Proletarians of all countries, unite!
Communist Group (Maoist):
Commemorate the Centenary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China
Introduction
July 23 this year marks the centenary of the I Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPCh). At this historical milestone, our great Communist Party of China that will go on and lead the Chinese New-democratic Revolution and Socialist Revolution, as well as the outstanding proletarian combatants headed by Chairman Mao, were born. Under the leadership of Chairman Mao, Chinese communists completed great tasks one by one, leaving precious fruits and experience for the International Communist Movement (ICM). The Communist Party of China, in struggles against internal and external enemies, combined Marxism-Leninism with the concrete reality of Chinese revolution, established Mao Zedong thought. Later, the Communist Party of Peru (CPP) and Chairman Gonzalo synthesized the universal contributions of Mao Zedong Thought and raised the highest stage of the ideology of the proletariat – Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Establishment of the Communist Party – Founding of the Republic (1919-1949)
China, by the start of the XX Century, has become a semi-colonial, semi-feudal country. In the countryside, there existed relations of production under the old feudal economy, which chained the peasantry and left them under the constant exploitation of the landlords and the gentry. In the cities, the bureaucrat comprador bourgeoisie worked as agents of imperialism, brutally exploiting the newly born proletariat, the petty-bourgeoisie and oppressing ethe national bourgeoisie. The landlords and compradors maintained their interests through all kinds of warlords which in reality have set up their separatist regimes.
Before our Party entered the stage of history, the Chinese people have undergone long and heroic struggles against feudalism and imperialism, but these struggles ultimately failed. The Old Democratic Revolution led by the bourgeoisie has failed, as the bourgeoisie in semi-colonies no longer had the strength to carry out the anti-feudal bourgeois-democratic revolution in the era of imperialism. Under these circumstances, the task to lead an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal revolution fell upon the shoulders of the nascent proletariat. With the invasion of foreign capital and the development of national capital, the industrial proletariat in China have reached more than 200 million in 1919 and has matured into the most revolutionary class under the three types of exploitation of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism. Furthermore, most industrial proletarians used to be peasants, making them possess natural connections to the broad peasantry and providing convenience for the worker-peasant alliance.
These factors, alongside of the influence of the Great October Revolution, created conditions for the constitution of the vanguard of the Chinese proletariat. From 1919 to 1920, Communist Groups were established in all major cities of the country. Chairman Mao led the anti-imperialist anti-feudal struggle of the people of Hunan, spreading Marxism-Leninism with the east wind of the October Revolution. Conditions to establish the party of the proletariat were ripe.
In July 1921, revolutionaries from across the country commenced the I Congress of the Communist Party of China. Through discussions, the Congress established the form of the party, ratified the Constitution of the Party, and elected its leading organs. Our great Party is born. However, the newly founded CPCh was still young, with the proletariat, the semi-proletariat, the petit-bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie all having their representatives within the Party, which gradually formed two opposing lines of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Because of this, two-line struggles have always existed within the Party.
In the Anyuan Miners’ Strike of 1922, Liu Shaoqi preached “peaceful strikes”, and demanded the workers to compromise with the authorities. In 1924, the CPCh and the Kuomintang established a united front with an anti-imperialist anti-feudal program, as many popular movements led by the party erupted during this period, including the Canton-Hong Kong Strike and the May 30 Movement; the Party has greatly strengthened. However, after 1925, the right wing of the Kuomintang representing the landlords and the big bourgeoisie started to compete for leadership of the united front with the CPCh. In this period, the Right Opportunist Line led by Chen Duxiu surrendered their arms, gave up the leading position, one-sidedly compromised and gave in with the Kuomintang, resulted in the usurpation of the leadership of the united front by the right wing of the Kuomintang, which in 1927 bloodily massacred Communists and progressive workers and peasants. (Counter-revolutionary Coup of April 12, 1927)
With the bankruptcy of the Chen Duxiu Right Opportunist Line in the April 12 Coup, the “Left” Opportunist Lines of Qu Qiubai and later Li Lisan emerged within the Party. Qu and Li ignored the character of the Chinese New-democratic Revolution at that time and classified the national bourgeoisie and the petit-bourgeoisie as enemies. At the same time, they ignored the temporary ebb of the revolution created by the April 12 Coup, and thought the Party should begin strategic offensive and conquer big cities with armed insurrections and encirclements. Under the influence of these two “left” lines, the party undertook many adventurist actions, resulted in considerable losses for the Party organizations and base areas in the Kuomintang-ruled area. After the bankruptcy of the Li Lisan line, the “left” Wang Ming Line and the Luo Zhanglong Line that conspired to split the Party appeared in the Party. Under the influence of these lines, the Party lost many comrades, base areas and organisms behind enemy lines.
The revolutionary line led by Chairman Mao underwent implacable struggles against the “left” and right deviationist lines. Since the founding of the Party, there have been debates on the question of the line of the Party during the democratic revolution: there existed the Chen Duxiu Tendency of negating the leadership of the proletariat and tailing the bourgeoisie as well as the Zhang Guotao Tendency that negates the worker-peasant alliance which further negates the leadership of the proletariat. To answer this debate, Chairman Mao authored Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society in 1926, analyzed the situation of each class in China and what kind of line should the Party take with the method of class analysis. After the bankruptcy of the Chen Duxiu Line, Chairman Mao used the concrete activities in the Jinggang Base Area to refute the City-centered Theory, expropriation of national capital and other erroneous positions raised by Qu Qiubai and Li Lisan. During the fight against the encirclement of Chiang Kai-shek, the Wang Ming Line usurped the leadership of the Party, which led to the revolutionary forces in both Red and White Areas suffering major losses and forced the Red Army to begin the Long March and relocate base areas.
More than ten years of constant line struggles educated the Party and gave many comrades a degree of understanding of all bourgeois “leftist” and rightist lines. In the Zunyi Conference of January 1935, the Party repudiated the erroneous line of Wang Ming and affirmed the line of Chairman Mao, established the leading position of Chairman Mao. With more than ten years of struggle, the Party established the Marxist-Leninist line for the first time, marking its affirmation of the correct revolutionary line. However, the Party will be facing fiercer offensives from both internal and external enemies in the future.
After the Zunyi Conference, the Central Committee of the Party relocated to Shaanxi and Gansu, at the same time crushed the conspiracy of Zhang Guotao to split the Party with the Army. Following the deepening of the invasion of Japanese imperialism of China, the Party raised the position to “stop the civil war and unite against Japan”, hoping to build the new anti-Japanese united front. The united front sparked new debates within the Party. After the repudiation of the Wang Ming Line, the close-doorism of “all struggle and no unity” appeared, which proposed to fight against the invasion of Japanese imperialism to China separately without the alliance. Chairman Mao refuted this tendency and underscored that the task of the Party during the current stage of New-democratic Revolution was anti-imperialist, anti-feudal and that it is possible to build a broad united front on this basis. While combating this tendency, Chairman Mao also proposed that the Party should warn against the possible rightist tendency to abandon the leading position of the Party in the united front. Like Chairman Mao said, after the CPCh forced Chiang Kai-shek to stop the civil war and form the united front, individuals like Wang Ming and Liu Shaoqi again came out and preached for the formation of a single government in the whole of China, trying to make the Party abandon its control of the leadership and the army and become the tail of the bureaucrat bourgeoisie.
During the period of the War of Resistance against Japan, Chairman Mao, in the struggle against erroneous lines, developed the military line of the proletariat. Chairman Mao refuted the idea of Peng Dehuai to make the people’s army an auxiliary of the Kuomintang army as well as the idea of Lin Biao to treat the people’s army as a solely military fighting force, proposed that the army led by the Party should take up the duty of both fighting and mobilizing the masses, with the latter being the primary. In “On Protracted War”, Chairman Mao analyzed the social reality of China and Japan, pointing out the Chinese theater will be a protracted war, and repudiated the tendency of the theory of quick victory within the Party and the theory of national subjugation of some in China. He expressed this protracted war will have three stages: strategic defensive, strategic stalemate, and strategic offensive. Furthermore, Chairman Mao pointed out “the army and the people as the foundation of victory”, that victory is only possible by mobilizing the broad masses of people. Politically, the internal struggle against the tailist tendency of Wang Ming, Liu Shaoqi, etc.; externally many struggles were also waged against the Chiang Kai-shek comprador bourgeois that wanted to make peace with Japanese imperialism. Our Party, too, was strengthened in the process of these struggles.
To make the whole Party recognize more deeply the two-line struggle within the Party, Chairman Mao authored two articles, On Practice and On Contradiction, in 1937, and with them precisely synthesized the line struggle within the Party: “If there were no contradictions in the Party and no ideological struggles to resolve them, the Party’s life would come to an end.” In 1939, Chairman Mao summarized the experience of eighteen years of the Party, proposed “united front, armed struggle, construction of the Party, are three magical weapons of the CPCh in the Chinese revolution to defeat the enemy…” Later, the Communist Party of Peru and Chairman Gonzalo made one further step on the three magical weapons summarized by Chairman Mao, proposed the Theory of Concentric Construction of the three magical weapons, that “the Party is the axis of everything, it leads the three instruments in an all-round way, its own construction; it absolutely leads the Army and the New State as a joint dictatorship aiming toward the dictatorship of the proletariat.” In 1940, Chairman Mao authored On New Democracy, systematically expounded on the line of the proletarian Party in semi-colonial countries in the era of imperialism, as well as the program of New Democracy. In 1941, the Party began the Rectification Movement, established the leading role of proletarian ideology on politics, art and culture. In this period, Chairman Mao also authored documents like Rectify the Party’s Style of Work, Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art, made great contributions for the Party in ideological struggles of the Party. Under the leadership of Chairman Mao, the Party persisted in the correct line in the line struggle against internal “leftist” and rightist lines, laying foundations for the victory of the New-democratic revolution.
Furthermore, after the victory of the War of Resistance against Japan, the Party fought against Liu Shaoqi’s rightist line in forming the coalition government with the Kuomintang and his subsequent “leftist” line in agrarian reform in the liberated areas. After the War of Liberation entered the stage of Strategic Offensive, Chairman Mao also refuted the bourgeois military line of Lin Biao. Finally, under the leadership of the correct line of Chairman Mao, the Party won victory of the War of Liberation, and proclaimed the founding of New China in October 1949.
Socialist Transformation – Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
After the founding of New China in 1949, China entered the historical period of socialist revolution. In this period, the main contradiction in Chinese society has shifted from the contradiction between the broad masses of people with imperialism and feudalism to the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the main task of the Communist Party of China leading the Chinese people has changed from overthrowing the three mountains to carrying out socialist revolution and socialist transformation in China. With the general victory of the socialist transformation of ownership of the means of production in 1956 and the victory of the Anti-Rightism Campaign in 1957, the bourgeoisie outside the Party has ceased to be a big threat, as the main part of the bourgeoisie shifted from outside the Party to inside the Party.
The Chinese people faced military threats from US imperialism shortly after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. In 1950, the US instructed South Korea to attack North Korea and manipulated the United Nations Security Council to authorize its military intervention in the war a month later, while publicly expressing its desire to invade China.
After the founding of New China, with the effort of the people in the whole country, its economy began to improve, the opportunity to transform the industry and commerce has arrived. In 1950, the leading position of state-owned economy was established, private industry and commerce were incorporated into the trail of socialist transformation in our country. In 1951, to support the effort of the War to Resist the US and Support Korea, our Party raised the call to “increase production, practice strict economy”. With the unfolding of this campaign, the sign of the bourgeoisie’s attack on the proletariat began to be reveal itself.
November 1951, at the 3rd Conference of the Party in the Hebei Province, the incident which former responsibles of the Tianjin Regional Committee, Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishun, who were corroded by “sugar-coated shells” of the bourgeoisie and severely violated the laws and regulations, was exposed. Liu and Zhang had massively embezzled and stolen state property to satisfy their extremely corrupt lifestyles. This incident reflected the severity of the corruption and corrosion of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie won over many personnel of the old apparatuses allowed to continue working and used “sugar-coated shells” to attack those with weak determination within the ranks of the revolutionaries, turning them into the new bourgeoisie, sabotaging the socialist cause with these people, severely bred embezzlement, waste, and bureaucratic tendencies. The bourgeoisie also reached into the economic apparatuses across the country: in places like Tianjin and Shanghai, the percentage of evaded sales tax reached 87% and 99%. They massively stole from state property, using methods like providing inferior products in the place of the good, fake products in the place of the real and reporting less expenses as more to steal high quantity of profit. They massively stole economic intelligence of the state, engaged in speculation and profiteering, even selling state economic intelligence to imperialism. In order to gain huge profits, they cut corners with the materials for the War to Resist the US and Support Korea, supplying rotten food and contaminated medical material to the Volunteer Army, causing massive non-combat losses for our fighters. In December 1951, Chairman Mao timely directed the launch of the “Three-anti” campaign of anti-corruption, anti-waste and anti-bureaucracy (Three-anti); against the “five poisons” of bourgeois bribery, theft of state property, tax evasion, cheating on government contracts, and stealing state economic intelligence, fighting the bourgeoisie (Five-anti). Our Party mobilized the working class to launch a forcible offensive against the bourgeoisie within and without the Party, in June 1952, after intensive struggle of around half a year, achieving great victory. Through this struggle, the class consciousness and socialist consciousness of the working class and the broad revolutionary masses are highly raised, the dictatorship of the proletariat was strengthened and the leading position of the state-owned economy was consolidated, laying solid foundations for the socialist transformation in the field of system of ownership of the means of production.
In the land reforms in the countryside, however, Liu Shaoqi and his clique called for greatly developing rich peasant economy in the Northeast and North China, against the campaign for mutual-aid and cooperation. He proposed “farmers with three horses, one plow, and one trailer”, screaming that wage labor should be “leaved alone”, “it’s also good to have some more rich peasants”, saying “it’s fine if there are ten thousand rich peasant Party members in Northeast”. He criticized the idea of trying to set up cooperatives of mutual-aid groups in North China behind the back of the Central Committee, preaching the fallacy of “first mechanization, then cooperation” everywhere: “only with the nationalization of the industry can the peasants be supplied with a large quantity of machinery, only then nationalization of land and collectivization of agriculture will be possible,” doing his best against the peasantry to walk the path of cooperation.
In November 1951, at the study symposium of the national committee of the CPPCC, Liu Shaoqi summarized his “theory” and methods into one slogan: “fight for the consolidation the New-democratic system”, officially launching his reactionary program of “consolidating the New-democratic order”. He preached “assure private property” everywhere, called for “the four freedoms” (freedom of land sales and renting, freedom of usury, freedom of employing labor and freedom of trading). The so-called “consolidating the New-democratic order” is “consolidating” and developing capitalist forces, is doing anything except making the socialist revolution, is to walk the road of capitalism. As of “assuring private property” and “four freedoms” are slogans representing the interest of the bourgeoisie and the rich peasants, its goal is to cover the development of capitalism in the cities and the countryside and have China walk the road of capitalism. They completely denied the fundamental contradiction between the capitalist and the socialist economy, babbling that the economic base in the transitional period is “comprehensive”, “includes both socialist economic parts and capitalist economic parts”, the two “can develop in connection with each other in a balance manner”, the socialist superstructure needs to serve the “entire economic base” including capitalist economy, in a vain attempt to make all-round class collaboration and carry out class capitulation from the economic base to the superstructure.
In June 1953, Chairman Mao directly refuted the reactionary program of “consolidating the New-democratic order” in a meeting of the politburo of the CC, pointing out this proposal is harmful. “The transitional period is full of contradictions and struggles. Our revolutionary struggle now is even more intense than the armed revolutionary struggle of the past. This is a revolution to completely bury the capitalist system and all systems of exploitation. The idea of ‘consolidating the New-democratic order” is not in accord with the concrete condition of struggle, it is hindering the development of the socialist cause.” Chairman Mao Zedong pointed out, the essence of the general line of the Party in the transitional period is to make the socialist system of ownership of the means of production, which is the socialist ownership of the whole people and the collective ownership of the working masses, the only economic base of our country. This is a major step in consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat. The ratification of the general line of the Party in the transitional period announced the complete bankruptcy of the “consolidating the New-democratic order” of Liu Shaoqi.
In 1953, the stage of economic recovery in our country has mainly ended. The whole country, under the guidance of the general line of the Party in the transitional period, started to develop the First Five-year Plan to develop national economy and struggle to build our country as a great socialist country. However, the clique represented by the bourgeois within the Party, Gao Gang and Rao Shushi, started factional activities within the Party, trying to consolidate their own forces in the name of criticizing the wrong line of Liu Shaoqi, preaching about “red-area Party” and “white-area Party”, secretly communicating with elements like Lin Biao and Peng Dehuai, attempted to overthrow the Central Committee. Chairman Mao, at the politburo conference of 1953, raised the suggestion to strengthen the unity of the Party, drafted Resolution on Strengthening the Unity of the Party, crushed the plot of the Gao Gang-Rao Shushi anti-Party alliance. The Party also gave the implicated opportunities to rectify errors, but Gao Gang and Rao Shushi persisted with the reactionary standpoint and with no intent to change. Rao Shushi even ended his life with suicide, signifying his final betrayal of the Party.
In 1958, Chairman Mao launched the Great Leap Forward Campaign and the People’s Commune Campaign. Besides rapidly increasing forces of production, the Great Leap Forward also raised the task to do away with the ideology of bourgeois rights. The bourgeoisie inside the Party boycotted the Great Leap Forward: the Liu Shaoqi clique wrecked the Great Leap Forward from the “left”, while right opportunists like Peng Dehuai openly attacked the Great Leap Forward and the People’s Commune Campaigns at the Lushan Conference in 1959. Although their plots were temporarily foiled, the bourgeoisie inside the Party headed by Liu Shaoqi still tried to use the economic difficulties in the country in 1962 to wreck the Socialist System and restore capitalism. They demanded to dissolve People’s Communes in the countryside, expand income inequalities in cities, empowered the dictatorial administration of the workers, and introduced feudal, capitalist, and revisionist poison in the ideological field. Revolutionaries led by Chairman Mao refuted the positions of the bourgeoisie inside the Party. On the harsh situation at the moment, Chairman Mao clearly pointed out that “in the historical period of socialism, there are still classes, class conflicts and class struggles, there are the struggles between the two roads of socialism and capitalism, there is still the danger for capitalist restoration.” (Speech at the 10th Plenum of the 8th CC of the CPCh) In 1964, struggle again erupted between Chairman Mao and Liu Shaoqi regarding the Socialist Education Campaign, with Liu Shaoqi denying the main contradiction of the campaign being the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Because a certain majority of cadres in power countrywide followed the Liu Shaoqi clique representing the bourgeoisie inside the Party and most cadres in the “middle” position did not understand the necessity to prevent capitalist restoration, Chairman Mao recognized that the methods in waging political movements in the past no longer corresponded to the current needs, like he pointed out later, the masses must be mobilized more thoroughly. “Expose our dark side publicly, completely, from the bottom to the top.” (Talks with comrades Kapo and Balluku)
In November 1965, Yao Wenyuan authored On “Dismissal of Hai Rui”, began to criticize the bourgeoisie in the ideological field for the first time. The bourgeoisie within the Party attempted to limit the critique in the academic field, but the “Notice” of May 16, 1966 formally started the Great Critique on the political level, marking the start of the Cultural Revolution. The broad revolutionary students and intelligentsia were the first to rise up and criticize the bourgeoisie inside the Party. Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping sent out work teams to repress the revolutionary students and intelligentsia, classifying the rebelling students as “rightists”. When Chairman Mao was made aware of this situation, he authored Bombard the Headquarters – My Big-character Poster in August, exposing the plot of the Liu Shaoqi clique and withdrawing the work teams.
After the work teams were withdrawn, the capitalist elements in power within the Party resorted to propping up official Conservative mass organizations to confront the Rebel mass organizations, as the proletarian revolutionaries led by Chairman Mao resolutely supported the Rebel students and intelligentsia. In November, after Zhang Chunqiao openly supported revolutionary workers in the Anting Incident, the broad worker masses countrywide began to organize themselves against the bourgeoisie in power in local workplaces and areas.
Under these circumstances, the bourgeoisie inside the Party utilized ways like sabotage and material bribery to try to neutralize the mass movement. To put an end to the sabotage of the movement by the bourgeoisie, Chairman Mao directed the broad Rebel masses to rise up and seize power from local capitalist-roaders. In January 1967, the working class in Shanghai was the first to seize power from the Shanghai City Committee. Immediately after, Rebels seized power in many other areas in the whole country. After the seizure of power, Revolutionary Committees based on the three-in-one principle of Army representatives, cadre representatives, and mass representatives were established as the new organs of state power, bourgeoisie elements were purged from the state apparatus.
Under the tide of the Great Critique and the seizures of power, the bourgeois elements within the Party colluded with the bourgeois elements in the high-level of the military. In February, conservative military forces intervened in the political movements in most parts of the country, Rebel mass organizations were forcibly disbanded by the Army and many were arrested. The highest-ranking military leaders openly attack Chairman Mao and leftist leaders in meetings, repudiating the Cultural Revolution. Chairman Mao fought back against the attack of the bourgeoisie, ordering all military forces to stop repressing the Rebels and release the arrested masses. Conservative military leaders had to carry out Chairman Mao’s directives. However, the conservative military leaders did not lose their power and used the force of the Army to rebuild the Conservative mass organizations disintegrated in the previous period against Rebel mass organizations. In Wuhan, the Conservatives’ “Million Heroes” used violence to attack the Rebels. In July, Chairman Mao arrived in Wuhan and asked the leader of the military district, Chen Zaidao, to support the Rebels instead of the Conservatives, but the leaders of the military district openly contradicted Chairman Mao’s directives and even plotted to abduct him. After Chairman Mao evacuated from Wuhan, Army from Beijing reassumed control of the city and declared the Conservative organizations illegal, liberating the Rebels.
Although Conservative forces everywhere have suffered major losses, the difficulties of the mass movements were still not resolved. In some areas, the bourgeoisie within the Party and the Army supported Conservative organizations to keep combating the Rebels, while in other areas, Rebels, after defeating the Conservatives, fell into internal splits under the instigation of the bourgeoisie, endlessly fought each other for power. In September, Chairman Mao again gave instructions and called for all factions of masses to “enter into the revolutionary great alliance under revolutionary principles”. Despite this, struggles persisted in mass organizations in most places, changing of hands happened in areas where the power has already been seized. Many mass organizations were influenced by sectarianism and anarchism and were unwilling to enter into alliance with other mass organizations. The overthrown landlord and bourgeois elements used the chaos at the moment to instigate a very small minority of masses against the dictatorship of the proletariat. To put an end to the intensifying civil war between mass organizations, Chairman Mao ordered the People’s Liberation Army to again intervene in the movement, assisting the revolutionary mass organizations to enter into alliance and to establish secured new power. The mass organizations were integrated, and the original factions were disbanded. In September 1968, Revolutionary Committees were established in all provinces and autonomous regions (excluding the Taiwan Province).
In 1969, the CPCh commenced the IX Congress after undergoing rectification of the Party again, with many revolutionary leftists and advanced elements becoming delegates to the Congress. Chairman Mao pointed out that “[the Cultural Revolution] left some things unfinished and they still need to be continued, like talking about struggle-criticism-transformation.” The main task countrywide changed from the seizure of power from the bottom to the top by Rebel mass organizations to struggle against the bourgeoisie and the criticism and transformation of unreasonable old regulations under the leadership of the new-born revolutionary power. The capitalist tendencies in factories and the countryside were criticized, the spontaneous forces of the petit-bourgeoisie were contained, the trenches of the proletariat in the ideological field were retaken, socialist new things began to emerge everywhere.
However, the Lin Biao clique which is against the Cultural Revolution was formed in the high levels of the Army. The Lin Biao clique faked their support of Chairman Mao in the mass movements of the Cultural Revolution and expanded their ranks in secret while being in opposition to the revolutionary left. Before the IX Congress, they proposed a political report full of the productive force theory, which was refuted by the revolutionaries. In the Lushan Conference in 1970, they concentrated their attack on comrade Zhang Chunqiao but was countered by Chairman Mao. With the failure of legal means of struggle, the Lin Biao clique walked the path of counter-revolutionary coup d’état. In the “Project 571 Outline”, they viciously attacked Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution, and raised the political program of restoring capitalism of “enrich the people and strengthen the nation”. The counter-revolutionary coup of the Lin Biao clique was ultimately crushed and Liu Biao died in a plane crash when escaping abroad in September 1971.
Other factions of the bourgeoisie within the Party did not stop with their activities either. Around the IX Congress, they usurped the leadership of some revolutionary committees, and used political campaigns like “Liquidating May 16 elements” (May 16 is a small conspiratorial organization active in 1967) to attack mass representatives that entered the revolutionary committees and exclude them from the revolutionary committees. After the news of Lin Biao fleeing reached the country, they created the public opinion of “the Cultural Revolution has failed” to confuse the broad masses of people. In 1972, under the direction of centrist leading cadre Zhou Enlai, many centrist and rightist elements were reinstated without having been permitted by the masses. Zhou Enlai shifted the critique of the Lin Biao clique to “criticizing the ultra-left”, in reality critiqued and repudiated new things in the Cultural Revolution. The proletarian revolutionaries fought back against this and turned “criticizing the ultra-left” to “criticizing the right”, defended the fruit of the Cultural Revolution. In the X Congress of the CPCh in 1973, more revolutionaries entered the Politburo and the Central Committee of the Party.
In 1974, Chairman Mao launched the “Criticize Lin Biao, Criticize Confucius” campaign, targeting the recovering bourgeoisie within the Party besides criticizing the ideology of the ancient reactionary thinker Confucius. Revolutionary rebels who have been suppressed by the bourgeoisie in the previous years started to become active again, leaving aside the historical rivalries and concentrated forces on the bourgeoisie, those mistakenly targeted gained rehabilitation and a part of Rebels are again absorbed into Revolutionary Committees. After the “Criticize Lin Biao, Criticize Confucius” campaign, the strength of proletarian revolutionaries in the Party and in the society increased. However, the bourgeois elements in the high level of the Party were not completely liquidated, they resisted comrades Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao and other proletarian revolutionaries and supported the reinstatement of Deng Xiaoping.
In 1975, Deng Xiaoping launched the “Rectification” Campaign which targeted the revolutionary Rebels and new things in the Cultural Revolution, many Rebels were repressed. Chairman Mao’s effort to save Deng Xiaoping was in vain. In 1976, Chairman Mao launched the “Criticize Deng, Counterattack the Right-Deviationist Reversal-of-Verdicts Trend” Campaign, Deng Xiaoping and many other rightist elements are removed from their positions. With the need to stabilize the situation, Hua Guofeng who adopted a centrist position replaced Deng Xiaoping. In April, the bourgeoisie used the masses mourning Zhou Enlai and created a counterrevolutionary riot in Tiananmen Square. Proletarian revolutionaries suppressed this riot and arrested the die-hard elements.
In 1974, Chairman Mao pointed out the source of capitalist restoration in economy is the bourgeois right. “If the likes of Lin Biao come into power, it is easy to make capitalism.” Chairman Mao further pointed out that “the bourgeoisie is within the Party”, that they “are high-ranking officials now and will protect the interest of high-ranking officials.” The theory for the Cultural Revolution was further developed, the necessity of continuing to struggle against the bourgeoisie was made clear. The broad Rebels and masses of people again acted to criticize the bourgeoisie inside the Party and demand them to rectify policies in the previous period. Some Rebel leaders joined the Party or again received positions in Revolutionary Committees.
On September 9, Chairman Mao died. High ranking bourgeoisie immediately gathered together and prepared for coup d’état. The centrist Hua Guofeng colluded with long-time rightist Ye Jianying and launched a sudden attack against the proletarian revolutionaries, arresting the high-level revolutionary leaders Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Wang Hongwen, Yao Wenyuan. After receiving the news, leftist leaders in Shanghai intended to launch insurrection, but it ultimately didn’t materialize due to the feebleness of the leaders. After controlling Shanghai, the bourgeoisie purged all mid- and high-level leftists in the Center and the regional levels and went on a frenzy of repression against Rebels and masses who supported the fight against the right-deviationist countercurrent everywhere. This large-scale repression campaign lasted for almost two years. In the Fujian Province, the “Workers’ and Peasants’ Liberation Army” was briefly organized and engaged in armed struggle against the restoration before being swiftly defeated. The Reactionary Coup of October 6, 1976 marked China changed from a socialist country under the dictatorship of the proletariat to a capitalist country under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.
After the Hua Guofeng clique usurped state power, they immediately started to push for a line against the Cultural Revolution. They repudiated all the new things in the Cultural Revolution and reemployed the old system criticized in the Cultural Revolution. The revisionists even added contents like “learn from the Western factory administration system” to the V Volume of the Selected Work of Chairman Mao. After 1977, Deng Xiaoping was reinstated and gradually replaced Hua Guofeng. In 1978, the Deng Xiaoping clique proposed “Reform and Opening-up” at the 3rd Plenum of the 11th CC, officially confirmed the path of development of Chinese capitalism.
Capitalist Restoration
After the Coup of October 1976, Hua Guofeng revisionist clique usurped the control of the Party, Government, and Army of the People’s Republic of China, subverted the dictatorship of the proletariat. This clique immediately started to carry out counter-revolutionary line after consolidated their positions.
Firstly, they stopped the “Criticize Deng” Campaign and rehabilitated Deng Xiaoping. After a year, Deng Xiaoping was reinstated.
Secondly, under the pretense of exposing and criticizing the “Gang of Four”, they negated the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and negated the socialist new things. In factories and units, the elements in power enforced work disciplines and restored the principle of material incentives. In the countryside, the focus of “Learn From Dazhai in Agriculture” shifted from criticizing capitalist tendencies to develop productive forces and raise the standard of mechanization. The fruit of the educational revolution was negated, the examination system was restored, children from worker and peasant families were striped of their rights of receiving education. The literary and art revolution as well as the medical and health revolution were negated. The theory to criticize the bourgeoisie within the party was defiled as the so-called theory of usurping the Party and seizing Power of the “Gang of Four”.
Thirdly, they cruelly suppressed the activists of the Cultural Revolution. Almost all leaders of Rebel mass organizations and cadres supporting the Rebels were thrown in prison. Masses taking part in the Rebels also faced large scale repression. According to documentations, just in Henan Province, fifty thousand cadres were purged, one hundred thousand had their Party membership rescinded, almost two thousand received sentences.
However, people like Deng Xiaoping thought the Hua Guofeng clique was too slow in restoring capitalism. The Deng Xiaoping clique seized the control of the Party through struggle and launched the so-called “Discussion on the Criterion of Truth” to repudiate the “Two Whatevers” of Hua Guofeng, creating conditions for openly negating Chairman Mao. In 1978, the 3rd Plenum of the 11th CC established “Reform and Opening-up” as the basic national policy. In 1981, the Deng Xiaoping clique passed the “Resolution on History”, completely repudiated the CR and attacked Chairman Mao for committing “errors toward the end of his life”.
Chairman Mao pointed out that “(if capitalist restoration happens) … the dictatorship of the proletariat will transform into the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, a reactionary, fascistic dictatorship.” (Speech on the Seven Thousand Cadres Conference) In the new Constitution of 1982, the right for the masses to go on strikes, conduct big debates and make big-character posters were deleted, reaffirming the fascist dictatorship in the legal level.
To curry favor with Western imperialists, the Deng Xiaoping clique ended aiding revolutionary Parties in each country and launched a war of invasion against Vietnam.
In the economic field, the Deng Xiaoping clique implemented capitalist principles. People’s Communes in the countryside were dissolved, the land was distributed to the hands of individual farmers. Many economic special zones were set up in the coastal areas, encouraging imperialist countries to come and invest. In the economic reforms in the cities, the bourgeoisie first bribed the workers with material benefits and bonuses, then through enforcing disciplines and the contract system completely turned workers into wage slaves. With the advance of the marketization process, private capitalist economies in cities and the countryside developed rapidly. The Deng Xiaoping clique encouraged this development and acknowledged the legal status of wage labor. However, the bureaucrat capitalist economy still played an absolutely dominant role in this period.
In the “switching of rails” from planned economy to commodity economy, the corruption of the state apparatuses greatly developed, many high-level officials connived for their children to exploit wealth with their privilege to realize the primitive accumulation of capital. The social law and order fell into chaos. Although the “Strike Hard” campaign prosecuted millions of people (many being innocent masses), but the criminal activities in the society only increased. Prostitution, gambling, and drugs appeared again. The unemployed in the cities and landless peasants in the countryside fell into abject poverty.
The Deng Xiaoping clique allowed the spread of bourgeois ideology. In the entire 1980s, the liberalist ideology was the main form of ideology in the society. Furthermore, in Xinjiang and Tibet, some reactionary religious leaders were reinstated, the people long detached from religious influence were asked to practicing religions again. When liberalism developed to a stage intolerable for the bureaucrat bourgeoisie, they launched a campaign against “liberalization”, and dismissed leaders who supporte liberalization within the Party.
By the end of the 1980s, the economic reforms led to severe inflations, the life of the masses of people became harder day by day. In 1989, bourgeois intelligentsia and students launched a demonstration for bourgeois democracy in Beijing, demanded to turn China from a one-party state into a parliamentary state. As this movement raised the slogan of “against corruption”, it received the sympathy and participation of many workers. Although this movement was not violent, however, after the Deng Xiaoping clique knocked down the liberals in the high level of the Party led by Zhao Ziyang, they still crushed this movement bloodily with troops from outside Beijing.
After the suppression, debates about the path to take in the future emerged in the revisionist Party. Some asked to implement the Soviet-style highly centralized bureaucrat capitalism. In 1992, Deng Xiaoping defeated these people and pushed China to transition to market economy.
In the 1990s, private capitalist economy developed rapidly, the level of opening to imperialism in coastal areas deepened. Most state-owned enterprises were privatized by the bourgeoisie under the pretext of being not effective, tens of millions of state-owned enterprise workers lost their jobs in this process. The social class relations of modern-day China were formed in this period, which is the fundamental contradiction between a handful of bourgeoisie (both bureaucrat capitalist and private capitalist) and the broad proletariat (including urban workers and semi-proletarian peasant-workers), between those two was the petit-bourgeoisie comprised of medium peasants, small merchants, intelligentsia, and professional technicians. The bureaucrat bourgeoisie reserved the control of the land resources and the most important sectors that generate the most profit, with the private bourgeoisie controlling most of the industry and the service sector.
The bureaucrat bourgeoisie occupied high positions within the Party, while the private bourgeoisie also has a considerable amount of power in politics. The private bourgeoisie was allowed inside the revisionist Party, entering the NPC and the CPPCC, entering negotiations with the government in the regional level (the government needs them to contribute to financial income). Many members of the private bourgeoisie were originally transformed from the ranks of the bureaucrats.
The contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie was intensified to an unprecedented scale in the reforms. The working conditions for hundreds of millions of peasant-workers and urban poor proletarians are very vile, withholding wages, cruel management, and work-related accidents are the norms for workers, as the basic protections under the socialist system were long completely abolished. When workers fight against exploitation, they were often repressed by the police. Unionizing is still completely illegal to this day, while the official unions formed by a handful of bureaucrats almost never have any effect.
Most peasants in the countryside are also heavily exploited by the bourgeoisie. After dismantling the People’s Communes, the countryside was rapidly polarized, producing a handful of rich peasants and the broad poor peasants. Orders in many parts of the countryside are de facto controlled by local gentries. Before the abolition of agricultural tax in 2006, the peasantry carried extremely heavy burdens, anti-taxation struggles erupted in many places.
In 2001, China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), its economy began to develop rapidly. However, this economic development was completely based on the savage exploitation of hundreds of millions of proletarians. According to official records, the average working hours of peasant-workers reached 55 hours per week, while in reality working hours in many factories reached more than 70 hours per week. At the same time, wages remain behind the level of economic development, the social protection system is basically not put into effect. Chinese workers are in a similar situation with Third World workers.
The Chinese bourgeoisie accumulated large quantity of capital through savage exploitation. Because the cost for labor power in China is relatively low, while the completeness of the industrial system, literacy and skills of the work force, and the level of basic facilities are relatively high (thanks to the socialist policies before 1976), a large amount of domestic and foreign capital are willing to invest in China. China became the “world factory”, exporting commodities produced there to the whole world, flooding the pockets of capitalists with wealth.
The accumulation of capital resulted in the development of monopoly capital and led China to become an imperialist country by the start of the XXI century. Bureaucrat capitalism took the lead in exporting capital to foreign countries: China supplied investments and loans to semi-colonies in the Third World and controlled the land and ports of these countries. China also applied political influence to some countries, like selling arms to the reactionary regime of Sri Lanka, supporting them in repressing the LTTE.
With start of the new century, the Chinese workers have never stopped their revindicative struggle. According to official data, the “mass incidents” in China increases every year, and “in mass incidents with more than 100 participants, the primary cause is conflict between labor and capital”. Worker struggles assumed many forms, like strikes, marches, and sit-ins, the most intense struggle being the “Tonghua Iron Group Incident”, where angry workers beat a reactionary manager to death. Other than that, workers in some factories raised the demand to form labor unions. Due to the reactionary character of the Chinese reactionary regime, these struggles are almost all waged under the threat of police repression.
The national contradictions under capitalism intensified, especially the contradiction between the Han Chinese nation and the Uyghur nation in Xinjiang. Chairman Mao pointed out, “national struggle, fundamentally, is a question of class struggle.” After restoring capitalism, the Han Chinese bourgeoisie and the upper elements of ethnic minorities colluded to control the economy in ethnic minority areas. The broad masses of ethnic minorities gained nothing from economic development and the idea of fighting against Han Chinese oppression emerged. In Xinjiang, the Uyghur masses launched an armed struggle against the reactionary regime. Because these struggles are influenced by reactionary nationalists, they mainly adopted the method of terrorism, indiscriminately harming armed personnel of the reactionary regime and ordinary Han Chinese masses, failing to win support of the broad masses of people. With the cruel repression and national oppression of the regime, these struggles temporarily receded.
After Xi Jinping’s rise to power in 2012, although slogans to deceive the people like “anti-corruption”, “rule of law”, and “eradicate poverty” were raised, no meaningful social reforms are implemented in reality. After prosecuting several hundred thousand corrupted officials, social inequality continue to widen, the Gini index reached close to 0.5 even with official data (according to some research institutions, this number reached 0.6). Articles benefitting the workers in the Labor Law are still unable to be implemented. The official standard for poverty level is extremely low, as poor populations in the countryside are recognized as “leaving poverty” just by receiving very limited “subsidies”.
With the slowing down of economic growth, the social contradictions which slightly eased again intensified. The main force of the revindicative struggle expanded from urban industrial proletarians and poor peasants to workers in all fields of the society. In 2018, tower crane operators launched a nation-wide united strike, raising the demand to increase wages. Service sector workers – supermarket employees, taxi driver and delivery workers all waged strike struggles against capitalist exploitation. On the internet, computer programmers raised the call against “996” (working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week), winning widespread support. The struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie is intensifying more and more, the old method of exploitation to mainly rely on raising absolute surplus value is unable to continue.
The middle strata, even with the position as the petit-bourgeoisie, is constantly polarizing. The status of the intelligentsia continues to decrease, small businessmen face the threat of bankruptcy, middle peasants face agricultural crises, among others, lower a considerable amount of them to the position of the proletariat.
In Hong Kong, erupted riots against reactionary laws and demanding the broadening of democracy. This struggle was led by reactionary liberals, but objectively exposed the severe class contradiction in the area, which is the product of the collaboration with the big bourgeoisie and ignoring the interest of the broad working people since the handover of Hong Kong in 1998.
Internationally, the big bourgeoisie in China is brought to a new crisis. China carries out policies to facilitate the export of capital like “One Belt, One Road”, stationing armed forces in Africa. These acts intensified the contradiction between Chinese social-imperialism and oppressed nations internationally as well as the contradiction between China and other imperialist powers. People of many oppressed countries burned the Chinese flag, telling Chinese capitalists to get out. The United States launched a trade war against China two years ago, striking its exportation and forcing it to concede in many aspects. This year, imperialist powers in North America and Western Europe launched a joined sanction against China under the pretext of “human rights” among others. The contradiction of the competition for global dominance between China and other imperialist powers is irreconcilable. China’s desire to redivide the world came into conflict with old imperialist powers. On the basis of these contradictions, a new world war or cold war is brewing. However, China today is not “one of the two poles” like some people think. It is only one among the countries of the Second World. The United States is still the sole hegemonic superpower and the number one enemy of the people of the world.
Most importantly, the subjective forces for revolution in China had some developments in recent years. In the 1990s and the 2000s, the “leftists” raising “revolutionary” calls with the flag of Chairman Mao were mostly in reality reformists inextricably linked to the revisionist regime. Although they limitedly took part in the revindicative struggle of the masses of workers at that moment, they were unable to truly lead the revolution. Some relatively advanced groups were rapidly suppressed by the fascist state after emerging. Almost no one was able to truly grasp Maoism, some could not tell “restoration of capitalism” and “privatization” apart and viewed the 1990s as the time period of the restoration of capitalism in China. Some were severely influenced by nationalism and produced an incorrect understanding on the character of the Chinese society, thinking China has become a “semi-colony”, and a national revolution is needed before a socialist revolution. The understanding of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was also vulgarized, the struggle against the bourgeoisie inside the Party and to limit bourgeoisie rights was misinterpreted as the palace struggle of a few high-level individuals. With the development of the situation, many “leftists” became rightists.
In recent years, more and more masses began to reevaluate the Mao Zedong era. Many young students and workers came into contact with Marxism, Marxist clubs emerged in many colleges and some small circles studying Marxism emerged in the society. Their points of view advanced in a certain degree comparing to previous leftists, with some raising the slogan for armed revolution and dictatorship of the proletariat. However, these groups were still unable to truly lead the revolution. In 2018, advanced workers of the Jasic company in Shenzhen demanded to form an independent union. After the arrest of the workers, left-wing students locally and from other areas went to the police station to protest, which ended with the arrest of advanced elements which took part in the struggle by the fascist state. Great repression was subsequently launched across the country against progressive groups. This incident exposed the opportunism and adventurism of these leftist groups, who didn’t understand the secretness and protractedness of struggle in fascist countries, completely exposing advanced elements publicly and ultimately created great losses.
Despite suffering such severe setbacks, the spread of advanced ideas is unpreventable. More and more people came to realize the fascist nature of the regime claiming to be “socialist with Chinese characteristics”. Like Chairman Mao pointed out, “If an anti-communist rightist coup takes place in China, I’m sure they will not have peace, possibly wouldn’t last long, because all revolutionaries who represent the interest of more than ninety percent of the people will not tolerate it. In that time, rightists may have the upper hand using my words, but leftists will definitely use my other words to organize themselves and take down the rightists.” The main problem in the current period is that people willing to accept Communism do not know about Maoism yet, many advanced elements are not able to completely tell apart Maoism and revisionism. Protracted work by the revolutionaries is required.
Today, the world is at the strategic offensive period of the proletarian revolution, all three main contradictions of world imperialism are sharpening, revolution is the main tendency. The broad masses of people are long ready to rebel, but they are without the leadership of Communists. All advanced elements against the fascist dictatorship of the bourgeoisie in China need to accept the theoretical guidance of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism, construct revolutionary organizations on this basis, carry out two-line struggles, assume the reconstitution of the militarized Communist Party of China as the main task in the present. The road of Protracted People’s War is not only the road to revolution in semi-feudal semi-colonial countries where the rural population is the majority, it is also the road to revolution in industrialized imperialist countries and all other countries. Only through People’s War, through the concentric construction of the three instruments of revolution, the Party, the People’s Army and the United Front, can the New Power of the dictatorship of the proletariat be established, and ultimately complete the proletarian revolution on the world scale, realizing communism.
Conclusion
The Communist Party of China made great history in class struggle and two-line struggles, leaving precious experience for the international proletariat and their vanguards. But after the defeat of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution the CPCh turned into a revisionist party, becoming the “vanguard” of the bourgeoisie.
Why was the Cultural Revolution defeated in the end? We consider that the primary reason is the inability to fully apply the proletarian military line of “armed sea of masses” pointed out in “Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the GPCR with People’s War until Communism!”, which could have been embodied through giving more power to the people’s militia. In 1967, Chairman Mao directed Zhang Chunqiao and Wang Hongwen to expand the militia in Shanghai against the capitalist-roaders, but this direction was not realized in the whole country. After the high-level leftist leaders were arrested through a surprise attack, the cadres and masses who supported continuing the revolution in the whole country fell into a powerless position with no leadership, no organization, and no arms, making them unable to fight against repression of bourgeois elements.
There are some other issues: 1) Leftist leaders failed to successfully lead the broad masses to unite and didn’t gain the leadership in the mass movement, making a large part of the forces of the mass movement being wasted on pointless internal struggles. 2) Most cadres stood at the centrist position and did not understand the significance of the Cultural Revolution. They passively resisted the CR without openly going against the direction of Chairman Mao. After the October Coup, they immediately stood on the side of the bourgeoisie out of self-interest. 3) China was a country with a large number of petit-bourgeois, the petit-bourgeoisie of the countryside that made up the absolute majority of the population was not fully mobilized during the CR for multiple reasons who didn’t comprehend the CR. 4) The bourgeois elements in the high level of the Party and the Army were never fully purged. Because of the limited strength of the Left, they were only able to try to gradually weaken the influence of the bourgeoisie. One of the masterminds of the October Coup, Ye Jianying, has always been against the CR, but was only reassigned from his position in 1976. Despite this, most Army leaders were willing to listen to his directions behind the scenes.
The defeat of the Cultural Revolution is a low point for the Chinese proletarian revolution. But after the victory of the bourgeoisie within the Party and the restoration of capitalism in China, the Chinese proletariat is still spontaneously engaging in protracted struggles with the bourgeoisie. Furthermore, proletarian revolutions in the world are developing staunchly amongst the encirclement of capitalism. Like the May First Declaration this year pointed out, the imperialist system is facing its general crisis, the spontaneous protest and struggles of the masses are emerging everywhere – everything has made clear that the World Proletarian Revolution has entered the stage of strategic offensive. We must arm ourselves with the highest and newest stage of the proletarian ideology, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism, actively integrate with the struggle of the proletariat and oppressed peoples and lead them. We need to reconstitute the Communist Parties destroyed by revisionism with Maoism, build up the People’s Army and the United Front with the Party as the center, launch People’s War and seize state power.
Today, Maoists in China and across the world must absorb the experience and lessons from the GPCR, and more deeply understand the Militarization Theory raised by Chairman Gonzalo. Like the Line of Construction of the Three Instruments pointed out, “When the bourgeoisie loses its power, it will find its proxies inside the Party, try to usurp Power with the Army, sabotage the dictatorship of the proletariat and restore capitalism. Because of this, the Communist Party must militarize itself, apply the all-round dictatorship with the three instruments, forge itself in People’s War, empower the armed organizations of the masses, the people’s militia, so as to engulf the Army… With the militarization of the Party, we complete a step towards militarization of society, which is the strategic prospect to guarantee the dictatorship of the proletariat. The militarized society is the sea of armed masses which Marx and Engels spoke of, which guards the conquest of Power and defends it once conquered.” Only by thoroughly mobilizing, organizing, and arming the broad masses of people, capitalist restoration can be prevented with People’s War until communism.
Progressive elements in China need to actively study and deepen understanding in Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism, and the contributions of universal validity of Chairman Gonzalo. We need to put our focus on the national and international situation, have understanding on the situation of the World Proletarian Revolution, realizing the utmost task at the moment is the reconstitution of the militarized Communist Party of China. The organizations must be clearly guided by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism, organized with Maoist principles, against all forms of revisionism and deviationism, reject eclecticism and sectarianism. Maoists need to combine theory with practice, forge close links with the masses and our own experience in practice, give importance to criticism and self-criticism.
Long live the centenary of the Communist Party of China!
Down with Chinese social-imperialism!
Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism!
Long live the new great wave of the World Proletarian Revolution!
Reconstitute the Communist Party of China!
Communist Group (Maoist)
1 July 2021
