Forty years ago, the Chinese people, led by the Chinese Communist Party, went through difficulties and hardships, won victory in the New Democratic Revolution, and established the People's Republic of China (PRC). This was Marxism's victory in China. However, as things have worked out, the Chinese have suffered numerous failures in building socialism. During the "Great Leap Forward" and the "Cultural Revolution," disastrous setbacks occurred: The national economy and political system almost collapsed. While some improvement has been made through economic and political reforms since 1978, China, nevertheless, is still following the principle of "groping one's way across the river by stepping stones"--that is, China has not found effective ways to solve its problems. More seriously, because Beijing's peaceful democratic movement was cruelly put down by military force in June 1989, critical political, economic, and even revolutionary crises have reemerged in China.
Marxism in China
The development of Marxism in China has followed a cycle of ascension--falling--crisis--revival--new crisis. In 1984, Deng Xiaoping admitted his confusion by saying: "What is socialism? What is Marxism? Our understanding of them is not very clear." This confused understanding of socialism and Marxism is the cause of Marxism's difficult progress in China.
In fact, Marxism is the product of industrial capitalism in the West and could not have been born in an undeveloped agricultural country. Although Marxist theory was introduced into China, along with other Western ideas at the turn of the century, its influence was insignificant at that time. It was the 1917 Soviet October Revolution that planted the seed of Marxism in China. Nonetheless, Marxism as understood by the Chinese was not limited to Marx's theories alone, but also included Leninism and its political development through Stalinism. To be sure, the thought of Mao Zedong inherits much from Leninism-Stalinism, especially Stalinism.
Stalinism is a variant and extension of the despotism of czarist Russia and Soviet communist military dictatorship imposed during the Second World War. In China, because Stalinism has been influenced by feudal despotism, it is more difficult to demolish. Stalinism is reflected in the Chinese Community Party's (CCP) patriarchal system of bureaucracy, one-man rule of power, its ideas of privilege, its inattention with respect to constructing a legal system, and so forth. On one hand, since China is still an agricultural country characterized by idealist and populist thinking, old habits of submitting to power, superstitions, idol worship, the cult of personality, and belief in the power of will, adventuristic "leftism" has often predominated within the party. On the other hand, mistakes made by the international communist movement regarding theories of the masses, classes, and leadership had a powerful impact on the party. For these reasons, the CCP has obstructed a clear and correct understanding of Marxism and socialism. Relatively naïve or immature toward Marxist theory, the CCP leadership has made serious mistakes, causing the party's total or partial failures.
The New Democratic Revolution
The CCP's practice of Marxism in the 1949 Democratic Revolution was successful. The party avoided the mistakes mentioned above and the wrong directions of the
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