The China White Paper 1949 (X)

Chapter 2 of The China White Paper starts at page 38. It is a review of Kuomintang (KMT) and Chinese Communist relations during the period between 1921 and 1944.1 According to the White Paper, various internal factors in China had played a role in the development of American policy towards China. One factor was the struggle for supremacy between the KMT and the Communists. According to America's understanding, the ideological basis of the KMT was developed by Dr. Sun Yat-sen before 1911. It became more elaborate later when Dr. Sun tried to incorporate Western thoughts into China's situation. Dr. Sun thought that revolution in China needed to go through three stages. First was the military unification, second was political tutelage and the third stage was constitutionalism. According to the White Paper, Dr. Sun "never subscribed to Communists ideas such as class struggle" although he accepted military aid and advice from the Third International (USSR). At this stage (early 1920s), the Chinese Communist based their action on the "Leninist theories of imperialism and revolution in semi-colonial countries".2 The ultimate goal of Chinese Communism was to achieve a classless communist society. But during the interim, they were prepared to "form temporary understandings, even alliances, with the bourgeois democracy". The White Paper noted that in theory, the Communist party would ally itself with all groups or classes that it considered 'progressive'. This White Paper also noted that in the early development of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), its tactics had "steered a precarious course between the danger of 'right opportunism,' through which the initiative is lost, and that of 'left extremism,' which according to Communist thinking, prematurely attempts to turn the 'bourgeois-democratic revolution' into a socialist revolution and thus causes the Communists to lose their influence in the 'bourgeois' revolution before the socialist revolution can be successfully prosecuted."3 (to be continued)

Notes:
1.United States, Department of State. The China White Paper-August 1949. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1967, page 38.
2. Ibid., page 40
3. Ibid., page 41