From “For a Lasting Peace, For a People’s Democracy”, organ of the Communist Information Bureau, September 29, 1950
International imperialism received a crushing blow as a result of the victory of the Chinese people. China, the imperialists’ greatest colonial centre, yielded them billions in profits annually. The victory of the 475 million people made a breach in the imperialist colonial system, shook to the foundations this rotten system which is heading to its doom under the blows of the national liberation movement of the colonial peoples.
The victory of the Chinese revolution revealed the tremendous influence exercised by the Great October Socialist Revolution, which opened a new era in the history of mankind. It revealed the attractive force of the Soviet Union, which set an example to all the oppressed and exploited how to build their life without exploiters, how to advance-toward Communism, toward a happy, joyous life.
The victory of the Chinese revolution was made possible by the victory of Socialism in the U.S.S.R.; it was the .result of the destruction of Hitlerite fascism and Japanese imperialism by the Soviet Army. The establishment of the Chinese People’s Republic has, in its turn, strengthened considerably the forces of the anti-imperialist, democratic camp, has paved the way for breaches in the colonial chain of imperialism on other sectors. Therein lies the great historical significance of the victory of the Chinese people.
Within a year the Chinese People’s Republic, relying on the fraternal aid of the Soviet Union, has succeeded in stabilising economic life; inflation has been ended (a few days ago, the exchange rate of the yuan again rose in relation to the dollar and sterling), thousands of enterprises and railways have been restored and the foundations of planned economy are being laid. The position of the working class has improved considerably. Emulation is developing in many industrial enterprises and productivity of labour is increasing steadily. Agriculture is advancing. Large-scale irrigation work is under way and a successful struggle begun to combat natural calamities. The harvest this year is much better than last year’s. This is due to the fact that on a territory with a rural population of approximately 145 million, agrarian reform has already been carried out, and on the remaining territory the people’s administration is rendering every possible assistance to the poor and middle peasants by reducing taxes and land rent. In the provinces liberated last year, careful preparations are under way for agrarian reform.
Agrarian reform abolishes the landlords as a class, abolishes the system of feudal landownership and introduces the system of peasant landownership. The great significance of agrarian reform in China becomes particularly clear if we consider that until recently the landlords possessed 70-80 per cent of all the cultivated land.
Feudalism is a brake on the development of China, and the feudal landlords are the main support of the imperialists. To open the way for the broad development of the productive forces and to consolidate the cause of national independence it is necessary to carry out a deep-going agrarian revolution which would radically change the balance of political forces in China in favour of democracy and would strengthen the militant alliance of the working class and the peasantry, under the leadership of the working class.
The most important instrument for economic restoration, cultural revolution and social reform in China is the State of People’s Democracy. This State differs in principle from the bourgeois state, where democracy exists for the exploiting minority. Comrade Stalin, with brilliant foresight, pointed out that the future revolutionary power in China would, in general, resemble in character that power of which we spoke in 1905, i.e., something in the nature of a. democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry with this difference, however, that it would in the main, be an anti-imperialist power.
It would be a transition to a non-capitalist power, or, to be more precise, to the socialist development of China, said Comrade Stalin.
State power in China is not the dictatorship of the proletariat, and in this it differs from the state power in the European countries of People’s Democracy where this democracy fulfils the functions of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The dictatorship of the People’s Democracy in China is the state power of the People’s Democratic United Front of the working class, peasants, petty bourgeoisie, national-bourgeoisie and other patriotic democratic elements, based on the alliance of workers and peasants and led by the working class. The task of the People’s Democracy in China at this stage is to carry out agrarian reform, to consolidate the alliance of the working class and the peasantry, to draw into active political life hundreds of millions of people, economic rehabilitation, and industrialisation of the country, to strengthen and broaden the foundation of public property, to restore and develop the economy, to raise the living standard of the working people and to effect the cultural revolution. The Central People’s Government of China is building up the defence of the country against imperialist aggression.
The nature of the people’s democratic state power in China is defined by the conditions in this recently colonial country. At present the working people of China are not confronted directly with the task of building Socialism, the instrument of which is the dictatorship of the proletariat. As Mao Tse-tung said: “When we have created a flowering national economy and culture, when all the conditions are ripe and when this will be approved by the whole country, we, in our steady advance, shall enter the new era of Socialism.”
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