October 1, 1997 marked the 48th anniversary of the day the leader
of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong, proclaimed the
liberation of China with the words "China has stood up." In the
last nine months, China has been in the world headlines. Deng
Xiaoping died in February; July 1st saw Hong Kong reunited with
China; and just recently the Fifteenth Congress of the Communist
Party of China (CPC) was held.
These events need to be considered against the backdrop of what
took place in 1949, the year China won its liberation. After
continuous struggles and through heroic wars, since Japanese
occupation in the 1930s, the system of foreign domination and
dismemberment which had been imposed by European and other powers
since the mid-nineteenth century was overthrown and national
independence achieved. At the same moment, the Chinese people
opened the path to social progress through the abolition of
centuries-old feudal backwardness supplemented by brutal foreign
capitalist exploitation and put the construction of socialism on
the agenda.
The significance of the emergence of China as the most
populous country and one of the largest in the world impressed
itself on international opinion immediately at the time. This
defeat inflicted on world imperialism reverberates even down to
this day. In the wake of the collapse of the bipolar system, when
the conditions today show that no force in the world can act in
the old way, China and the direction which it decides to take is
a factor which has to be reckoned with by all forces in the
world. The role of China and the words and deeds of the Communist
Party of China must be studied by the Marxist-Leninists and
progressive forces with the seriousness they deserve, without
being prejudiced by preconceived notions.
The liberation of China was of special significance to those
nations and peoples in the rest of Asia, Africa and Latin America
who were still trapped under the occupation of European
colonialism. During the 1950s and 1960s, one country after the
other achieved their national independence, in no small part
through the inspration of China's example, finally eliminating
colonialism as a system from the world, with some exceptions.
The American imperialists for a long time refused to
reconcile themselves to their defeat in China. As the backers of
Chiang Kai Chek, the U.S. used its veto to prevent China taking
her rightful seat at the United Nations. But eventually, under
the renewed blows inflicted by the Vietnamese and other
Indochinese people, themselves inspired by Chinese liberation,
even the biggest world superpower, U.S. imperialism, had to come
to terms with the modern reality of an independent China. China
acceded to the U.N. in the early 1970s and since then her
insistence on the reunification of her remaining territories as a
resolute stand for the rights of national sovereignty has
continued to exert a progressive influence on international
affairs. Just recently, Hong Kong was finally handed back from
British occupation, while Macao is soon to return to China. The
demand for the return of Taiwan to China remains on the agenda as
an important consideration in geo-politics and as a further
example in the upholding of the important democratic principle of
the rights of nations and sovereignty in the world.
With the collapse of the USSR and other pseudo-socialist
countries in eastern Europe, the U.S. imperialists tried to
arrogate to themselves the position of sole arbiter in a unipolar
world. Apart from the rivalry of other imperialist powers, the
position of China as a country to determine its own social system
has helped as a block to imperialist ambitions of hegemony.
Worldwide, China has friends who would like to see it march on to
socialism and communism through revolution.
Commentators have been speculating since the end of the
1970s and the accession of Deng Xiaoping to power in China, that
the course of reforms to the Chinese economy favouring foreign
investment were leading inevitably to the restoration of
capitalism and China coming back under the imperialist system.
However, the direction which China will take has not as yet been
settled. The recent convening of the IMF in Hong Kong is evidence
of the concern of the world bourgeoisie, on one hand their having
to respect the sheer size of China as an economy today as well as
their desire to bring her closer under their wing. It also
revealed the important role China plays to stand up for national
sovereignty.
Today's situation is one where there is one Workers and
Communist Movement in the world. Revolutionary forces are
gathering strength for the coming revolutionary storms which are
bound to follow the current period of retreat of revolution. So
it is a time when it is mandatory that the word and deed of each
political party is studied with an open mind, including that of
the Communist Party of China. What is crucial is to analyze the
position each
