On October 10, 2021, China marked the 110th anniversary of the October 1911 Republican (Xinhai) Revolution with a speech by President Xi Jinping calling for the reunification of the breakaway province of Taiwan. Taiwan became the sanctuary for the defeated retreating nationalist Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai Shek after the Communist victory in 1949, where his forces still numbering an astounding two million took refuge and declared Taiwan as The Republic of China. However, the 'Republic' of Chiang Kai Shek in 1949 bore little resemblance in size or political philosophy to the Republic declared by Dr Sun Yat Sen and his bourgeois democratic revolutionary comrades in 1912.
China had been an imperial monarchy for at least 4,000 years till then (the historical evidence earlier than this is shrouded in the mists of time and myth). But the China we recognise today took shape over the millennia since then, passing through great turbulence (especially the Warring States period 475-221 BC) before the Qin (pronounced 'Cheen', from which we derive the country's name in Urdu) Empire finally conquered all others and established a unified imperial dynasty. Through the millennia that followed, one imperial dynasty replaced another until the last Han (the overwhelmingly dominant ethnic group) dynasty called Ming (1368-1644) was overthrown by the Manchu (from Manchuria) dynasty.
The Manchu dynasty reversed China's traditional isolationism and incrementally opened its doors to western and Japanese traders who, as happened elsewhere in the Third World, used their commercial presence to make inroads into China's sovereignty. These inroads came through wars, unequal treaties, and the consequent ceding of territory. So much so that by the 19th century, enclaves in the main trading cities of the east coast and inland were 'reserved' for foreigners only, with signs stating emphatically: "Dogs and Chinese not allowed".
This humiliation of China, which till then had considered itself the centre of the world and constantly attempted to seal itself off from the rest (considered 'barbarians'), aroused nationalist feelings against these imperialist interlopers as well as the Manchu (or Manzu) dynasty named Qing (or Ch'ing), for its inability to fend off the imperialists, concentrating its efforts instead on crushing internal uprisings aimed at the foreign invaders and sometimes the Qing dynasty itself. By the turn of the 19th-20th century, this nationalist fervour to recover the lost sovereignty and independence of China had gripped the Chinese student community sent abroad to acquire modern knowledge and help China stand on its own feet.
Amongst a galaxy of such activists in exile, Dr Sun Yat Sen stands out as the great unifier of all the disparate nationalist groups abroad in a Revolutionary Alliance (Tongmenghui), that played the role of the vanguard in the republican overthrow of the monarchy in 1911 after a series of local uprisings challenged the grip of the Qing dynasty. Although the revolution declared a republic and attempted to abolish the ancient feudal system, it was unable to exercise complete control over the country. The local vacuum of power in many parts of China gave rise to the phenomenon of warlords and a civil war ensued. The Kuomintang, a party formed by Dr Sun Yat Sen on August 25, 1912, pledged itself to the elimination of feudalism internally while defending the country against imperialism externally.
By 1921, when the Communist Party of China (CPC) was founded and an alliance formed between it and the Kuomintang against the warlords, feudalism and imperialism, China was in turmoil. The Kuomintang had deep fissures between the Right and Left in its ranks, the former hostile to communism and the CPC, the latter in favour. After Dr Sun Yat Sen's passing away in 1925, both the Kuomintang and the CPC recognized his legacy as the father of the 1911 revolution but the Right in the Kuomintang, led by Chiang Kai Shek, turned away from Dr Sun Yat Sen's policy of combating the warlords and feudalism to concentrating on wiping out the communists and the CPC. In the 1927 Shanghai massacre of communists and their supporters lies this epic break.
It is to Mao Tse Tung's credit that he saw the fate of China's revolution, democratic and later socialist, rested on the peasantry, not on the embryonic working class. However, he also posited the role of proletarian ideology in leading the peasantry on the revolutionary road, without which, and despite China's long history of peasant uprisings that often led to changes in imperial dynasties in the past, both the democratic and socialist revolutions would flounder. In the midst of the despair attending the Shanghai and other wholesale massacres of communists and their supporters by Chiang Kai Shek in 1927, Mao retreated to the countryside and spelt out his strategy of protracted guerrilla warfare on the base of the peasantry in brilliant works such as "An Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society" and "The Struggle in the Chingkang Mountains". The CPC eventually had no choice but to follow Mao's prescription of basing itself on the peasantry. For their pains, they were subjected to five 'Encirclement and Suppression' campaigns by the Kuomintang forces.
By 1931, amidst this titanic struggle between the CPC and the Kuomintang, Japan's capture of Manchuria and nibbling away at more and more Chinese territory rang the alarm bells of the danger from imperialist (and fascist) Japan. Though the communists tried hard to deflect the military campaigns of the Kuomintang towards this threat, Chiang Kai Shek was adamant in his hatred of the CPC. By 1935, partly because the Kuomintang encirclement campaigns had taken a toll, not the least because Mao's prescription of guerrilla protracted war was not adhered to, partly to reposition itself to confront the Japanese threat, the CPC broke out of the noose and carried out the extremely difficult and challenging Long March northwards to confront Japan. Mao was now Chairman of the CPC and in command. Under the pressure of Japanese aggression, even some of Chiang Kai Shek's Generals had had enough of his myopic concentration on eliminating the communists while ignoring the greater danger from Japanese imperialism. The Xi'an incident, in which a group of troubled patriotic Generals seized Chiang and forced him to change course helped forge a national alliance against the Japanese, against whose cruelties the Chinese people struggled until Japan's defeat and surrender in 1945. Chiang then turned his attention back to suppressing the communists, but having gained strength during the anti-Japanese resistance, the CPC won the civil war in 1949 and declared the People's Republic.
The democratic revolution of 1911 did not entirely succeed in transforming China. The 1949 people's democratic revolution paved the way for the building of a socialist society. However, by 1978, a mere two years after Mao's passing away, Deng Xiao Peng turned socialist China towards an embrace of capitalism. Currently, under Xi Jinping, it appears the high point of that embrace may have ended, and the socialist current in China may once again be gaining strength. But this short survey of China's modern history also points to the country's recovery of its pre-eminent position in the world. However, whether this is another manifestation of Chinese nationalism or adherence to an internationalist socialist revolutionary road, only time will tell.
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Copyright Business Recorder, 2021