Wild Lilies and Corruption

The South China Morning Post says that a senior PLA general warned his countrymen that corruption could ruin the PLA (and China).
It may be true.
General Liu Yazhou, a political commissar at the National Defence University is however wrong when he refers to "the PLA's honesty and efficiency in their peak in Yanan, Shaanxi under the leadership of Mao Zedong in the 1940s, which helped them win public support and finally defeat the then-ruling Kuomintang to set up the communist regime in 1949."
Dissidence and corruption was not something unknown in the early days of Communist China.
It was already present at the end of the Long March when the great revolutionary leaders lead by Mao Zedong settled in the caves of Yanan.
At that time, a writer, Wang Shiwei, published a very strong attack on the party leadership accusing the leaders of living a good life even as they preached asceticism and egalitarianism.
But who was Wang Shiwei? Wikipedia informs us:

Wang Shiwei (March 12, 1906-July 1, 1947) was a Chinese journalist and literary writer. He became famous for his contribution to the Chinese history of modern revolution and to Chinese modern literature. Wang joined the Communist Party of China in 1926, but later wrote critically of some aspects of the revolution. Under order from Mao Zedong, he was expelled from the party, and executed in 1947.
From 1930 onwards he started to use other pen names, still pronounced "Shiwei" but using different characters. His novella Xiuxi (休息, meaning "rest"), talked about how young people should fight against the darkness of a country and was published in Xu Zhimo's "New Literary Collection" in 1930. His work outlined an "ideal society" where equality of opportunity was emphasized; he also incorporated some Marxist thought.

In his book Wild Lilies, Wang described the top leaders’ life: dancing at night while the common men had a very hard life struggling against the Japanese invaders.
At that time, the party in Yanan, as later in Beijing, would not accept any dissident nor even being told of any wrong.
According to Wikipedia:

By 1942, Wang was working for the Liberation Daily where he wrote the essay Wild Lilies criticizing Mao Zedong's taste for beautiful women, as well as what he called the unjustified privileges enjoyed by members of the Communist Party. It discussed the 'ugliness and indifference' of Yan'an; also criticizing some 'big men' in the CCP whom Wang thought were responsible for the 'growth of darkness' in China.
The article caused him many woes. Mao's Talks at the Yan'an Forum in May laid down the official line, demanding that art serve politics. On 27 May 1942, the Central Committee held a seminar to discuss whether Wang was guilty. On 23 October, under the orders of Mao, Wang was expelled from the Communist Party on the charge that he was one of the 'Five Member Anti-Party Gang' of Trotskyites who were alleged to have sought to take over the Chinese Communist Party, and that he was disrupting party unity.
Wang's defence was that he was not involved in any Trotskyist activities, except for helping his friends Wang Wenyuan and Chen Qingchen to translate two prose pieces in Autobiography of Leon Trotsky activities which he had already informed the Party of.
Wang's 'trial', which took the form of a series of struggle sessions, ended in June 1942 with Wang being found guilty and put under arrest.
Five years later, with Yan'an under Kuomintang attack and the Communists in retreat, Mao decided Wang should die. On July 1, 1947, on the direct orders of Mao which were confirmed by the Social Section of the Communist Party in Shanxi-Suiyuan, Wang was reportedly chopped to pieces and his remains were thrown down a dry well.

At the end of the fifties, Mao began the campaign “Let the Hundred-Flowers Bloom, Let the Hundred Thoughts Flourish”. It was a treacherous way to get rid of all the dissidents at once. In asking the intellectuals to criticize the Party, Mao was able to ‘unmask’ tens of thousands of ‘intellectuals’. Once ‘unmasked’, they were ‘rectified’ during ‘anti-rightist’ campaigns.
For Mao, the strategist, the conclusion was: “In the beginning, people didn’t know who the rightists were or what they looked like, and it was hard for us to explain, but now we can identify them clearly.”
The new leadership in Beijing likes to speak about today's corruption, but nothing is new in the Middle Kingdom.
Hopefully, the present leaders are less ruthless and more devoted to the masses. It is at least what one can hope.

Corruption will ruin the PLA, warns general
Saturday, 16 March, 2013, 12:00am
South China Morning Post
Minnie Chan in Beijing
Article seen as call by hawkish leader for army to continue with its anti-graft drive
The combat effectiveness of the People's Liberation Army will be ruined if military leaders become obsessed with materialism, a hawkish PLA general warned.
"Our country has a dream to be a strong nation, while the army also dreams to be a powerful force … It's an iron rule that valiant warriors come from highly disciplined troops," wrote General Liu Yazhou, a political commissar for the National Defence University, in a commentary on the party mouthpiece the People's Daily yesterday.
"The most challenging thing to an army or a political party is how to keep vigilant in peace time, because corruption and enjoyment would erode our fine working style and revolutionary tradition," Liu wrote, referring to the PLA's honesty and efficiency in their peak in Yanan, Shaanxi under the leadership of Mao Zedong in the 1940s, which helped them win public support and finally defeat the then-ruling Kuomintang to set up the communist regime in 1949.
"For a time … some individual leaders lost their minds and obsessed in a dissipated life, seeking personal profit and other corruption that brought great harm to our army," Liu wrote.
Liu's criticism could be seen as an apparent reference to the disgraced Gu Junshan, a former deputy head of the army's General Logistics Department, who was taken into custody in January and put under investigation on suspicion of taking bribes.
In his article, Liu also highlighted the importance of the anti-corruption drive launched within the army and party in November by President Xi Jinping, who is also party head and chairman of the PLA's top brass, the Central Military Commission.
"Liu's article sends a strong signal to the army that it should continue its massive anti-graft drive, as it indicated that the CMC believed that even the army has lost its fighting spirit," said Ni Lexiong, director of the sea power and defence policy research institute at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law.
"Xi has called the army to meet the goal of 'being prepared for real combat and for victory' because he wanted to use a big vision such as that to rebuild the PLA's morality and soul."
He said that immoral spirits would not only ruin an army, but also cause a political regime to collapse.

The biggest corrosive toxin on the PLA’s pure skin

On May 31, 2012, an article in the Chinese magazine Qiushi (a bi-monthly on political theory published by the Central Party School of the CCP) studies democracy in the developing countries. 
It dwells upon the "Manifestation, Cause, and Lessons from Democracy's Failure in Developing Countries".
The article starts in 1970 "when many developing countries have been dragged into joining the global democratization movement." 
It explains: "Although democratic transformation has been going on for more than 30 years, most developing countries have gotten into trouble and experienced a democratization crisis"
According to the Communist publication: "These crises have the following manifestations": 

1. Democratization has brought about social turmoil, conflicts, and even war;
2. It resulted in poor efficiency in administration due to internal fighting;
3. It caused political corruption;
4. It affected economic development and brought poverty in its wake.

 It then analyses the objective reasons for its failure which include: 

1. A poor economic foundation to support democracy;
2. The lack of an efficient system and of the laws to guarantee democracy's execution; 
3. The lack of a “democratic rationality” due to the poor quality of people's education.

The conclusion is that "China should learn from the countries that failed after choosing the path of democracy and find a democracy suitable to China’s national situation; develop democracy in coordination with economic development; and not have a 'shock style' democratization".
But what about China?
Has a totalitarian opaque system brought better results to the people of China?
It is a fact that more than 1,00,000 'social conflicts' are reported every year in China.
Nobody denies that 'democracy' as today practiced in India, is far from perfect. Money (usually black in colour) still plays a too important role in the elections, too many candidates with shady backgrounds gets elected, but it is fact that China is today much more corrupt than most of the 'developing countries'. 
Regarding the lack of 'efficient' legal system, China is also far worse than any 'emerging' or 'developing' countries.
Regarding corruption, the article (posted-below) of The PLA Daily admits that corruption is still No. 1 problem in the Chinese Army, "the biggest corrosive toxin on the army’s pure skin".
With all its imperfection, democracy (with a free press and an independent judiciary) is far better than the Chinese model. 
Let us speak again about it in 5 years, we shall see where the Chinese model has led the Middle Kingdom.
Historically, corruption has been engrained in the Communist system.
Remember the caves of Yanan where the great revolutionary leaders lead by Mao Zedong settled at the end of the Long March.
In the early 1940's, a famous writer Wang Shiwei, published very strong report about the party leadership accusing the leaders to live a good life even as they preached asceticism and egalitarianism. 
In his book Wild Lilies, Wang describes the leaders’ life, dancing at night while the common people had a very hard life and struggling against the Japanese invaders. 
Dr. Li, the Private Physician of Mao, who read the Wild Lilies said that there was a lot of truth in Wang’s allegations. According Dr Li the life of the Politburo’s members in Zhongnanhai was very similar. 
Though later Mao told Dr. Li “We won’t kill anyone, though, because if we were to kill anyone we would have to kill them all.”
He was speaking about the intellectuals criticizing the Party at the end of the Hundred Flowers Movement. Mao added: “This is a rule we laid down during the rectification campaign in Yanan in the early 40’s when Wang Shiwei launched an attack and published the Wild Lilies.”
Wang was however executed a few years later(under Mao's order).
Not only the Party was already corrupt in Yanan, but this People’s Party was unable to accept any dissident note or even being told of any wrong in the early days of the Revolution. 
Though this revolution has been idealized by many western commentators and writers, the fact remains that only one side of the so-called revolution could be seen by the public, i.e. the official version. Whoever would venture to say or write something not directly in line with the party ideology and theory was immediately suppress (or executed like Wang).
Democracy, despite its politicians is far better as long as the press and the judiciary remains independent (or at least more or less independent!).

The People's Liberation Army Admits that Its Greatest Enemy Is Corruption
Source: PLA Daily, 
On June 12, 2012, The PLA Daily published an article titled “Maintain the Purity of the Army's Party Organizations and Cadre Teams.”
On the same day, many major websites in Mainland China reprinted the article with a different title: “The People's Liberation Army Admits that Its Greatest Enemy Is Corruption, Seriously Affecting Combat Effectiveness.”
"The Party’s purity is in opposition to all corruption. We must resolutely punish corrupt behavior; this is the inevitable demand for maintaining the Party's purity. Both history and reality demonstrate that corruption is the biggest corrosive toxin on the army’s pure skin; it is  the cohesion and combat effectiveness of the troops.”