For thirty years, the Chinese have been scrupulously studying and analyzing the disintegration of a great power, mainly to prevent such a scenario in their homeland. They argue what was the primary cause of the disaster. The crisis of the ruling party was generated by the general socio-economic decline of the USSR, or the degradation of the CPSU, which abandoned its allegiance to Marxism, resulted in the transformation of the entire socialist system and ultimately destroyed the state ,” Zuenko explains to the agency of Russian state communication.
If it were not for the triumph of the October Socialist Revolution in Russia, perhaps in China the Communist Party, an organization that has ruled the Asian country for more than 70 years, would not have appeared on the nation’s political scene.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the political, economic and social situation in China, as in many other countries, developed in a turbulent way, although in 1911, the Xinhai Revolution shook the empire of the Asian nation, giving way to the birth of a republic, the truth is that the new government of Chinese nationalists was unable to unify the country towards the adoption of a common development policy in any of its forms.
An informal chat with Caleb Maupin as your guide to the multitude of news, lies, distortions, rumors, idiocies, hypocrisies, and ideologies that shape our world.
Taking the example of Canadian surgeon Dr Bethune, who offered his services to help the Spanish Republican army and later China’s revolutionaries in their hour of need, Caleb discusses what makes a person dedicate his life to the betterment and liberation of others.
China has many monuments to Bethune’s memory. The Chinese people never forget their true friends, let alone those who will put their lives on the line to help them, as Dr Bethune did. Mao wrote a heart-rending eulogy to him, which I reproduce below.
IN MEMORY OF NORMAN BETHUNE
December 21, 1939
“We must all learn the spirit of absolute selflessness from him. With this spirit everyone can be very useful to the people. A man’s ability may be great or small, but if he has this spirit, he is already noble-minded and pure, a man of moral integrity and above vulgar interests, a man who is of value to the people.”—Mao Tse-tung
By Mao Tse-tung
Comrade Norman Bethune,[1] a member of the Communist Party of Canada, was around fifty when he was sent by the Communist Parties of Canada and the United States to China; he made light of travelling thousands of miles to help us in our War of Resistance Against Japan. He arrived in Yenan in the spring of last year, went to work in the Wutai Mountains, and to our great sorrow died a martyr at his post. What kind of spirit is this that makes a foreigner selflessly adopt the cause of the Chinese people’s liberation as his own? It is the spirit of internationalism, the spirit of communism, from which every Chinese Communist must learn. Leninism teaches that the world revolution can only succeed if the proletariat of the capitalist countries supports the struggle for liberation of the colonial and semi-colonial peoples and if the proletariat of the colonies and semi-colonies supports that of the proletariat of the capitalist countries.[2] Comrade Bethune put this Leninist line into practice. We Chinese Communists must also follow this line in our practice. We must unite with the proletariat of all the capitalist countries, with the proletariat of Japan, Britain, the United States, Germany, Italy and all other capitalist countries, for this is the only way to overthrow imperialism, to liberate our nation and people and to liberate the other nations and peoples of the world. This is our internationalism, the internationalism with which we oppose both narrow nationalism and narrow patriotism.
This lecture was delivered at the international symposium of ‘The 7th World Socialism Forum: Marxism in the 21stCentury’, co-organized by The Social Sciences Press, for The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and The World Socialism Research Centre, Beijing, China, 21-22 October 2016. Dedicated to Bennie Bunsee.]
‘They are slaves who fear to speak
For the fallen and the weak.’ G. Padmore
The events leading to the demise of the area formerly known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), now known as The Russian Federation, did not signify the end of Socialism, but did lead to the collapse of the Soviet block. Many say that the collapse of the Soviet Union brought to an end a certain interpretation of political philosophy and its application. This meeting in China at this moment in world history signifies that although the days of the Soviet block are over, China led by the Communist Party of China, implementing socialism with Chinese characteristics, holds high the banner of Socialism. What that teaches some is that Socialism in China is implemented learning from the experience of China, knowing that Socialism is adaptable to the realities of the place of application. The experience of China has seen its ups and downs. China continues to chart its way in an international environment not of its choosing.
Journal of People 