China: From A Semi-Colony To A People’s Democracy
CRISIS OF THE COLONIAL SYSTEM ; NATIONAL LIBERATION STRUGGLE OF THE PEOPLES OF EAST ASIA
Reports Presented in 1949 to the Pacific Institute of the Academy of Sciences, U.S.S.R.
China: From A Semi-Colony To A People’s Democracy
INTRODUCTION
The creation of a People’s Republic of China, which was proclaimed on October 1, 1949 at the People’s Political Consultative Conference which for the first time expressed the free will of the peoples of the whole of China is an outstanding historical event. It constitutes the victorious completion of the long heroic struggle of the Chinese people for national liberation and democracy and puts an end to the more than a century-old domination of foreign capitalist pirates of China.
China, one of the biggest countries in the world, with a population of nearly 475 million and a territory of 10 million square kilometres, continued to remain in the position of a semi-colony even till the beginning of the Second World War. In spite of being a formally independent state, China was economically dependent on three big imperialist powers—Britain, USA and Japan who carried on a fierce struggle among themselves and against other capitalist countries for the “right” to exploit exclusively the human and natural resources of this very rich country and to convert it into their own colony.
Comrade Stalin’s words which in 1927 pointed to “the semi-colonial position of China and the financial and economic domination of imperialism” (J. V. Stalin: Collected Works, Russ. Ed. Vol. IX, p. 221), as one of the basic factors determining the situation in China, continued fully to preserve their importance even in 1937 when Japan invaded North and Central China.
The heroic struggle waged in the course of ten years by the advanced sections of the Chinese people who were headed by the proletariat, under the leadership of the Communist Party against the combined forces of imperialism and domestic reaction was still not able to bring about the downfall of imperialist rule in China.
In 1937 “the main threads of industry in China—the railways, factories and mills, mines, banks, etc.” (J. V. Stalin: Collected Works, Russ. Ed. Vol. VIII, p. 358) continued to remain in the hands of foreign imperialists. Just as before, they widely utilised the so-called “treaty rights’” extorted by force from China with the help of the predatory wars and “expeditions” frequently undertaken against China ever since 1842 and which were fortified by numerous unequal agreements in order to consolidate and extend their domination. These “treaty rights” included apart from the direct seizure under the form of leasing a part of the territory of China, the numerous settlements and concessions which were under the administration of foreign powers, the right of extraterritoriality for foreign subjects (outside the jurisdiction of Chinese laws) , the right of navigation in the territorial waters and rivers of China, the opening up of the numerous Chinese ports for free foreign trade and permission for foreign ships to call in at these ports, the rights of foreign troops and warships to be stationed in China, the right of control over the State revenue of China.
But the main role in ensuring foreign domination in China in the period of imperialism was played not so much by the “treaty rights” as the actual position in the economy of China seized by the imperialists.
Further, depending on these positions, the imperialist powers, under the pressure of the national liberation movement and with the aim of supporting the reactionary dictatorship of the Kuomintang in China, from time to time “consented” even to a withdrawal of one or the other of the treaty rights, without causing any big injury to their domination in China.The economic position of the imperialists are based above all on their monopoly position which they occupied, in the main key branches of Chinese economy—in foreign trade, finance, transport and factory and mill industry.
CHAPTER 1
The
Character of the National Liberation Movement in China & the Influence of
the October Revolution upon It
Imperialism accomplished its domination in China by relying upon the so-called compradore bourgeoisie, which is the intermediary between foreign capital and the Chinese market and upon the semi- feudal classes and strata, the landlords, the merchants and usurer bourgeoisie, the military and non- military bureaucracy which enjoyed economic and political power in China and exploited the toilers by means of feudal and mediaeval methods.
In characterising this power of the landlords and the bureaucracy, which combines peculiarly with the existence of commercial capital, as feudal remnants, Comrade Stalin pointed out that they constitute the prominent factor of oppression in China and that it is precisely against them that the agrarian revolution—the basis and the content of the bourgeois-democratic revolution in China—is directed:
“If in a number of
provinces, 70 per cent of the peasant incomes belongs to landlords and gentry,
if the landlord enjoys actual authority in both the economic, administrative
and judicial sphere, if to this day the practice of buying and selling women and
children prevails in several provinces—then it must be admitted that the
dominant force in this mediaeval situation is the force of feudal survivals,
the power of the landlords, the power of the landlord bureaucracy, both
military and non-military, combining in a peculiar way with the power of
commercial capital.” (J.
V. Stalin: Collected Works, Russ. Ed. Vol. IX, p. 241)
“It is just because
of this that feudal survivals with all their military and bureaucratic
superstructure are the main form of oppression in China and it is precisely
because of this that China is now living through an agrarian revolution—which
is extremely great in its force and sweep” (Ibid
p 285)
The force of feudal survivals in China, their persistence is to a great extent determined by the fact that
“in China, imperialism with all its financial and military might .... supports, inspires, cultivates, and conserves the feudal survivals with all their bureaucratic and military superstructure.” (Ibid p. 286)
This combination of semi-colonial and semi-feudal oppression, the interlacing of the interests of imperialism and the landlord-bourgeois military top stratum on the basis of the joint exploitation of the toilers—is one of the characteristic peculiarities of China. This in a considerable measure pre-determined the character, direction, and stage of the national liberation struggle of the Chinese people, which became directed at one stroke against two forms of oppression—imperialist and feudal. Comrade Stalin notes this as the most important distinctive feature of the Chinese Revolution.
The Great October Socialist Revolution and the workers’ and peasants’ State—the Soviet Union—created by it had a tremendous and decisive influence upon the development of the national liberation movement in China as also on the whole world.The October Revolution broke the imperialist chains which had engirdled China in a firm grip. It inspired the Chinese working class in the struggle against imperialism and guaranteed to them not only the all-sided moral support and assistance of the USSR but also the passing on of the tremendous revolutionary experience of the Russian proletariat and its Party. Comrade Stalin has more than once noted all these circumstances as one of the basic facts facilitating the development of the Revolution in China. (J. V. Stalin: Collected Works) Russian Ed. Vol. VIII, p. 336, Vol. IX, p. 221)
In his article on the occasion of the twenty-eighth anniversary of the foundation of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Tse-tung writes that it was only thanks to the October Revolution that “the Chinese discovered the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism.”
“Before the
October Revolution, the Chinese did not know who Lenin and Stalin were; neither
did they know of Marx and Engels. The salvoes of the October Revolution brought
us Marxism- Leninism. The October Revolution helped the progressive elements of
the world and of China as well, to apply the world proletarian outlook in
determining the fate of the country and in reviewing their own problems. The
conclusion reached was that we must advance along the path taken by the
Russians.” (Mao Tse-tung: “The Dictatorship of People’s Democracy”—from For A Lasting Peace, For a People’s
Democracy, July 15, 1949)
CHAPTER 2
The
Development of the Proletariat & the Disposition of Class Forces in the
National Liberation Struggle.
Under the revolutionising influence of the Great October Socialist Revolution and the class battles against foreign capital, the industrial proletariat, in spite of its comparative numerical weakness organised itself rapidly. The advanced section of the proletariat created by the Chinese Communist Party, heading the national liberation struggle of the Chinese toilers against foreign imperialism and domestic reaction. Strong trade union organisations were created—the All-China Federation of Labour and the industrial trade unions based themselves upon the principles of class struggle.
Thanks to its revolutionary spirit its consciousness and its organisation the Chinese proletariat attained tremendous influence amongst the urban poor and the peasantry and already in 1919 emerged in the front ranks of the anti-imperialist movement, and in the revolutionary period of 1925-27 became its leading force.
“The Shanghai and
Hongkong political strikes of the Chinese workers (June-September 1925) marked
a turning point in the struggle of the Chinese people for emancipation from the
foreign imperialists. The political action of the proletariat served as a powerful
impulse to the further development and consolidation of all the revolutionary
democratic organisations in the country” (Resolution of the Sixth Plenum of the
Executive Committee of the Communist International—quoted by J. V. Stalin in Marxism and the National and Colonial
Question, Lawrence & Wishart, 1947, p. 241)
This was the reason why in 1927 Comrade Stalin considered as one of the main factors determining the situation in China.
“the growing
revolutionary activity of the proletariat, the growth of its authority among
millions of the masses of toilers” (J. V. Stalin: Collected Works, Russ. Ed. Vol. IX, p. 221)
The Chinese bourgeoisie was composed of several strata, which in the first period of the national liberation movement occupied different positions in relation to foreign imperialism and feudal reaction.
After World War I the importance of that stratum of the bourgeoisie which was linked with national industrial production increased.
The industrial bourgeoisie, as distinct from the compradore bourgeoisie, which is closely linked with imperialism, and as distinct from the semi-feudal merchant and usurer bourgeoisie which is closely linked with the landlords, is that stratum of the bourgeoisie whose interests in a certain measure are also affected by imperialist oppression, which hampers the development of national industry and impedes the acquisition of the national market by the bourgeoisie.
This point at a definite stage of the national liberation movement was the cause of the participation of the national bourgeoisie in it, which as demonstrated by the teachings of Lenin and Stalin on the national and colonial revolution is the distinctive feature of the national liberation movement in the colonial and dependent countries as distinct from the imperialist countries, where the bourgeoisie is throughout counter-revolutionary.
“Revolution in
colonial and dependent countries is another thing: in these countries the
oppression exercised by the imperialism of other states is one of the factors
of revolution; this oppression cannot but affect the national bourgeoisie also;
the national bourgeoisie, at a certain stage and for a certain period, may
support the revolutionary movement of its country against imperialism, and the
national element, as an element in the struggle for emancipation, is a
revolutionary factor.” (J. V. Stalin: Marxism
and the National and Colonial Question: Lawrence and Wishart, 1947, p. 233)
But to the extent that the national liberation movement draws in ever broader masses of the toilers and demands certain concessions from the bourgeoisie, the class interests of the latter come into conflict with the national interests and push the big bourgeoisie into an agreement with imperialism and the feudal-landlord reaction at the expense of the interests of the masses. In the epoch of imperialism it is the proletariat alone that is the real defender of the national interests of any country.
It was “the political weakness of the national bourgeoisie, its dependence on imperialism, its fear of the sweep of the revolutionary movement” (J. V. Stalin: Collected Works, Russ. Ed. Vol. IX, p. 221) which also represent, in the words of Comrade Stalin, one of the basic factors determining the character of the Chinese Revolution and facilitating “the task of the hegemony of the proletariat, the task of the leadership of the Party of the proletariat with respect to the Chinese peasantry.” (J. V. Stalin: Collected Works, Russ. Ed. Vol. VIII, p. 366)
The Chinese
peasantry which comprises more than 80 per cent of the entire population of
China and which in the main has been deprived of land, was subject to a dual
oppression—the oppression of the landlords, the merchant and usurer capital,
the militarists, who savagely exploited the peasants by means of pre-capitalist
enslaving rents, usury and taxes and the colonial oppression by imperialism,
which destroys the peasants’ domestic industry and plunders the peasants by
means of monopoly price on raw materials and manufactured goods and by
transferring the consequences of economic crises onto the shoulders of the
peasants by reducing the prices of raw materials.
In China it is,
therefore, the peasantry that is the main mass force in the national liberation
struggle against imperialist oppression and feudal exploitation and the
agrarian revolution—the main content of this national liberation struggle in
the period between 1925-27.
But in its struggle against imperialism and against feudal remnants, the peasantry did not come forward as a monolithic force. The process of its differentiation as a result of the implanting of commodity and money relationship in the countryside had led to its stratification into kulaks, middle peasantry, the landless poor, and the farm labourers. The farm labourers and the poor peasants and to a certain extent even the middle peasants are exploited not only by the landlords but even by the kulaks who employ the very same feudal methods of exploiting the peasants that are employed by the landlords. This causes a demarcation of forces among the peasantry and the unification of the kulak strata of the peasantry with the landlords and the merchant and usurer capital on the basis of the joint exploitation of the middle and the poor peasantry and the farm labourers.
In China there exists, apart from the peasantry, a numerous urban petty-bourgeoisie, which is composed of different strata—the artisans, the petty traders, the unemployed intelligentsia, the ruined peasantry and the urban-poor, out of whom one part directly joins the proletariat and another gravitates towards the bourgeoisie.
In China, an exactly similar position is occupied by the strata of the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia, of which a part comes forth onto the side of the proletariat and another part becomes closely linked with the landlords, the bourgeoisie and various imperialist circles.
The double oppression of imperialism and the remnants of feudalism was experienced to a full extent above all by the Chinese proletariat and the peasantry. To a certain extent it was even felt by the urban petty-bourgeoisie and a section of the bourgeoisie (the industrial stratum).
All the facts that have been pointed out pre-determined the basic disposition of class forces in China in the beginning of the national liberation movement when “the bloc of workers, peasants, petty- bourgeoisie intelligentsia and national bourgeoisie” (J. V. Stalin: Collected Works Russ. Ed. Vol. X, p.
16) united politically in the
Kuomintang and in the Canton Government, developed the struggle against foreign
imperialism and military-feudal dictatorship of the militarists. But even then
“the national bourgeoisie while
supporting the revolution attempted to utilise it for its own aims limiting its scope by directing it in the main along the line of territorial conquests.” (J.V.
Stalin: Collected Works, Russ. Ed.
Vol. IX, p. 223)
In April 1927, the national bourgeoisie betrayed the cause of national liberation and entered into an agreement with the imperialists and the landlords. It was so on followed by the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia which also went over into the camp of reaction. The Kuomintang from an anti-imperialist party and anti-feudal bloc of revolutionary classes was transformed into a party of the reactionary landlord-bourgeois bloc, which with the help of the imperialists, established its dictatorship inside the country and unleashed a civil war against the, workers and peasants.
The reason for the betrayal of the bourgeoisie and the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia and their going over into the camp of reaction were the changes in the content and direction of the national liberation movement, to the extent of its development and the drawing in of the broad masses of toilers into it. Their essence has been dealt with exhaustively and fully in the works of Comrade Stalin.
CHAPTER 3
Comrade
Stalin on the Stages of the Chinese Revolution
In pointing out that the Chinese Revolution, like every revolution, must in its development pass through several stages, Comrade Stalin characterizes its first stage as a revolution of a general national united front, directed in the main against foreign imperialist oppression.
“In the period of the
first stage of the revolution, when the revolution was a revolution of a
national united front (Canton period), the allies of the proletariat were the
peasantry, the urban poor, the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia and the national
bourgeoisie.”
“These allies were
not and could not be uniformly reliable. Some of them were more or less
reliable allies—the peasantry and the urban poor, the others less reliable and
vacillating—the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia and still others altogether
unreliable—the national bourgeoisie.” (J.
V. Stalin: Collected Works, Russ. Ed, Vol. IX, pp. 223, 340)
By isolating the national bourgeoisie and utilising the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia, the proletariat at the first stage of the national liberation movement, rallied round itself the peasantry and the urban poor and expanded still more the sweep of the mass movement, which evoked fear in the national bourgeoisie and resulted in its capitulation to imperialism and the feudal landlord elements.
The national liberation movement entered “a higher phase of its development—the phase of agrarian revolution”—the second stage. The mass movement extended still more. It included millions from among the Chinese peasantry. The distinctive feature of the second stage is “the fact that the edge of revolution is now directed mainly against the internal enemies, and primarily against the feudal lords and the feudal regime.” (J. V. Stalin: Marxism and the National and the Colonial Question, Lawrence & Wishart, 1947, pp. 243-44), maintaining at the same time its anti-imperialist edge. The task of the struggle against imperialist oppression which could not be completed in the first stage was “bequeathed to the second stage of the Chinese revolution.” (J. V. Stalin: Collected Works, Russian. Ed. Vol. X, p. 25) and was the distinctive feature of the agrarian revolution in China as a semi-colonial country, in which “the feudal remnants could not be eliminated” without waging at the same time a revolutionary “struggle against imperialism:’ (J. V. Stalin: Collected Works, Russ. Ed., Vol. IX, p. 286)
Pointing out that the agrarian revolution is none other than “the basis and content of the bourgeois-democratic revolution” (Ibid.), Comrade Stalin defines the essence of bourgeois-democratic revolution in China as the “confluence of the struggle against feudal remnants and the struggle against imperialism.” (Ibid., p. 287)
At the second stage of the revolution, “the allies of the proletariat were the peasantry, the urban poor and the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia.” (Ibid., p. 341)
The unfolding of a powerful peasant movement as a result of which “millions and tens of millions of peasants” were drawn into “the greatest of agrarian revolutions in such provinces as Hunan, Huleh, and Yenan, etc., where the peasants established their own power, their courts, their self-defense, banished the landlords and dealt with them in the plebian way” (Ibid., p. 289), frightened the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia, which, under pressure from the feudalists and imperialism followed the national bourgeoisie and crossed over into the camp of counter-revolution.
Comrade Stalin explains the betrayal of the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia by
“firstly, the fear of
the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia in face of the growing agrarian revolution
and the pressure of the feuda1ists on the Wuhan leadership, secondly, the
pressure of
the
imperialists in the districts of Tientsin, demanding from the Kuomintang a
break with the Communists as the price for being allowed to go to the North.” (Ibid., p. 343).
After the departure of the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia, the allies of the proletariat remained the peasantry and the urban poor who rallied closely round the proletariat “having created at the same time, the basis for proletarian hegemony.” (Ibid., p. 343)
The departure of the national bourgeoisie and the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia, thus did not weaken the national liberation movement, but on the contrary, strengthened it by ridding it of vacillating elements.
In the first two stages of the revolution, the toilers of China, under the leadership of the Chinese Communists, achieved great successes:
1) In this period, the direction of the national liberation movement was finally determined as anti- feudal and anti-imperialist, and whose edge was simultaneously turned both against internal reaction and external imperialist oppression;
2) It revealed its character as an
agrarian revolution, i.e., a bourgeois-democratic revolution, directed against
the survivals of feudalism in all spheres of social life, economic, political,
ideological, and for its democratization;
3) Its mass basis was extended to a
very great extent by drawing into the agrarian movement tens of millions of
peasants and into the working-class movement—millions of workers and urban poor;
4) The class composition of the
movement was consolidated by weeding out the wavering elements (the bourgeoisie
and the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia) and rallying millions of masses of
peasants and the urban poor around the proletariat;
5) Leadership passed over into the
hands of the proletariat, which occupied the position of the hegemon of the
revolution, capable of carrying to the end the bourgeois-democratic revolution
and ensuring the democratisation of the country and leading China further on
the path of Socialism;
6) A mighty Communist Party—the
reliable leader and head of the Chinese toilers was forged in the fire of
revolution ensuring a correct Marxist-Leninist leadership to the national
liberation struggle.
And though as a result of the treachery of the bourgeoisie and the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia the Chinese Revolution of 1925-27 sustained a temporary defeat, the struggle of the Chinese people for national liberation and for ending the feudal oppression did not cease and soon developed with renewed force.
It was under the conditions of fierce civil war unleashed against the Chinese people by the reactionary bourgeois-landlord bloc, enjoying the direct support of the imperialists and assuming the character of an intervention, that round about 1933-34 the workers and peasants under the leadership of the Communist Party of China liberated from under the rule of reaction 600,000 sq. kilometers of Chinese territory with a population of 60 million; they created on this territory six stable democratic districts and in them they put into effect the revolutionary democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry in the form of Soviets which was presaged by Comrade Stalin already in 1926 as the future political form of power in China.
Comrade Stalin in his speech On the perspectives of the Revolution in China on November 30, 1926, speaking of the character of the future power in China pointed out that it would represent
“something in the nature of a
democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry, with the
difference, however, that it will be directed predominantly against the
imperialists.”
“It will be a power
marking a transition to China’s non-capitalist, or more exactly, Socialist,
development.” (J. V. Sta1in: Collected
Works, Vol. VIII, p. 366: As quoted in New
Times No. 13 in “China’s Economic
Problems” by G. Astafyev)
Under the banner of the Soviets, the Chinese workers and peasants foiled the numerous attempts of reaction to suppress the Chinese democratic movement with arms. Led by the Chinese Communist Party, the workers’ and peasants’ Red Army successfully repelled six punitive campaigns of Chiang Kai- Shek, which were organised and armed with the participation of all imperialist powers.
While leading the operations against the military campaigns of counter-revolution, the Communist Party of China conducted at the same time an irreconcilable struggle against all open and secret traitors, who had made their way inside the ranks of the Party—the Trotskyites and the Right deviators and also the “Leftists”: who had caused great harm to the struggle for democracy in China.
The works of Comrade Stalin on the Chinese Revolution are an invaluable contribution to the theory of the national and colonial question and have rendered exclusive assistance to the Chinese Communists in mastering both a correct application of Marxist-Leninist theory to the concrete historical conditions in China as well as the tremendous experience of the struggle against the Right and the “Left” deviators, borrowed from the CPSU (B) and enabled the Communist Party of China to cope with the deviation in its ranks and ensure the development of the democratic movement on the correct path.
Fighting on two fronts—against the united camp of internal reaction and foreign imperialism from outside and against its agents, the traitors and deviators from within—the workers and peasants of the Soviet regions of China, under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and its leader Mao Tse-tung and with the support of the toilers of the whole of China, continued from 1928-36 to deepen the agrarian revolution which was directed both against feudal surviva1s and against imperialist domination.
Over the territory of the Soviet region of China, agrarian reform was completely carried out; land and the means of production belonging to the landlords and partly to the kulaks were confiscated and distributed for use among the peasants. Colonial exploitation and imperialist oppression were also completely eliminated over the territory of the Soviet regions.
CHAPTER 4
The
Organisation by the Communist Party of Armed Resistance to Japanese Aggression
The Creation of a United Anti-Japanese National Front.
The
intensification of Japanese aggression in China, which was marked by the
seizure of Manchuria in 1931 and the invasion of North China and Inner-Mongolia
threatened the national independence and the national existence itself of the
Chinese people. It sharpened the anti-imperialist direction of the national
liberation movement and created the conditions for reforming a united national
front. The Chinese Communist Party emerged as the leader and the organiser of a
united front, directed against Japanese aggression.
Immediately after the commencement of Japanese occupation of Manchuria, the Communist Party demanded that the Japanese invaders be driven out of China by the forces of an armed people.
With the extension of Japanese aggression over the territory of Jehol, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the Revolutionary Military Council of the Chinese Red Army at the end of 1932 and at the beginning of 1933 approached the Kuomintang troops with a proposal to conclude peace with the Red Army to wage a joint struggle against Japanese imperialism.
With the increasing danger of the seizure of North China, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Soviet Republic in August 1935 published an appeal to the Chinese people, to all political parties and groups with a call to create an all- Chinese Government of national defence and an all-Chinese united anti-Japanese army (on the basis of cooperation between the Communist Party and the Kuomintang) for joint resistance to Japanese aggression.
In November of that very same year, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party once again appealed to all political parties, groups and military units, proposing to summon an all- Chinese conference of “national security” with the aim of forming a united national anti-Japanese front.
In 1936, with the further intensification of Japanese aggression in North China, the Communist Party continued, alongside repulsing the attack of reaction, to wage an energetic struggle for the creation of a united anti-Japanese front and ceaselessly turned towards the Nanking Government and to the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang with the proposal to cease the civil war and unite forces for a struggle against the Japanese invaders.
In order to prove its resolute determination to render armed resistance to Japanese aggression the Communist Party in the beginning of 1936 transferred the main forces of the Chinese Red Army to the North-west of China in the border regions of the provinces of Shensi-Kansu-Ning Hsia which stood in the path of the Japanese advance into the heart of China. Here was created the border region of Shensi- Kansu-Ninghsia which in the course of the following ten years, was the main base and centre of the people’s liberation movement in China.
These appeals of the Communist Party to the Nanking Government, as well as the attempts to conduct direct negotiations with the Kuomintang did not lead to any agreement, but by assisting in the exposure of the reactionary position of Kuomintang they increased the influence of the Communist Party. The movement for the creation of a united national front received wide support from all progressive organisations and the broad masses of the Chinese people.
Towards the end of 1936, there took place the so-called “Sian Incident” in Sian, when General Chang Hsueh-liang arrested Chiang Kai-shek, who had attempted to compel his army to attack the Chinese Red Army and the border Regions. These events could have led to the outbreak of a new and still bigger civil war, which would have only been in the interests of Japan, since it threatened to disrupt the creation of a united national front. The representatives of the Communist Party, taking this into consideration, intervened in the conflict and secured its peaceful solution. Through this, the Communist Party once again proved its firm desire to create a real national united front, in spite of the hostile attitude of the Kuomintang.
On February 10, 1937, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party appealed telegraphically with concrete proposals for the creation of a united front, to the Third Plenum of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang which was meeting just then. The Kuomintang Plenum left these proposals unanswered and it was only the treacherous attack of Japan on China on July 7, 1937 and the tremendous outburst of popular indignation, testifying the determination of the people to render effective resistance to the Japanese aggression, which compelled the Kuomintang to give up a policy of sabotage and with great unwillingness and considerable delay, agree to recognise a united front. This was done through the publication on September 24, 1937, of the official interview of Chiang Kai-shek, which was a reply to the declaration of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China of July 14, 1937 on cooperation between the Communist Party and the Kuomintang in the anti-Japanese struggle.
Though a formal
agreement on the creation of a united front as such was not concluded, a united
front was created on the basis of mutual concessions. As is seen from the
declaration of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party of
September 23, 1937, the Chinese Communist Party on its part took upon itself
the following obligations:
(1) To fight for an effective
implementation of the three principles of Sun Yat-sen, which the Communist
Party considered in the existing situation to be acceptable as a programme of
struggle for national independence, democratic liberties and improvement in the
condition of the people.
(2) To cease the struggle for the
overthrow of the Kuomintang rule, to give up the slogan of “Sovietising” China
and to cease the confiscation of landlords’ land.
(3) To re-name the border Soviet
Regions of Shensi-Kansu-Ninghsia as a special Border Region and re-organise the
Soviet organs of power into local organs of power subordinate to a Central
Government but as distinct from the Kuomintang regions, elected in the most
democratic manner with the participation of the entire population.
(4) To change the name of the Red
Army and include it into a united people’s revolutionary army, subordinate to a united War Council.
For the sake of creating national unity and the struggle for democracy on a China-wide scale, the Communist Party agreed to substitute the Soviet forms of power on its territory by all-national organs of power, created on a broad democratic basis.
Mao Tse-tung, in explaining the reason for giving up the Soviet form of power pointed out:
“Why have the
Communists given up further organisation of the Soviets? It is not because they
think that this system is unsuitable but because the armed invasion of Japanese
imperialism has given a rise to a change in the co-relation of classes inside
the country, the unification of the entire nation for the struggle against
Japanese imperialism became necessary and possible. Today, throughout the
world, a united democratic front for the struggle against fascism is being
organised. The formation of a national and democratic united front is necessary
for present-day China and hence the Communists have put forth the slogan of a
democratic Republic instead of the slogans of Soviets.” (Mao Tse-tung: “Tasks
of the Chinese Revolution after the Creation of a United Front between the
Kuomintang and the Communist Party”—from the Collection: The Chinese People are Victorious, Moscow, 1938, pp. 13-14)
The upsurge of the national liberation movement and the stages it passed through in the course of its development could not but be reflected in the character of the united front.
Its main features consist in the following:
1. By its betrayal of the cause of
national liberation and by its compromise with imperialism and the landlords,
the bourgeoisie showed its unwillingness to lead an active national liberation
struggle and lost the confidence of the broad masses of the Chinese people.
As a partner in the ruling bourgeois-landlord bloc, it took up a stand of actively opposing the creation of a united front and persecuted those in the ranks of the Kuomintang who supported it (i.e., united front—Trans.) and right up to 1937 it continued the policy of capitulating before Japanese imperialism and extending the civil war against the national liberation movement under the reactionary slogan “First appeasement and then resistance”.
It was only after the unleashing of a big war in China in 1937 by the Japanese militarists that the national bourgeoisie, fearing to lose completely the remnants of its influence among even the backward but patriotically-inclined circles, was with great reluctance forced to agree to the formation of a united front which a year later (towards the end of 1938) was once again split in effect by the landlords and the big bourgeoisie.
2. The proletariat, which by this
time had under the leadership of the Communist Party finally won the hegemony
of the national liberation movement and strengthened its ties with the
peasantry, emerged as the organiser and the leader of a united anti-Japanese front.
3. The programme and the tasks of the general nations united front now became of a higher level than at the first stage of the revolution 1925-27. Apart from the tasks of the struggle against imperialism, the united front now advanced as fundamental demands the democratisation of the country and improvement in the position of the broad masses of the toilers.
CHAPTER 5
The
Monopoly of the ‘Four Families’ and the Intensification of the Oppression of
the Landlords in the Years of the Second World War
Extension
of the United Front and the Growth in the Forces of Democracy.
In the course of
the anti-Japanese war, the leading role of the Chinese proletariat and the
Communist Party and their authority among the broad masses of the Chinese
people continued to grow. The might and the importance of the united national
anti-Japanese front headed by the proletariat, and the successes achieved by
them in the armed resistance to the Japanese invaders and in democratic
construction in the territories liberated from Japanese occupation, grew
correspondingly.
The seizure of the economically developed maritime provinces by the Japanese and the restrictions of the territory of Kuomintang China to backward and agrarian provinces led to a change in the correlation of forces in the ruling camp and precisely, to a decline in the role and influence of the industrial bourgeoisie and to a still great increase in the role and influence of the class of landlords and the merchant and usurer bourgeoisie closely linked with it. The intensification of the economic and political influence of the landlords in the ruling camp inevitably must lead and did lead to an intensification of reaction, to an attack on the democratic elements and finally to attempts at an agreement with Japanese imperialism.
An expression of this reactionary course of policy was the slogan of “passive defence” against the Japanese, with extremely active and hostile operations against Chinese democracy—in the form of an offensive on the People’s Revolutionary New Fourth Army and on units of the People’s Revolutionary Eighth Route Army, blockade of the Special Border Regions, persecution of democratic elements and suppression of civil liberties all over Kuomintang China.
Along with the
weakening of the influence of the national bourgeoisie and the increase in the
influence of the landlords, an ever-increasing role in the economy of
Kuomintang China began to be played by the monopoly of ‘Four families’ whose
heads Chiang Kai-shek, Chen Li-fu, Soong Tse-wei, Koong Hsiang-hei headed the
Kuomintang and the Government controlled by it.
It was for this purpose that they utilised the wartime regulations on control over external trade, currency and bank operations, industry and internal trade as well as to government organisations like Commissions on external trade and the government trade commission Fu-sin, subservient to it, the commission for national resources, the commission for rendering assistance to the restoration of industry, etc., which were created in order to implement this control.
The representatives of the ‘Four families’ utilised their position in the State economic organs for preferential financing and the distribution of government orders and other encouragement of the firms and companies belonging to them personally or to those in whom they were interested.
In order to enrich themselves they did not even stop at such a vile source of income as contraband trade with the enemy which finally assumed open legal forms.
In his speech of December 25, 1947, Mao Tse-tung gives the following characterisation of the economic domination of the ‘Four Families’:
“Four Families’
Chiang Kai-shek, Soong Tsi-wei, Koong Hsiang-hei and Chen Li-fu, during their
twenty years’ rule, have accumulated enormous capital running into some ten to
twenty thousand million American dollars and have monopolised the economic life
of the entire country.” (Mao Tse-tung: Report to the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of China: From For A
Lasting Peace, For A People’s
Democracy!, dated January 15, 1948)
The political and economic domination of the ‘Four Families’ was indissolubly linked with the semi-feudal structure existing in China and with the imperialist oppression, carried out by foreign capital.
The semi-feudal character of the monopolies of the ‘Four Families’ was expressed in its close links with the class of landlords without whose support they would not have been able to accomplish their dictatorship and the plunder of the people with the object of accumulating wealth.
The compradore i.e., dependent on foreign-capital, character of the monopolies of the ‘Four Families’ was expressed above all in that the very process of “their formation was rendered possible only as a result of the direct political and economic support of the imperialist States. The imperialists looked upon Chiang Kai-shek, Chen Li-fu, etc. and on the Kuomintang headed by them, as the main weapon of struggle against the national liberation movement of the people and as the main vehicle of the influence of foreign and mainly American monopoly capital. Therefore, beginning with 1927, they rendered them every possible assistance through their political instrument—the Kuomintang and the Kuomintang State—and made various political “concessions”, calculated towards intensifying their economic and political influence.
The same policy
was pursued by Anglo-American imperialism in respect of the ruling Kuomintang
top stratum even in the period of the Second World War. Imperialist loans and
in particular, American loans, instead of strengthening the military potential
of China served as the biggest source of enrichment to the monopolies of the
‘Four Families’ and as a means of the further enslavement of the country by
Anglo-American capital. The monopoly of the ‘Four Families’, which is the
direct agent of foreign imperialism was profoundly anti-national and was
directed against the interests of the entire Chinese people.
As a result of the intensification of the power of the landlords and the monopoly of the ‘Four Families’ in the years of war there was a tremendous increase in the exploitation of the broad masses of the toilers of Kuomintang China on whose shoulders fell the enormous war expenses and the costs of the unprecedented predatory enrichment of the exploiting top stratum. This enrichment was carried out by means of inflation, speculative rise of prices and the tax imposition on the entire population by means of lengthening the working day and lowering the wages for workers and employees, by increasing rents, interests on loans, by all possible exactions and finally by the direct confiscation of the land from the peasants. The interweaving of feudal and capitalist methods of exploitation, the combination of the ‘latest’ monopoly methods with methods of primary accumulation of capital and the general increase in the exploitation of the broad strata of toilers—the workers, the peasants, the urban petty bourgeoisie—by the landlords and the ‘Four Families’ monopoly, as well as the exceedingly unfavourable conditions in which the petty and the middle bourgeoisie were placed increased the dissatisfaction with the Kuomintang regime among the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people. At the same time, the anti-feudal stand of the Kuomintang on questions of organising a rebuff to the Japanese aggressors emerged all the more clearly. All this led to the gradual narrowing down of the social base of the Kuomintang dictatorship, as a result of the departure from the landlord-bourgeois bloc of the petty and the middle bourgeoisie, the intelligentsia, student youth, petty officials and other patriotically-inclined elements, connected with the Kuomintang and as a result of the conversion of the Kuomintang in essence into a bloc of the landlords and the big bourgeoisie. Their departure from the bloc had already begun during war time and in fact was expressed in the amalgamation of the bourgeois-liberal oppositional parties and the organisation of, first, the Federation of Democratic Parties and later into the Democratic League and the incorporation of the League into the democratic camp, headed by the Communist Party and advancing its programme of the democratic re-organisation of China.
At a time when the class and social base of the landlord-bourgeois bloc became strongly restricted during war time, the social base of the democratic national liberation movement, assuming in this period the form of a united national anti-Japanese front, became still broader.
In the beginning
of the war, the territory of democratic China liberated from the regime of the
Kuomintang dictatorship and carrying out a policy directed in the interests of
the broad masses of toilers, was limited only to the special Border Region of Shensi-Kansu-Ninghsia,
with an area of less than 10,000 sq. kilometres and with a population of one
and half million people.
In the measure of
the consolidation of a united anti-Japanese Front and the unleashing, under the
leadership of the People’s Revolutionary Eighth Route and the New Fourth
Armies, of popular partisan warfare against the Japanese invaders, the
territory of democratic China, as distinct from the territory of Kuomintang
China, expanded unceasingly in the course of the whole war by creating newer
and new and liberated regions in the rear of the Japanese. Towards the end of
1944, these liberated regions numbered 15 with a territory of 859,000 sq.
kilometres and a population of 95,500,000 people.
The liberated
regions created in the course of the war in mountainous regions, which were
difficult to reach (e.g., Yutuhsien
Taishan-hsien), initially played the role of operation bases for the regular
units of the People’s Revolutionary Army and the partisan detachments operating
in the real’ of the Japanese.
In the measure of
the drawing in of the broad masses of the population in the anti-Japanese
struggle and the driving out of the Japanese troops, the territory of the
liberated regions expanded gradually and finally only the towns, the
thickly-populated centres and the railway and high-road routes linking them
remained in the hands of the Japanese occupation troops.
In the measure of
the expansion of its territory, the liberated regions, while retaining their
importance as operation bases, acquired new importance as large political
formations in whose bounds the programme of the united anti-Japanese front had
been carried out in practice, not only in the sphere of the armed struggle, but
also in the sphere of introducing the democratic changes provided for by this
programme.
The strengthening
of democracy told above all on the fact that it acquired a big military,
political and economic base in the form of the People’s Revolutionary Armies
and the liberated areas, on whose territories it was able to implement its
programme and demonstrate in practice to the broad masses of the Chinese people
the superiority of the democratic system.
The Vice-Governor
of the North-west Financial and Economic Bureau, Chen-yun pointing to the
enormous difference in solving an economic problem in Democratic and Kuomintang
China declared—
“While in Kuomintang
China it is solved by means of increasing the burdens of the peoples which
leads to the impoverishment of the ordinary people and to draining away of the
financial resources of the nation, in democratic China, it is solved by implementing
the task of ‘eating and dressing well’ on the basis of every kind of
development of production.”
“Between these two
methods, the Chinese people can certainly distinguish clearly which is the good
and which is the bad, which has to be adopted and which rejected.” (“Our Tasks
in 1945”, January 1945, p. 33)
The strengthening
of democracy was manifested particularly sharply towards the end of 1944 when
with the big defeats suffered at the front, the inconsistency and the negative
consequences of the reactionary policy of the Kuomintang were revealed fully.
The concessions
which Kuomintang reaction was forced to cede and the negotiations with the
Communist Party that began in 1944 for the solution of differences and the
unification of military efforts were a demonstration of the strength of the
democratic front. In commencing the negotiations, reaction had no intention of
renouncing dictatorship or of democratising the regime. It pursued the aim of
securing the disarming of democracy and the consolidation of its own
dictatorship with the assistance of “political means”.
CHAPTER 6
The
Programme of the Communist Party in the Sphere of the Democratic Changes in
China.
The programme of a
united anti-Japanese national front created on the provisional political basis
of rendering resistance to Japanese aggression and uniting not only the toilers
but also the exploiting classes could not set itself the task of a fundamental
reconstruction of Chinese society.
As was pointed out
above, one of its main demands was the carrying out of definite democratic
changes in the field of administration (democratisation of the political
regime) and improvement in the conditions of the working people.
Mao Tse-tung, in
his speech on the tasks of the general united national front already pointed
out in May 1937:
“The struggle against
Japan and the struggle for democracy are interdependent tasks. Democracy is the
guarantee of an effective struggle against Japan and the struggle against Japan
creates favourable conditions for the development of a democratic movement.”
Hence Mao Tse-tung
draws the conclusion that “the most central and essential task at the present
stage is democracy and freedom.” (Mao Tse-tung: Tasks of the General National United Anti-Japanese Front: COMMUNIST
INTERNATIONAL, 1937 No. 9, p. 73)
In his other
works, Mao Tse-tung also repeatedly emphasised the importance of democratic
changes not only for the success of the war against Japan but also for the
postwar development and the international position of China.
During the process
of the war against Japan, the broad masses of the toilers of China—the workers,
peasants, artisans, intelligentsia who actively joined it had necessarily to
begin the struggle for their democratic rights, for an improvement in their position.
The words of the leader of the people, Comrade Stalin, that “the Second World
War against the Axis powers, unlike the first World War, assumed from the very
outset the character of an anti-fascist war, a war of liberation, one of the
tasks of which was to restore democratic liberties,” (J. V. Stalin: Speech delivered at an election meeting in
the Stalin Election District, Moscow: February 9th, 1946)
characterise also the main distinctive feature of the struggle of the Chinese
people for liberation since the latter fought during the war for the attainment
of elementary democratic rights.
For the Chinese
toilers, the struggle against Japanese aggression denoted at the same time a
struggle for a newt; democratic China, and under the leadership of the
Communist Party, they succeeded already during wartime to realise partially
even though over the limited territory of the liberated regions, their
aspirations and hopes.
The political and
economic achievements of the liberated regions proved the possibility of
introducing democratic reforms even under the difficult conditions of war and
showed the toilers of China the necessity of urgently transmuting into life the
tasks of democratic reconstruction of the entire country as the sole condition
for the liberation of the Chinese people from imperialist and feudal
oppression, an improvement in the conditions of the toilers and a solution of
the numerous difficulties confronting the country.
Corresponding to
this task, the Communist Party in the course of the war put forth in the
development of a programme of united anti-Japanese front, the programme of
democratic changes for the whole of China which was based on the political and
economic changes carried out in practice over the territory of the liberated
regions. This programme came into practice not at once but gradually in the
measure that its various elements were crystallised in practice, proved in
reality their vitality and received recognition from the people.
The programme of
new democracy was initially set forth in the two works of Mao Tse-tung: The Chinese Revolution and the Communist
Party of China (published on December 15, 1939 and New Democracy (published on January 1, 1940) and most completely in
his speech on The Coalition Government at
the Seventh Congress of the Chinese Communist Party on April 24, 1945.
In his speech on The Coalition Government, Mao Tse-tung
in defining the present stage of the revolution in China as a
bourgeois-democratic revolution considered the programme of the Communist Party
at this stage in relation to the final aim—the building of Socialism—as a
minimum programme.
This programme
puts forward the task of overthrowing the dictatorship of the big landlords and
the big bourgeoisie and the building of an independent, free, united,
democratic China in which power must be based on the support of the
overwhelming majority of the people and a coalition of democratic parties and
groups established, land must belong to those who till it and the decisive
branches of industry controlled by the State. The main emphasis of the
programme was on the liquidation of imperialist and feudal oppression.
“The New Democracy we
uphold politically demands the expulsion of imperialist oppression and the
overthrow of feudalistic, fascist oppression.” (Mao Tse-tung: The Way Out of China’s Civil War, PPH,
Bombay, p. 33)
The general
programme was a programme of bourgeois-democratic revolution and intended for a
prolonged period (“throughout the whole stage of bourgeois democratic
revolution for a long time to come our new democratic general programme will
remain unchanged”—Mao Tse-tung, Ibid.
p. 41) and in its main outlines is not
different from the programme of 1939-40 with the exception of certain points
(the formation of a Coalition Government, the creation of three sectors of economy).
In the war period,
the Communist Party in its specific programme, which was set forth by Mao
Tse-tung in his speech on “The Coalition
Government”, put forward still more curtailed demands. In the political
sphere, the specific programme demanded the complete-expulsion of the Japanese
invaders and the prohibition of compromise with them, an end to the Kuomintang
dictatorship and the creation of a democratic Coalition Government, the
granting of democratic liberties to the people and their unification.
In the sphere of
liquidating the feudal survivals, the specific programme during the war period
and even during a definite postwar period demanded only reduction of rent and
interest on loans under the condition of introducing them all over the country
so that in the future, the main slogan of “Land to the Peasants” would he
realised in a normal (constitutional—G. Astafyev), order i.e. by implementation
of Land Reform.
In the sphere of
the industrial development of China, the specific programme put forward the
task of creating in the course of a number of years a light and heavy industry
on the basis of private capital and even drawing in foreign capital. (Mao
Tse-tung: —The Coalition Government)
In the majority of
its demands, this programme did not go beyond the bounds of the programme of a
united front.
The specific
programme as a programme intended for the war period, envisaged definite
concessions even to feudal and imperialist forces in the form of giving up,
during the period of war and of a certain post-war period, the slogan of
confiscation of land and restriction of the activities of foreign capital in
China.
Under conditions
of war, this programme was fully justified. It arose not only from the
necessity of maintaining a united front within the country but also from a
recognition of the fact that USA and Britain were partners in the war against
Japan.
But even this
programme was completely unacceptable for the ruling landlord-bourgeois bloc.
It aimed at the complete retention of its political domination and the
monopolisation of the entire economic life of the country in the interests of
an unhindered exploitation or the, toilers. By means of terror and of
undeclared war against the liberated regions and the People’s Liberation
Armies, the reactionary landlord- bourgeois bloc even during the period of the
anti-Japanese war was attempting to consolidate its dictatorship and smash the
democratic forces of the country.
After sustaining a
failure, the Kuomintang by utilising the tactic of political manoeuvres and
conducting negotiations on democratising the country, aimed at playing for
time, in order to strengthen its military position through American aid and
then with the help of American imperialism put an end to the democratic
movement with armed force. The whole course of negotiation between the
Kuomintang and the Communist Party in 1944-45 clearly bears witness to these
intentions of reaction.
CHAPTER 7
The Defeat of the Japanese War Machine: The Activisation
of American Imperialism After the Second World War
The entry of the
USSR into the war in the Pacific in August, 1945, and the rapid defeat of the
Japanese war machine and the capitulation of Japan which followed as a result
of this, smashed the plans of international and Chinese reaction, directed
towards defeating the democratic movement of the Chinese people and created
enormous possibilities for a further growth of the democratic forces in China.
Availing
themselves of the victorious assau1ts of the Soviet and Mongolian troops
against the Kwantung Army, on 10th August, 1945, the Eighth Route
People’s Liberation Army in North China and the New Fourth People’s Liberation
Army in Central China with the support of the partisans and the detachments of
peasants’ self-defence began the counter-offensive against the Japanese troops
and within a short time liberated a large number of towns, railways and 350,000
square kilometres of territory with a population of 20 million.
Together with
Manchuria, the total area of liberated democratic regions of China by 13th
January, 1946 was 2,376,000 square kilometres with a population of 148 million
(Tsunch jun—4-2-1947 No. 4— 5). Over
the liberated territory democratic rule was established, freely elected by the
people and democratic reforms of the war period (the lowering of rents and of
interests on loans, an improvement in the condition of workers, etc.) were
realised. Following on the victory of the heroic Soviet people over German Fascism
and the entry of the USSR in the war against Japan, the swift defeat of
Japanese imperialism entrenched strongly the military and political position of
the democratic camp and placed the task of democratising the whole of China on
the order of the day.
Immediately after
the capitulation of Japan, the Communist Party entered into negotiations with
the Kuomintang and advanced its own programme of democratic changes. The
internal political situation
in
China made it possible to count up on the realisation of these democratic
changes. However, the intervention of American imperialism changed the
situation.
The
activisation of American imperialism which pursues the aim
“of establishing
United States political and economic domination in all countries marked out for
American expansion, to reduce these countries to the status of satellites of
the United States, and to set up regimes within them which would eliminate all
obstacles on the part of the labour and democratic movement to the exploitation
of these countries by American capital,” (A. Zhdanov: The International Situation: Report at the Informative Conference
of Representatives of a number of Communist Parties—For A Lasting Peace, For A
People’s Democracy!, Nov. 10, 1947)
took
place in China already during the war years and after its termination increased
sharply and assumed the character of direct intervention.
Immediately after
the capitulation of Japan units of the naval force of the USA under the pretext
of the necessity of disarming Japanese troops, occupied ports, railways and the
key-points of North China and having created a vast jumping off ground in the
centre of the liberated democratic regions began immediately transferring
Kuomintang troops by American ships and aeroplanes. Under the cover of American
troops and “negotiations” on democratisation, Kuomintang reaction concentrated
enormous military forces (49 armies, 127 divisions, numbering 1,200,000 men) on
the borders of the liberated regions and on the jumping-off ground seized by
the Americans and in October, 1945, it began a determined attack on the
liberated regions. For its attack, reaction utilised not merely American
weapons and the Chinese divisions, prepared by the Americans for an invasion
against the Japanese but also Japanese and puppet troops numbering five hundred
thousand. According to press reports American units also participated in the
attack on various parts of the front; the American navy and air force supported
the offensive operations of the Kuomintang troops.
Thus, in the
struggle against Chinese democracy even in the first months after the
termination of the Second World War, all the forces of reaction were
united—American imperialism, its former enemy, Japanese imperialism and the
Chinese landlord-bourgeois reaction which did not stop at fomenting civil war
on an enormous scale.
But it was
precisely here that the fact of the weakening of the forces of reaction and the
growth in the forces of democracy was revealed fully. In spite of their
military and technical superiority, the united forces of Kuomintang, Japanese
and American troops sustained defeat. The soldiers did not wish to fight for
the interests of reaction. From among the Kuomintang detachment an entire army
(the New Eighth) with the officers at its head crossed over to the side of the
democratic troops. The first offensive of the Kuomintang troops was repulsed,
and this fact which revealed the strength and the might of the democratic camp
forced reaction to change its tactics, temporarily give up its military
measures and return to the tactics of political manoeuvres.
The provocative
actions of the American military authorities in China immediately after the
termination of the war, evoked tremendous indignation of world and American
democratic public opinion. The latter
was still under the influence of the democratic slogans under which the war
‘had been waged and was not prepared for the struggle for world domination in
the interests of American monopoly- capita1. The Truman Government was forced
to begin a retreat. In December, 1945, first Byrnes and then Truman published a
declaration on American policy in China and at the end of December Byrnes
signed in Moscow the declaration on China of the meeting of Ministers of
Foreign Affairs.
In all these
documents, the central question was the question of democratising China;
although Truman and Byrnes through their declarations pursued the same aim as
Chinese reaction—the disarming of democracy in exchange for the granting of a
few seats to democratic elements in the Kuomintang Government the need for the
retention of which was persistently emphasised in the American
declarations—even the very posing of this problem testifies to the weakness of
the reactionary forces, their lack of confidence in themselves and the
impossibility of resorting to brute force and the need to utilize the tactics
of political manoeuvres.
The decisions of
the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers on December 26, 1945, as distinct
from American declarations, demanded a real democratisation of the political
regime of China by including democratic elements in all the Government organs
and proclaimed the principle of non- intervention in its internal affairs of
China. Thanks to this, they represented an enormous international support to
the forces of democracy in China.
The negotiations
between the Communist Party and the Kuomintang which had begun already in the
beginning of January, 1946, before the decisions of the Moscow Conference, led
to the conclusion of important political and military agreements, directed
towards the cessation of the civil war and democratisation of the political
system of China.
But as further
events showed, the landlord-bourgeois bloc did not intend to implement these
agreements. Relying on the military aid which the USA was rendering on as vast
a scale to Chinese reaction under the cover of “mediation”, the Kuomintang
prepared for a new military offensive. The offensive began in April, 1946, in
South Manchuria and very soon passed over into a bitter civil war on all fronts.
CHAPTER 8
The
Leading Role of the Communist Party in the New Stage of the National Liberation
Struggle.
The struggle for
the democratisation of the country, for the implementation of agrarian reform
after the termination of the Second World War, in spite of the defeat of Japan
was once again closely interlaced with the task of the struggle against
imperialism—this time American imperialism.
As before, the
task of the struggle against imperialism as the condition for the success of
the struggle against internal reaction remained the most important task of the
national-liberation movement of the Chinese people. But while retaining its
anti-feudal and anti-imperialist character, the national- liberation struggle,
after the Second World War, is taking place under the new international and
internal political conditions, which determine its higher level and its more
successful results. The new features consist in the fact that this struggle is
a part of the general struggle between the camp of democracy and the camp of
reaction, embracing the entire world and is taking place “in a situation marked
by a further aggravation of the general crisis of capita1ism, the weakening of
the forces of capitalism and the strengthening of the forces of Socialism and
democracy.” (Declaration of the Informative Conference of Representatives of a
number of Communist Parties: from For A
Lasting Peace, For A People’s Democracy!
November 10, 1947). It is taking place under the hegemony of the
proletariat, an expression of which is the leading role of the Chinese
Communist Party, which unites broader masses of the toilers and the
intermediary classes representing the interests of the overwhelming sections of
the Chinese people and is taking place under conditions of a sharp change in
the co-relation of forces between democracy and reaction in favour of democracy
over the entire world, and in particular, in China.
The fact that the
liberation movement in China is developing in direct struggle against the
bulwark of international reaction—American imperialism—is an expression of this
first distinctive feature. Any military, political, economic and ideological
victory of the united national democratic front led by the Communist Party of
China is a defeat, and a weakening of American imperialism and of the camp of
reaction which serves it.
It is not
surprising that the heroic people’s liberation struggle of the Chinese people
evokes the admiration, sympathy and moral support of all democratic progressive
elements over the entire world and is also an expression of the ties of the
Chinese people’s liberation movement with the general struggle of the world
camp of democracy.
The Chairman of
the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Tse-tung had spoken with pride of these ties:
“The great People’s Democratic Revolution in China which is being carried out
under the leadership of the Communist Party of China is an integral part of the
forces of the international anti-imperialist camp.” (Mao Tse-tung:
“Revolutionary Forces of the World Rally to Combat Aggression”—For A Lasting Peace, For A People’s Democracy! November 1, 1948)
In leading the
struggle of the Chinese people against the fierce aggression of American
imperialism the Chinese Communist Party emerges as the true defender of the
independence and sovereignty of China as distinct from the reactionary
Kuomintang Government “which has betrayed the fatherland and the interests of
the people.” (Ibid.)
The fact of the
hegemony of the proletariat in the national liberation movement of the Chinese
people finds its expression in the leading role of the Chinese Communist Party.
The policy of the Communist Party played a tremendous role in the change which took
place in China in the period of the Second World War in the co-relation of
forces between democracy and reaction. The consistent Marxist- Leninist policy
of the Communist Party not only helped the Chinese people to hold out in the
war against Japan and smash the designs of reaction and of American imperialism
after the war, but also led to a recognition by the majority of the Chinese
people of the democratic programme, advanced by the Chinese Communist Party as
the only correct path leading to the liberation of the country from imperialist
chains and the feudal fetters and towards the building of an independent, free,
democratic, united, prosperous and
strong China.
In the words of
Mao Tse-tung, “The Communist Party of China is a Party built on the example of
the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)” (Ibid.) It widely utilised the revolutionary experience accumulated
by the Russian Bolsheviks and in its activities is guided by the strategy and
tactics of the revolutionary struggle elaborated by the great leaders of the
world proletariat—Lenin and Stalin. Its policy has from the very beginning been
based upon Leninist teaching on imperialism and on the distinctive featu.res of
the revolution in colonial and dependent countries. The works of Stalin in
particular his works on the Chinese question were of great significance in the
task of formulating a correct Marxist-Leninist policy of the Communist Party.
In his works, Comrade Stalin, on the basis of a profound theoretical analysis
of the situation in China defined the distinctive features of the Chinese
Revolution and brilliantly foresaw the
course of its development and noted the conditions under which it could be
successful.
The most important
among these conditions, pointed out by Comrade Stalin, is the observance of the
general diactica1 principles of Leninism, which have been formulated with
exceedingly great clarity and simplicity in the work, “Comment on Current
Affairs”.
“1. The principle of the
necessity of taking into account the national peculiarities and the national
characteristics of each nation ....
“2. The principle of
the necessity for the Communist Party in every country to utilising the
smallest possibility of securing mass allies for the proletariat, even if they
are temporary, vacillating, wavering or unreliable.
“3. The principle of
the necessity of taking into account the troth that propaganda and agitation
alone are not enough for the political education of millions of the masses, but
that this demands the political experience of the masses themselves.” (J. V.
Stalin: Comment on Current Affairs as
quoted by Chen Po-ta in Stalin and the
Chinese Revolution—China Digest, No. 7, 1949)
A most brilliant
example of the application of these principles is the post-war policy of the
Chinese Communist Party.
In the consistent
change in the tactical slogans of the Communist Party we see how in the measure
of the broad masses acquiring experience, in the measure of the entire Chinese
people understanding the reactionary and treacherous character of Kuomintang dictatorship
and the aggressive designs of American imperialism, the Party rallied the broad
masses of the toilers and the entire Chinese people for a still more decisive
struggle against them and on the basis of this strengthened the united
democratic front and won newer and newer successes.
As has been
pointed out above, during the war period the activities of the Party were built
on the basis of the programme of New Democracy and in particular of its
specific programme, that are perse from the necessity of consolidating a united
front of struggle against Japanese aggression. It was this very same programme
by which the Communist Party was guided during the negotiations with the
Kuomintang with the “mediation” of the USA till April-May, 1946.
Such a position
was caused by the circumstance that the broad masses of the toilers of China,
after eight years of an exhausting war against Japan, yearned for Peace and
hoped that the democratic re- organisation
of China and an improvement in the conditions of the masses could be achieved
by an agreement between the Communist Party and the Kuomintang. And though it was clear to the Communist Party even
immediately after the beginning of the negotiations that it was impossible to
achieve an agreement with Kuomintang reaction, which aimed at retaining its
dictatorship, a change in programme in this period would have been mistaken and
would have meant isolation from the masses. It was necessary to give the masses
an opportunity of being convinced through their own experience that their hopes
were unreal, that the task of the democratic re-organisation of China could not
be solved through an agreement with reaction and with American imperialism.
As is well-known,
all the attempts of the Communist Party to reach an agreement with the
Kuomintang failed. Kuomintang reaction, inspired by American aid, passed over
to the offensive against democracy and started the conflagration of an
unprecedented civil war. The anti-popular character of reaction, as well as the
real aims of American “mediation” became clear to everybody.
Under these
conditions, the programme of New Democracy in its former form ceased to
correspond to the political situation inside the country and needed to be
revised. A proof of this was the change in the mood of the broad masses and was
expressed in the mighty agrarian movement among the peasantry of the liberated
regions, “which having lost hope of realisation of their” aspirations began
spontaneously to carry out the agrarian reform from below. In conformity with
this, in May, 1946, the Communist Party adopted the decision on the
introduction of agrarian reform on the basic of a partial confiscation of land
from the landlords in the form of the so-called “settling of account” with the
malicious landlords, who had exploited the peasants and misappropriated their
land.
The worsening of
the condition of the peasants, the workers and the intelligentsia, the petty
and the middle bourgeoisie on the territory controlled by the Kuomintang, as a
result of an intensification of the economic crisis caused by the civil war and
American expansion also led to an enormous increase in dissatisfaction against
the Kuomintang regime and to the growth of the mass movement of the peasants,
the workers, the students and the urban poor.
Not being in a
position to cope up with the economic crisis Kuomintang reaction, relying on
the unlimited support from USA alongside the civil-war, resorted to a policy of
terror and suppression of the discontent of the masses by armed force and took
the course of completely exterminating every democratic movement.
In the face of the
civil war and the furious offensive of reaction, the Communist Party had to
adopt determined measures for a defence of the democratic gains and for giving
a rebuff to reaction by deepening and an extending of the democratic movement
and satisfying the most urgent needs of the masses, strengthening of the army
and implementation of measures to undermine the economic and political base of
reaction.
With these aims,
the Communist Party not only forced the passing of agrarian reform and the
transfer of landlords’ land to the peasants, but even put forward more resolute
tasks:
1. The complete liquidation of the
economic basis of the landlord class and the kulaks supporting it—which was the
support of reaction in China.
2. The liquidation of the economic
base of monopoly capital, which headed reaction.
3. The defeat of the reactionary
regime of Kuomintang dictatorship.
4.
A
resolute struggle against American imperialism which inspired its agent
reaction, and the liquidation of their economic positions in China.
All these tasks
confronted Chinese democracy gradually and in the measure of the sharpening of
the struggle against reaction, they were more and more dearly placed before the
masses by the Communist Party.
The development of
the policy of the Communist Party of China for the last 3–4 years shows how the
Chinese Communists gradually, step by step, oh the basis of the political
experience of the masses themselves led by the Chinese people to an
understanding of the necessity of overthrowing the Kuomintang regime, of
liquidating the economic base of the feudal classes and of the struggle against
American imperialism.
In this respect,
the events in the period from August 1945, to August, 1947 were a particularly
serious political school for the broad masses of the Chinese people. During
these two years, the masses were convinced about the impossibility of a
democratic reorganisation of the country and of liberation from imperialist
oppression through agreement with reaction. Moreover it was precisely in this
period that the anti-popular treacherous character of the dictatorship of the
landlords and the big bourgeoisie, its complete conversion into a puppet or
American imperialism was expressed particularly sharply. Having learnt from
their own experience that the domination of American imperialism and internal
reaction threatens China with being converted into an American colony and a big
military springboard in Asia and being convinced at the same time through the
example of the liberated regions about the correctness of the policy of the Communists, the broad
popular masses all over China rallied still more closely around the Chinese
Communist Party and unreservedly supported the political and economic tasks in
the sphere of democratic changes in China advanced by it.
The rallying of
the broad masses of the Chinese people for the carrying out of these tasks is
the clearest example of the hegemony of the proletariat and the leading role of
the Chinese Communist Party and the all-conquering power of the teachings of
Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin.
The fact of the
increase in membership of the Communist Party from 1,210,000 in 1945 to 3
million in 1948 testifies to the tremendous growth in the influence of the
ideas and authority of the Communist Party.
Thanks to its
policy of struggle against American imperialism and internal reaction, directed
towards the defence of the interests of the toilers, the Communist Party won
tremendous authority not only in the liberated regions, but also among the
broad masses of the working people all over
China.
The leading role
of the Communist Party was recognised not only by the working masses of China
but also by the petty and even the middle bourgeoisie. “The aggression of
American Imperialism, the oppression of Chiang Kai-shek and the correct policy
of our Party, directed towards resolute defence of the interests of the masses
of the people—all this has contributed to our Party acquiring the sympathy of
the broad masses of the working class, the peasantry, the petty, and the middle
bourgeoisie in the regions where Chiang Kai-shek governs.” (Mao Tse-tung:
Speech of 25-12-1947 from the collection “Very Important Documents…” Harbin, 1948)
Their recognition
of the leading role of the Communist Party is a result of the tremendous
successes achieved by the people’s liberation movement under its leadership.
Mao Tse-tung, in his speech of
December 25, 1947 said:
“Our new democratic
revolutionary united front today has a broader base and is more consolidated
than ever before. This is the result not only of our agrarian policy and policy
in relation to the urban population. It is also the result to a great extent of
the general political situation characterised by the victories of the People’s
Liberation Army and by the new period
of upsurge of the Chinese
Revolution. The people now see that the downfall of the Kuomintang is
inevitable and they are, therefore, placing all their hopes on the Chinese
Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army.” (Mao Tse-tung: Report to the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of China—For A Lasting Peace, For A
People’s Democracy! January 15, 1948).
The close rallying
of the broad masses of the Chinese people into a united democratic front under
the firm leadership of the Communist Party is an expression of the post-war
alignment of class forces over the entire world which is characterised not only
by polarisation but even by a further change in the co-relation of forces in
favour of democracy.
The victories of
the Soviet people achieved in the war against German Fascism and Japanese
imperialism were of decisive significance in the change of co-relation of
forces between the camp of democracy and of reaction. These victories not only
increased immeasurably the international role of the USSR but also the changes
of the victory of democratic forces in the countries enslaved by Fascism and in
the whole world.
Contrary to the
calculations of imperialist circles and in the first instance of the USA and
Great Britain, who relied on weakening the USSR and all the democratic forces
during the war period, the forces of the democratic camp headed by the USSR
grew immeasurably. This was a direct consequence of the military, political and
economic victories of the Soviet people, proving the tremendous superiority of the Socialist
system and strongly discredited the capitalist system
in the eyes of the working masses.
These
circumstances as well as the general weakening of the camp of imperialism
during the war period could not but assist to a tremendous extent in the
consolidation of the democratic forces in China, their unification and their
close rallying together.
This international
factor, which was manifested in the weakening of the positions of imperialism
in China .and consequently also in a weakening of the position of the
Kuomintang as an imperialist agent, played a very important role in changing
the co-relation of forces between democracy and reaction at the end of the war.
The defeat dealt by the Soviet troops to the Japanese occupation army on
Chinese territory played a big role in this. The defeat by the Soviet Army of
the Japanese war machine, the entry of Soviet troops into Manchuria and the
liquidation of Japanese occupation power helped the Chinese working masses to
set up their people’s power and transform Manchuria into the main supporting
base of the democratic movement.
The victorious
offensive of the Soviet Army in August, 1945 on Manchuria also created the
conditions for a passing over by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army into the
counter-offensive against the Japanese and for the liberation of considerable
territory and a number of big centres in North and Central China.
Thus, the
victories of the Soviet Army over German Fascism and Japanese imperialism were
a decisive factor in changing the co-relation of forces in China, the most
important pre-requisite for strengthening the camp of democracy and its
preponderance over the camp of reaction. This fact has also been noted by the
leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Tse-tung and Chu Teh. Mao Tse-tung
in his article on “The Dictatorship of People’s Democracy” points out:
“Had there been no
Soviet Union, had there been no victory in the anti-Fascist Second World War,
had Japanese imperialism not been defeated—which is particularly important for
us (i.e. for China—G.A.) had none of these factors existed, then the pressure of
the international
reactionary forces would, of
course, have been much stronger than it is today. Would we have been able to
achieve victory in those circumstances?” asks Mao Tse-tung and replies categorically “of course, not.” (Mao Tse-tung:
The Dictatorship of People’s Democracy from
For A Lasting Peace, For A People’s Democracy! July 15, 1949)
Chu Teh in his speech at the
inauguration of the movement Friendship Society, said:
“Without the Soviet
Union, without the victory of the anti-Fascist forces during the Second World
War headed by the Soviet Union and without the unparalleled growth during the
last four years of the international democratic camp of the world headed by the
Soviet Union— the Chinese Revolution would not have won its present great and
speedy victory and the consolidation of victory, even when won would be
impossible.” (General Chu Teh’s speech at the Inauguration of Sino-Soviet
Friendship Society: from ISJ (August
19, 1949)
A realisation of
the advantages gained by the democratic camp in China as a result of the
victory of the USSR in the war and the consolidation of the world camp of
democracy required still considerable time for the creation of internal
political conditions necessary for a complete defeat of reaction and for
inflicting a defeat on American imperialism. This time was utilised not only
for repulsing the attack of reaction but also for the consolidation of the
democratic regime, accumulation of forces and then for the creation of a
decisive turn in the civil war and the going over of the People’s Liberation
Army into a determined counter-offensive. In this respect a tremendous role was
played by the correct policy of the Communist Party, which was directed towards
helping the masses, to arrive through their own consciousness, to an
understanding of the necessity of a decisive struggle against reaction and
imperialism, and to an understanding of the need for basic changes in the
political and economic sphere.
The victory of the
USSR, the strengthening of the world democratic camp, the favourable post- war
disposition of class forces in China and the correct Marxist-Leninist policy of
the Communist Party led to the fact that the national-liberation movement of
the Chinese people was strengthened, deepened and transformed into a genuine
people’s liberation movement into a united anti-Japanese national front, into a
united democratic national front.
This signifies not
only an increase in the might of the democratic camp and in its chances of
victory in the struggle against reaction but also the transition of the
democratic movement of the Chinese people to a higher stage, whose
characteristic feature is the struggle for People’s Democracy, for the creation
of the pre-requisites for a transition to Socialism.
The clearest
expression of the fact of the transition to a struggle for People’s Democracy
was to be found in the slogan of the Chinese Communist Party on the basic
questions of the strategy and tactics of the struggle. In place of the slogan
of struggle against imperialism and feudal remnants, a slogan which expressed
the former disposition of class forces and the direction of the main blow, the
Communist Party towards the end of 1947 put forward the slogan of struggle
against imperialism, feudalism and big capital.
In conformity with
the change in the main strategic line, there was a change in the formulation
and in the content of the question of the character of power within the
Coalition Government. While the programme of New Democracy permitted the
possibility of a sharing of power with the Kuomintang, i.e. with the big
bourgeoisie and even with the landlords and demanded merely the abolition of
their dictatorship, the present programme, reflecting the new co-relation of
class forces and rallying the broad popular masses around the Communist Party
resolutely adopted the course of concentrating decisive power in the hands of
the working class, supported by a close alliance with the toiling peasantry.
Hence, the line of
excluding all reactionary parties, groups and elements from the composition of
the Coalition Government.
A broad definition
of the general line of the Chinese Communist Party at the present stage was
given by Mao Tse-tung in his speech to the cadres of the Shensi-Suiyuan
liberated area.
“What is the general
line of the Communist Party? It is a line of the New Democratic Revolution of
the great masses of the people, led by the working class against imperialism,
feudalism and bureaucratic capital.” (Mao Tse-tung: Address to Cadres of Shensi-Suiyuan
Liberated Area)
This revolution
must lead to the creation of a Chinese People’s Democratic Republic and a
democratic Coalition Government representing “the joint sovereign rule of all
the democratic classes.” (Mao Tse-tung, ibid.)
In the New Year
appeal of the Communist Party which contains the conditions for peace with
Kuomintang the People’s Democratic character of New China is defined still more
clearly.
“The Chinese people
under the leadership of the Communist Party, are demanding a genuine democratic
peace that will ensure the end of the old regime and the birth of a new
People’s Democratic China, where the decisive power will be in the hands of the
working class, firmly allied to the peasantry.” And further, “This means
overthrowing the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang throughout the country and
establishing a republic of the People’s Democratic Dictatorship over the entire
country under the leadership of the proletariat with an alliance of the workers
and peasants as the main body. (People’s
Age, 23-1-1949)
In the economic
sphere, the present programme of Chinese democracy instead of the former policy
of lowering rents and interests on loans and the extremely general Sun Yat-sen
slogan of “to every ploughman, his field”, has, posed the question of wide agrarian
reform and even carried it out.
In, its resolution
of 10th October, 1947, the Central Committee of the Communist Party
put forward the slogan of a change in the agrarian system of China which was
“the main obstacle in the democratisation, industrialisation, independence,
unity and prosperity of our country.” (Decree of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of China 10-10-1947 “Very Important Documents….”, Harbin, 1948)
The resolution
demanded the implementation of the draft of the draft of the agrarian law
adopted on September 13, 1947, by the National Agrarian Conference which was
summoned at the initiative of the Communist Party. This law is of tremendous
importance not only as a measure directed towards the solution of the agrarian
question, but also as the first legislative Act of Chinese democracy undertaken
on a nationwide scale. The law envisages the confiscation of the landed
property of the landlords, temples, monasteries, schools, institutions and
organisations and also the means of production from the landlords and their
surplus from the kulaks.
The confiscated
land is distributed among the landless peasants and peasants with little land
in accordance with the quality of the land. Land is received on an equal basis
by all the dwellers in the countryside, irrespective of sex and age and
excluding the betrayers, the traitors to the country and the war-criminals. The
landlords, the kulaks, their families and also the families of the officials of
the Kuomintang apparatus, the officers and soldiers of the Kuomintang army who
live in villages and are engaged in agriculture and are not guilty of any
crimes, also receive land.
The means of
production confiscated from the landlords and the kulaks are distributed among
the needy peasants and other poor peasants. The land and the means of
production received by the peasants are the private property of their new
owners and can be sold and in some cases even leased on rent. The property and
the legal operations of the industrialists and the traders are not subject to
confiscation and are safeguarded by 1aw.
The organs, which
carry out the agrarian reform are the peasants’ and poor peasants’ meetings and
committees and also the canton and district and other territorial conferences
of the peasants and their committees.
The importance of
this law lies not only in the confiscation of landlords’ land and the means of
production, but also in the complete breakup of all land, relationships in the
countryside, which will exclude a return to the old forms of land-ownership.
The agrarian
reform which has been carried out on the territory of the liberated regions was
of the greatest importance in the task of rallying the main section of the
Chinese population—the peasantry— around the Communist Party.
As a result of
this reform the land question was already solve or one hundred million peasants
who received land and the means of production and raised their living standard
and productivity of labour considerably, in Manchuria alone, six million
landless peasant households or households with little land (i.e., 24-30 million people) received 50
million mu (more than 3 million
hectares) of land, 400,000 heads of cattle, agricultural implements and grain.
The landlords and
kulaks completely lost their economic monopoly on the means of production and
the possibility of exploiting the peasants on this territory and besides, also
lost their political influence which consolidated very greatly the rear of the liberated regions.
The peasantry
under the Kuomintang regime and the soldiers of the Kuomintang armies which for
the most part comprised of landless poor peasants, saw in concrete example, the
way out of want. The numerous facts of the mass surrender (as captives) and the
crossing over of Kuomintang soldiers to the sides of the People’s Liberation
Army speak of how their example found a response in their hearts.
In his speech of
1st April, 1948, Mao Tse-tung dwelt specially on the most important question of
the introduction of agrarian reform. Having pointed out that the task of the
agrarian reform is the liquidation of the system of feudal and semi-feudal
exploitation, the satisfaction of the demands for land on the part of the poor
peasants and the agricultural labourers and the development of agricultural
production, Mao Tse-tung emphasises that the agrarian reform can be implemented
only in alliance with the middle peasantry. Without this, the poor peasants and
the farm labourers will be isolated and the reform will suffer a failure.
Hence, alongside satisfying the land hunger of the poor peasants and the farm
labourers, the task of the reform is the satisfaction of the demands of the
middle peasantry and the preservation by them of the allotments of land which
exceed a little the average allotment of land.
After pointing out
that the demand for an equal distribution of the land is not propaganda for
complete equalisation, Mao Tse-tung exposes the policy of equalisation as
wrong, reactionary and backward condemns its supporters. In conclusion, Mao
Tse-tung put before the party and the democratic powers a number of concrete
tasks for the improvement of agricultural production and the organisation of
peasant cooperation on the basis of private property in land and also as
regards the development of industry on the basis of a growth in agricultural
production.
The agrarian
reform is of enormous significance not only from the point of view of
liquidating the political support of reaction and improving the position of the
peasants. It has tremendous economic significance as a factor unleashing the
productive forces of agriculture that have been fettered till now and creates
one of the pre-requisites for the industrialisation of the country and its
transition on to Socialist lines.
The development of
agriculture and industry must create the condition for converting China into an
industrialized country which, in the words of Mao Tse-tung, is the ultimate aim
of a New Democratic Revolution. Besides agrarian reform and the development of
agriculture on the path to collectivisation, the confiscation of bureaucratic
capital is the most important of the economic changes which lay the economic
basis of the system of People’s Democracy.
The monopoly
capital of the Four Families having carried out a centralisation of capital
with quite a high standard of
concentration of production in a number of branches (gained in the war years in
Japanese enterprises in Manchuria and North China)—a centralisation that was
unprecedented for China—created a certain minimum prerequisites for carrying
out big economic changes in the interests of the toilers.
This signifies
that after the confiscation of the property of monopoly capital, which has
already been realised in Manchuria, in North and Central China and is now being
realised in South China, the main and decisive role in the economy of China
will be played by and is already being played by the socialised sector in the
form of State industry, transport and banks. Its specific weight in the various
branches comprises 50-100% and it will be precisely this sector which will
determine the development of the economy of China in the future. This
development will be directed on the path of the greatest increase in the State
socialised sector. The programme of industrial construction set forth in the
report of Jen Pi-
shi,
which envisages as the primary task “the creation of all conditions for the
rapid development of State enterprises, bearing a Socialist character”, can
serve as an example of this.
The Communist
Party of China is already now setting the people a still broader task—to lend a
planned character to the development of the whole national economy and by
increasing the productivity of labour gradually improve the living standards of
the workers and of the people and strengthen in this way the alliance of the
workers and peasants and ensure the role of the town in the leadership of the
countryside and lay the economic foundations for the transition to Socialism.
The gradual implanting of planned foundations in the economy of China is only
possible on the basis of the decisive role of the State-socialised sector,
which represents one of the forms of the emergence of Socialist foundations in
the economy of New China.
The success of the
struggle for People’s Democracy does not signify that all the questions of the
bourgeois-democratic revolution have already been solved in China. The
overthrow of the imperialist rule and the destruction of feudal survivals on an
all-China basis remains as before the urgent and the most important task of the
Chinese democratic movement.
CHAPTER 9
The Military and Political
Successes of People’s Democracy.
The Creation of a
People’s Republic of China.
The rallying of
the broad masses of the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist
Party on the basis of the programme of People’s Democracy put forth by it has
led to the great military successes of the People’s Liberation movement in the
struggle against reaction, for the political transformation of the country and
to the creation of a People’s Republic and also to the considerable
achievements in the sphere of economic construction in the liberated regions.
Having exhausted
the forces of the Kuomintang army by its dogged defence in the first years of
the war the People’s Liberation Army went over to a determined offensive in
September 1947 and completely liberated the territory of Manchuria and having
cleared the whole of Northern China of Kuomintang troops, inflicted the
heaviest defeat on them in the Central plains, appeared on the Yangtse river,
forced it and occupied the biggest political, and economic centres—Nanking,
Wuhan, Nancheng, Shanghai, Changsha and is now waging battles in South China.
As pointed out by
Mao Tse-tung in opening the People’s Political Consultative Conference of China
on October 2, 1949, troops of the People’s Liberation Army numbering several
million men, had reached the area in direct proximity to Formosa and the provinces
of Kwangtung, Kwangsi, Szechwan, Kweichow and Sinkiang and had liberated the
majority of the Chinese people.
In the beginning
of October, 1949, the People’s Liberation Army waged battles on the approaches
to Canton and on October 14, 1949 liberated this important centre of South
China. Another unit of the People’s Liberation Army cleared the whole of the
North-west of Kuomintang troops and liberated Diuha (Sinkiang).
The Kuomintang
army, having lost in the battles for Changchun, Mukden, Tienstsin, Peiping,
Suichow, Nanking, Wuhan and Shanghai a great number of soldiers and officers
and a great part of their equipment, were a1most incapable of resistance. The
People’s Liberation Army which had even earlier under an unfavourable
co-relation of forces inflicted defeat after defeat on the Kuomintang troops is
now in a position to smash the remnants of the Kuomintang army in a short
period.
Under the powerful
blows of the People’s Liberation Army, the reactionary camp is undergoing a
process of internal collapse.
At present the
outcome of the struggle is already pre-determined. It is pre-determined by the
rallying of the Chinese people round the Communist Party and by its firm
determination to attain the victory of democracy; it is pre-determined by the
support to the Chinese people’s liberation movement from the world democratic
camp, of which it is a part and whose strength “is superior to that of the
imperialist camp” (Pravda, Jan. 6,
1948)
It
was this which gave the basis for Mao Tse-tung to declare firmly that
“it will not be long
before all the reactionary Kuomintang forces are finally smashed by the Chinese
people.” (Mao Tse-tung: “Revolutionary Forces of the World Rally to Combat
Imperialist Oppression”—from “For a
Lasting Peace, For a People’s Democracy!” November 1 1948)
The tremendous
successes gained by the democratic forces in China in the political and
military spheres—the unity of the Chinese people under the leadership of the
Chinese Communist Party and the freeing of the greater part of the territory
and population of China from the oppression of reaction, resulted in the
creation tor the first time in the history of China of conditions for national
unification, the achievement of complete independence and for the creation of a
genuinely People’s Democratic structure.
All these tasks
were accomplished by the People’s Political Consultative Conference, which was
summoned in conformity with the proposal of the Communist Party of May 1, 1948,
after long negotiations and consultations with all the democratic parties, groups,
people’s organisations and progressive leaders.
The Conference
opened on November 21, 1949 in Peiping. More than 600 people from 45
organisations representing all the democratic parties and groups of China,
popular organisations, the People’s Liberation Army, various districts and
nationalities as well as Chinese citizens abroad took part in it.
The Conference
proclaimed the formation of the People’s Republic of China and elaborated and
adopted three fundamental constitutional documents—The Organic law of the
Central People’s Government of China, the Statute and the Common Programme of
the People’s Political Consultative Council and also elected the National
Committee of the People’s Political Consultative Council and a Central People’s
Government Council.
The leader of the
Communist Party, Mao Tse-tung, was elected as the Chairman of the Government
Council and of the National Committee of the People’s Political Consultative
Council.
The Conference
also adopted a decision that the capital of People’s Republic was to be Peking
(in Chinese—Peiping) and confirmed the Red Flag with five golden stars as the
National Flag and adopted a provisional national anthem (March of the
Volunteers) and the solar calendar (in place of the former lunar one).
The People’s
Government Council on October 1, 1949 published a People’s declaration—signed
by Mao Tse-tung—on the creation of a Central Government, on the adoption of a
common programme of the People’s Consultative Council as the political
programme of the Government and on the creation of organs of Government and the
nomination of:
CHOU
EN-LAI: The Prime Minister of the State and Minister for Foreign Affairs. MAO
TSE-TUNG: Chairman of the National People’s Revolutionary War Council. CHU-THE:
Commander-in-Chief of the People’s Liberation Army.
SHEN CHUN-JU:
Chief Justice of the People’s Supreme Court.
LO
JUAN-HYAN: Procurator-General of General People’s Procuracy.
At the same time,
the Government announced in its declaration that it was the only lawful
Government, representing the entire People’s Republic of China and pointed out
that it was prepared to establish diplomatic relations with any foreign
Government which would observe the principles of equality, mutual advantage and
mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, break off
relationship with Kuomintang reaction and take up a friendly position towards
the Republic.
The proclamation
of the People’s Republic of China was the victorious cu1mination of the long
and dogged struggle waged by the democratic forces of China against the united
forces of internal reaction and international imperialism which always acted in
conjunction with each other. It crowned the 28 years’ heroic struggle of the
Communist Party of China, which from its very foundation was the inspirer and
organiser of the national liberation struggle of the Chinese people. It was at
the same time a clear demonstration of the all-conquering forces of
Marxist-Leninist teachings and a new and very powerful blow to imperialism and
a new defeat for the camp of world reaction and the instigators of war.
It is not
surprising that the birth of the new People’s Republic evoked tremendous
enthusiasm and happiness not only among the free Chinese people but also in the
entire camp of peace and democracy and among its friends over the entire world.
The Soviet Union
which has invariably followed the struggle of the Chinese people with warm
sympathy was the first to respond to the formation of the People’s Republic of
China and in greeting it, rendered the new Republic tremendous moral support by
establishing diplomatic relations with it, which was declared in the Note of
the Soviet Government of October 2, 1949.
After the Soviet
Union, in the course of 3-4 days, the People’s Republic of China was recognised
by Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Rumania, Korea and the Mongolian
People’s Republic.
The people of all
these New Democratic Republics greeted warmly the creation of a People’s
Republic of China, as a fact of the enormous strengthening of the international
camp of democracy and peace, headed by the Soviet Union.
After the
incorporation of the 475 million Chinese people in it, the camp of democracy
and peace within the limits of the State boundaries of the USSR and the
People’s Democracies alone unites one- third of the population and nearly
one-fourth of the territory of the entire globe (excluding the vast number of
the supporters of the democratic camp in the capitalist countries and many
hundreds of millions of the population of the colonial and dependent countries,
oppressed by imperialism who are also close to the camp of peace and democracy).
The expression of
the united sovereign will of the Chinese people, which was manifested in the
fact of the proclamation of the People’s Republic inflicted a very powerful
blow to the machinations of international reaction and led to a further
disintegration of its camp.
The Chinese people
as a result of their heroic struggle, under the leadership of the Communist
Party have already achieved independence and freedom, howsoever much the worst
enemies of progressive mankind—the American imperialists—and their
proteges—burnt with malice and attempted
to
hinder it. The People’s Republic of China, with the support of the democratic
forces of the whole world, headed by the USSR occupies a worthy place in the
family of nations.
“The Chinese nation”,
as Mao Tse-tung pointed out, “will henceforth join the big family of peace and
freedom-loving nations of the world.” (Pravda
of the 23-9-1949)
CHAPTER 10
The
Distinctive Features of the System of Chinese People’s Democracy.
As in the
countries of Eastern Europe, the system of People’s Democracy developing in
China is laying basis “for a transition to a Socialist path of development.” (Pravda, 22-10-1947)
Comrade Zhdanov in
characterising the distinctive features of the People’s Democratic system,
pointed out:
“The new democratic
governments….. backed by the mass of the people, were able within a minimum
period to carry through such progressive democratic reforms as bourgeois
democracy is no longer capable of effecting. Agrarian reforms turned over the
land to the peasants and led to the elimination of the landlord class.….
Together with this, the foundation was laid of government, national ownership
and a new type of Sate was created—the People’s Republic, where the power
belongs to the people, where large-scale industry, transport and the banks are
owned by the State and where a bloc of the labouring classes of the population
headed by working class, constitute the leading force.” (A Zhdanov: “The International Situation”— Report at
the Informative Conference of Representatives of a number of Communist Parties:
from For a Lasting Peace, For a People’s Democracy! November 10, 1947)
In his report to
the Fifth Congress of the Bulgarian Workers’ Party (Communists) on 19th
December, 1948, Comrade Dimitrov, in taking into account the experience of the
development of People’s Democracy in Eastern Europe noted that the transition
from capitalism to Socialism through the system of People’s Democracy is being
realised in the process of—
(1) A struggle against all attempts
and tendencies on the part of the exploiting classes aimed at re- establishing capitalist
order and bourgeois rule;
(2) Ceaseless class struggle against
the capitalist elements for their complete liquidation;
(3) Cooperation and friendship with
the USSR;
(4) Active participation in the
struggle of the united anti-imperialist camp against the attempts of the
imperialist camp, headed by USA, to unleash a new world war and impede the
building of Socialism and Communism.
Hence, it follows
that the system of People’s Democracy is not something unchanging, and given
once for all. It is developing both economically and politically on the basis
of a struggle between the contradictions, which already lie in it in the form
of the various classes and economic systems. But owing to the fact that the
system of People’s Democracy fulfils the functions of the dictatorship of the
proletariat, this development is directed towards the strengthening of
Socialist elements and is taking place not at once but gradually and under
conditions of a fierce class struggle. The history of the development of the
countries of People’s Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe provides a
graphic example of this.
The experience of
the People’s Democracies in Europe and also the foregoing analysis of the
economic and political situation in China provide a key to both an
understanding of the distinctive
features
of People’s Democracy in China at the present stage as well as the path of its
further development.
The political,
economic changes carried out over the territory of the liberated regions show
that the main and fundamental features of People’s Democracy have already been
realised over the territories of the liberated areas of China. It is above all
the power of the people, the power of the toilers, with the guarantee of the
leading role of the working class and its Party.
Till the
convocation of a People’s Political Consultative Conference and the formation
of the People’s Republic of China, the highest organs of power in the
territories of the liberated areas were the National and Political Councils,
elected by the entire population on the basis of general, direct, and equal
election rights and secret ballot.
The People’s
Political Councils possessed legislative and administrative rights within the
bounds of their territory, appointed and controlled the executive organs of
power in the form of the administrative committees of the liberated regions,
the district heads, the village elders and the urban municipalities. The
confidence of the people, the tremendous authority among the masses guaranteed
to the Chinese Communist Party a leading role both in the People’s Political
Councils as well as the executive organs of power through which the Communist
Party carried into practice its programme of People’s Democracy.
In the liberated
areas, a radical agrarian reform was accomplished by depriving not only the
landlords but even the kulaks of land and the means of production and by
transferring them into the hands of the working peasantry (its economic and
political results have been described above).
In the measure of
the liberation of the industrial regions by the People’s Liberation Armies the
transfer of big industry, banks and transport, which were in the hands of
foreign imperialism and monopoly capital of the “Four Families” to the State
and their conversion into public property was achieved.
In defining the
main economic distinctive features of the system of People’s Democracy in
China, Mao Tse-tung points out:
“The economy of new
China comprises of (1) State economy which is the leading element; (2)
Agriculture, which is developing gradually from the individual to the
collective path;
(3) the economy of independent,
small artisans and traders and the economy of petty and medium private capital.
All these comprise national economy as a whole in the New Democratic system.”
(Mao Tse-tung: Speech on Dec. 25, from Very
Important Documents…. Harbin, 1948).
Thus, as a system
laying the basis for a transition to the path of Socialist development, the
system of People’s Democracy in China is in principle no different from the
States of People’s Democracy in the West.
This is manifest
with special clarity from the political documents adopted by the People’s
Political Consultative Conference and in particular from the Common Programme
of the People’s Political Consultative Council, which contains the main
principles underlying the People’s Republic of China. There were no doubts
whatsoever among those who participated in the Conference and represented the
will of the peoples of the whole of China that People’s Democracy represents a
transitional form of development of China along the path of Socialism (Chou
En-lai’s speech of September 22, 1949: Pravda).
This is reflected in all the chapters of the Common Programme without any exception.
The introduction
of the Programme in defining the essence of the dictatorship of People’s
Democracy as a form of State power of the People’s Democratic United Front,
points out that People’s Democracy will be the political foundation for
national construction of the People’s Republic of China.
Chapter I, General Principles, defines the People’s
Republic of China as a People’s Democratic State. It realises the People’s
Democratic dictatorship headed by the working class and based on an alliance of
the workers and peasants and unites all democratic classes, all China’s national
minorities and wages a struggle against imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic
capital.
The Programme sets
forth as the main tasks of the People’s Republic of China—the abolition of all
the prerogatives of imperialism in China, the confiscation of bureaucratic
capital for ownership by the People’s State, the carrying out of agrarian
reform, the safe-guarding of the public property of the State and the property
of cooperatives, the development of national economy and transforming the
country from an agricultural to an industrial
country,
While guaranteeing
election and other political rights to the people and declaring equal rights in
all spheres for women as well as the equality of rights and duties for all the
nationalities of China, the programme especially envisages the suppression of
counter-revolutionary activities and depriving the reactionary elements, feudal
landlords, representatives of bureaucratic capital and of the capitalists in
general, of political rights.
The generally
declared principles of the programme also include the solemn declaration that
the People’s Republic of China unites with all the peace-loving and
freedom-loving countries and first of all with the Soviet Union for a struggle
against imperialist aggression and for peace.
Chapter II: Organs of State Power, points out that
State power belongs to the people and is exercised by the people through
People’s Congresses elected by universal suffrage and the organs of People’s
power elected by the latter at all levels. The All-China People s Congress is
the supreme legislative organ of State power, and the executive—the Central
People’s Government, elected by the All- China People’s Congress.
Pending the
convocation of the All-China People’s Congress, its functions are carries out
by the People’s Political Consultative Council which, after the convocation of
the People’s Congress will continue to remain as a consultative organ,
representing the People’s Democratic front.
The Programme
envisages that in all the newly liberated areas, initially State power is to be
exercised through the military authorities of the People’s Liberation Army,
through military control committees and then gradually passed on to the local
conferences of the representatives of all circles. Elections in local Peoples
Congresses are conducted in these areas only after the carrying out of agrarian
reform and after the organisation of the population i.e., after the liquidation of the economic dependence of the
population in the landlords and other reactionary elements. The basis for the
building of all organs of power is the principle of democratic centralism.
The Programme
points out that all Kuomintang laws, oppressing the people will be abolished
and laws, protecting the interests of the people will be enacted. A people’s
judicial system and supervisory organs will be created, where the people can
approach any State institution with grievances.
In Chapters I and
II, the political distinctive features, of People’s Democracy, as a genuine
people’s power, a power of the working people operating in the interests of the
people and ensuring the complete safeguarding of social interests, find full
expression.
Chapter III,
Military System envisages, the creation of unified armed forces, uniting the
People’s Liberation Army and the People’s Public Security Forces, a system of
political education of officers and fighters in revolutionary and patriotic
spirit, the modernisation of the army, the creation of an Air Force and a navy,
the introduction of a system of People’s Militia and also preparation for the
enforcement of obligatory military service. It also envisages the drawing in of
the armed forces during peace time in the work of agriculture and industry.
Chapter IV, Economic Policy, reflects the special
economic features of the system of People’s Democracy and the fact that it
comprises of more than one system. It enumerates five sectors of economy:
cooperative, private peasant, private capitalist-artisan and the sector of
State capitalism. In enumerating their special features, the programme points
out that the leading role belongs to the sector of State economy, which bears a
Socialist character and unites all the enterprises which are of important
significance for the country’s economy. They constitute public property and are
the material basis and the leading force in the entire social economy. It is
through the medium of the sector of the State-economy that the State will be
able to carry out the leadership of the remaining sectors.
The programme
envisages encouragement to the development of natural sciences and scientific-
historic outlook to the study and interpretation of social sciences, the
utilisation of literature and art in the interests of the people, the
introduction of universal education, the development of technical education and
the revolutionary and political education of young and old-style intellectuals.
Freedom of reporting true news is safeguarded and the utilisation of the Press
to undermine the interests of the people is
prohibited.
Chapter VI: Policy Towards Nationalities envisages
the equality of all nationalities and the establishment of regional autonomy in
the regions where national minorities are congregated.
Chapter VII: Foreign Policy points out that the
principle of the foreign policy of the People’s Republic of China is not only
the safeguarding of the independence and sovereignty of the country, but also
support of universal peace and the struggle against in1perialist policy of aggression
and war.
The foregoing
principles of the programme show that in all its sections, beginning with the
political and economic one and ending with the ideological one, it proceeds
above all from the task of ensuring the predominance of public elements in all
branches, from the task of creating a firm basis for the development of China
along the path of public economy.
In this sense, the
Common Programme of the PPCC undoubtedly characterises People’s Democracy of
China as a system laying the basis for a transition to Socialism.
In China, the
People’s Democratic system is being created in fierce armed struggle against
the combined forces of domestic reaction and foreign imperialism, which still
retain control over a part of the country. In a backward semi-colonial country,
with the numerous survivals of feudalism in the economic, political, and
ideological superstructures, this cannot but give rise to a certain peculiarity
and certain special features in the process of its development.
The most important
task of People’s Democracy in China in these conditions is the rapid
development of productive forces and in particular industry which will
liquidate economic backwardness and create the conditions for a going over from
small, scattered producers to large mechanised production, and prepare the
economic pre-requisites for a transition to Socialism.
People’s Democracy
in China cannot but reckon with the necessity of allowing a certain period and
within certain bounds not only the existence but even the development of
capitalist elements both in
the
town and in the countryside, with the compulsory condition of ensuring the
regulating role of the People’s Democratic State.
On the basis of
this, the Communist Party also defines its tactical line in relation to the
middle and petty bourgeoisie:
“The
petty-bourgeoisie and the middle bourgeoisie, who suffer from oppression and
persecution by the bureaucratic bourgeoisie and the landlord class and their
State power, in spite of the fact that they themselves are also bourgeois
classes can either take part in the new democratic revolution or otherwise
observe neutrality. They are either not connected or are little connected with
imperialism.” (Mao Tse-tung: Speech on December 25, 1947, c.f. Very Important Documents, Harbin, 1948)
With respect to
this, the Communist Party forewarned against a repetition of the “ultra-left”
mistaken policy in relation to the middle and petty bourgeoisie which was
pursued in 1931-34. In the conditions of such a backward, semi-colonial and
semi-feudal country as China.
“apart from the
abolition of the special privileges of imperialism in China, the task of the
new democratic revolution is the abolition of the exploitation and oppression
of the class of landlords and bureaucratic bourgeoisie (big bourgeoisie), a
change in the compradore, feudal productive relationships and the freeing of
all the fettered productive forces.” (Mao Tse-tung, ibid.)
“In view of the
backwardness of Chinese economy, capitalist economy represented by the broad
masses of the petty and the middle bourgeoisie will still continue to exist for
a long time even after the victory of the revolution over the entire country
and we must tolerate it,” says Mao Tse-tung in his speech of 25th December,
1947.
Under the
conditions of the predominance of State public ownership in the main branches
of economy and the gradual going over of agriculture from small scattered
production on to the path of cooperative development,
“the existence and
development of such small and middle capitalist elements does not represent any
danger. The same can be said in respect of the new kulak economy, which
inevitably appears in the countryside after the agrarian revolution.” (Mao
Tse-tung, ibid.)
The necessity of
retaining for a certain period capitalist elements in the economy of People’s
Democratic China is also emphasised by Mao Tse-tung in a recent article—The Dictatorship of People’s Democracy in
which he points out:
“At the present stage
the national bourgeoisie is very important. Imperialism is still with us and it
is a cruel enemy. China will still need a great deal of time to attain real
economic independence.... In order to offset the pressure of the imperialists
and advance the backward economy one step forward, China must make use of every
urban and rural capitalist enterprise which can benefit the national economy
and is not detrimental to the people’s standard of living. China must unite
with the national bourgeoisie in the common struggle. Our present policy is to
restrict capitalism but not to destroy it” But Mao Tse-tung further points out
that the bourgeoisie “cannot occupy a leading position in the State” (Mao
Tse-tung: The Dictatorship of People’s
Democracy—from For A Lasting Peace,
For A People’s Democracy! July 15, 1949)
At present in the
process of the creation of the People’s Democratic system in China, the
national bourgeoisie in the person of the representatives of the bourgeois
liberal parties, groups and individual persons as one of the members of the
National United Democratic Front is taking part in the People’s Political
Consultative Conference and in the National Committee and Central Government of
the People’s Republic of China, elected by it.
This also found
its reflection in the Common Programme of the People’s Political Consultative
Council which envisages the preservation of the economic interests of the
national bourgeoisie, encouragement to the activities of private enterprises,
beneficial to the people and the participation of private capital in the sector
of State capitalism.
The possibility of
the participation of capitalist elements in the development of the economy of
any country in the period of transition from capitalism to Socialism when
private capitalist enterprises are still one of the component parts of economy,
has been proved in the example of Soviet Russia in the NEP period. The
concentration of political power, commanding economic positions in the hands of
the People’s State and the growth of Socialist elements and their struggle
against the capitalist elements is a guarantee against the restoration of the
capitalist order.
Comrade Stalin in
his speech The Programme of the Comintern
on July 5, 1928, defines NEP as a policy of proletarian dictatorship
directed towards
“the overcoming of
capitalist elements and the building of a Socialist economy by way of the
utilisation of the market, through the market and not by way of direct exchange
of products, without the market and apart from the market.”
To the question
whether capitalist countries and even the most developed among them can
dispense with NEP in the period of transition from capitalism to Socialism,
Comrade Stalin replies that they cannot.
“To one or another
extent, the new economic policy with its market connections and the utilisation
of these market connections is absolutely necessary for every capitalist
country in the period of the dictatorship of the proletariat” J. V. Stalin: Collected Works, Russ. Ed. Vol. XI, pp.
144-45).
It is necessary to
a still greater extent for China—an economically backward semi-feudal and
semi-colonial country where the system of People’s Democracy is being created
in the process of a continuous fierce struggle against feudal survivals and
imperialist oppression and where the individual strata of the bourgeoisie
(national bourgeoisie) can still march together with the people on the side of
democracy.
This special
feature has been conditioned by the fact that the building of People’s
Democracy in China is at the same time the period of the completion of the
anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolution. Although this distinguishes
People’s Democracy in China from the People’s Democratic system in the
countries of Central and Eastern Europe, still their basic aims and tasks
coincide.
The emergence of a
People’s Democratic system in a number of countries that have dropped out of
the capitalist system is the most important manifestation of the sharpening of
the general crisis of capitalism. The system of Peoples Democracy creates the conditions
for the gradual transition to Socialism also for the colonial and dependent
countries on the condition of their support to the camp of democracy and
Socialism headed by the Soviet Union. People’s Democracy of China is in this
respect an
inspiring
example for all the colonial peoples and a tremendous stimulus for the
development of their people’s liberation movements.
CHAPTER 11
The Revolutionising Influence of China on Other Oppressed
Peoples of S.E. Asia.
The people’s
liberation movement of the Chinese people through its successes in the struggle
against internal reaction and imperialism, its achievements in the sphere of
democratic changes, economic and cultural construction is exercising tremendous
revolutionising influence on all the oppressed peoples of South East Asia. It
inspires them to carry on a resolute struggle against imperialism for the
achievement of freedom independence and democratic rights.
The peoples of
Indo-China, Burma, Malaya and even Philippines, Indonesia and India, which are
remote from China see in the success of the Chinese people a vivid example of
the fact that the forces of imperialism and domestic reaction can be smashed
provided there is a close unification of the broad masses of the people and a
firm determination to fight to the end. Besides this the Chinese people’s
liberation movement, which in the conditions of a semi-colonial country,
creatively applied the teachings of Lenin and Stalin on the strategy and
tactics in the national and colonial revolution, the directives of Comrade
Stalin on the problems of the Chinese Revolution, and which has profited from
the tremendous experience of the CPSU (B) and on the basis of this achieved its
present successes is itself a vast treasury of revolutionary experience, which
helps all the oppressed peoples of the East in their struggle against
imperialism to choose the correct path, to avoid many mistakes and to achieve
their aims with less losses and in a shorter time.
The experience of
the people’s liberation movement in China shows the oppressed peoples of the
East and in particular, the peoples of South-East Asia that—
1. The People’s Liberation struggle
of the oppressed peoples, which is undermining the forces of the international
imperialist camp, is an integral part of the general struggle of the democratic
camp headed by the great Socialist power and can be crowned with victory only
in close unity with it.
2. The tasks of the struggle against
imperialism and for democracy are not different from one another. It is only in
the struggle against imperialist rule that the masses of people can reach a
solution of the most urgent needs—obtain democratic rights and land. In its
turn, the defeat of imperialism is possible only on the basis of a unification
of the broad masses, the creation of a broad united front, for which satisfaction
of the urgent demands of the masses is necessary. Without this, their
mobilisation to wage a struggle against imperialism, and awakening them to
activity in all the spheres of social life is
impossible.
3. The national bourgeoisie, under
present conditions, is already not in a position to fulfil the role not only of
leader but even of a main partner in the national-liberation movement. Its
leadership of the mass movement leads inevitably to capitulation and agreement
with imperialism at the expense of the masses of people and to its suppressing
the popular movement, jointly with imperialism. It is only the working class
and its vanguard—the Communist Party—which can ensure leadership of the anti-
imperialist movement in the interest of the broad masses of people and
guarantee its success.
4. The realisation of the
aspirations of the people can be attained only through the path of a People’s
Democratic movement, through a transfer of power to the working people and land
to the peasants and the main branches of economy seized by imperialism to the
People’s Democratic State, headed by the proletariat.
While helping to
determine the internal political conditions necessary for ensuring the success
of the people’s liberation movement, the experience of China is also of
tremendous value for an exposure of the aggressive expansionist designs and the
hypocritical false tactics of American imperialism. In the example of China,
they appeared sharply and in relief since American imperialism was compelled
here to act openly and so to speak alone it was not able to conceal itself
behind the openly predatory and crude actions of other imperialist countries
(for example, the Dutch in Indonesia) and to counterpose against them its own
more subtle policy of compromise with the bourgeois and landlord elements of
the national liberation movement. The oppressed peoples of South-East Asia can
easily discern in the example of American policy in China the falsity of every
kind of “peaceful” and “democratic” manoeuvre of American imperialism, which
pursues the interests of reaction. They have always been directed either towards
playing for time in order to consolidate the interests of reaction or for the
masking of a reactionary regime with the help of all possible kinds of
pseudo-democratic forms and institutions of formal bourgeois democracy, without
any change in its reactionary essence.
The close links
between American imperialism and domestic reaction in any country which serves
as its obedient instrument is manifested particularly clearly in the example of
China. Through the example of American political and economic activity in China,
the people can be convinced of the fact that American expansion is directed
towards the conversion of all countries into agrarian and raw material
appendages of the USA, the strengthening of their colonial position, the
predatory exploitation of their resources, the destruction of the existing
production apparatus and productive forces and towards such a deterioration of
the living standards of the working people as they had as yet not experienced
under former colonial regimes.
And what is
specially important is the fact that in the example of China, the oppressed
people see that American imperialism as well as the whole imperialist camp is
not invincible, that even the nations that are weak in their economic
development can be victorious over imperialism if they rally together, unite
and fight, basing themselves on the support of the entire democratic camp.
The Chairman of
the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Tse-tung, pointed out the path to be taken by
the peoples of the East in order to overthrow imperialist yoke.
“All the
anti-imperialist forces of the East must unite against imperialism and the
reactionaries in their countries, and make it the aim of their struggle to
liberate the people of the oppressed East, who number more than a billion. We
must take our destiny into our own hands. We must purge our ranks of all
backward and vacillating elements. All viewpoints that overestimate the
strength of the enemy and underestimate the strength of the people are wrong.
Together with the democratic forces of the whole world, we must exert every
effort and then we shall unquestionably be victorious over the imperialist
plans of enslavement, shall prevent a third world war and thus get rid of the
yoke of the reactionaries and secure the triumph of lasting peace for mankind.”
(Mao Tse-tung: Report to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China—from For A Lasting Peace, For A People’s Democracy!, January 15,
1948)
The growth of the
anti-imperialist struggle in the countries of South-East Asia testifies to the
great influence of the Chinese people’s liberation movement on the oppressed peoples.
The fear of the
imperialists in face of the successes of Chinese democracy is manifest not only
in the enormous military aid of American imperialism to Kuomintang reaction,
but also in the attempts to isolate democratic China and to obstruct the
dissemination of ideas of emancipation.
The interests of
American imperialism coincide in this respect with the interests of British
imperialism which fears for its positions in Malaya, Burma, India; with the
interests of Dutch imperialism
in Indonesia; French imperialism
in Indo-China; with Kuomintang reaction which is relying on American help to
retain its domination even though only in Formosa and with Japanese militarism
and the reactionary elements of the South-East Asian countries.
On this basis,
American imperialism is also attempting to supplement the North Atlantic Pact
by forming a reactionary military alliance of Japan and the countries of
South-East Asia in the form of the Pacific Pact which like the Western-European
Union of its vassals, is directed against the USSR, Chinese Democracy and the
people’s liberation movement of the countries of South-East Asia.
Apart from this,
American imperialism, by seizing in its own hands the control of Japan, South
Korea and a number of islands stretching south along the coast of China and
creating here its military bases is also attempting to accomplish a naval
cordon against democratic China by preventing it from establishing ties with
other oppressed countries and island possessions of the imperialist powers.
*
* *
The historic
victory of the Chinese people is one of the concrete manifestations of the
sharpening of the general crisis of capitalism and in particular, the
sharpening of the crisis of the colonial system;
“World War II
aggravated the crisis of the colonial system, as expressed in the rise of a
powerful movement for national liberation in the colonies and dependencies.
This has placed the real of the capitalist system in jeopardy.”
—A. Zhdanov—“The International
Situation” Report at the Informative Conference of Representatives of a number
of Communist and Workers’ Parties: From
For A Lasting Peace, For A People’s Democracy!, November 10, 1947)
China, with its
population of 475 million which was subjected to the most diverse forms of
semi- colonial exploitation by several of the biggest imperialist powers,
represented a vast part of the imperialist rear. After the Second World War,
the USA had hatched plans to exploit the Chinese market by attempting to solve
at the expense of China its own sharpening internal and external contradictions
and to utilise the Chinese people as cannon fodder for the realisation of the
expansionist plans and plans of preparing for a third world war, cherished by
the American instigators of war.
The victories of
the Chinese people have destroyed these plans of American imperialism root and
branch and, moreover, have demonstrated before our very eyes, the
groundlessness and adventurism of the insane pretensions of the American
monopolies to world domination.
Liberated China
has become an indissoluble and integral part of the invincible camp of Peace,
Socialism and Democracy.
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