Catching-up and Pulling Ahead: The Role of China’s Revolutions in its Quest to Escape Dependency and Achieve National Independence

Abstract

This article argues that the historic tasks of removing foreign domination and landlord-capitalist rule in the colonies are one task and have to be carried out by the proletariat, in alliance with the peasant masses. For its part, dependent on imperialism, the landlord-bourgeoisie are fearful of a shake-up of property relations in any form. The article first explains the intensification of uneven and combined development in the final, monopoly stage of capitalism before turning to China’s struggles for national independence. It is contended that the People’s Republic of China is a transitional economy where the law of primitive socialist accumulation and the law of value are in competition. This is the driver of its social formation, a “unity of opposites” between capitalist and non-capitalist elements. Capitalism in China remains under the control of the Communist Party of China and its social-economic base. The flourishing of private enterprises leads to inequality and capitalist accumulation but has been restrained by state policies and the law of primitive socialist accumulation.