Chinese Econmic Reform

             economic performance and raising living standards.
             The traumatic experience of the Cultural Revolution.
             had eroded popular trust in the moral and political.
             virtue of the CCP. The party's leaders decided to.
             shift the base of party legitimacy from virtue to.
             competence, and to do that they had to demonstrate.
             that they could deliver the goods.
             (23).
             This movement "from virtue to competence" seemed to mark a serious departure from orthodox Chinese political theory.
             Confucius himself had posited in the fifth century BCE that those individuals who best demonstrated what he referred to.
             as moral force should lead the nation. Using this principle as a guide, China had for centuries attempted to choose at least.
             its bureaucratic leaders by administering a test to determine their moral force. After the Communist takeover of the.
             country, Mao continued this emphasis on moral force by demanding that Chinese citizens demonstrate what he referred to.
             as "correct consciousness." This correct consciousness could be exhibited, Mao believed, by the way people lived.
             Needless to say, that which constituted correct consciousness was often determined and assessed by Mao. Nevertheless,.
             the ideal of moral force was still a potent one in China even after the Communist takeover.
             It is noteworthy that Shirk feels that the Chinese Communist Party leaders saw economic reform as a way to regain their.
             and their party's moral virtue even after Mao's death.