I do not think that communism and chineseness is necessary mutually exclusive. You cannot say that someone becoming communist would make him/her not chinese. The CCP officer that rule China is as Chinese as everyone else. In fact, the way CCP rule China is about the same way as it has been done before, there could be no other way.
In order to maintain 大一统, the CCP would maintain the great firewall, censorship and other limits on the modern concept of civil liberty whenever it is threaten. This is no different than what has been done thousand of years before. The difference being in methods and degree, in fact traditional Chinese dynasty has been far far more brutal in dealing with such challenge, often to the degree of being paranoid and cruel. I think most Chinese in mainland China would understand the necessity of such measure. However, the CCP should allow more freedom if the unity of the nation is not sufficiently challenge, but exactly how much is really up for debate. Chinese culture has traditionally place more weight on collective interest than individual when compare to the west. One should not forget that only China with the leadership of CCP and Chinese traditional culture of hard work and personal sacrifice could have pull off the miraculous achievement that we have witness today. Chinese culture of emphasis on unity is a trait that would afford us a unique competitive advantage in the international arena.
The organization department(组织部
in PRC and the examination yuan(考試院
in ROC serve almost the same function as the imperial examination and is unique to China (ROC also has an elected cabinet and premier). In fact, both the civil administrative system in PRC and ROC has similar structure to China dynastic era.
In term of grass root level, PRC has party official at all level that manage and collect public opinion and report to center. CCP also has a complaint department called State Bureau for Letters and Calls(国家信访局
that is similar to tradition.
ROC has an democratic election system. ROC allows more grass root civil liberty similar to tradition.
If you really want to compare PRC and ROC system of government, I would say that in terms of representation and accountability, PRC is more similar to tradition that ROC.
However, when it comes to civil society, ROC is far more traditional that PRC. It is true that CCP has a far tighter grip at the grass root level than ROC and tradition. CCP in its zest for social engineering, would meddle into virtually all aspect of civilian life, be it physical or spiritual. This is done due to the necessity of 'modernising' China. PRC with its vast rural population could not afford to be like ROC that use public education system and government media to bring its citizen into the modern age.
It is true that CCP in its ideological zeal has attack many aspect of Chinese traditional value. To the extend that when the creditability of communism ideology is in doubt, it left a vacuum of social and ethical value. Chinese people at one time was confused and is unsure of what to think and how to act. And being characteristically Chinese they therefore take the safest path of concentrate their energy on the government sanctioned value of materialistic gain. This has lead to some undesired social consequence that prompted reflection. Much have changed since then, one can definitely see more and more revival of traditional value in the Chinese society today.
