Subject: “New Democracy”—Booklet by Mao Tse-tung.
There is attached, as of general interest in a study of the present political
conflict in China, a translation42 of a booklet by Mao Tse-tung
[Page 421]
entitled “New Democracy”. Mao is the Chairman of the
Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, and that Party’s
acknowledged ideological leader. The booklet, though written about the end
of 1940, is still regarded as an authoritative expression, with certain
exceptions mentioned below, of the platform and policies of the Chinese
Communist Party. It will be noted that several references to “New Democracy”
were made by Chou En-lai in his important speech of March 12, 1944 (see my
memorandum of May 1143) setting
forth the Communist views in regard to the basis for Kuomintang–Communist
co-operation.
The attached is a new translation and is believed to be the only full one in
English available. It is understood that a translation was made in Hongkong
in late 1941 but that the outbreak of the Pacific war resulted in the loss
of the manuscript before its intended publication. The present translation
has been supplied by Communist sources and there has been no opportunity of
checking against the original. There does not, however, seem to be reason to
question its reliability.
The booklet shows some obvious signs of the time in which it was written—a
time when China fighting alone against Japan had become pessimistic over the
prospects of British or American intervention, and when Russia as a neutral
regarded the European conflict as an “imperialist war”. With the German
attack on Russia and the subsequent outbreak of the Pacific War, Chinese
Communist thought toward the war and toward America has changed. Since then
they have consistently upheld the United Nations strategy of first dealing
with the menace of Germany, have plead for the United Front in China and the
active prosecution of the war by China herself, and have argued the vital
importance of American aid in winning the war against Japan, in assisting
China toward political democracy, and in rebuilding the bourgeois-democratic
economy of China which they believe is a necessary first step before the
eventual socialist revolution.
Preceding the full translation is a very brief summary.
[Annex]
Summary of “New Democracy” by Mao Tse-tung
Since early historic times China has been feudal in politics and
economics and in their reflection, culture. At present Chinese society
is colonial in the occupied areas; semi-colonial in the free area; but
in both the feudal system still dominates. The elimination of these
characteristics is the object of our revolution.
China’s revolution is a part of a great world movement. But in China it
must pass through two stages. First to change our colonial,
semi-colonial and semi-feudal society into an independent democratic
one. Second to establish a socialist society. The first is our present
goal.
This first stage of our revolution is a new bourgeois-democratic
revolution. Its aim is the establishment of a New Democracy by the
alliance of several revolutionary classes.
The share of the bourgeoisie is important. In
China, because of its colonial character, the bourgeoisie is revolutionary when it meets imperialism. But it
is weak politically and economically and, having ties with that
imperialism and being associated with rural land exploitation, it is
unwilling and unable entirely to overthrow imperialism and feudalism. It
is therefore inclined to compromise. For this reason the revolution
cannot be accomplished by the bourgeoisie
alone.
Therefore the proletariat, the peasants, the intelligentsia, and other
petit-bourgeois elements are the basic forces of the revolution.
The New Democracy of China cannot be the same as the old-style Western
capitalist republics. It also cannot be the new-style Soviet-socialist
republic which is unsuitable to a backward, semi-colonial country.
It must therefore be a transitional form adapted to colonial and
semi-colonial countries, an alliance of all the revolutionary,
anti-imperialist classes.
The outline of and basis for the New Democracy is found in the Manifesto
of the First Kuomintang Congress in 1924, long forgotten by the present
Kuomintang. This provided for democratic representative government from
lower grades to the higher, and for free universal suffrage.
The same Manifesto laid out our economic platform. Big banks, industries
and monopolistic enterprises are to be owned by the Republic,
non-monopolistic private enterprise is to be free. Large landholdings
are to be distributed to land-tilling peasants to hold as their own
private, not communal, property.
China cannot continue as at present a bourgeois dictatorship. It is
contrary to the interest of at least 90% of the people. It leads to
[Page 423]
the dead alley of imperialism.
It is not compatible with the inevitable trend toward socialism. It will
separate us from our ally, the Soviet Union. We do not repel the
revolutionary bourgeoisie. But we will not allow
them to spurn us or split the united front.
A proletarian dictatorship in China is also impossible. Our present task
is the destruction of feudalism and imperialism. Before that is done it
is empty verbiage to talk of the realization of socialism. We must not
be Utopians. Our first task alone is a long and hard one.
This does not mean that we should abandon our Communist principles.
Without the guidance of Communism, even the democratic revolution of
China cannot be a success. Being realistic, the Communist Party has a
present program and a future program: a minimum one and a maximum one.
The minimum program, which is the New Democracy, is fundamentally
coincident with the political principles of the San Min Chu I. We
therefore recognize the San Min Chu I, as the political basis for the
united anti-Japanese front. It does not go as far as we go because it
does not envisage the necessary 2nd stage of the revolution, socialism.
But it goes far enough to establish the first stage. To demand that we
give up Communism is as illogical as to insist on only one religion or
only one set of beliefs.
It must be emphasized again that the San Min Chu I which we accept and
support is that set forth by Sun Yat-sen himself in the Manifesto of the
First Kuomintang Congress. That declaration marked a watershed in the
history of the Kuomintang. Before then the San Min Chu I was a theory of
the old, semi-colonial bourgeoisie, the Old
Democracy. After then it became the theory of the new revolution, the
New Democracy.
This new, or revolutionary, San Min Chu I includes Dr. Sun’s three
revolutionary principles: alliance with the USSR, cooperation with the
Communists, and protection of the interests of the peasants and workers.
If we do not ally ourselves with Soviet Russia, we must cooperate with
imperialism—as Wang Ching-wei is now finding out. If we do not cooperate
with Communism, we must oppose it—and this is the very policy of the
Japanese and Wang Ching-wei. If we do not protect the interests of the
peasants and workers, we ignore the fact that China’s revolution is a
revolution of the peasants—and her war against Japan a war of resistance
of the peasants. If the Kuomintang reverts to the old San Min Chu I, we
must oppose it.
To fit our New Democracy with its new politics and new economics, there
must be new culture. This culture must be of the people, of all classes,
and must represent the united front. It must be anti-imperialist and
anti-feudal. It must be scientific and objective. It must be opposed to
“bourgeois cultural absolutism”. It cannot unite with reactionary
idealism. But, in keeping with the progress of China’s
[Page 424]
two-stage revolution, it cannot yet be a
socialist culture. It must lead the people toward the New Democracy.
