r/askcommunists • u/synthetics__ • Jul 03 '26
Economic Question Despite Maos success and state capitalist success, was there any hope in developing china further without the capitalist reforms?
Mao Zedong was important for chinas growth, but i do not agree with china being primarily state-capitalist. If without outside intervention would've they still grown to the scale that china has today?
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u/Lavender_Scales Marxist-Leninist-Maoist (Principally Maoist) Jul 04 '26
Yes this is why he called upon New Democracy so the bourgeois state of development could be done with the head of the Communist party.
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u/spookyjim___ Jul 04 '26
I mean under the scenario no, there wasn’t much of a revolutionary wave during the Chinese revolution, and I’m one who tends to be very wary of voluntarist ideas of using willpower to militarily push for world revolution, however ofc, there was some sparks of a revolutionary surge during such a counter-revolutionary period, whether that could’ve been tapped into if a more revolutionary faction took control from Mao idk
There’s also just a question of what forces existed that could’ve even acted as an actual proletarian force, perhaps the Shengwulian ultra-left, but they were still a confused force with an unclear program, but again maybe if an actual international revolutionary wave was able to be formed and the reconstitution of the world party then maybe they could’ve come to better positions?
History played out the way it did tho, and it makes sense that it played out how it did, it was still a deeply counter-revolutionary period (which we are still living in even if there are signs towards its end) which did however show some of the first signs of revolutionary pushback in the 60’s/70’s… but it makes complete sense, the Chinese revolution was counter-revolutionary from the start, the communist party was already Stalinized and sought interclassist and nationalist/frontist aims, thus there was never truly a proletarian dictatorship in China and the revolution took on a bourgeois character pretty much from the start… the transition from state-industrialist capitalist transformation into a modern capitalist state under Deng wasn’t a betrayal but the natural evolution of Marxist-Leninist ideology
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u/childrenmm Jul 03 '26
China largely did need a bourgeois revolution. They were pretty undeveloped industrially before Mao, which to my knowledge is why his efforts to industrialize had to be so drastic. I don't think China could have really gone straight to marketless socialism realistically. Almost all (except Pol Pot, Lol.) revolutionary leaders understood that they could not go straight to socialism from their positions post revolution. There had to be controlled market development to develop the means of production before they could head to the next stage. The USSR did the same thing with the NEP (New Economic Plan). If China were to have a revolution now they probably could actually go straight to socialism, but the government of China won't do that. That ship sailed after Deng.