| China has undergone a bewildering array of changes over the past century and a half.As a result of modernization,globalization,and other such ongoing macrohistorical trends,in addition to the more recent,but no less dramatic,transformations effected in domestic politics,economics,and society,the Chinese Communist Party(CCP)-led central government is faced with a postmodern-like zeitgeist of plural values and contesting ideologies.In order to reassert its previous ideological dominance,and in an attempt to control mainstream thought in contemporary Chinese society,the CCP has formulated an official set of values for promulgation,the Socialist Core Values System(SCVS).Besides its role in consolidating the CCP's authority and legitimacy,the SCVS touches on the grand strategic objectives,and even the ultimate goals,of the CCP.However,because the SCVS itself contains multiple core values,this construct does not escape the original difficulty presented by a plurality of values,and it is therefore necessary to consider the possibility of incommensurable values within the SCVS itself.Different visions of the summum bonum can lead to a true dilemma of values,where a difficult choice between two opposing goods must be made.The primary line of research undertaken in this thesis attempts to discover how the Chinese central government would respond to such a conflict;in other words,when the values espoused by the CCP in the SCVS lead to an internal contradiction,which values will the CCP prioritize?This research project utilizes an interdisciplinary research framework in conjunction with multiple theoretical approaches in order to explore the value preferences of the CCP.First,through a careful examination of a variety of official and semi-official documents,I make a sincere attempt to understand the guiding values and strategic objectives of the CCP.Next,I clamber onto the shoulders of giants,making use of prior theoretical contributions on the social and political functions of values,the scientific evaluation of values,and value incommensurability to survey the landscape of contemporary Chinese values from a higher vantage point.In addition,I strive to better understand the historical context which continues to influence and shape these values through an examination of a variety of sources,including:the speeches and documents of the five generations of paramount leaders of the CCP,research into traditional core Chinese values and value preferences,and even a brief excursion into theories on the grand historical cycles of Chinese history,and the influence of these patterns on Chinese thought.Finally,through careful deliberation and weighing of these various lines of evidence,I propose some tentative conjectures.Given the internal structure of the SCVS,the ideals and goals of the CCP,historical precedents drawn from China's past,the long accretions of Chinese culture and custom,and the various political,economic,and social exigencies faced by China today,I believe that the two guiding principles of the SCVS are "(national)strength and prosperity"(hereafter referred to as "power" for the sake of expediency)and "harmony."According to this hypothesis,if any of the other values in the SCVS conflict with "power"or "harmony," those other values will concede to the two guiding principles."Power" and"harmony" have a complicated relationships,at times playing complementary or even synergistic roles,and at times conflicting and even contradicting.Because these two values may have incommensurable aspects,it is prudent to consider which of these values is given utmost precedence by the CCP.Based on the aforementioned evidence,I believe that "power" is both prerequisite and telos of the SCVS,and thus the most cherished value of the CCP;however,only "harmony" can maintain enduring peace and stability in China.Therefore,even though the SCVS indeed contains incommensurable values,the system also provides ample scope for ameliorating and harmonizing these internal value clashes. |
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