Persia-China

A review article by Engels concerning the Chinese question. Originally published in the New-York Daily Tribune, No. 5032, June 5, 1857.

During 1850s to 1860s, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement broke out, which undertook the heavy undertaking of resisting both the foreign aggression and the corrupt Qing Dynasty government. Marx and Engels paid great attention to such struggles of the Chinese people and expressed their deep sympathy for it. During this period, they wrote 18 articles about China, including Persia-China. In Persia-China Engels first exposed the aggressive nature of the great powers such as Britain and Russia and highly appraised the resistance struggle of the Chinese people. Engels objectively and comprehensively analyzed the different situations of Persia and China in dealing with British aggression, exposed the aggressive nature and bloody atrocities of the wars against China by the British and Russians, and strongly condemned the plundering of resources and the trampling of national dignity by these big powers through extremely unjust wars and hypocritical diplomacy. At the same time, he highly appraised the struggle of Chinese people against the aggression of foreign powers, and argued: “that it is a popular war for the maintenance of Chinese nationality”. Secondly, Engels analyzed that bullying and humiliating acts by the foreign aggressors were the causes of the Chinese people’s struggle against aggression. In his view, “The piratical policy of the British Government has caused this universal outbreak of resentment among all strata of Chinese against foreigners, and marked it as a war of extermination.” Finally, Engels analyzed the prospects of China’s social revolution. He argued that the Chinese revolution would have an important impact on the world. Engels, looked forward to future of China and predicted: “before many years pass away we shall have to witness the death struggles of the oldest empire in the world, and the opening day of a new era for all Asia.”

Persia-China is an important work of Engels in which he elaborated the Chinese question. It pointed out the legitimacy of the struggle of the Chinese people, linked the Chinese revolution with the Asian revolution, and pointed out that the liberation struggle of the oppressed Asian nations and the international cause of the proletariat are inseparable.