The Chairman of the PAK party, and Prime Minister of Tonga, Rev. Dr. Pohiva Tu’ionetoa has something in common with China’s legendary Chairman Mao Zedong. Both men have been rooted in a similar vision, that of the ideologies and structure of China’s Communist Party.
Chairman Tu’i’onetoa revealed in a speech at the 100th anniversary of China’s Communist Party in Nuku’alofa that leaders of PAK got their inspiration in forming their party from the Chinese Communists.
He said that he himself got his inspiration for PAK from the Chinese Communist Party, and PAK “learns a lot from the Communist Party’s oriented philosophy.” It was not just a casual attraction because of the apparent economic success. The inspiration was because of its philosophy and ideology.
He said that after a study tour of China in 2019, “senior members of the Tonga People’s Party (PAK) came back to Tonga with inspiration learned from the CPC, and drafted the manifesto of our party.”
“In our manifesto we described governance in Tonga as a fish. The government and party are the fish’s head and body, the people are the fish tail. The tail controls the head and the body, as well as maintains the direction of the head,” he said. “The fish theory unifies the whole body in driving forward our work. Practice has proven that [if] you put your people in your heart, your people will in turn hold you up.”
‘Etuate Lavulavu, deputy Chairman of PAK, who is serving a six year sentence for fraud, is the first of the leaders of PAK that announced fish theory, back in 2019, claiming that it was a brilliant idea they must have gotten from God, “and it is in our manifesto.”
Obviously China is the only country in the world with a communist system of governance that seems to be working, especially in the economic realm. This is due to the fact that the Chinese have always referred to their socialist system as “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
Since the early 1980s communism throughout the world was proven ineffective and many countries who were once ardent communists were “falling apart”. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) that consisted of 15 republics led by Russia was formally dissolved in 1991. This was a major testimony to the failure of communism as a system of governance.
The Soviet communist union was repressive and an economic failure, even as it has risen after World Ward II as a super power rivaling USA.
Other Communist countries such as North Korea, Cuba, and Vietnam continued in their pursuit of communism but greatly lack the sole success experienced by China.
A point that seemed to have been missing from Chairman Tu’ionetoa’s rhetoric is what socialism really is, and what are the Chinese characteristics of socialism that make China different from any other communist country.
But the basic tenets of communism is no different in China from anywhere else. Communism is fundamentally an anti-religious system, as is in the case of the severe persecution of the Muslim Uighur people of North West China in the Xinjiang region, or of the Christian Church throughout China. Valid reports are available on the persecution of religious people in China carried out over many years.
The Communist Party of China was founded in 1921. It was after the second World War that the Kuomintang government under Chiang Kai-Shek was overthrown by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1949, and China was declared as the People’s Republic of China.
It is not only the largest survivor of communism in the world, but a thriving socialist country. Critics argue that China’s thriving is not because of communism but because of the resilience and strength of the Chinese people as a culture.
Maybe this is the “Chinese characteristics” that make their socialism different.
In 1998 Tonga switched from a diplomatic relationship with Chinese Taiwan – Republic of China – to the People’s Republic of China, and honored the one China policy by abandoning diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
There have been warm and consistent development cooperation in areas of agriculture, education, health, tourism, infrastructure, and more recently in COVID-19 responses. China is one of the major development partners of Tonga.
In ending his speech at the Chinese Embassy in Nuku’alofa, Prime Minister Tu’i’onetoa said: “We look forward for further ongoing technical and economic cooperation. Let us also wish great success in marching toward the second centenary goal in building China into a great, modern socialist country.”
He did not say whether it was his wish that Tonga also become a modern socialist island country, since he opened his address by declaring that his PAK party was established on an inspiration from the ideologies of the Chinese Communist Party.