Why Is It That Red Political Power Can Exist in China?

On October 5, 1928, this article was part of the resolution which was drafted by Mao Zedong for the Second Congress of the Communist Party of China on the Hunan-Jiangxi Border, originally entitled "The Political Problems and the Tasks of the Border Area Party Organization”. Included in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Volume 1.

The article includes: (1) The internal political situation; (2) The reasons for the emergence and survival of Red Political Power in China; (3) The independent regime in the Hunan-Jiangxi Border and the August Defeat; (4) The role of the independent regime of the Hunan-Jiangxi Border Area in Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi; (5) Economic problems; (6) The problem of military bases.

Firstly, the article analyses the domestic internal situation after the failure of the Great Revolution. Mao Zedong pointed out that China is under the regime of the new warlords of the KMT remains a regime of the comprador class in the cities and the landlord class in the countryside; “it is a regime which has capitulated to imperialism in its foreign relations and which at home has replaced the old warlords with new ones, subjecting the working class and the peasantry to an even more ruthless economic exploitation and political oppression.” Mao Zedong further pointed out that China is in urgent need of a bourgeois-democratic revolution, and this revolution can be completed only under the leadership of the proletariat. Obviously, the content of China's democratic revolution consists in overthrowing the rule of imperialism and its warlord tools in China so as to complete the national revolution, and in carrying out the agrarian revolution so as to eliminate the feudal exploitation of the peasants by the landlord class.

Mao Zedong summed up the experience of the independent armed regimes of workers and peasants in Jinggang Mountains base area and other areas. In view of answering the question of how long the Red Political Power can survive in the base areas, he scientifically clarified the conditions for the long-term existence and development of China's Red Political Power, which is as follows: Firstly, China is a semi-colonial country ruled indirectly by imperialism, and its political and economic development is extremely uneven. In the social economy, the dominant mode of production "is not the unified capitalist economy", but the "localized agricultural economy", the revolutionary force is not concentrated in the cities, but in the countryside; the revolutionary countryside can survive independent from cities, and can provide the necessary material conditions for the prolonged revolutionary war of the Red Army for the survival of the revolutionary base areas. At the same time, because of the "the imperialist policy of marking off spheres of influence in order to divide and exploit” a situation of “prolonged splits and wars within the White regime” has occurred which provide a condition for the emergence and persistence of one or more small Red areas under the leadership of the Communist Party amidst the encirclement of the White regime."

Secondly, the impact of experiences the First Great Revolution. For example, in Hunan, Guangdong, Hubei, Jiangxi and other provinces, there has been a climax of the workers and peasants' movement, and there have been "organizations of a large number of trade unions and peasant associations", the workers and peasants in these areas have been trained by the revolutionary struggle and have gained rich experience in many economic and political struggles against the landlord class and the bourgeoisie. Therefore, the Red Political Power can first exist and develop in these areas.

Thirdly, whether the nation-wide revolutionary situation continues to develop or not. After the failure of the First Great Revolution, although the present regime of the new warlords represented by Chiang Kai-shek was established, not only the contradictions that caused the Chinese revolution remain unsolved, but these contradictions are a intensified due to increasing imperialist aggression and due to the strengthening of the regime of the KMT. Under this situation, "the small Red areas will undoubtedly last for a long time and will also continue to expand and gradually approach the goal of seizing political power throughout the country.”

Fourthly, the existence of a regular Red Army of adequate strength is a necessary condition for the existence of Red Political Power. The Red areas are surrounded by the white regime and often attacked by the counter revolutionary forces. "Therefore, even when the masses of workers and peasants are active, it is definitely impossible to create an independent regime, let alone an independent regime which is durable and grows daily, unless we have regular forces of adequate strength.”

Fifthly, another important condition in addition to the above is required for the prolonged existence and development of Red Political Power, namely, that the Communist Party organization should be strong and its policy correct. In this article, Mao Zedong also put forward an important idea of "establishing independent regimes of workers and peasants by using armed forces.” This idea of Mao Zedong advocated the concept of close integration of armed struggle, agrarian revolution and construction of revolutionary base areas, which would form an integral whole. Mao Zedong emphasized: the idea of "establishing independent regimes of the workers and the peasants by armed force" is an important one which must be fully grasped by the Communist Party and by the masses of workers and peasants in areas under the independent regime.” "Mao Zedong's Red Regime theory was a theoretical innovation that combines the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism with the reality of the Chinese revolution, it has become an important part of the new theory of the path of revolution developed by the Communist Party of China to encircle cities by revolutionary forces developed in the rural areas and seizing power by armed forces. This theory developed Marxist-Leninist theory of seizing power by armed struggle.