By Sheila Xiao

On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong declared a shocking victory: the Chinese Communist Party had prevailed in the country’s long civil war and China was now a People’s Republic committed to the construction of socialism. Those who were still loyal to the pro-imperialist reactionary Kuomintang party led by Chiang Kaishek fled to Taiwan. China and the world are celebrating the 70th anniversary of this milestone that changed the course of history.
Putting an end to the “century of humiliation”
Just before the famous declaration of October 1, Mao told delegates to a summit of the main leaders of the whole country: “We have closed our ranks and defeated national and foreign oppressors through the People’s Liberation War and the great popular revolution, and now we are proclaiming the foundation of the People’s Republic of China … Ours will no longer be a nation subject to insult and humiliation. We have stood up. ”Beginning with the first Opium War in 1839, China’s sovereignty was uprooted by imperialism for more than a century. The British fought this war of aggression in response to the ban of the Chinese monarchy on British opium imports to China, which were causing an epidemic of mass addiction.
China was defeated. What began as five “treaty ports” open to be controlled by the British became countless ports dominated by foreigners to be exploited by different imperialist powers. China suffered invasions of the Japanese Empire, border disputes with Tsarist Russia and the secession of areas that were once part of its territory. Known as the “Century of Humiliation,” China went from being one of the most advanced civilizations, producing 30 percent of world economic production, to a state of severe underdevelopment, colonialism, war and domestic instability.
The victory of the Chinese communist party on October 1, 1949 ended the century of humiliation, freeing the Chinese people from imperialist strangulation. The People’s Republic of China was established, thus beginning the road to socialism.
China and the global anti-colonial movement
The victory of the people in China took place in the context of the emerging world-class war known as the Cold War. The Chinese Revolution was not just a socialist revolution, it was a struggle for national liberation. This triumph was a victory for all independence and socialist struggles throughout the world, and electrified global politics.
Because such a large and important country had joined the Soviet Union in the socialist camp, the balance of world power began to move away from the imperialists. The ruling class in the United States panicked, and the fight began to determine the arrogant and racist question “who lost China?” This became the opening act of the macartist witch hunt called the “Red Scare.” .
In addition to the inspiration that the Chinese revolution provided for freedom fighters throughout the world, the formation of the People’s Republic also represented a source of material help for struggles throughout the world for independence and socialism. During the Korean War, for example, hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers fought alongside their Korean brothers and sisters with Soviet weapons against the invading armies led by the United States.
China also played a key role as a trading partner for the newly independent nations, providing a desperately necessary alternative to the markets of the imperialist countries. In 1961, Kwame Nkrumah, president of Ghana, negotiated an interest-free loan from China. The agreement included the exchange of industrial and agricultural experts that involved training Ghanaian workers in China. This is just one of many examples of cooperation between nations on the basis of development, rather than predatory relations based on exploitation.
The Chinese revolution also inspired radical organizations in the United States. The Young Lords, formed at the end of the 1960s, fought for the end of American colonialism in Puerto Rico, as well as for the oppressive conditions and systematic racism faced by Puerto Ricans on the American continent. The Young Lords studied the defeat of the Japanese and then the defeat of the Kuomintang by the Chinese Communist Party and also how the Chinese revolutionaries began to undo the patriarchal norms that subordinated women.
Like the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China extended its solidarity with the African-American struggle in the United States. Mao not only met with the legendary African-American freedom fighter WEB Du Bois, Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai met with the leader of the Black Panther Party, Huey Newton. Regular study of Mao Zedong’s works was a common practice among many radical groups of the time. One of the best-known fundraising efforts of the Black Panther Party was to sell Mao’s “Little Red Book” on university campuses, and this text was a mandatory read for all members.
Lay the groundwork for rapid growth
After taking power in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party faced two enormous challenges: developing China to overcome the poverty suffered by its people and transforming relations in society to empower the working class and the peasants who made up the overwhelming majority of the population. Throughout the Chinese revolution, the Communist Party adopted a wide range of often contradictory methods and strategies to perform these tasks. While much remains to be done, an examination of how far Chinese society has progressed 70 years after the revolution reveals one of the greatest transformations in human history.
One of the first most notable efforts was The Great Leap Forward, China’s second five-year plan, which laid the foundation for rapid development in the coming years and radically reorganized production in Chinese society. The Great Leap Forward was an ambitious rapid attempt at agricultural and industrial development. At that time, China’s lack of modern infrastructure meant that the most common forms of production where certain products were mainly produced in urban centers and then transported to all other areas represented a great challenge. In an attempt to remedy this, communes were established throughout China for agricultural and industrial production.
While critics of the Great Leap Forward consider it a great failure that resulted in astronomical deaths related to famine, many demographers and historians challenge this narrative today. There were short-term food shortages, mainly due to the reorganization of production, but also three consecutive years of unpredictable adverse weather conditions.
This company required the complete mobilization of the rural population to participate in labor-intensive work, and the leadership of the Chinese revolution reflected on the mistakes made by relying on an extraordinary human effort to overcome material underdevelopment. However, the infrastructure established during that time improved long-term agricultural production, which is essential for industrialization. Studies show that the yield per hectare of land planted with food crops increased by 145.9 percent and total food production increased by 169.6 percent during the period 1949-1978. Industrial production increased by an annual average of 11.2 percent between 1952 and 1976.
Women’s liberation
Foot bandage, female infanticide, mistreatment of women and other forms of submission were routine experiences of women before the revolution. After the revolution, the Fundamental Law established in the People’s Republic of China declared:
“The People’s Republic of China will abolish the feudal system that keeps women in captivity. Women will enjoy the same rights as men in political, economic, cultural, educational and social life. Freedom of marriage will apply to men and women ”(article 6).
Arranged marriages, concubinage and child marriages were abolished. There was an increase in divorces initiated by women.
Women were also encouraged to join the workforce. During the Great Leap Forward, community kitchens, kindergartens and nurseries were formed so that women could participate in mass development projects. About 5 million kindergartens and kindergartens and more than 36,000,000 dining rooms were established in rural areas in 1959.
The education and literacy policy campaign was another great company of the People’s Republic. In just 10 years, China’s illiteracy rate increased from 80% to 43%, even in rural areas. This meant teaching hundreds of millions of people to read and write.
US imperialism tries to stop the rise of China
As poverty continues to increase in the United States, poverty has steadily declined in the People’s Republic of China. More than 500 million people emerged from extreme poverty between 1981 and 2004. China’s GDP increased, on average, 10 percent annually, and removed more than 800 million people from poverty.
China took a sharp turn in economic development by introducing market reforms in 1978, creating a capitalist class and exacerbating class conflict and inequality within Chinese society. Many progressive people see this as the end of the socialist country in which they once found inspiration. The Party for Socialism and Liberation sees this as a mistake, while the shift towards capitalist development methods carries great political dangers, there has been no counterrevolution in China. The state that governs China is the product of a worker and peasant revolution, and that state can lead and control the capitalist class as it sees fit.
In recent years, the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party has taken a left turn in its political orientation in the face of US imperialist aggression. In 2013, China introduced a commercial initiative called A Strip, a Road (One Belt, One Road), now more commonly known as the Belt and Road Initiative. This project would cover from East Asia to Europe, establishing relationships based on peaceful diplomacy and trade between these nations. More than 60 countries comprising two thirds of the world’s population have signed this project. This would put China in a geopolitical advantage as an emerging world power, rivaling the United States.
The current United States trade war against China makes it clear that the United States government is more interested in destabilizing China even at the expense of the economic well-being of its own population. China does not want conflicts with the United States, but is increasingly ready to do what it needs to defend itself.
Every socialist experiment is a product of the historical and material circumstances in which a society is found, as well as the decisions of the revolutionaries who seek to transform society to meet the needs of the people. In just 70 years, China has made tremendous progress towards the eradication of poverty, the modernization of its economy and infrastructure and the creation of a world order in which the imperialist nations of the West do not have an unquestionable domination of global politics. The triumph of the people of 1949 is what set it in motion.