Socialism with Chinese Characteristics: Sun Yatsen and the International Development of China

Abstract

If and when the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Guomindang remnants on Taiwan reach a modus vivendi, the 'Third United Front', like the First and Second, must surely give lip service to the 'Three People's Principles of Sun Yatsen' nationalism, democracy and the people's livelihood. There has never been disagreement over nationalism. One-party democracy has been a problem on both sides, but for that very reason has not normally been open to debate. Only the ambiguous doctrine packaged as 'people's livelihood' (minsheng zhuyi) fuels ongoing argument. For a time (how long and with what conviction may always be debated) Sun seemed willing to equate his socio-economic proposals with 'communism'. His rejection of the inevitability of class conflict and his awareness of some of the difficulties which brought about Lenin's New Economic Policy probably led him to back-pedal to 'socialism'. A sceptical Zinoviev once dismissed 'Sunism' as 'state capitalism', a term which was, ironically, accepted by both Communist and Nationalist writers up to the 1960s. During the Sino-Japanese War and civil strife, the Guomindang tended to play down the notion of 'land to the tiller'; and instead the economy was put on a militarised footing, giving great power to the state on the