Three waves of debates among Chinese scholars about the meaning of Aufhebung des Privateigentums in the Manifesto of the Communist Party

Abstract

ABSTRACT After more than 20 years of the Chinese economic development initiated in 1978, the theoretical debates that had been discouraged by Deng Xiaoping’s pragmatic approach to Socialism resurfaced in the form of the discussions and controversies surrounding the Chinese translation of the phrase Aufhebung des Privateigentums from the Manifesto of the Communist Party. Since 2000, there have been three waves of debates. The first wave confronts scholars over translating Aufhebung by yangqi (‘sublation’) instead of xiaomie (‘abolition’) of private property. The second brings into focus the controversial interpretation of ‘abolition’ relating only to ‘bourgeois private property’ rather than ‘individual property based on one’s own labour’. The third wave advances the idea, perceived as radical by some Chinese scholars, that the inclusion of the term Aufhebung in the Manifesto was a fundamental error. The integration of these debates in their historical context reveals the indirect character of the Chinese scholarly debates on political issues.