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Peaceful Transition To Capitalism

People’s Republic of China ’75

Harsh Thakor

On October 1st communists commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Chinese Revolution. Without doubt its completion was one of the greatest turning points in the history of mankind.

The triumph of the New Democratic Revolution in 1949 sowed the seeds and paved the path for the socialist revolution. A virtual symmetry was illustrated in the crystallising of every stage from the New Democratic Revolution, to the Socialist Revolution, to the Great Leap Forward and finally the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, escalating Socialism to a higher plane. From 1949 onward, the two paths of socialism and capitalism clashed in an intense duel with each other in China in complex ways. This was the precursor to struggles as heroic as the Long March and victories no less spectacular as the defeat of the KMT armies in 1949. The socialist revolution was finally upstaged in 1976, but only after reaching a height unclimbed during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of 1966-76, laying the basis for the later advance of the world proletarian revolution, including in China itself. As the Chinese revolution crystallised into its socialist stage and Mao further developed the revolutionary ideology, the full significance of his earlier teachings on the New Democratic Revolution blossomed. The advance of the revolution to its second and higher stage of socialism was because the leadership of the working class had been firmly established throughout the course of the New Democratic Revolution. This manifested the leadership of the communist party armed with the proletarian revolutionary science, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.

Today the Chinese revolution still serves as a powerful bastion against revisionism and anti-marxist trends of all varieties, and its path is still relevant to third world or semi-colonial countries. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution sharpened the cutting edge of Marxism-Leninism as never before, or struck revisionism at an unparalleled scale. The CPC confronted revisionism at its strongest point in the ‘Great Debate’ when challenging Khrushchev’s road of peaceful transition to Socialism, which rejected revolutionary armed struggle.

Mao and the Communist Party set out on this path which was undiscovered formulating a comprehensive military doctrine of the proletariat. Although the vast area of Asia, Africa and Latin America contains scores of countries have very different conditions, the general features of what has been classified the “Chinese path” was an apt description of the basic orientation for making revolution in the oppressed countries.

Mao integrated the laws of warfare in general with the particular characteristics of the revolutionary warfare of the Chinese people. He analysed that because of the nature of Chinese society it was possible to begin the war even when the enemy was stronger than the people, and that by waging warfare it was possible to gradually transform this situation until the might of the people’s forces overcame that of the enemy and enabled the revolutionary forces to go over to the strategic offensive. The theory of New Democracy was a qualitative leap to the treasury of Marxism-Leninism. The path of protracted people’s war enables the revolutionary forces to counter the hurdles and convert weakness into strength. It garners and concentrates the strength of the people’s armed forces on the enemy’s weak point-the vast countryside in the oppressed countries where the peasantry seeks to fight for liberation. The lifeline of the strategy of People’s War absolutely depends on the broad people who constitute the majority in any country so as to defeat the class enemies being protected by a very small minority of the government's mercenary armed forces.

Chairman Mao made many path-breaking contributions to Leninism whether in philosophy or in practice. Lenin’s writings on dialectical materialism and democracy were developed even further and Mao was the pioneer of the first military theory ever for a third world country.

Achievements of CPC
China from 1949-76 took social equality or revolutionary democracy to an unparalleled magnitude, surpassing every third-world country in literacy, health, agricultural and industrial production.

The practice of the CPC before 1949 also was an illustration of democratic practice within a Communist Party at an unprecedented scale. William Hinton’s experience in Long Bow Village in the book ‘Fanshen’ in 1937 narrates this phenomenon. So is Edgar Snow’s China which most illustratively recounts how the CPC established genuine democratic institutions through building base areas in Hunan, Shanghai or Kiangsi and portrays how the Red Army constructed the very heart of the people. It narrates how land distribution was undertaken by the Red Army applying the mass line interpreting Leninism in respect to the very conditions prevailing, understating the very idioms of the masses. It is a revelation reading about how the Communists established genuine democracy in base areas with the peasants controlling production after the confiscation of land from warlords and schools built for village children. The account of the 365-day Long March is an epic in its own right, where the CPC’s military achievement penetrated barriers untranscended.

In the pre-revolutionary period the CPC evolved in the most treacherous situations, when confronted with the overwhelming power of Chiang Kai Shek on one hand and Japan on the other. The 365-day and 6000 mile Long March was an achievement in the magnitude of a pinnacle reached. The manner the march was executed from Kiangsi to Yenan by initially a small bunch of cadres to turn into a mighty army, braving every possible hazard or obstacle is unprecedented in history of mankind.

To explain the success of the Chinese Revolution, American journalist Jack Belden in lucid style, wrote about how the Communists defied all odds and placed their own lives at stake to fight the Japanese aggressors, winning over the trust and respect of the people with undeterred faith in victory. He also recounted about how the local people, motivated by the same revolutionary ideals, treated the soldiers as family and did everything they could to ensure supplies. Belden noted that the people “no longer regarded the government with the terror of the old days” and replacing a class of “rulers above and aloof, the government had become something close to earth that they could touch and trust.” This denoted the victory of the CPC was the choice of history and of the people.

The CPC was able to seize power, not only because it won the war, but also because it addressed the land issue and established the people’s aspiration of “land to the tiller.” As a witness of China’s Agrarian Revolution, Belden wrote about how, the CPC issued a Directive on the Land Question on 4 May 1946 to promote the peasants’ struggle to take land from landlords by exposing traitors, settling accounts, and reducing land rents and loan interests. This proved that CPC did not win power by chance, but by winning over the very hearts and minds of the masses and defending their fundamental interests.

During mass movements, cadres were subjected to the criticism of the masses and were forced to reform their bureaucratic style of management. To a large extent, the abuse of power was checked. However, before the Cultural Revolution, all mass movements were nurtured by the CCP. It was only during the Cultural Revolution instead of having the CCP give direction to the movement; many initiatives came from below at the grassroots level. It was during the Cultural Revolution that “seizing power” was raised. This change in perspective was very important because it was triggered for the first time, the people’s right to challenge those in power. Efforts were made to search for an alternative to the existing power structure. One example was setting up Revolutionary Committees to manage factories and other administrative functions.

Writers like Dang Hongpin, Fred Engst and Pao yu Ching confirmed that from the viewpoint of the proletariat, what the Cultural Revolution accomplished outweighed what it failed to accomplish.

International Policy
China exhibited no degree of national Chauvinism from 1949-76, supporting every national liberation movement and challenging the hegemony of both superpowers, America and Russia.

It never intervened or imposed itself on the foreign policies of other countries, not even Communist parties. It is fascinating that CPC even opposed the formation of a Communist International in the 1960’s.

China played a major role in Vietnam’s triumph over America.

Its behaviour with North Korea in 1954 in the war was an exemplary example of its foreign policy exhibiting no national chauvinist tendencies.

Errors of CPC and Reasons for Setback
The Chinese Communist Party made serious mistakes like not condemning assassination of Salvador Allende by America in Chile, becoming a part of the United Nations in 1971, placing more emphasis on confronting Soviet Social Imperialism than US imperialism, dismantling Revolutionary Committees after 1969, delaying the Socialist transformation and Great debate in the 1950’s, carrying out Great Leap forward hurriedly with lack of planning and centralistaion, powerful factionalism, not properly establishing the united front, not enabling masses to check the party, Rightist commanders infiltrating the people’s liberation army, converting the Shanghai Commune into revolutionary Committees, failed to sufficiently build institutions of the Communist Party and conducting 2-line struggle only within the framework of a Communist Party. The old thinking process of Confucian tradition penetrated deep roots in the Chinese culture and it was a very daunting mission to completely eradicate it.

CPC Reverting to Capitalist Road
After 1978 China reverted its policies and followed a path in a directly opposite direction to that of 1949-76. Workers are subjugated to misery in sweat shops and denied adequate wages. It dismantled all the communes, re-introduced ranks in the army, introduced Special economic zones, privatised health and education and at an international level abandoned all support to national liberation struggles and progressive democratic movements. Today China is a major imperialist country which is a contender for world hegemony over markets and pursues expansionist military policies.

Still significant that in Xi Jinping’s speech at the 100th founding ceremony of the CPC and the National Congress, unlike the Dengites he didn’t criticise the Cultural Revolution. The second important pledge he made was to convert China from prosperity to ‘common prosperity’. In recent years China rectified its strategy of fast economic growth which caused unemployment, poverty, ghost smart cities, homelessness etc, due to the capitalist path of development. In the first stage, China made huge investments in infrastructure to generate employment and purchasing power, in the second stage, China focused on urban development and in the third stage, it launched a consumption-led growth, unlike the Neo-Classical growth model which relies on investment-led growth leaving the plight of the common man to the trickle-down mechanism. Hence, China is following path of development combining economic growth with ‘social justice’ which may not be socialist, but certainly a departure from the Deng’s market economic model. (information on Xi Jinpeng policies from professor Suresh Deman)

It is complex how Communists can build a revolutionary movement in a one-party, revisionist, or social-imperialist state. Marxist analysts must probe into why a serious Revolutionary movement has not arisen in China today challenging the oppression of the bourgeois state. A new Socialist Society in China would have to integrate a considerable degree of mechanisation, even if applying Mao’s directives.

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 15 - 18, Oct 5 - Nov 2, 2024