The Middle Road

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, some leading figures of democratic parties once advocated this political idea and position. This proposition represented the idea of the national bourgeoisie, which strove to establish a third road between the dictatorship of the big landlord and the big bourgeoisie represented by Chiang Kai-shek and the people's democratic dictatorship led by the Communist Party, that is, establish a third road, i.e., a British and American style of bourgeois dictatorship.

Shi Fuliang, as one of the proponents of this political line, the leader of the China Democratic National Construction Association, argued: "The current political situation is that neither the KMT can destroy the Communist Party by force, nor the CPC can overthrow the KMT by force; and the international situation does not permit a right-leaning KMT regime or a left-leaning communist regime. Under this objective situation, the only feasible and correct way is to restore the middle-of-the-road line of the CPPCC.”

Shi Fuliang advocated the policy of "opposing any form of one-party dictatorship or class dictatorship "; and in action, "it should be peaceful and lead a reform way, should not favor violent revolutionary action." To this end, Shi Fuliang advocated that a "strong centrist" force should be created, and this force should "gain a pivotal position" between the KMT and the CPC. Similarly, in June 1946, No. 118 of the Regeneration journal published Zhang Dongsun's article titled as “A Political Line of Middle Nature”. The article proposed: "China must establish a political system between capitalism and communism in its internal affairs." This system, "in terms of politics, should adopt the liberalism and the democracy of the British and American style; at the same time, in terms of economy, the Soviet style planned economy and socialism should be adopted.” “That is to say, we should adopt democracy instead of capitalism, and at the same time, we should adopt socialism instead of dictatorship.” “We should have freedom rather than laissez faire, and we should cooperate rather than struggle.” Therefore, China should not have let the capitalist monopolize, and when there was no struggle, so there would be no class struggle. China should take "the middle road between capitalism and communism". In fact, the article advocated the establishment of a bourgeois republic of British and American style.

In January 1948, Zhou Enlai pointed out: "The China Democratic League objectively advocated its third-party position in the whole country for a period of time because of the Anti-Japanese War, especially because of the opportunity rendered to them by the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which caused many of his leading figures represent the ideas of the middle class, trying to find a third way which opposed both the programs of the KMT and the CPC. However, after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, China was faced with a sharp struggle between two destinies and two prospects. The country’s objective situation determined that people have no condition to take the middle road. Especially those parties and figures who advocated the idea of the middle road did not have a strong economic base or a broad mass base, and as soon as they are exposed to actual struggle, especially with the resumption of the civil war, they could only choose a road close to the CPC or the KMT, but not another one."

The ultra right Youth League and the National Democratic League sided with and followed the KMT line, while most members of the League was close to the CPC.

In October 1947, the KMT authorities declared the China Democratic League as "an illegal organization" and ordered that all its organizational activities and its members should be "strictly banned." On November 6, 1947, KMT administration forcefully attacked the China Democratic League to dissolve itself. This incident demonstrated that "the last bit of any peaceful solution illusion, legitimate or reformist movement under Chiang Kai-shek's rule had come to an end."

In January 1948, the China Democratic League convened its Third Plenary Session of its Central Committee in Hong Kong, declaring that the middle road was "impracticable" and clearly expressed its intention to "work in cooperation" with the CPC. Other democratic parties also expressed their positive position to support and participate in the New-Democratic Revolution.