Semi-colonial and Semi-feudal Nature and Basic Characteristics of Modern Chinese Society

The period of modern Chinese society refers to the period of Chinese society from the Opium War in 1840 to the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Before the Opium War, Chinese society was a feudal society, and since the invasion of foreign capitalism and the gradual growth of capitalist elements in Chinese society, the country had changed by degrees into a capitalist society. The Opium War of British Aggression against China in 1840 began to interrupt the original course of Chinese history and change the direction of its development.

With the invasion of major foreign imperialist forces, two fundamental changes had taken place in Chinese Society: independent China gradually became semi-colonial China; feudal China gradually became semi-feudal China. Modern Chinese society became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.

China's colonial, semi-colonial and semi-feudal society had the following characteristics:

(1) The foundations of the self-sufficient natural economy of feudal times were destroyed, but the exploitation of the peasantry by the landlord class, which was the basis of the system of feudal exploitation, not only remains intact but, linked as it was with exploitation by comprador and usurer capital, clearly dominated China's social and economic life.

(2) National capitalism became developing to a certain extent and became playing a considerable part in China's political and cultural life. However, it could not become the principal pattern in China's social economy, it was flabby and was mostly associated with foreign imperialism and domestic feudalism in varying degrees.

(3) The autocratic rule of the emperors and nobility was overthrown, and in its place, there had arisen first the warlord-bureaucrat rule of the landlord class and then the joint dictatorship of the landlord class and the big bourgeoisie. In the occupied areas there was the rule of Japanese imperialism and its puppets.

(4) Imperialism began to control not only China's vital financial and economic arteries but also her political and military power. In the occupied areas everything was at the hands of Japanese imperialism.

(5) China's economic, political and cultural development was very uneven, because she was under the complete or partial domination of many imperialist powers, because she was actually in a state of disunity for a long time, and because her territory was immense.

(6) Under the twofold oppression of imperialism and feudalism and especially as a result of the large-scale invasion of Japanese imperialism, the Chinese people, and particularly the peasants, became more and more impoverished and had even been pauperized in large numbers, living in hunger and cold and without any political rights. The poverty and lack of freedom among the Chinese people were on a scale seldom found elsewhere.