KMT learning from mistakes - TW/CN

[dArKeR]

Albert Chen

The current internal power struggle in Beijing for control of the Central Military Commission is an interesting contrast to the current dilemma faced by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) leaders in Taiwan.

Both the Chinese Communist Party and the KMT are organized loosely around Marxist-Leninist ideology, which may be characterized as rather rigid and authoritarian. Thus the ability of these parties to adapt and to retain their legitimacy is being tested, but in two very different environments.

On the one hand, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is again locked in a bitter internal feud to see which faction -- the one led by Chinese President Hu Jintao (???) or his predecessor, Jiang Zemin(???), knows what is best for the people. It seems like these internal power struggles are periodic events that often result in social upheavals, such as the Cultural Revolution or the Tiananmen Square Massacre. It is a competition where the elite use personal connections to jockey their cronies into key positions and thus win power and influence. No wonder corruption and nepotism are self-acknowledged to be rampant -- these methods are precisely how an authoritarian system operates to select its leaders.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/07/12/2003178713