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Social character of China and working class

The issue of China, as it was the case for the Soviet Union before the capitalist counter-revolution, is the foremost subject of the revolution of this era. China, which has the world's largest population, is the core target of the U.S.led imperialist camp. For this reason, China, along with the United States, is almost always a key player involved in various conflicts in the world. In this respect, the world working class, which is advancing to the revolution, must accurately understand social character of China and its political motives. Revolutionary and counter-revolutionary barricades are divided around this issue.

We have announced our position on China at every opportunity. The following previously published documents are still valid.

Thoughts on China : Has China already become capitalist?

Our Position on ‘the Protest Against the Transmittal Act’ in Hong Kong

China is neither capitalist nor imperialist/중국은 자본주의가 아니며, 제국주의도 아니다

Review on ‘Marxism 2015’ 1: ‘ChinaSocialism or Capitalism’/맑시즘 2015 참관기 1: ‘중국사회주의인가 자본주의인가?’ 

Controversy over the Social Characteristics of Workers States: Soviet Union, China and North Korea/소련 중국 북한 등 노동자국가들의 사회성격 논쟁

Review on ‘Marxism 2012’ 3: The Rise of China and the Pivot of the United StatesWhither in East Asia?/ 맑시즘 2012’ 참관기 3: ‘중국의 부상과 미국의 귀환동아시아는 어디로?’

(IBT) China: Towards the Brink

(IBT) Political Revolution or CounterrevolutionWhither China?

This writing is to summarize our thoughts on the question of China as of 2022. We submit this document as a proposal for a key platform that the leadership of the new international communist movement should adhere to.

 

<Index>

. From the 1949 Revolution to the 1978 “Reform and Opening-up”

China's birth as a workers’ state/ “New Democracy”: Chinese Class Cooperation/ Class collaboration of Bureaucracy and “socialism in one country”/ Stalin's Check on China: Seeds of Sino-Soviet Conflict/ Fantasy of “Class Coexistence”/ Political consciousness of the United States and the Kuomintang/ Realization of ‘Permanent revolution’/ Outcome of the Revolution/ Three Ways to Improve Productivity/ 1) The First Way to Promote Productivity: Helping Developed Countries by Revolution/ Productive force and Permanent Revolution/ Failing of Follow-up Revolution in Advanced Capitalist Countries/ Sino-Soviet Conflict and Breakdown of Economic Cooperation/ Mao’s Evaluation of the Sino-Soviet Conflict/ Isolated China/ 2) The Second Way to Promote Productivity: ‘Great Leap Forward Movement’/ Catastrophe, Mao's downfall and Right Turn/ Policies of Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping Leadership/ The Cultural Revolution of Mao Zedong Faction/ Deified Authority/ China in a state of panic: Background of the ‘Cultural Revolution’/ Changes in the ‘Three Kingdoms’ relationship/ China Helping the U.S.-made Blockade of the Soviet Union/ Mao's Death and the Power of the Pragmatic Faction/ Road to ‘Reform and Openness’

II. Changes in Chinese society as a result of 'reform and opening up': China's social character as a deformed worker state has not changed.

China and the Left

IV. The duties of the Chinese and global working classes

 

 

. From the 1949 Revolution to the 1978 “Reform and Opening-up”

 

China's birth as a workers’ state

On October 1, 1949, the Communist Party of China(CCP), which won the civil war against the capitalist Kuomintang(KMT) supported by U.S. imperialism, declared the establishment of the People's Republic of China. In this way, another workers’ state was born that abolished private ownership in a vast area where about a quarter of the world's population resides.

 

“New Democracy”: Chinese Class Cooperation

During the period 1925-27, when the violent revolutionary eruption occurred, the CCP was devastated by the disastrous class-cooperative policy of merging with the KMT, losing its urban areas and being chased to the periphery. Since then, the CCP has almost lost its organizational foundation for the urban working class. The political background of its revival was the support of the poor farmers who suffered from barbaric aggression and devastation by Japanese imperialism. Chinese Red Army, solidified during the anti-Japanese national liberation struggle, recruited most of its rank and file from sons and daughters of peasants.

Mao Zedong and the CCP did not envision a socialist revolution to abolish private ownership. The goal was to keep anti-imperialist united front of CCP and KMT even after the liberation from imperialism and move forward to establishing a “joint government of CCP and KMT”, that is a “coalition government of workers and capitalists.” This illusional and catastrophic idea was called “New Democracy.”

 

“But today is not yet the time to introduce socialism. The present task of the revolution in China is to fight imperialism and feudalism, and socialism is out of the question until this task is completed. The Chinese revolution cannot avoid taking the two steps, first of New Democracy and then of socialism.”“China's national bourgeoisie has a revolutionary quality …… because China is a colonial and semi-colonial country which is a victim of aggression.”

“The Chinese democratic republic which we desire to establish now must be a democratic republic under the joint dictatorship of all anti-imperialist and anti-feudal people led by the proletariat, that is, a new-democratic republic, a republic of the genuinely revolutionary new Three People's Principles with their Three Great Policies.”Mao Zedong, January 9, 1940

This “New Democracy,” which resembles Menshevik's idea of the Russian Revolution, was not Mao's original idea. It was a Chinese version of the so-called “socialism in one country” of the Stalinist bureaucracy, a coagulation of the achievements and degeneration of October Revolution.

 

China and its Flag: large star=CCP/ 4 small stars=the proletariat, the peasants, the petty bourgeoisie, and the “patriotic capitalists.

Class collaboration of Bureaucracy and “socialism in one country”

The October Revolution in Russia made the working class the ruling class, but the failure of the subsequent revolutions stagnated its momentum. From that point on, the Bureaucracy consolidated its positon. Moscow's bureaucracy partly overlaps with the interests of the world revolution, but not entirely. Thus, on the one hand the bureaucracy relies on the October Revolution and defend it, but on the other hand, it betrays it and lays the foundation for a counter-revolution. “Socialism in one country” is the coagulation of short-term understanding and contradiction of bureaucracy. It is a theory that subordinates the historical and long-term prospects of the entire working class in each region of the world to the understanding of bureaucrats who emerged from the revolution of one country.

Revolutionary progress of the working class in each region is the most fundamental means of defending the Soviet Union. Sitting on the October Revolution, the Kremlin bureaucracy did not understand that and was obsessed with shortsighted thinking. It was consistent with the response of “discharging one's urine on one's frozen feet.” In order to counter German and Japanese imperialism, which immediately threatened the Soviet border, it took a policy of flattering the US, UK, and French imperialism competing with them. In 1943, it presented the dissolution of Comintern, the communist leadership of the world working class. It forced a class-collaborationist policy that discouraged the revolutionary advancement of the working people of each country and urged them to reconcile with the ruling class of the country.

In the end, class collaboration supported capitalist forces on the brink of collapse and helped to restore them. They soon fought back and destroyed the working class of a certain country, which had revolutionary advance. Under this unfavorable dynamic of forces, Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union eventually suffered a capitalist counterrevolution.

 

Stalin's Check on China: Seeds of Sino-Soviet Conflict

Moscow's Stalinist leadership was rather burdened with the Chinese revolution. The reason was, first, that the Chinese Revolution might provoke the anger of American imperialism, which showed monstrous power in World War II. Second, it was due to bureaucratic concerns that China, like the Tito government of Yugoslavia, might not obey the Stalinist leadership in Moscow after the revolution.

The Stalinist leadership, which advocates the status quo, insisted on forming a joint government with the KMT. It prevented the final aggression, which would be a decisive blow to KMT. They dissuaded the People’s Liberation Army(PLA) from crossing the Yangtze River. This was an event that provided a glimpse of the beginning of the Sino-Soviet conflict as well as how catastrophic the thinking system of the bureaucracy called “socialism in one country” was.

Here are some related conversations.

“A huge communist state on Soviet Russia’s eastern frontier would create serious problems for his Government.……because of its vast extent and huge population China would prove to be “indigestible” even to the communist appetite……“let the Americans pour all the money they wish into Chinait will only make them weaker””Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Cloyce K. Huston, Counselor of Mission, Office of United States Political Adviser in Japan, January 8, 1949

“Stalin has made a series of mistakes on China……During the War of Liberation, he did not authorize the revolution. He argued that if a civil war broke out, the Chinese people would perish. At the beginning of the civil war, he doubted our victory, and after that, he doubted our victory as a ‘Tito-style victory.’”Mao Zedong, remarks at the enlarged meeting of the Chinese Political Bureau, April 25, 1956.

“Just before crossing the Yangtze River, Anastas Mikoyan arrived in Xibaipo from Moscow. He came on behalf of Stalin to listen to the situation of the Chinese Revolution and our opinions. At that time, the military and political situation was very favorable to us, and we were preparing for the liberation of entire China beyond the Yangtze River. However, the Soviet Union had a different idea from ours. They asked us to stop the civil war and tried to create a situation of literally the Period of Northern and Southern Dynasties.”Zhou Enlai, meeting Liu Xiao, who was appointed as Chinese Ambassador to Soviet Union in 1955

“After the PLA advance toward south, the risk of British and American troops landing behind the PLA increased significantly. The PLA should not rush southward.”A letter from Stalin, April 23, 1949

 

Fantasy of “Class Coexistence”

As such, Moscow's bureaucracy ordered the CCP to form a “capitalists and workers” two-class coalition, and the CCP, led by Mao, embodied it as “New Democracy.” Stalin and Mao's idea of a “workers-capitalists coalition government” was a non-Marxist fantasy. The idea was based on an unscientific illusion that the “temporary and accidental” balance between the two classes represented by the CCP and the KMT would continue.

In history, there is often an unstable situation of “dual power” in which two hostile classes cannot completely subdue the other side. However, the coexistence of the two hostile classes who want to become the ruling class creates an unstable situation, as if magnets from the same pole push each other. Therefore, the dual power situation appears only temporarily. Society fluctuates to find stability. Then, either the capitalist class or the working class violently suppress the counterpart, ending the dual power.

A case in point is about eight months before the October Revolution in 1917. Kerensky's measures of incarcerating Bolshevik leaders and outlawing the party in July and Kornilov coup in late August was both capitalist-led attempts for stabilization. The Bolsheviks achieved social stability dominated by the working class through the October uprising.“Temporality, coincidence, and inevitability of an unexpected violent clash” are the essence of the dual power situation that appears during the revolutionary period. Refusing to understand this essence and having an illusion, that accidental balance may continue, lead to class collaboration and subsequent catastrophe. In modern and contemporary history, most of the victims of the catastrophe were the exploited class with belated class awakening. Spain in 1937, Indonesia in 1965, and Chile in 1973 are representative examples.

 

Political consciousness of the United States and the Kuomintang

The U.S. imperialism and the KMT capitalist class were not ab-class conciousness. Despite the deep disillusionment and hostility of the Chinese working people, their class instincts were strong. Fortunately for China and the world's working class, they rejected Stalin and Mao Zedong's dreamy and unrealistic ‘two-class coalition.’

The U.S. imperialism could not tolerate the anxiety that the vast Chinese region would be transferred to the workers’ state region, and the KMT had the intention of completely destroying the CCP. During the anti-Japanese war or the civil war, KMT pretended to respond to a joint front or peace agreement with the intention of taking a short time, but when the situation became favorable, they repeatedly betrayed their promises and betrayed. Each time, they attacked the Communist troops who had been careless and wounded them deeply.

 

Realization of ‘Permanent revolution’

The U.S. imperialists and the KMT forces eventually drove the situation to the brink of extinction and fled to Taiwan after being defeated in the civil war. This was the defeat of imperialism against the interests of the local people and the defeat of the corrupt local puppet. On the other hand, it was the Communist Party's final victory to overcome the initial military disadvantages through widespread support from the working people.

This is the historical background of the establishment of a workers’ state on the basis of the abolition of private ownership, contrary to the intentions of the Comintern and the CCP, which pursued a two-class joint government. We call the workers’ state established in this form a ‘deformed workers state.’ As a result, under the influence of the Soviet Union, a workers’ state established by the Revolution in 1917, a ‘deformed’ workers’ state was born in China following the North Korea and Eastern Europe. It was a brilliant victory for the working people of the world at the expense of many people.

In addition, the Chinese Revolution showed once again that a country's revolution is not limited to its boundaries, but is shaped by world historical maturity and international relations. Although it grew into an anti-imperialist liberation struggle in the immature capitalist region, it abolished private ownership and proceeded to the socialist revolution when it was combined with the achievements of the previous 1917 revolution. Following the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and North Korea, it became another historical examples of the permanent revolution.

 

Outcome of the Revolution

China has long been insulted as a ‘sick man in Asia.’ The revolution dramatically developed China's industry just by abolishing private ownership. Gross industrial production increased 38 times and heavy industrial production increased 90 times. Industrial production, which increased by an annual average of 11.3% between 1952 and 1977, was much faster than that achieved in any other country at the same time in modern world history. By the mid-1970s, China had already manufactured jets, medium-sized tractors, modern deep-sea fishing boats, nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, and in 1970 it launched satellites.

Before the revolution, the majority of the population was illiterate, but after the revolution, the vast majority received educational benefits. A comprehensive health care system was introduced. The average life expectancy has almost doubled, from 35 before 1949 to 65 in the mid-1970s. (Refer to Maurice Meissner in “Mao's China and Later”)

Prior to the revolution, Chinese women were oppressed by “foot-binding,” “killing girl,” “trade marriage,” and “concubinage.” The revolution greatly improved the status of Chinese women. Although there was a limit to low productivity, it was the result socialization of production means and domestic labor, and women's participation in society.

“In the mid-2010s, a sociologist asked a Chinese woman born in the 1950s if she wanted to go back to the Mao Zedong era. After answering, “I never want to go back because I don't like poverty,” the woman told her mother's story even though she didn't ask. Her mother, who was born in 1927, said, “I have to thank the Communist Party. If it hadn't been liberated, I'm sure your father would have had several concubines,” she said of her mother-in-law, who locked the gate because her daughter-in-law, who worked hard in an illiterate education class, said, “The Communist Party is right. My mother didn't know how to write before, but now she can read books and newspapers because of her illiteracy education after liberation.”“The Transition of 100 Years of Women's Liberation in Modern China”, Kim, Mi-ran

“Koreans say that China is a communist country, so it is not good in many ways, but in terms of gender equality, China is far ahead of Korea.After socialistization, the phrase “Women account for half of the sky” became common in China, forming a social atmosphere that recognizes women's rights more than in Korea.”“Gender Equality, Korea lags behind China,” Park Hye-young, Women’s Newspaper, August 20, 2010

“Since the establishment of a socialist New China in 1949, with the promulgation of a new ‘marriage law’ as the starting point, these Chinese women have been legally guaranteed their independent rights, including love and freedom of marriage. Even in light of the legally guaranteed logic of gender equality, the degree of equality enjoyed by these Chinese women seems to be comparable to that of other countries in the world.”“The Current Status of Chinese Women in the wake of 3.8 World Women’s Day,” OhMyNews, March 8, 2001

 

Three Ways to Improve Productivity

Improvement of productivity is vital for the “socialist” revolution in underdeveloped countries with pre-capitalist productivity in order to defend its revolutionary achievements. Like the symbolic expression of “meat soup with rice,” loyalty to one's country is maintained only when stable living conditions are guaranteed. And after the abolition of private ownership, the growth of productivity is urgently needed for military defense against the hostility of the domestic and foreign capitalists.

There are three ways for a newborn working nation to improve its productivity: ‘First, help from developed countries by revolution, second, mobilization of the entire productive force of a country, and third, compromise with a capitalist market economy.’

 

1) The First Way to Promote Productivity: Helping Developed Countries by Revolution

Productive force and Permanent Revolution

Of course, the first way is the most desirable and fundamental solution. The socialist revolution in Russia, which has just begun capitalist development, was the realization of objective historical laws. However, along with that, it was also the realization of the revolutionaries’ subjective sense of purpose who understood the law of history most sharply. Marx and Engels predicted that the laws of the continuous revolution would be carried through to Russia, and Lenin and Trotsky put the Russian revolution on the socialist path in their understanding of the laws.

“Now the question is: can the Russian obshchina, though greatly undermined, yet a form of primeval common ownership of land, pass directly to the higher form of Communist common ownership? Or, on the contrary, must it first pass through the same process of dissolution such as constitutes the historical evolution of the West?

The only answer to that possible today is this: If the Russian Revolution becomes the signal for a proletarian revolution in the West, so that both complement each other, the present Russian common ownership of land may serve as the starting point for a communist development.”Manifesto of the Communist Party, The 1872 German Edition, Marx and Engels

But how far can the socialist policy of the working class be applied in the economic conditions of Russia? We can say one thing with certainty that it will come up against political obstacles much sooner than it will stumble over the technical backwardness of the country. Without the direct State support of the European proletariat the working class of Russia cannot remain in power and convert its temporary domination into a lasting socialistic dictatorship. Of this there cannot for one moment be any doubt. But on the other hand there cannot be any doubt that a socialist revolution in the West will enable us directly to convert the temporary domination of the working class into a socialist dictatorship.Results and Prospects, Trotsky, 1906

‘It was clear to us that without aid from the international world revolution, a victory of the proletarian revolution is impossible. Even prior to the revolution, as well as after it, we thought that the revolution would also occur either immediately or at least very soon in other backward countries and in the more highly developed capitalist countries, otherwise we would perish. Notwithstanding this conviction, we did our utmost to preserve the Soviet system under any circumstances and at all costs, because we know that we are working not only for ourselves but also for the international revolution.”Lenin, 1921, Works, Vol.XVIII, part 1

 

Failing of Follow-up Revolution in Advanced Capitalist Countries

Pressure on the Soviet Union and colonies eased while imperialist countries were immersed in World War II, a competitive war over world hegemony. As the pressure weakened, anti-imperialist national liberation struggles intensified in various colonial areas. The Soviet army defeated German and Japanese imperialism in Eastern Europe and North Korea, and the workers’ state area expanded in combination with the will of the working people in the region. China, which won the civil war, joined him.

However, the long-awaited revolution of advanced capitalist countries failed even after World War II. In advanced capitalist countries such as Germany, France, and Spain, the workers’ revolution was on the verge of success, but it cooled down as it failed to fill the last deficiency of the ‘revolutionary leadership.’

Thus, the subsequent revolution of advanced capitalist countries, which would complement the backward productivity of the ‘degerated/deformed’ workers’ states, failed.

 

Sino-Soviet Conflict and Breakdown of Economic Cooperation

Against this backdrop, economic cooperation with the Soviet Union, a relatively advanced countryc ompared to China, was crucial. Economic support from the Soviet Union, including supplies and technology, would be a great help to the Chinese working people who were tired of the long civil war. Although less than advanced capitalist countries, the Soviet Union's industrial growth was remarkable thanks to the achievements of the October Revolution. Productivity, which has been unlocked by the abolition of private ownership, has taken a leap forward despite various limitations. It succeeded in testing nuclear weapons for the second time in the world in 1949 and launched the world's first spacecraft, the Sputnik, in 1957.

However, the interests of the Soviet Union and the Stalinist bureaucracy in China were only partially consistent with those of the world's working class. They lost their international perspective and were trapped in a national perspective. Thus, they often struggled against the historical causes of the world's working class. They did not base on the cause of the entire world working class. They did not deploy their capabilities in a macroscopic long-term outlook, but were trapped in the perspective of a narrow country, prioritizing their own interests, and deploying them in that way.

The communist world leadership Comintern, which will coordinate the overall interests of the world's working class, was disbanded in 1943 as a tribute to the U.S.-British-French imperialism, which was called the ‘Alliance.’ Abusing the authority of the revolution in October 1917, the bureaucracy in Moscow operated the Workers' State camp in a hegemonic and overbearing manner. Instead of mutual benefit and equality, they forced a relationship between main and subordinates.

The Sino-Russia conflict that began in this way eventually leads to military conflict. Even as the Soviet Union changed its leadership from Stalin to Khrushchev and Brezhnev, and China from Mao Zedong to Deng Xiaoping, the conflict did not ease, but worsened, and even reached the point of military conflict.

At last, the two workers’ states were no longer brothers. Both sides even engaged in incredible and despicable betrayal of the working class, attracting U.S. imperialism to the conflict. Both became the mortal enemy to each other. Workers' internationalism was broken and ridiculed by Stalinist bureaucracies in these two countries. Imperialism, including the United States, used this conflict as a means of ‘divide and rule.’

The decades-long dispute between China and Soviet has resulted in various incidents. This topic is an important key to understanding the worldview and specific policies of Stalinist bureaucracy, including the theory of ‘socialism in one country,’ and the distorted history of the so-called ‘practical socialism’ camp. We have described this issue in several articles, including ‘Myanmar's Military Dictatorship and working Class,’ but we need a more specific understanding. We are conducting this ‘more detailed study of the Sino-Soviet conflict.’ The results of the study will be announced soon.

 

Mao’s Evaluation of the Sino-Soviet Conflict

However, this article introduces some interesting conversations to take a glimpse into the Sino-Soviet conflict that has stifled China, a newly born workers’ state.

“Mao Zedong: I always said, now, and then in Moscow, that the criticism of Stalin's mistakes is justified. We only disagree with the lack of strict limits to criticism. We believe that out of Stalin's 10 fingers, 3 were rotten ones.His first major error was one as a result of which the Chinese Communist Party was left with one-tenth of the territory that it had. His second error was that, when China was ripe for revolution, he advised us not to rise in revolution and said that if we started a war with Jiang Jieshi that might threaten the entire nation with destruction.After the victory of our Revolution, Stalin had doubts about its character. He believed that China was another Yugoslavia.When I came to Moscow [in December 1949], he did not want to conclude a treaty of friendship with us and did not want to annul the old treaty with the Guomindang [Kuomintang]. I recall that [Soviet interpreter Nikolai] Fedorenko and [Stalin's emissary to the PRC Ivan] Kovalev passed me his [Stalin's] advice to take a trip around the country, to look around. But I told them that I have only three tasks: eat, sleep and shit. I did not come to Moscow only to congratulate Stalin on his birthday. Therefore I said that if you do not want to conclude a treaty of friendship, so be it. I will fulfill my three tasks. Last year, when I was in Moscow, in a conversation where [Soviet Premier Minister Nikolai] Bulganin was also present, we heard that Stalin had bugged us back then.

N.S. Khrushchev: Yes, I said it at that time. He had bugged us as well, he even bugged himself. Once, when I was on vacation with him, he admitted that he mistrusted himself. I am good-for-nothing, he said, I mistrust myself.”FIRST CONVERSATION BETWEEN N.S. KHRUSHCHEV AND MAO ZEDONG, HALL OF HUAIZHENTAN [BEIJING], July 31, 1958

The discord between the Stalinist leaders of the two working nations, blinded by ‘socialism in one country,’ worsened after the Soviet Union refused to relocate its nuclear technology to China. The following year, in October 1959, the two countries declared a break in relations.

 

Isolated China

China, a newly born workers’ state, is in danger of being beleaguered due to the collapse of China-Soviet cooperation. During the 1950-53 Korean War, U.S. imperialism not only threatened mainland China with nuclear attacks, but continued to use the remnants of the KMT to provoke them. The international war of criticism between the Soviet Union and Chinese bureaucracy, which blamed each other for the breakdown, soon led to a gunfight. The Soviet Union's help which would relieve China's economic difficulties, which had been difficult due to the civil war and the Korean war, disappeared. The sacrifice of the revolutionary people had have to be compensated for by the improvement of life conditions, but it was greatly delayed. In this way, China is in a desperate situation suffering from internal and external troubles.

 

2) The Second Way to Promote Productivity: ‘Great Leap Forward Movement’

Again, in order for a workers’ state to survive, it must ensure sufficient productivity. Only then can we meet the needs of the working people and confront imperialist aggression. In addition, there are three ways to increase productivity in an isolated working country established in underdeveloped countries: (1) help from developed countries that have achieved revolution (2) mobilization of the entire productive force of a country(Stahanov, the Great Leap Forward, the Chunlima Movement, etc.) (3) compromise with a capitalist market economy. (New Economic Policy, Buharin Policy, Vietnam Doimer). However, the first road was blocked by the failure of the revolution in advanced capitalist countries and the breakdown of relations with the Soviet Union.

China has entered the second road. In other words, the people are making all-out efforts to maximize productive force. Around 1958, the Great Leap Forward Movement began to catch up with developed countries within 15 years.

Productive force depends on productivity, and productivity depends on the level of science and technology in the society. Therefore, there is a limit to achieving development of productive force only with the enthusiasm of members of society without the support of science and technology. However, Mao Zedong's leadership, which had been mired in unscientific thinking, believed that it could catch up with developed countries through ‘efforts.’

 

Catastrophe, Mao's downfall and Right Turn

The result was disastrous. The movement to increase the iron ore required for heavy industry development in a hand-crafted manner resulted in a disastrous crop failure, combining with other unscientific agricultural plans. Many people starved to death due to a lack of grain. It was the result of a combination of unscientific setting of goals and implementation methods, bureaucratic implementation, idealism that can overcome all hardships with only ‘effort,’ and uncritical follow-up to the leadership.

Even though Mao, who had led the long civil war to victory and enjoyed tremendous authority within the party and the country, could not survive in the face of significant deaths of at least millions, at most tens of millions. In 1962, Mao was handed down to the back of the line.

 

Policies of Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping Leadership

After the fall of the Mao-centered subjectivist faction, Liu Xiaoqi and Deng Xiaoping's leadership, who took the helm of China, had no choice but to pursue a certain compromise with capitalism for immediate survival. Chinese society turned right this time.

The urgent task of Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping's leadership was to escape extreme hunger. To do so, food production had to be increased. This was the most important policy that the new leadership has pursued in a short period of four years.

When production technologies such as tractors are supported, collective farming, represented by the People's Corporation, plays its role. If it is not able to escape from the manual method, collective farming can rather lower production. Liu and Deng leadership introduced policies to compromise with private ownership, such as ‘allowing small-scale private land ownership and sideline business,’ ‘reviving local markets,’ ‘distribution by labor,’ and ‘allowing excessive product ownership.’ It worked. In 1961, production in the region where the policy was introduced increased by nearly 40%.

 

The Cultural Revolution of Mao Zedong Faction

There were internal and external difficulties threatening the life of China, a newborn workers’ state, and economic problems were at the center. Mao’s subjective leftist faction of the CCP were ignorant of the issue. The 195861 Great Leap Forward Movement experiment had catastrophic consequences and clearly revealed their ignorance and incompetence in economic issues.

Nevertheless, the subjective leftist faction, which was united around Mao, could not accept the dismissal. They had held the leadership of the CCP, the center of the Chinese revolution, for decades. This experience equated Mao-centered left-wing factions with their own fate with the fate of the revolution. Thus they regarded their fall as a threat to the revolution, again, in very subjective way of thought. And the fall means the loss of all the privileges enjoyed by the state power. This may be more intolerable than counter-revolution for corrupt bureaucrats obsessed with power.

 

Deified Authority

The subjective leftist faction within the Chinese bureaucracy used Mao's divine authority as a weapon instead of Marxist science. The Chinese people suffered for decades from poverty and oppression of foreign powers. They have a desperate desire to be freed from them. Mao was at the peak of the CCP and the Red Army, who led the anti-Japanese national liberation struggle and the civil war against the KMT to victory. Thus, Mao became the cohesion point of the desire for liberation of the Chinese people. In this process, Mao became the embodiment of  praying for good luck with more realistic authority than God.

The subjective leftist faction of the CCP, which has been united around Mao, has begun to regain power. In order to resolve the immediate hunger, some emergency measures implemented by the leadership of Liu Xiaoqi Deng Xiaoping were exaggerated as pro-capitalist counter-revolution.

 

China in a state of panic: Background of the ‘Cultural Revolution’

The evil agitation of the subjective leftist faction burned crazily in combination with the social atmosphere of extreme stress. In the midst of a series of hardships and failures, Chinese society was panicked. There was a need for a scapegoat to easily explain pain and failure and hold them accountable.

Under the global imperialist system, the suffering of the Chinese people continued endlessly. Decades of humiliating history of imperialist invasions, nearly a decade of liberation war with Japan, civil war with the KMT, three years of Korean war against the United States, major failure of Leap Forward movement and catastrophic hunger, and conflict with Soviet up to the armed battle.

China's society vibrated violently as the leadership's agitation coincided with an extremely tense society. The Cultural Revolution was a symptom of a stress-prone society that was blocked from the front and the back, such as body aches and seizures. In 1966, the flames that the subjective left-wing faction, led by Mao, set in order to regain power burned for 10 years until Mao's death in 1976. It was a necessary time for society to calm down. It was a necessary time for all members of society to realize that there was no way out and agree on a new direction. In the meantime, a considerable amount of human and physical resources in China, have been exhausted in its consumable flames.

 

Changes in the ‘Three Kingdoms’ relationship

Through the Cultural Revolution, the subjective left-wing faction, which was united around Mao, gained solid power. However, the domestic economy and the conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States outside the country have not been resolved. The Soviet power shifted from Khrushchev to Brezhnev, but the conflict between the two countries did not ease. On the contrary, it worsened, became so harsh that it referred to nuclear war that it developed into an armed conflict. The conflict between the two working countries of China and the Soviet Union was not a coincidental result of the qualities of the leader. It was the necessity of Stalinism. And the hostility of U.S. imperialism remained. China has not been able to get out of the situation of being beleaguered.

However, the Vietnam War, which entered a new phase with the intervention of the United States in 1964, changed the relationship between the Soviet Union, China, and the United States. China was the first to desire to change. It was difficult for China to deal with both powers as enemies. The strategy of the ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’, which separated the two hostile countries, replaced class politics. From China's point of view, the armed conflict with the Soviet Union was the ‘light of the eyebrows’ that had to be put out first. On the other hand, the United States, which was fighting the Vietnam War, was able to isolate the Soviet Union by seducing and alienating China.

 

China Helping the U.S.-made Blockade of the Soviet Union

Thus, China and the United States suddenly met eyes with each other. It was no coincidence that China-U.S. relations began to warm up in 1969, when the Sino-Soviet discord reached its peak due to the border dispute. With Nixon's visit to Beijing in 1972, reconciliation between China and the United States reached its peak. China, a workers’ state, joined hands with the imperialist United States and isolated the Soviet Union. Then it joined the US imperialist policy of blocking the Soviet Union. China stood on the same side as the U.S. in Chilean Pinochet coup in 1973, Angolan Civil War in 1975, Afghanistan War in 1979, and the war with Vietnam in 1979.

As a result, Chinese society quickly turn to right again. In order to find its own way to live, it reconciled with imperialism and betrayed workers’ internationalism. Mao Zedong and the CCP participated in the anti-Soviet blockade established by the United States and stood on the other side of the world's working class. These two leaders of the workers’ states betrayed internationalism and made a decisive revision to Marxism-Leninism.

 

Mao's Death and the Power of the Pragmatic Faction

In 1976, Mao Zedong, who opened the way for reform and opening up through diplomatic relations with the United States, died. The subjective leftist faction within the CCP, which was hiding behind Mao's halo, lost its authority. One month after Mao's death, the arrest and purge of the four people meant the end of the subjective leftist faction within the CCP, which took power as a ‘cultural revolution.’ Subsequently, the ‘practical’ faction within the CCP, represented by Deng Xiaoping, took power. Exhausted from long hardships, China accepted the emergence of this faction without certain resistence, which had attacked it as a ‘pro-capitalist counterrevolution’ 10 years ago.

 

Road to ‘Reform and Openness’

As explained earlier, there are three ways to develop productive force in areas where productivity is lagging behind: (a) revolution in developed countries or support from preceding worker states (the Soviet Union); (b) collecting productive force through social members' efforts; and (c) capitalist concessions through some private ownership. However, China has confirmed that the path (a) (b) is blocked through nearly 30 years of its practical experience. The only way left was (c). It was in contact with the New Economic Policy (NEP) at the time of Lenin, which the Soviet Union chose right after the civil war, and the policy of Bukarin, represented by the statement “Anyone, get rich first!”

The Deng Xiaoping leadership, who held the helm of China, exhausted by the Great Leap Forward Movement and the Cultural Revolution due to various hardships of the previous period, entered the third road that remained. The path was called ‘get rich first,’ ‘’black cat and white cat,’ ‘reform and open,’and ‘market socialism.’ It was the way to attract some degree of capitalism to avoid immediate poverty and increase productive force.

 

II. Changes in Chinese society as a result of 'reform and opening up': China's social character as a deformed worker state has not changed.

China and the Left

IV. The duties of the Chinese and global working classes


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