankfully, Ren could overcome some obstacles thanks to the support of reformist figures such as Deng Xiaoping, Hu Yaobang, and Zhao Ziyang.
During his time in Guangdong, although he faced some twists and turns, he managed to “land safely” without facing further downfall. Through his personal experience of facing numerous obstacles in economic system reform, he deeply understood that without political system reform, economic system reform couldn’t advance, and the outcomes of reform would be in jeopardy.
All the past political movements launched by Mao Zedong were centered around “class struggle,” and resulted in major upheavals from intensifying class conflicts. Many of the significant false cases manufactured by Mao were framed as class struggles between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Many of Mao’s so-called “enemies” were products of his imagination.
Ren Zhongyi later reflected, “In the past, we equated politics with class struggle, always emphasizing its class nature – discussing politics meant discussing class struggles. But this is incorrect. The fundamental function of politics is governance… Since it’s about governance, there are commonalities, utilitarian aspects, and universality. Developed Western countries are now stable, economically advanced, and prosperous because they have drawn lessons from many successes and failures in managing their countries. This is human civilization and undoubtedly has valuable aspects worth learning from.”
Today, Ren Zhongyi’s “political testament” has yet to be realized; instead, it has become obsolete. The political scenario of the CCP failed to evolve towards democracy and freedom but shifted towards dictatorship and authoritarianism. Why?
There are two main reasons:
In 1986, Deng Xiaoping briefly realized that “Without political system reform, economic system reform cannot succeed,” prompting him to ask then Premier of the State Council Zhao Ziyang to research political system reform issues. In 1987, the 13th CCP National Congress put forward the task of political system reform.
However, the student democratic movement that erupted in the spring and summer of 1989, demanding “democracy, freedom, anti-corruption, and anti-bureaucracy,” made Deng feel that CCP rule was under threat. Deng ordered over 200,000 troops to advance into Beijing, leading to the “June Fourth” Tiananmen Square massacre. From then on, Deng ceased to mention political system reform.
Since 1989, the CCP has not made any substantial progress in political system reform, devolving towards a regressive trend reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution. Deng’s proposals and Ren Zhongyi’s implementations in Guangdong, such as the separation of party and government, decentralization of power, and loosening of state-owned enterprises, have now been replaced by party leadership in all aspects, centralized power, and state advancing while the people retreat.
From Mao Zedong to Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping, they all adhere to Marxist-Leninist guidance.
What is Marxism-Leninism? It is the “specter of communism” mentioned in the first sentence of Karl Marx’s “Communist Manifesto.” This “specter” is also translated as “evil spirit.” As long as the CCP adheres to Marxism-Leninism, it’ll inevitably be controlled by the “specter of communism” or “evil spirit.” This is not a matter of any individual’s subjective will.
For instance, Xi Jinping’s father was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution. His mother, himself, and his whole family faced persecution during that time. Based on normal human mindset, he should utterly detest the Cultural Revolution and never return to its ways. Nevertheless, today, under the watchful eye of the public, Xi is steadily steering the country back towards the Cultural Revolution, dictatorship, authoritarianism, and totalitarianism. The fundamental reason for this is that his thoughts are essentially being controlled by the “specter of communism.”
The “Communist Manifesto” advocates violence, and today the CCP still heavily relies on the “barrel of a gun” (the military) and the “hilt of a dagger” (dictatorship apparatus) to maintain power, a far cry from democratic politics.
Ren Zhongyi passed away in 2005, which has been 19 years to date. He could never have imagined the current state of the CCP. The reason he left the above “political testament” is due to his failure to fundamentally understand the essence of the CCP.
In fact, a year before Ren Zhongyi’s death, in November 2004, the Epoch Times published a series of editorials called “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party,” exposing the Communist Party’s true nature. Regardless of its grandiose façade, the Communist Party is fundamentally an evil cult marked by “deception, malice, and struggle.”
Understanding the true nature of the Communist Party, one can comprehend why Ren Zhongyi’s “political testament” has become obsolete.
Epoch Times Exclusive.