Yang Chengxun：State Power Is Also a Powerful Economic Power: The Application and Innovation of Engels’ Theory of the Synergy of Social Development in China

State Power Is Also a Powerful Economic Power:

The Application and Innovation of Engels’ Theory of

the Synergy of Social Development in China[1]

Yang Chengxun

Professor of the Economic Ethics Research Center at

Henan University of Economics and Law

Abstract

In order to make better use of the people’s democratic power led by the proletarian party to develop the socialist economy, to adhere to the correct political direction, and to clarify certain one-sided understanding of the nature of the primary stage of socialism that exists in the theoretical circles, it is necessary to gain a deeper understanding of Engels’ theory of the synergy of social development that state power is “also an economic power.” We should also understand the application and development of the theory of the social development synergy by Soviet Russia under Lenin and the Communist Party of China (CPC) over the past century. The application and development of the theory of the synergy of social development in China has gradually deepened: Mao Zedong revealed the law that political power can create and develop new relations of production and productive forces under the premise of the development of certain productive forces; Deng Xiaoping proposed the Four Cardinal Principles[2] are a “complete set of equipment” of socialism with Chinese characteristics; in the current New Era, Xi Jinping Xi Jinping further sublimated the decisive role of the ruling party in the socialist economy and elevated CPC leadership to be the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and constitute the greatest strength of this system. This systematic theory has enriched the basic theory of Marxism and is being increasingly transformed into a powerful material force. The nature of political parties determines the nature of state power, and the nature of political power determines the nature of society. The nature of society at the primary stage of Chinese socialism depends not only on the ownership structure with public ownership as the mainstay, but also on the people’s democratic power of Marxist parties. The economic functions and “economic power” of the state power are reflected in ten respects: maintenance function, promotion function, creation of new life, organization and deployment, appropriation function, public service, distribution of wealth, external function, and punishment of corruption. The theory of the synergy of social development is also a basic viewpoint to be adhered to when innovating socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics.

Keywords

State power, economic power, CPC leadership

Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized the need to establish a systematic and holistic view and a correct political consciousness. This is of practical relevance to both theoretical research and practical work. Currently, there are also one-sided statements in political economy research that ignore the holistic view. Some scholars question the socialist nature of China based on its ownership structure in which public ownership is dominant and diverse forms of ownership develop side by side, and even believe that in reality, China has regressed to a capitalist society. In fact, Mao Zedong criticized as early as the early 1960s the one-sided economic viewpoint that did not pay attention to the study of productive forces and relations of production in political economy. We should reshape a systematic view of the synergy of social development in the context of the history of Marxist thought and the history of socialist development. As early as the 1890s, Engels repeatedly argued that human society develops as a whole by the interaction of many factors, and articulated the important proposition that, “Force (that is state power) is also an economic power,”[3] criticizing the one-sidedness of discussing the economy based solely on economic matters. This important theoretical concept has been preserved in Russia and in the centennial history of the CPC, and it has been deepened step by step with the times, forming a systematic theory and a set of experiences. We should study in depth the historical process of the formation and development of the theory of the social development synergy and appreciate its profound connotation and scientific logic, so as to enhance our comprehensive understanding of contemporary Marxism, which is of great significance to the building of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics.

I. From “State Power Is Also an Economic Power” to “Politics Is

the Concentrated Expression of the Economy”

Engels highly valued Marx’s two major discoveries, namely, historical materialism and the theory of surplus value. They are the foundation of Marxism. The core of historical materialism is that the productive forces determine the relations of production, the economic base determines the superstructure, and they interact with each other to form a historical synergy. The development of productive forces is the ultimate determining force in the development of human society, while the superstructure built on the economic base reacts in turn to the economic base. This is the overall force that drives social change as a whole. Engels further elaborated on this latter point in his later years.

At the end of the 19th century, when Marxism was more widely spread, a one-sided view emerged which mechanically emphasized the determination of all by the economic base and ignored the counteraction of the superstructure, and Engels profoundly discussed the dialectical relationship between the two. He pointed out that, “Marx and I are ourselves partly to blame for the fact that the younger people sometimes lay more stress on the economic side than is due to it. We had to emphasize the main principle vis-à-vis our adversaries, who denied it, and we had not always the time, the place or the opportunity to give their due to the other elements involved in the interaction.”[4] As a result, many have not been able to grasp it fully. “And I cannot exempt many of the more recent ‘Marxists’ from this reproach, for the most amazing rubbish has been produced in this quarter, too.”[5] “What these gentlemen all lack is dialectic.”[6] So Engels summarized the process of the development of understanding in a self-critical way, asking people not to exaggerate one-sidedly what the authors of classical Marxist works had momentarily emphasized and result in mistakes.

Engels summed up the process of historical development by stating categorically that “the whole vast process proceeds in the form of interaction (though of very unequal forces, the economic movement being by far the strongest, most elemental and most decisive) and that here everything is relative and nothing is absolute.”[7] He graphically compared the creation of history to “an infinite series of parallelograms of forces which give rise to one resultant—the historical event. This may again itself be viewed as the product of a power which works as a whole unconsciously and without volition.”[8] This is the theory of the synergy of social development of the integrated whole, which is the opposite of the absolute perception that one-sidedly exaggerates only factor—the economy.

It should be noted here that Engels always emphasized the economy as the basic factor that ultimately works. “According to the materialist conception of history, the ultimately determining element in history is the production and reproduction of real life. Other than this neither Marx nor I have ever asserted. Hence if somebody twists this into saying that the economic element is the only determining one, he transforms that proposition into a meaningless, abstract, senseless phrase. The economic situation is the basis, but the various elements of the superstructure ... also exercise their influence upon the course of the historical struggles and in many cases preponderate in dete.”[9] The idea that the superstructure plays a decisive role under certain conditions is contained here. Engels discussed the economic functions of state power and went on to summarize the counteraction of state power on economic development into three kinds, namely, positive impetus, reverse impediment, and a mixture of both. He pointedly proposed, “[W]hy do we fight for the political dictatorship of the proletariat if political power is economically impotent?”[10] This point is the fundamental difference between Marxism and revisionism (the idea that a capitalist economy can spontaneously generate a socialist economy).

Based on the above analysis, Engels made an important proposition: “Force (that is state power) is also an economic power.”[11] He scientifically elaborated the economic function and “economic power” of state power. It can be said that this proposition enriches historical materialism, scientific socialism and political economy, and has strong historical support and theoretical logic, and is of great importance as a guide for socialist revolution and development.

Lenin was the first to apply Engels’ theory of the synergy of social development to the Russian revolution and develop it comprehensively: as early as the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Lenin studied the economic relations in Russia and wrote a treatise such as The Development of Capitalism in Russia and at the same time criticized the economic school of trade unionism, pointing out that it emphasized economic interests at the expense of the spontaneity of political struggle. In the democratic revolution of 1905–1907, he highlighted the leading role of the working class parties. On the eve of the October Revolution, he argued comprehensively the origin and role of the state, discussed the economic functions of the state, and deepened the theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat in The State and Revolution. After gaining power in the October Revolution, he criticized left-wing communism as an infantile disorder and eclecticism and put forward the new proposition that “politics is a concentrated expression of economics”[12] and that “without a correct political approach to the matter the given class will be unable to stay on top, and, consequently, will be incapable of solving its production problem either.”[13] After the establishment of socialist public ownership in the Soviet Union, he led Soviet Russia in implementing the New Economic Policy.

The decisive factor in Russia’s becoming a socialist state was the acquisition and consolidation of a proletarian regime under the leadership of the Communist Party and the use of this regime to solve major economic problems. For example, Lenin creatively integrated a part of the capitalist economy into the overall socialist orbit and coined the concept and policy of “state capitalism.” At that time, many dogmatists opposed the use of the capitalist economy, but Lenin refuted them, stating that state power was under the leadership of the Communist Party, and that when we had left the capitalist track and had not yet embarked on a new track, we had the power at the disposal of the proletarian state. “[W]hen we say ‘state’ we mean ourselves, the proletariat, the vanguard of the working class. State capitalism is capitalism which we shall be able to restrain.”[14] For another example, Lenin believed that many illusions that did not work in the old social reformism could be realized under socialist conditions as long as the proletariat held strong power, as was the case at that time with the transformation of small and medium-sized capitalist enterprises as well as the original cooperatives. “[T]he power of the state over all large-scale means of production, political power in the hands of the proletariat,” and “the alliance of this proletariat with the many millions of small and very small peasants”[15] provided a fundamental guarantee of the completion of socialism.

To comprehend Lenin’s ideas is to understand socialist society as an organic whole of many forces forming a synergy, with politics (at the core of which is the government led by the Marxist party) as a concentrated expression of the whole economy. Under the guidance of this holistic view of society, the New Economic Policy, which included many economic components, promoted the great development of the Russian socialist economy.

II. From the Law of State Power Opening the Way for

Economic Change and Development to the Four Cardinal Principles

Serving as a Complete Set of Equipment

The centennial struggle of the CPC has further preserved and developed Engels’ theory that state power is also an economic power, enriched historical materialism and dialectics, and sublimated the scientific understanding and ability to grasp the laws of social change and economic development. In the 1960s, Mao Zedong, on the basis of his review of historical experience, took a clear stand and criticized the one-sidedness of the Soviet textbook of Political Economy. He discussed the history of the bourgeois revolution and development in the West, reviewed the practical experience of the establishment and development of socialism, and profoundly pointed out that, “It is a general law to first create public opinion, seize power, then solve the problem of ownership, and then greatly develop the productive forces.”[16] Mao’s innovation lies in elevating the dynamics of regime creation and economic advancement to the height of “law,” which enriches historical materialism. In addition, Mao pointed out that the Soviet textbook Political Economy “mentions the state but does not study it, which is one of the shortcomings of the book,”[17] i.e. it ignores the principle that the state is also an “economic power” and simply deals with the relations of production.

Based on this law, Mao regarded the transformation and establishment of power as a sign of the fundamentally changed nature of society. As early as the democratic revolution, he pointed out that, “The main criterion in judging whether an area is new-democratic in character is whether representatives of the broad masses of the people participate in the political power there and whether this political power is led by the Communist Party.”[18] During the transition from new democracy to socialism, he also pointed out, “The transformation of political power is what we believe to mark the transformation of the nature of the revolution, the basic end of the stage of the new-democratic revolution and the beginning of the stage of the socialist revolution.”[19] This means that the nature of society should be viewed comprehensively, where the decisive marker is political power, and the core of political power depends on the nature of the political party that leads it, not absolutely and simply on the ownership relationship alone. In the early days of liberation, there were a large number of non-public elements in China, but the people’s government led by the Communist Party was able to dictate the development direction of the entire society and economy. For example, the policy of “giving consideration to both public and private interests, benefiting both labor and capital, giving consideration to both urban and rural areas, and promoting domestic and international exchanges was the basic policy implemented by the people’s democratic government. In addition, the Party led the fight against national bourgeois activities, the hyperinflation caused by capitalists and the movement against the “five evils”[20] aimed at safeguarding the interests of the country, and the peaceful transformation of private capitalist elements from the field of distribution, realizing the “peaceful redemption” envisioned by Engels.

The reason why political power plays such a decisive role is eloquently discussed by Mao Zedong in his “On Contradiction”: In general (i.e., over a long period of history), the productive forces determine the relations of production and the relations of production determine the superstructure, but under certain conditions the relations of production can also determine the development of the productive forces and the superstructure can also determine the transformation and establishment of the economic base.[21] In fact, Most countries have multiple components under the dominance of one component. As Marx said, “There is in every social formation a particular branch of production which determines the position and importance of all the others.... It is as though light of a particular hue were cast upon everything, tingeing all other colors and modifying their specific features.”[22] Here it also includes the dominance and influence of the superstructure, especially political power, and even the exercise of super-economic coercive power. For example, strong political power can transform the countryside, which is in an agrarian semi-natural economy, into an advanced bastion of the proletariat during the democratic revolution, and “turn the backward villages into advanced, consolidated base areas, into great military, political, economic and cultural bastions of the revolution.”[23] In other words, it was possible to connect a society with a very backward productive force to the socialist revolution through an advanced political power led by an advanced political party. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, it was the use of a strong political power to dominate the overall economy and promote socialist transformation, as Mao Zedong said in “To sum up our experience and concentrate it into one point, it is the people’s democratic dictatorship under the leadership of the working class (through the Communist Party) and based upon the alliance of workers and peasants.... This is our formula.”[24]

It was on the basis of this special function of the superstructure for socialist society that Mao Zedong asserted that political economy could not speak only of economics, and especially not of the relations of production without reference to political forces. He pointed out, “We must take the balance and imbalance between the productive forces and the relations of production and between the relations of production and the superstructure as a key link to study the economic problems of socialist society. The object of the study of political economy is mainly the relations of production, but to effectively study the relations of production, it is necessary to be based on the study of both the productive forces and the positive and negative role of the superstructure in the relations of production.”[25] This is the synergetic theory of Marxist political economy. Once violated, it is bound to fall into one-sidedness and absolutism, resulting in the rigidity of understanding, and guiding practice in this way will certainly cause great bias and loss.

At the same time, we must also prevent another kind of one-sidedness, i.e., to exaggerate the superstructure and relations of production to the extent that they play a decisive role at all times, and even replace the development of the productive forces (“production and reproduction”). At the early stage of reform and opening up, Deng Xiaoping pointedly stated, “According to Marxism-Leninism, the most fundamental and active factor is the productive forces. The superstructure has to serve the economic base, and the two influence each other.... The Gang of Four denied the importance of the productive forces, believing that as long as the problem of the superstructure and ownership is solved, we can enter communism.... This is one of our major arguments with the Gang of Four. If the productive forces have not developed to the point that there is overwhelming material abundance, how could we achieve distribution according to need and enter communism?”[26] At its Third Plenary Session in 1978, the Eleventh CPC Central Committee corrected this erroneous theoretical view and made economic development the focus of its work. This tells us that there are conditions for political power to play a decisive role in economic relations; political power can maintain, promote or hinder economic development, but it cannot replace it, and it is necessary to understand under what circumstances this dialectical relationship should be applied and to what extent.

After the reform and opening up policy was introduced, our Party made adjustments to the relations of production in light of the actual low level of productivity in China, determined that China is still in the primary stage of socialism, established the basic economic system whereby public ownership is dominant and economic entities under diverse ownership forms develop side by side, and at the same time appropriately strengthened the regulatory and guiding role of the superstructure. In 1979 the Party Central Committee held a historic forum on the principles for the Party’s theoretical work, where Deng Xiaoping proposed the Four Cardinal Principles. In 1993, Deng Xiaoping further proposed, “Where is the superiority of the socialist market economy? It is in the Four Cardinal Principles.... These principles are a ‘complete set of equipment’.”[27] Deng Xiaoping used the metaphor of a “complete set of equipment” to emphasize that economic relations and political forces are an interactive and inseparable whole. The reason why socialism is able to pool resources to accomplish major undertakings and integrate with the socialist market economy is that it brings into play the great “economic power” of the people’s democratic political power. This means that state power is an important part of the “complete set of equipment” that can not only change the nature of China’s economy to make a market economy, but can also improve the overall structure and mechanism of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Deng Xiaoping emphasized repeatedly that “we cannot abandon the people’s democratic dictatorship”[28] and that “For a fairly long period of time the proletariat, as a new, rising class, is necessarily weaker than the bourgeoisie. If it is to seize political power and build socialism, it must therefore impose a dictatorship to resist capitalist attack.”[29] “[O]ur socialist state apparatus is so powerful that it can intervene to correct any deviations. To be sure, the open policy entails risks and may bring into China some decadent bourgeois things. But with our socialist policies and state apparatus, we shall be able to cope with them.”[30] He insisted that, “There are two tasks we have to keep working at: on the one hand, the reform and opening process, and on the other, the crackdown on crime. We must be steadfast with regard to both.”[31]

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the CPC has not only exercised its political function of maintaining political rule and defending sovereignty by using the state power of the people’s democratic dictatorship, but has also exercised its economic function well, realizing such historic achievements as restoring the economy, completing socialist transformation, promoting industrialization, developing the Third Front, implementing huge water conservancy projects, promoting space projects, comprehensively implementing and continuously deepening reform and opening up, and creating a sound socialist market economy. All this has fully demonstrated the vitality of Engels’ proposition.

III. Improve the “Nervous System” of State Power: Strong CPC

Leadership Is the Defining Feature and the Greatest Strength

of Socialism With Chinese Characteristics

In the current New Era, how can we give fuller, stronger and more sustainable play to the “economic power” of the people’s democratic political power? In the face of new missions and new problems, it is necessary to develop new foundations and further realize theoretical innovation as we take new practices into consideration.

Socialism with Chinese characteristics already has a strong material foundation and has accumulated a wealth of successful experience in economic development. As Xi Jinping pointed out, “Our Party has led the people not only in creating the two miracles of rapid economic development and long-term social stability, which are rare in the world, but also in successfully blazing the Chinese path to modernization and create a new model of civilization. These unprecedented initiatives have solved many difficult problems affecting the development of human society, abandoned the old path of Western capital-centered modernization, bipolar modernization, modernization featuring materialistic expansion, and modernization based on foreign expansion and plunder, expanded the way for developing countries to modernize, and provided Chinese approaches for human exploration of better social systems.”[32] These great achievements were made based on the power of the overall synergy of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the most important of which is the “economic power” of state power with CPC leadership at the core and as the soul of the people’s democratic power. All socialist state power is rooted in the ruling Marxist party, which always represents the interests of the people. Therefore, in order to strengthen and improve the “economic power” of state power, we must first strengthen and improve the “nervous system” of the ruling party, which controls the whole organism. As the Resolution on Historical Issues and Resolution on Historical Issues of the Party since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China points out, “To govern our Party, which is the largest in the world, and our country, which is the most populous in the world, we must uphold the Party’s overall leadership, especially the Central Committee’s centralized, unified leadership, adhere to democratic centralism, and ensure that the Party exercises overall leadership and coordination.”[33] In this way, the most crucial link is grasped, and the connotation of Engels’ “proposition” is expanded and sublimated.

Today China is working to achieve the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation in a world that is undergoing momentous changes of a kind not seen in a century. The CPC Central Committee with General Secretary Xi Jinping at the core is soberly aware of the new problems and new risks the current New Era. “We are soberly aware that upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the New Era is a formidable and great social revolution, and various hostile forces will never let us achieve the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation smoothly.... The tests we face on the way forward will only become more complex as we press on, and we must be prepared to crest unimaginable waves.”[34] The decisive factor in overcoming these risks and tests lies in the correct leadership of the ruling party, which is also the central expression of the “economic power” of the state power, and can be regarded as the “nervous system” of the whole organism. Xi Jinping summarized it as follows: “The most essential feature of the socialist society with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the CPC. The greatest advantage of the socialist system of China is also the leadership of the CPC.”[35] The economic power, political power and all the forces of governance of the people’s country must be guided by its “nerve center,” which is the steering wheel of the whole of society. This is the most basic experience and the inevitable law of socialism. Take the establishment of a sound socialist market economy for example. The essential difference between the socialist market economy and the capitalist market economy lies not only in the former taking the public ownership as the main body, but more importantly in the former having strong CPC leadership. The defining feature of the socialist market economy is CPC leadership, which coordinates all kinds of forces through political power to regulate its direction, strengthens regulation with a strict legal system, improves and strengthens the market order of equal competition, establishes a modern governance system for the whole of society and a higher level of opening up to the outside world, and further expands and strengthens the economic function of state power. In terms of resource allocation, China has creatively given full play to the advantages of the system for mobilizing the nation to and the comprehensive government function of delegating power, improving regulation, and upgrading services so that the effective market and the fully functioning government better integrate to form a synergy.

Take the promotion of common prosperity for another example. Under CPC leadership, China has continuously improved the fundamental, basic and main systems for the primary stage of socialism, insisted on the distribution of labor as the mainstay. It has upheld the system of income distribution in which distribution according to work is the main form that coexists with other forms of distribution. It has formed a systematic and fair distribution chain of primary, secondary, and tertiary distribution. In addition, it has implemented policy of limiting excessive income, expanding middle income, raising low income and combating illegal income to further promote common prosperity. As far as the battle against poverty is concerned, the people’s democratic political power led by the CPC has played a leading and central role, enabling 1.4 billion people to say goodbye to absolute poverty and pushing China to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, creating a miracle in the world’s anti-poverty history.

There are still some people who are theoretically confused about the nature of the primary stage of socialism, and even equate the policy of guiding and developing the non-public sector of the economy with privatization while only advocating strengthening the public sector of the economy, disregarding the dominance of the public system and the “economic power” of the state. Society is a functioning whole in which many factors interact with each other, and the “economic power” of the state power is manifested in the correct use of macro-regulation by the state to regulate and adjust the direction and order of the market economy, and to grasp economic planning and development. All this is an important part of the structure of the socialist public sector of the economy. Since the 18th CPC Party Congress, the CPC Central Committee, with General Secretary Xi Jinping at its core, has placed special emphasis on giving play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation and ensuring the government plays a better role in leading the direction of overall economic development, while stressing stability and upholding the underlying principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability to ensure high-quality development. The people’s democratic political power led by the CPC guarantees the socialist nature of China. This is the creative development and comprehensive implementation of Engels’ theory of the synergy of social development in China, which has turned theoretical power into great material power.

To put it in a nutshell, state power, as the most important part of the superstructure, is mainly the forceful instrument of class rule and social governance, but also has certain economic functions and “economic power.” According to Engels’ systematic exposition and in light of the whole historical process including the history of socialist revolution and development, this “economic power” is mainly manifested in the following ten aspects:

(1)     the maintenance function: it maintains the economic interests of the relations of production of the ruling class, and under the old political power, it also adds new instruments of exploitation for the exploiting class, becoming “new means of holding down and exploiting the oppressed class”;[36]

(2)     the promoting function: it protects certain relations of production and promotes the development of the productive forces;

(3)     the creation of new things: it creates a new type of relations of production under certain conditions, especially develops a sound socialist public ownership system and promotes reform;

(4)     the organizing and regulating function: it organizes and regulates economic development, including the allocation of resources and the fuller and more effective use of the role of the market and the government;

(5)     the role of appropriation: it appropriates and uses all or part of a country’s natural resources;

(6)     public services: it assumes responsibility for certain services to the public;

(7)     the distribution of wealth: it uses economic sources such as taxes, contributions, and economic penalties for government expenditures, the support of officials and the military and police, and redistributes part of the consumption materials of the members of society through the collection of taxes, transfer payments, etc.;

(8)     the external function: it carries out external economic activities and maintains external economic interests;

(9)     negative factors: when it uses power to raid the people’s money in order to protect the interests of the privileged class of backward relations of production and exploitative forces, it becomes the greatest resistance to social and economic development;

(10) punishment of corruption: the exercise of power leads to corruption (embezzlement, etc.) which hinders economic development. This requires the state power to play a positive role and strongly punish corruption.

History has verified the abovementioned role of state power, and we should consciously have a comprehensive and holistic social and economic view today and even for a longer period of time to come, and correctly use the role of political power. It can be said that state power not only represents and maintains certain relations of production, but also contains and exercises part of the functions of relations of production, and is an important part of the public sector of the economy under socialist conditions. Although the “economic power” of state power cannot replace enterprises and the market, it can lead, direct, control and compensate for them, and has an important distributive function. It seems that state power has a certain duality, which we should understand and apply dialectically. The key lies in the firm and correct leadership of the ruling party.

In the New Era, to use Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era to guide the development of political economy and further implement the purpose of common prosperity, we should deepen our understanding and innovation of Engels’ scientific proposition that state power is “also an economic power” and the theory of the synergy of social development in the light of the practical experience of the CPC in the past century. We should deepen and expand the connotation and extension of political economy, truthfully explain the extreme importance of the people’s democratic political power (dictatorship of the proletariat) under the long-term governance of the CPC, correctly understand, uphold and improve the socialist nature of China at the present stage, strengthen CPC leadership, continuously work to bring the development of common prosperity to a higher level and socialism to a higher stage steadily, and lead the human community with a shared future toward a newer social form.

      [1] * First published in the fourth issue of Marxism & Reality in 2022.

     [2] They are to keep to the socialist road, uphold the people’s democratic dictatorship, uphold leadership by the Communist Party and uphold Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought.

[3] “Engels to Conrad Schmidt,” October 27, 1890.

[4] “Engels to Josef Bloch,” September 21–22, 1890.

[5] Ibid.

[6] “Engels to Conrad Schmidt,” October 27, 1890.

[7] Ibid.

[8] “Engels to Josef Bloch,” September 21–22, 1890.

[9] Ibid.

[10] “Engels to Conrad Schmidt,” October 27, 1890.

[11] Ibid.

[12] V. I. Lenin, Disagreements on Principle, “Once Again On The Trade Unions, The Current Situation and the Mistakes of Trotsky and Buhkarin,” Collected Works, 1st English Edition, Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1965, vol. 32, page 70–107.

[13] Ibid., Politics and Economics. Dialectics and Eclecticism.

[14] V. I., Lenin, Political Report of the Central Committee of the R.C.P. (B.), “Eleventh Congress of the R.C.P. (B.),” Collected Works, 2nd English Edition, Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1965, vol. 33, pp. 237–242.

[15] V. I. Lenin, “On Cooperation” (January 4–6, 1923), Collected Works, 2nd English Edition, Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1965, vol. 33, pp. 467–475.

[16] Mao Zedong, Collected Works, Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1993, vol. 8, p. 132.

[17] Ibid., 131.

[18] Mao Zedong, Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1967, vol. II, 467.

[19] Op. cit., vol. 6, p. 315.

[20] The movement against the “five evils” was the struggle against bribery, tax evasion, theft of state property, cheating on government contracts and stealing of economic information started at the beginning of 1952 among owners of private industrial and commercial enterprises.

[21]Cf. Mao Zedong, Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1967, vol. I, p. 335.

[22] Karl Marx, I. Production, Consumption, Distribution, Exchange (Circulation), “Introduction to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy,” Chapter 1 of The Grundsrisse, (Notebook M, pp. 81–111).

[23] Mao Zedong, Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1967, vol. II, pp. 316–317.

[24] Ibid., vol. 4, p. 422.

[25] Mao Zedong, Collected Works, Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1993, vol. 8, pp. 130–131.

[26] Deng Xiaoping, Chronicle of Deng Xiaoping (1975–1997), Beijing: Central Party Literature Publishing House, 2004, vol. I, p. 222.

[27] Ibid., p. 1363.

[28] Deng Xiaoping, Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1994. Vol. III, p. 351.

[29] Ibid., pp. 151–152.

[30] Ibid., p. 143.

[31] Ibid., p. 366.

[32] Xi Jinping, “Learning from History, Building a New Future, Working Hard and Moving Forward with Courage,” Qiushi, 2022, no. 1.

[33] Resolution on Historical Issues and Resolution on Historical Issues of the Party since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 2021, p. 65.

[34] Op. cit.

[35] Xi Jinping, The Governance of China, Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2017, vol. II, p. 43.

[36] Frederick Engels, IX. Barbarism and the Age of Civilization, “The Origin of the Family, Private Ownership, and the State,” Marx and Engels Selected Works, vol. III.

    translate from Marxism & Reality, No.4 2022