Throughout the history of the world, there have been many different forms of government – monarchy, democracy, anarchy, dictatorships, dynasty, republic, communism etc – and each type has made its impact in our history. We have all seen the influences they can have on a country and the way it changes people. This can be seen in China with communism.
Communism, in its most basic sense, means the common ownership of all property by the people through the country; there is no private property under communism. In addition, the government under communism pages a salary according to how important an individual’s job is to the country. The government is ruled by a single party dictatorship, which allows no other political party.
The origins of communism in China can be found in the May Fourth tradition. Historians of modern China acknowledge the importance of the May Fourth tradition for the emergence of Communism in that country. In the May Fourth period, the socialist tradition existed in an intellectual context characterized by a yearning for democracy which was too pervasive and too ardent to be neglected. Chen Duxiu, on behalf of his comrades, had proudly proclaimed: "Some people charge us with the crime of destruction: the destruction of Confucianism, ritual, national essence, chastity, the established social and familial relationships, traditional art and religion, the literary heritage, and finally, the existing political system. We admit the charge but still insist that we are innocent. It is our love for Mr. Democracy and Mr. Science that leads to these towering crimes".
In 1919, a group of students, including Qu Qiubai, ounded The Journal of the New Society. It was their intention to create a new, democratic society without class divisions and create a society in which liberty, equality, happiness and peace prevail.
However, at this time in 1919 a young man was rising. Mao Zedong, distinguishing ‘the doctrine of the common people’-a phrase with socialist implications with democracy, fervently announced: "We should use the doctrines of the people to overthrow all kinds of power [i.e., oppression], including . . . power in the international realm”. The enthusiasm to bring down the international power to blame for China's anguish led Mao to welcome Kropotkin's principle: "There is a group of people who hope to merge all the nations on earth into a single whole, to unite all humans and form a big family.... The leader of this group is Kropotkin, a Russian”. Therefore Mao's keenness for a democratic international association, in which nationalism and cosmopolitanism were entwined, led him to welcome Kropotkin's ideal.
Until the Communist Party rose to power, the country was run by Sun Yat Sen. However, in March 1925, Sun died. His party quickly divided and a struggle broke out. The Communists were ordered to submit and to suspend the advocacy of agrarian revolution. “In February, 1927, Chiang Kai Shek, having made a secret agreement with Chinese business circles in Shanghai, took the city with the help of a rebellion of Shanghai workers - and then proceeded to slaughter them. At that time the Communists were ordered by Moscow to step up the agrarian revolution and to demand from their Kuo Min Tang allies a greater influence in the direction of the revolution.
Thereupon the leftwingers decided to break with the Russians and the Communists. After months of negotiations between Chiang Kai Shek and the Left-wingers party unity was established in February, 1928, and Chiang became the acknowledged party leader”.
After the debacle of 1927 the party was driven underground. Li San took over the party leadership. After Li, Mao Zedong took over. Under his leadership, Mao devoted himself to uniting those regions which were under the control of Communists. A Central Soviet Government was established in Kiangsi Province, in December, 1931, and Mao became its chairman.
Mao issued a new radical reform; full dispossession of landlords and rich peasants. In addition to this, the law also “excluded landlords and bourgeois from voting and gave one representative to fifteen workers and one representative to fifty peasants”.
After this, Japan became a threat to communist China. During October 1934, Mao decided to retreat and a long march to Shaanxi province was made. After 6,000 miles, under incredible hardships and not everyone surviving, approximately 20,000 people arrived and a Communist regime was set up there with Yenan as capital. Mao was made supreme leader of the Chinese Communist Party eventually at the age of 55 and ruled China until his death in 1979.
Mao is considered to be the father of communism in China and the turning point in its history. We can see that real national pride shows itself when Mao spoke about the significance of the Chinese Revolution: "Is it not proper to attach the highest importance to the Chinese revolution in estimating its world significance? I should say, yes; the Chinese revolution is indeed a glorious and important part of the world revolution”.
Bibliography:
Ip, Hung-Yok (1994) The Origins of Chinese Communism: A New Interpretation, Modern China, Sage Publications Inc.
Mark, Max (1951) Chinese Communism, The Journal of Politics, Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Southern Political Science Association.
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