In their criticism of the film "I Am a Mountain", certain anti-critics put forward a new point of view: according to them, the criticism of the film is an ultra-"left" performance. As a result, some people followed suit and shouted anti-extreme "leftist" slogans.
Of course, if it is really ultra-"left", that is, "left" in quotation marks, of course, it is to be opposed and should be criticized. However, without making a specific analysis, it is obviously not appropriate to label others as ultra-"leftist" just when they see that their viewpoints are different from their own.
In its history, the Communist Party of China has indeed made ultra-"leftist" mistakes on several occasions, or in other words, it has made some "leftist" mistakes. But if we want to examine why the party made such mistakes at these times, it really needs to be carefully analyzed. In the history of the Party, when our Party cooperated with the Kuomintang, it was generally unlikely to make "leftist" mistakes. This is because at this time it is necessary to maintain the unity of the two parties and to form a united front against imperialism, and the mistakes of the "left" may run counter to this atmosphere of unity. When taking into account the atmosphere of unity between the two parties, it is generally possible to make the mistake of leaning to the right, that is, some comrades in the party do not dare to wage a resolute struggle against the anti-communist acts of the Kuomintang reactionaries in order to maintain the unity and cooperation of the two parties. Even in the face of the Kuomintang side's wanton sabotage of unity, deliberately attacking the Communists, and consciously trying to clean up the Communist Party, these comrades still did not dare to criticize, oppose, and fight back against the Kuomintang's erroneous practices on the grounds of so-called safeguarding unity. Therefore, at this time, it is relatively easy to make right-leaning mistakes, and the possibility of making "left" leaning mistakes is relatively small.
After the Kuomintang betrayed the revolution, especially during the period when our party was waging armed struggle against the Kuomintang reactionaries, due to the cruel environment of the struggle, the Kuomintang sent many spies and traitors from the Communist Party who had defected to the enemy into the revolutionary ranks, posing a huge threat to the revolution. In such a situation, there is a risk that the party will make the mistake of leaning "to the left". The manifestation of such mistakes is that they will deviate from reality, expand the targets or targets of the revolution's attack, and implement a cooperative policy that refuses to unite all forces that can be united, thus forming a "leftist" "closed-door doctrine." In certain circumstances, many good comrades who were truly loyal to the revolution were also wrongfully imprisoned or even killed in this ultra-"leftist" atmosphere as saboteurs who opposed the revolution. Such "leftist" mistakes have indeed caused huge losses to the Chinese revolution.
After the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, an anti-Soviet and anti-communist counter-current arose in the international community. Some hostile elements in China have also taken advantage of this opportunity to carry out an arrogant countercurrent of anti-communism and anti-socialism, especially the leadership of the opposition party. At this time, the party rightly launched the struggle against the rightists. Today, it seems that the struggle against the rightists was absolutely necessary, and the basic direction was also correct. However, in the later stages of the anti-rightist struggle, the problem of expanding the scope of the division of rightists arose, and many people who were not obviously wrong were labeled as rightists, and they were also treated unfairly. This expansion of the struggle against the rightists shows a kind of "leftist" mistake. When the anti-rightist movement becomes a trend or fashion, it is relatively easy to make the mistake of leaning to the "left," and the expansion of the anti-rightist movement belongs to this type of mistake. Around the 80s, when re-evaluating the anti-rightist struggle, some people deliberately denied the necessity of the anti-rightist struggle itself, and directly escalated the mistake of expanding the struggle to the point of fundamentally negating the legitimacy of the anti-rightist struggle. This may be the mistake of the "left" that was made back then, but later it was used by some people to carry out the "non-Maoist" right-leaning problem. It is a mistake for the "left" to oppose the expansion of the right, and it is a mistake of the right to use the accusation of the expansion to comprehensively negate the struggle against the rightists.
The reason why the expansion occurred in those years was that in some places it was divorced from reality, and it was necessary to insist that the grassroots organizations set a certain proportion of rightists, and they also had to rigidly fix the proportion of rightists. Relevant documents at that time said that rightists accounted for only a very small minority, and would not exceed 5 percent. As a result, in some places, the 5 percent criterion is set as the criterion for dividing the rightists, and it can only exceed or fall below this ratio. Today, it seems ironic, but it can be seen that detachment from reality, failure to seek truth from facts, and the prevalence of formalism and bureaucracy are the fundamental factors leading to expansion. In China at that time, the leading cadres of grassroots organizations generally did not have a high level of education, and their policy level was very limited, so the emergence of such mistakes became a major historical lesson in our work since then.
Although the original intention of the Cultural Revolution was to solve the problems of bureaucracy within the party, detachment from the masses, and even the corruption and degeneration of certain cadres, and Chairman Mao repeatedly stressed that "it is necessary to believe that more than 95 percent of the cadres and more than 95 percent of the masses are good and relatively good," in the actual process, they were taken advantage of by some bad people, and a situation of "great chaos in the world" and "overthrowing everything" appeared, and almost all those who held leading cadre posts were regarded as those in power who took the capitalist road. Moreover, it is not only leading cadres at all levels who have been impacted, but also a large number of high-level intellectuals, and some people who have been stained by history but have already made confessions. In the eyes of the people at that time, there were class enemies everywhere and hostile elements everywhere, and in such a special environment, it was difficult to avoid the mistakes of the ultra-"left" with a wide range of tendencies. Today's times are completely different from those of those days, and people today are not interested in doing such boring things at all.
Therefore, those who accuse others of being ultra-"leftist" today can think about whether it is because others have nothing to do, or whether you yourself are still a bit of a legacy of the "Cultural Revolution", always staring at others, treating those who disagree with you as "enemies" and labeling them as ultra-"leftist" hats. As for whether you are really targeting the extreme "left", then you also need to think about it again.
As to what constitutes ultra-"leftism" and under what circumstances it is possible to make ultra-"leftist" mistakes, it is not something that arises spontaneously in people's minds, nor is it something that some people arbitrarily label others because they are unhappy with their opinions or criticisms.
In today's China, there is no such a particularly cruel revolutionary environment, nor is there a great proliferation of reactionary ideological trends in the world in the 50s of the last century, still less is there an environment in which the class struggle was arbitrarily generalized and expanded during the Cultural Revolution. Therefore, in today's social environment, there are basically no objective conditions for making ultra-"leftist" mistakes. Perhaps, there will be some people who express some extreme opinions under certain circumstances, but this is unlikely to create a climate in which the so-called ultra-"leftist" is rampant, because a discerning person can see at a glance that such extreme absurdity and unreliability are unlikely to arouse more resonance.
On the contrary, in today's China, due to the erosion and infiltration of China by the ideology of Western capitalism over the years, a considerable number of anti-communist and anti-socialist undesirable elements have appeared around us. These people have taken advantage of various occasions and opportunities to respond to the wolf ambitions of Western imperialism and try to subvert the people's China, which adheres to the socialist road. In such an environment, what is most likely to be a certain capitulationism that condones and supports the hostile forces of the West. In other words, in such a large environment, right-leaning mistakes tend to be more likely. Therefore, in the ideological field, it is our most important task to guard against and oppose such erroneous remarks that side with the Western bourgeoisie, maliciously attack the leadership of the Communist Party of China, attack China's socialist system, and attack Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, and socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. The resolute struggle against these erroneous remarks and erroneous trends of thought deserves our special attention and active participation. If some people are accused of being ultra-"leftist" even for upholding these basic principles, basic theories, and basic systems written into our constitution and party constitution, does that just prove that these people themselves are genuinely ultra-rightists? Of course, we have to admit that some people are now proud of the "rightists" and the "rightists" have become "politically correct." Isn't this tendency dangerous, and can we just let it go?
Today's Chinese people are working hard to realize Chinese-style modernization and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and they will not pay much attention to those erroneous remarks about Marxism-Leninism stealing beams and changing pillars and carrying out malicious attacks. However, it would be extremely dangerous to ignore such erroneous statements. Because it corrodes our healthy minds and spirits, the consequences are very serious. We have no choice but to stand up and fight against these erroneous remarks, and this is also the unshirkable responsibility and obligation of communists. If this just struggle is accused of being ultra-"leftist" by those who are criticized for ulterior motives, it is only their misconception. The true Communists will not be intimidated by such groundless accusations, and their malicious accusations will not stand in the way of serious criticism of their mistakes.
Behind the so-called anti-extreme "leftist" cries lies a certain evil intention, that is, they accuse the correct and realistic remarks and viewpoints as ultra-"leftist" and use the ultra-"leftist" hat to fasten these correct ideas and viewpoints, so that behind their so-called anti-extreme "leftist" criticism, they are brazenly attacking the most fundamental and essential things in Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. They call those who uphold communist ideals and beliefs ultra-"left," those who realize the great historical mission of communism ultra-"left," they call the views of upholding the dominant position of public ownership, opposing the privatization of state-owned enterprises, and advocating taking the road of common prosperity extremely "left," they call the criticism of the righteous people against all kinds of evil deeds and fallacies of imperialism and capitalism extremely "left," and they call the voices of the masses criticizing the erroneous concepts of blindly worshipping the West and worshipping imperialism and capitalism as ultra-"left." We cannot ignore this insidious ulterior motive. We must stand up courageously and resolutely wage an unremitting struggle against these erroneous thoughts, statements and opinions. It is impossible for those who flaunt the banner of opposing the extreme "left" and are actually attacking correct theories and ideas to escape the clear eyes and serious criticism of the masses of the people.
(The author is a professor at Beihang University and a senior researcher at Kunlun Ce Research Institute; source: Kunlun Ce Network [author's authorization], revised and released)