Equality of Nations

Also known as “national equality”. All nations of the world, regardless of their size, length of history, or stage of development, should be on equal footing, including equal rights in politics, equal rights to develop their economy and culture, equal status in terms of language and literature, and also including respect for each nation’s religious faiths and customs and habits, etc. Historic nations, advanced nations, etc. shall not enjoy any privileges. We resolutely oppose any national discrimination or even national exploitation and oppression and oppose chauvinism and narrow nationalism. The equality of nations is one of the most fundamental issues in the national question, the basis of national solidarity and common prosperity for all nations, and a fundamental principle of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and the theoretical system with of socialism Chinese characteristics for resolving the national question and handling national relations.

Marxism holds that all nations of the world have their own characteristics and merits, are the creators of human material and spiritual wealth, and have made their own contributions to the progress of human civilization. Therefore, every nation should enjoy the same social status and have the same social rights as other nations. Lenin said that whoever does not recognize and champion the equality of nations and languages and does not fight against all national oppression and inequality is not a Marxist; he is not even a democrat.

“Equality of nations” was a slogan raised by the bourgeoisie during the rise of the modern bourgeoisie to oppose feudal oppression and national oppression, and in a certain sense, it was historically progressive. But due to the inconsistency and incompleteness of the bourgeois revolution, after gaining power, the bourgeoisie did not adhere to the slogan of the equality of nations to the end, on the contrary, it carried out national aggression and national oppression unscrupulously under the cover of the slogan of the equality of nations. The nationalism of the bourgeoisie and the bourgeois democrats, while verbally recognizing the equality of nations, defended in action certain privileges that oppressed the nations, and always sought greater benefits for the bourgeoisie of their own nation, to separate the nations, to draw clear boundaries between them, and to develop the particularity of their own nation, etc. Lenin pointed out that an abstract or formal posing of the problem of equality in general and the equality of nations in particular is in the very nature of bourgeois democracy. Under the guise of the equality of the individual in general, bourgeois democracy proclaims the formal or legal equality of the property-owner and the proletarian, the exploiter and the exploited, thereby grossly deceiving the oppressed classes. At this point, “equality of nations” became a tool for the bourgeoisie to delude, deceive, enslave and oppress the people of all nations. Therefore, the essence of the so-called “equality of nations” of the bourgeoisie is hypocritical and has a delusive nature, but in fact it serves as a cover for the bourgeoisie to gain and fortify its dominance and carry out global plunder during the imperialist period.

The root cause of the oppression and inequality of nations is the private property in the means of production. The inequality of nations in the existing society is caused by the private property in the means of production and the exploiting classes. Marxism has unmasked the hypocrisy of bourgeois “equality of nations” and held that the equality of nations can only be truly realized in the epoch of proletarian revolution, after the abolition of private property in the means of production. The historical mission of realizing the equality of nations can only be accomplished by the proletariat, because it is the most exploited and oppressed class in capitalist society. The proletariat can ultimately achieve liberation only by overthrowing all systems of exploitation and oppression, eliminating private property in the means of production and realizing public ownership, and achieving social equality, including equality of nations. Moreover, unlike the bourgeois slogan of equality of nations, the equality of nations advocated by the proletariat must not only follow formal equality of nations, but also achieve the actual equality of nations. This is the essential connotation of Marxist equality of nations that distinguishes it from bourgeois equality of nations. Lenin pointed out that, “on the national question, the policy of the proletariat which has captured political power—unlike that of the bourgeois-democratic formal proclamation of equality of nations, which is impossible under imperialism—is persistently to bring about the real rapprochement and amalgamation of the workers and peasants of all nations in their revolutionary struggle for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie”, and that it is necessary to “promote the actual equality of the working masses of the formerly oppressed nations”. Therefore, the most fundamental thing to achieve the equality of nations is to carry out a proletarian socialist revolution, to abolish the system of exploitation, the private property in the means of production, and the classes. In proportion as the exploitation of one individual by another will also be put an end to, the exploitation of one nation by another will also be put an end to. In proportion as the antagonism between classes within the nation vanishes, the hostility of one nation to another will come to an end. Once the system of exploitation is eliminated and the classes are abolished, the roots of the oppression and inequality of nations will be fundamentally abolished. Marxist theory of equality of nations is the most scientific theory for solving the national question. The pursuit of a dialectical unity of formal equality and actual equality is the greatest feature of the Marxist theory of equality of nations.

In a multi-national state, the equality of nations is a national question and also one of the general social questions. Since its founding, the Communist Party of China has attached great importance to the question of equality of nations, and its pursuit of equality of nations runs through the whole process of China’s practice of revolution, construction and reform from beginning to end. After the founding of New China, it was clearly stipulated in the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China that “the People’s Republic of China is a unified multi-national state. All the nationalities are equal”, which legally guarantees the equal rights of all national minorities; and in practice, the system of national oppression has been abolished, and all nationalities live together in equality and harmony. However, due to historical and regional factors, there is an uneven economic and cultural development among nations, and actual inequality among nations still exists. The elimination of the actual inequality of nations has also become an important task of the nationalities work of the Party and the State during the socialist revolution, construction and reform.