3. The Nature of the Regime

The Chinese Communist Party and the Capitalists

From International Socialism (1st series), No.78, May 1975, p.14.

1. Mao Tse-tung (November-December 1936):

‘We are not confiscating the property and the factories of the big and small Chinese merchants and capitalists. We protect their enterprise and help them to expand so that the material supply in the Soviet districts, so necessary for the anti-Japanese campaign, may be augmented in this way.’

2. Mao Tse-tung On Coalition Government 1945:

‘The task of our New Democratic system is ... to promote the free development of a private capitalist economy that benefits instead of controlling the people’s livelihood, and to protect all honestly acquired private property.’

3. Mao – to Edgar Snow (Red Star, p.96):

‘When China wins her independence, then legitimate foreign trading interests will enjoy more opportunities than ever before’.

4. Chou En-lai (to the first National People’s Congress, 1956):

‘We have no objection to economic aid to economically underdeveloped countries ... If the Western countries would also enter into economic co-operation with other countries in conformity with the principles by which we abide, it will have a very beneficial influence not only on the economic development of all the countries concerned, but also on the improvement of the international situation.’

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