MSNBC.com

March 20, 2006 issue - So China has at long last found something to fill its "values vacuum." Once the party hoped that communist ideology would bind the masses to its will. After the catastrophic Cultural Revolution thoroughly discredited radical communism, Chinese leaders quietly rehabilitated capitalism and later fostered a resurgent nationalism to distract from the party's failings. Now Beijing is assiduously reminding citizens of their Confucian heritage. The Great Sage seems the perfect man for the job: by promoting him, authorities look both patriotic and sympathetic, given his views on how rulers must take the needs of the poor and downtrodden into account. And at the same time, leaders can underscore more basic, if not self-serving, virtues—like obedience to authority.

The question, however, is whether Confucius can bear such a burden. The answer is clearly no. China's torrid economic growth has produced enormous wealth and crushing social strains. But the principal source of social disharmony is not a lack of moral values. The real problem lies in misguided official policies, including a lack of state resources devoted to health and education in the countryside, as well as pervasive official corruption. The latter, more than any other factor, Confucius famously warned, delegitimizes rulers. The Confucian mandate of heaven must be regained, not through empty preaching, but by good governance.

It's also naive to expect that Chinese society, especially its wired younger generation, would embrace Confucianism simply because its government has urged it to do so. China may be a one-party state, yet it now has a vibrant marketplace of ideas. Confucian values must compete against Western individualism, consumerism, Asian pop culture and even Christianity. Contrary to the values of modesty and collectivism counseled by Confucius, the younger generation has been won over by the Western concepts of competition and self-realization. The Internet, one of the most anti-hierarchical means of communication, is by its very nature anti-Confucian.

Relying on the party's propaganda apparatus to conduct this neo-Confucian campaign is similarly misguided. Seized by debilitating cynicism, China's ruling elite appears as resistant to ideological indoctrination as ordinary folks. Perhaps most important, the government simply doesn't have enough moral authority itself to demand more accountability from its people. To fill China's values vacuum, the best solution is not more propaganda, but greater civic freedom, tolerance and individual rights. A state that respects these basic values will not have a spiritual crisis to solve.