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"Opening" Art and Politics: Discursive Practice in Mao Zedong Thought

Han Yuhai — 1969-12-31T16:00:00+01:00

Modern social science is founded on the assumption that the thing-in-itself possesses a relative equilibrium, homogeneity, and stability, and that this characteristic enables us to "grasp" reality by means of stable, precise concepts. Modern social science is founded on the postulate that there is such a stable correlation between "signifier" and reality. This postulate derives from scientism. Mao Zedong, the great modernist that he was, harbored serious doubts about such postulates. He felt that the world's myriad things were constantly changing, and the assumption that a concept was stable and rigid implied that the reality it described was also stable and rigid. I think that this was Mao's deepest insight into the roots of "modern author ...

To be Attacked by the Enemy is a Good Thing

Robert Weil — 1969-12-31T16:00:00+01:00

I have always considered the words of Mao Zedong, "To be attacked by the enemy is not a bad thing but a good thing" to be among his most valuable. Not only did it alter my conception of struggle, but it encapsulated perhaps more succinctly than any other of his sayings, the profoundly dialectical character of his thinking and strategy. It was this quality that allowed Mao to exploit the contradictions among the enemy, to "overcome all difficulties," and to turn defeat into victory over and over again. But it was not the losses and suffering that such attacks brought that Mao was referring to—what he called the "bitter sacrifice" that revolution required, though he was always determined to turn it into "bold resolve" ("Shaoshan Revisited," ...

Mao's Legacy in China's Current Development

Pao-yu Ching — 1969-12-31T16:00:00+01:00

A Chinese worker said,”This is not socialism with Chinese characteristics as Deng Xiaoping told us. Instead, what we have here is capitalism with Chinese characteristics.”

A Chinese peasant said, “When Chairman Mao warned us about the restoration of capitalism, we really did not understand what he was talking about. Now we do.”

In China & Socialism -- Market Reforms and Class Struggle[i], Martin Hart-Landsberg and Paul Burkett argued successfully why the so-called “market socialism” in China is in fact the restoration of capitalism, and that China’s economic Reform of the past twenty-five years can not serve as a socialist model of development for other ...

The End of the MFA and the Rising Tide of Labor Disputes in China

Chan, Wai-ling — 1969-12-31T16:00:00+01:00

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Community Based Labour Organizing

Pun, Ngai and Chan Wai-ling — 1969-12-31T16:00:00+01:00

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William Hinton on the Cultural Revolution

Dave Pugh — 1969-12-31T16:00:00+01:00

Ever since the major reversals of socialism in the twentieth century, first in the Soviet Union and then in China, leftists internationally have been faced with a serious question: After the initial victory of the people's revolutionary forces, what can be done to keep on the "socialist road"? What measures can be taken to restrict the class differences inherited from the old society, fend off imperialist hostility and intervention, and prevent a new capitalist class from developing within socialist society itself?

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was China's answer to this question. It was a historical first�a punctuated series of mass revolutionary upsurges within a socialist country. It took place within the space of eleven y ...

Our Views and Opinions of the Current Political Landscape

1969-12-31T16:00:00+01:00

A great opportunity to adjust the line

Even though there have been gains economically in the past twenty-six years of reforms and opening up,[1] the price for these moves has been enormous, and they also brought considerable problems. Many deep-seated contradictions emerged in society, and the party�s authority plunged. To seriously resolve these contradictions and restore the people�s trust in the party, the party�s line of march needs to be adjusted profoundly. Previously, due to various obstacles and interferences, you, respected leader, were handicapped in bringing about the needed adjustments; it was hard to make your impact felt. But now, after the fourth plenum of the sixteent ...

Excerpts of the Ruling Against Two Members of the Zhengzhou Four

1969-12-31T16:00:00+01:00

The charges and the pleas

Jinshui District People's Procuratorate alleges the following:

1. In early September 2004, defendant Zhang Zhengyao and his wife Ge Liying (to be tried separately) requested defendant Zhang Ruquan to write an essay to commemorate the 28th anniversary of Chairman Mao's passing. On September 6, defendant Zhang Ruquan submitted to defendant Zhang Zhengyao his commemorative essay titled "Mao Zedong Forever Our Leader", which maliciously slanders former leaders Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin. In September 7, defendant Zhang Zhengyao asked Wang Zhanqing to make 2000 copies of this essay. In September 8, Wang Zhanqing gave most of the printed copies of the essay in leaflet form to defendant Zhang Zhengyao. I ...

The Case of The Zhengzhou Four

Chinastudygroup — 1969-12-31T16:00:00+01:00

A Brief Account of the Case

In recent years, on the anniversary of Mao's passing on September 9, many people in Zhengzhou would gather before Mao's statue in the Zijinshan Square, to pay tribute to Mao's memory by laying wreaths or reciting poems. Each year there would be a massive police presence, which inevitably would lead to incidents of confrontation and arrest.

This year a crowd again gathered on September 9; the event was relatively peaceful, as no police was dispatched to forcefully disperse the crowd. A local resident, Mr. Zhang Zhengyao, however, was taken into custody by plainclothes agents around 10:00 am, apparently because he was distributing leaflets whose contents were judged inflammatory or subversive in natu ...

Obituary: William H. Hinton (1919�2004)

Daniel Vukovich — 1969-12-31T16:00:00+01:00

William Hinton, known as �Han Ding� to the people of China whom he loved and served for decades, died on May 15th 2004. His name will always be associated with revolutionary, Maoist China, from the period of war and land reform to the various upheavals of the subsequent decades, and with the people of Long Bow village (near Changzhi) in particular. He visited China as a teenager, but after reading Edgar Snow�s Red Star Over China and studying Marxism in a conscientious-objector�s labor camp in New Hampshire in 1943, and especially influenced by his older sister Jean, he joined the army and returned to China in 1945 with the Office of War Information. After witnessing the war and meeting Mao and Zhou Enlai for the first time, Hinton returned ...

China and Socialism

Martin Hart-Landsberg and Paul Burkett — 1969-12-31T16:00:00+01:00

China and socialism...during the three decades following the 1949 establishment of the People�s Republic of China (PRC), it seemed as if these words would forever be joined in an inspiring unity. China had been forced to suffer the humiliation of defeat in the 1840�42 Opium War with Great Britain and the ever-expanding treaty port system that followed it. The Chinese people suffered under not only despotic rule by their emperor and then a series of warlords, but also under the crushing weight of imperialism, which divided the country into foreign-controlled spheres of influence. Gradually, beginning in the 1920s, the Chinese Communist Party led by Mao Zedong organized growing popular resistance to the foreign domination and exploitation of ...

Wu Chaojun's Story

Wu Chaojun — 1969-12-31T16:00:00+01:00

I'm from Shenqiu County in Zhoukou City, Henan Province. I came to Beijing in the spring of 2001. I worked as a farmer in my home, and also did some work with agricultural machinery, meaning I used to transport things and till fields with my walking tractor. I did that for a few years, but it was no good, I couldn't earn any money. Peasants are at the bottom of society, everyone wants to 'manage' you: the provincial head, the county head, the (rural) township head, even the production team leaders want to 'manage' peasants. Farmers face the ground and put their back to the sky all year round, and in the end? Besides you they give up to the state, the localities are very flexible in what they take: if you earn more, they take more. It's just ...

Jin Chengliang's Story

Jin Chengliang — 1969-12-31T16:00:00+01:00

I'm from Fuyang County in Anhui Province. I've got six brothers and a younger sister. My grandfather died before my father was born, and my grandmother died before my father was 7. So my father grew up with many different families. He was in the army for 7 years, and was wounded. He couldn't work after that, and had a hard life. Before he died he split up the family's possessions among his sons. I received a small house with two rooms without doors or windows, and brick walls that were only half-finished, five sacks of wheat, and an iron wok without a cover. I didn't even have anything to prop up the wok and had to steal nine bricks from someone else's courtyard to make something so I could cook. Originally I was also to get two blue porcel ...

Guo Yun's Story

Guo Yun — 1969-12-31T16:00:00+01:00

I'm from Hebei Province, and have been in Beijing for 8 years. I've been selling coal in Beijing for all that time. Migrants from outside Beijing don't do very well here. You can't earn any money selling coal. Everyday I can sell a cartload of coal for about 200-300 yuan, that's about 0.3 yuan per bag of coal. I'm lucky if I can earn 10 yuan a day that way. I get here early every morning pushing a cart of coal, and wait here. I don't have lunch if I don't sell all the coal, and instead go back and have something to eat in the afternoon or evening after I sell something, at least enough to buy some food. It's hard selling coal nowadays. The government says it creates pollution, and we're no longer allowed to sell coal within the 3rd ring roa ...

Chen Hui's Story

Chen Hui — 1969-12-31T16:00:00+01:00

I come from Pingyuan and arrived in Beijing in November, 1999. I didn't have a job at home so my relatives in Beijing asked me to move here and lent me 90,000 yuan. I bought a stall in an agricultural and trading wholesale market on the eastern side and sold pork. However, the rent and tax were very high, but the selling price was low. I suffered a 3,000 yuan loss per month. Some people have fixed customers and they can deliver meat to them regularly. I don't have any guanxi here in Beijing, so I lost money. Now I want to rent out the stall, but I can't find a tenant. I bought this stall for 39,000 yuan, and paid another 16,000 yuan to the market. The rent did not include the quarantine fees or the water and electricity charges for six mont ...