Main Tasks of the New-Democratic Revolution

Mao Zedong pointed out that in semi-colonial and semi-feudal Chinese society, the main enemies of the Chinese revolution were imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism.

Therefore, the main task of the Chinese revolution was to carry out “a national revolution to overthrow foreign imperialist oppression and a democratic revolution to overthrow feudal landlord oppression, the primary and foremost task being the national revolution to overthrow imperialism.”

In December 1939, in his article “The Chinese Revolution and the CPC”, he pointed out: “These two great tasks are interrelated. Unless imperialist rule is overthrown, the rule of the feudal landlord class cannot be terminated, because imperialism is its main support. Conversely, unless help is given to the peasants in their struggle to overthrow the feudal landlord class, it will be impossible to build powerful revolutionary contingents to overthrow imperialist rule, because the feudal landlord class is the main social base of imperialist rule in China and the peasantry is the main force in the Chinese revolution. Therefore, the two fundamental tasks, the national revolution and the democratic revolution, are at once distinct and united.” Mao also stressed: "It is wrong to regard the national revolution and the democratic revolution as two entirely different stages of the revolution.”

He clearly pointed out: The aim of Chinese revolution at the present stage was to overthrow the rule of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism, and to create a democratic republic in which the workers and masses would play a definite role.