Report | Party / Movement History - Globalization - China Building Bridges in Beijing and Beyond

A new institutional partnership promises exciting opportunities for the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in China

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Author

Loren Balhorn,

Participants of the International Workshop on Modernization and the Responsibility of Political Parties, hosted by the Institute of Party History and Literature, the Office of Party History of the CPC Chongqing Committee, and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation’s Beijing Office. Photo: RLS Beijing

The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation has been active in China for over two decades now, as part of its longstanding socialist and internationalist commitment to build bridges and facilitate communication between progressive thinkers sand forces in Germany and the rest of the world. Since opening in 2008 following years of project work, our Beijing Office has focused on facilitating exchanges between Chinese and European politicians, scholars, and civil society, developing partnerships with a number of institutions such as the School of Marxism at Peking University, Shanghai’s prestigious Fudan University, and even the Communist Party of China’s Central Party School.

Loren Balhorn works as the Lead Editor of rosalux.org.

Heightened tensions between China and Germany in recent years, compounded by the isolation imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, greatly reduced the corridors for discussion and interaction between the two sides, and it was only this year that our colleagues in Beijing were able to fully resume their regular activities. Since then, they have been working overtime to renew and rejuvenate existing partnerships, as well as initiate new collaborations and expand the foundation’s broad array of contacts. The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation’s work in China involves a great deal of translation, both literal and figurative, between the Chinese and Western political contexts, and having a deep roster of contacts is vital to that task. Only by understanding Chinese debates within their domestic context can they be rendered intelligible to a foreign audience and vice-versa.

Given that reality, the office’s developing relationship with the Institute of Party History and Literature (IPHL), a public institution under the direction of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China responsible for the study and popularization of Marxism, the history of the CPC, and socialism with Chinese characteristics, is particularly exciting. By partnering with such a critical and high-level body, we hope to better facilitate the flow of communications in both directions and gain a better understanding of the political system in China.

At the Centre of the Discussion

The IPHL represents in many ways the heart of theoretical and ideological education and debate in the People’s Republic of China. Founded in 2018 as a merger between the Party History Research Center, the Party Documents Research Office, and the Compilation and Translation Bureau, the institute is centrally responsible for studying and developing Marxist theory in the country, as well as documenting and chronicling the history of the Communist Party and the workers’ movement in China. Its importance in Chinese political life has grown in recent years amidst a renewed emphasis on studying Party history and theory under the country’s current leadership.

Following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Institute and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in late 2023, the partnership bore its first fruits this year in the form of an international workshop on “Modernization and the Responsibility of Political Parties”, held on 28–29 September in Chongqing, China and jointly hosted by the IPHL, the Office of Party History of the CPC Chongqing Committee, and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation’s Beijing Office. Over 40 participants attended the workshop including representatives of the Foreign Affairs Office of the CPC Central Committee, the International Department of the CPC Central Committee (IDCPC), the IPHL itself, scholars from the Wuhan and Zhejiang universities, as well as representatives of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and the Progressive International.

Participants gave a number of presentations on the challenges facing left-wing political parties in the twenty-first century in both East and West, with an emphasis on the development of China’s socialist system as well as the contradictions and setbacks facing socialist and Communist parties in Europe. The CPC’s efforts in guiding economic and social modernization were the subject of several presentations, as well as the role of political leadership more generally in a party or movement’s success or failure. A later section of the workshop discussed political communications in China and the West, as well as a compelling discussion about the thornier issues translators face when seeking to render Chinese documents and texts into the German language.

Going forward, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and the Institute for Party History and Literature plan to deepen their cooperation with a follow-up workshop in the coming year, while continuing to explore avenues for cooperation and exchange, particularly between Western and Chinese Marxist scholars. Through this and other partnerships, our Beijing Office strives to be a force for constructive engagement, dispelling stereotypes and bias and working against the Cold War rhetoric that increasingly defines the political discussion around China in the West. Political discourse in China often differs radically from that in the West (and the other way around), easily leading to misunderstandings, which makes it all the more vital that we pursue, patiently and earnestly, an honest dialogue in the interests of peace, equality, and democracy.