ABSTRACT
Early in 1992 Deng Xiaoping made a much publicised ‘journey to the south’. It was intended to revitalise policies of economic reform throughout China, and it succeeded brilliantly. It also led on to a period of unprecedented get-rich-quick mentality, which has survived into the twenty-first century. Few people outside the CCP were any longer concerned about socialist ideology. Within the CCP corruption continued to worsen, even at the highest levels, despite serious official attempts to prevent the trend. Of course CCP leaders worried desperately about these trends, fearing that they could lead to the Party’s overthrow in an age where ruling Marxist parties had lost power and gone out of fashion almost everywhere in the world. In October 1996, a full meeting of the CCP’s Central Committee discussed the issues, determining to find ways of reviving ‘socialist ethics’ through education and law. The Plenum still placed great emphasis on economic advance and on patriotism, and of course on Marxism. It also made moral demands, such as:
to foster among all the people the spirit of serving the people and of collectivism, advocate respect and care of the people, loving the collective, caring for public benefits, assistance for those in need, or in trouble, performing more good deeds for the people and society, and oppose and resist the worship of money, hedonism and individualism.
