Foreign Commentaries on China

Celebrating the Constitution of the People's Republic of China

Celebrating the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China

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Foreign Commentaries on China

Various commentaries from outside the country by people who have lived in China or studied Chinese society, stretching across different topics and historical periods – some are more friendly to the revolutionary cause than others.

The Battle For Asia, Edgar Snow, Random House, New York, 1941, 431 pages.

The Birth of New China, a sketch of one hundred years 1842-1942, Arthur Clegg, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 1943, 144 pages.

What we saw in China, by 15 Americans, who participated in the Peace Conference of the Asian and Pacific Regions in October 1952, Weekly Guardian Associates, NY, 1952, 68 pages.

Through People’s China in a Friendship Train, by Fernand Leriche, World Federation of Trade Unions, England, 1953, 68 pages. Report of a WFTU delegation from 21 countries visiting China by train.

The People have Strength, Rewi Alley, Peking, 1954, 281 pages. Sequel to ‘Yo Banfa’.

The Great Road – the Life and Times of Chu Teh, Agnes Smedley, Monthly review Press, New York, 1956, 461 pages.

The Atlantic, a Special Issue on Red China – The first ten years, December 1959, 192 pages.

What’s really happening in China?, by Felix Greene, City Lights Books, San Francisco, 1959, 68 pages.

The world belongs to all, by Liao Hung-ying and Derek Bryan, privately printed, n.d. (but from 1959 or shortly after), 32 pages. The impressions of a husband and wife who re-visited China in 1959.

Mao and the Chinese Revolution, Jerome Ch’en, Oxford University Press, London, 1965, 419 pages. With 37 poems by Mao Tse-tung.

Mao Tse-tung in opposition 1927-1935, John E Rue, Published for the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University Press, California, 1966, 387 pages.

The Taiping Rebellion, history and documents, Volume 1: History, Franz H Michael, University of Washington Press, 1966, 244 pages.

Window on Shanghai, Letters from China, Sophia Knight, Andre Deutsch, London, 1967, 256 pages.

This is Communist China, by the staff of Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo, edited by Robert Trumbull, Van Rees Press, New York, 1968, 274 pages.

A curtain of ignorance, Felix Greene, Jonathan Cape, London, 1968, 340 pages.

The Great Power Struggle in China, Asia Research Centre, Hong Kong, 1969, 503 pages.

China and Ourselves – Explorations and revisions by a new generation, edited by Bruce Douglass and Ross Terrill, Beacon Press, Boston, 1969, 249 pages.

Modern Drama from Communist China, edited by Walter and Meserve, New York University Press, New York, 1970, 368 pages.

The Chinese Cultural Revolution and Foreign Policy, Daniel Tretiak, ASG Monograph No. 2, Westinghouse Electric Corporation Advanced Studies Group, Waltham, Massachusetts, 1970, 36 pages.

The Organization and Support of Scientific Research and Development in Mainland China, Yuan-li Wu and Robert B Sheeks, Praeger, New York, 1970, 592 pages.

A divorce trial in China, by Felix Greene, New England Free Press, 1970, 16 pages. Originally published as a chapter in Greene’s book Awakened China: The country Americans don’t know (1961)

The Miracles of Chairman Mao – A compendium of devotional literature 1966-1970, edited by George Urban, Tom Stacey, London, 1971, 182 pages. (Introduction missing.)

The Morning Deluge – Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Revolution 1983-1954, Han Suyin, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1972, 571 pages.

Mao Tse-tung’s Cultural Revolution, Tai Sung An, Pegasus, 1972, 211 pages.

Experiment without precedent: some Quaker observations on China today, report of an American Friends Service Committee Delegation’s visit to China, May 1972, 64 pages.

China: revolution and health, by Mark Selden, Health/PAC Bulletin, No. 47, December 1972, published by the Health Policy Advisory Center, New York, 20 pages.

People’s China in 1973: A Group Report, by Scott Nearing, Helen K. Nearing, Dr. Jerome Davis, Howard Frazier, Hugh B. Hester and Bess Horowitz, Promoting Enduring Peace, Inc., Woodmont, Conn.,1973, 28 pages.

The Chinese Economy, by Jan Deleyne, (1973, orig. French version 1971), 216 pages. Talks about the Chinese economy before, during, and after the initial phase (late 1960s) of the Cultural Revolution.

Chiang Ch’ing – The emergence of a revolutionary political leader, Dwan L Tai, Exposition Press, New York, 1974, 222 pages.

Unite the many, defeat the few: China’s revolutionary line in foreign affairs, by Jack A. Smith, Guardian newspaper (U.S.) pamphlet, 1974, 40 pages. Originally a series of articles in the Guardian in late 1972 and early 1973.

Education in the People’s Republic of China, by Fred L. Pincus, Research Group One Report No. 20, July 1974, 32 pages.

Party, Army and Masses in China, A Marxist interpretation of the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath, Livio Maitan, NLB, London, 1976, 373 pages.

Wind in the tower, Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Revolution – 1949-1965, Han Suyin, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1976, 404 pages.

The People of Taihang – An Anthology of Family Histories, edited by Sidney Greenblatt, International Arts and Science Press, White Plains, New York, 1976, 305 pages.

Economic planning in China, by Geoff Mason, New Zealand-China Society, 1976, 60 pages.

China and the Nuclear Question, by Joan Donley, New Zealand-China Society, 2nd revised ed. 1976, 20 pages.

Why is China not at the Olympiques? [sic] / Pourquoi la Chine n’est pas aux Olympiques?, by the Canada-China Society and the Amitiés Québec-Chine, 1976, 16 pages. In both English and French.

China’s Foreign Policy – an outline, compiled by Clark Kissinger, August 1976, 60 pages.

Women’s Liberation in China, Claudie Broyelle, Humanities Press, New Jersey, 1977, 174 pages.

Workers and Workplaces in Revolutionary China, the China book project, edited by Stephen Andors, ME Sharpe, White Plains, New York, 1977, 403 pages.

Comrade Chiang Ch’ing, Roxanne Witke, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1977, 549 pages.

Revolutionary Diplomacy, Chinese Foreign Policy and the United Front Doctrine, JD Armstrong, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1977, 251 pages.

The Politics of Revolutionary China, British and Irish Communist Organisation, Belfast, 1977?, 44 pages.

China since Mao, Neil J Burton and Charles Bettleheim, Monthly review Press, New York, 1978, 130 pages.

Mao Tsetung’s immortal contributions, Bob Avakian, RCP Publications, Chicago, 1979, 342 pages.

Chairman Mao – Education of the Proletariat, Don Chean Chu, Philosophical Library, New York, 1980, 478 pages.

Edgar Snow’s China, a personal account of the Chinese Revolution compiled from the writings of Edgar Snow, Lois Wheeler Snow, Random House, New York, 1981, 284 pages.

Science in Contemporary China, edited by Leo A Orleans, Stanford University Press, California, 1980, 599 pages.

Science and Socialist Construction in China, Xu Liangying and Fan Dainian, The China book project, ME Sharpe, New York, 1982, 225 pages.

Marxism, Maoism, and Utopianism, Eight Essays, Maurice Meisner, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1982, 255 pages.

Shenfan, the continuing revolution in a Chinese village, William Hinton, Random House, New York, 1983, 785 pages.

Red and Expert – A case study of Chinese science in the Cultural revolution, David Wade Chambers, Deakin University Press, Victoria, Australia, 1984, 153 pages.

Ninth Heaven to Ninth Hell – The History of a Noble Chinese Experiment, Qin Huailu, Barricade Books, New York, 1995, 665 pages.

Documents on the Rape of Nanking, edited by Timothy Brook, Ann Arbor Paperbacks, 1999, 301 pages.

Mao – a Life, Phillip Short, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1999, 782 pages.

The Nanjing Massacre, a Japanese Journalist Confronts Japan’s National Shame, Honda Katsuichi, ME Sharpe, New York, 1999, 367 pages.

The Nanjing Massacre in History and Historiography, edited by Joshua A Fogel, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2000, 248 pages.

Nanking 1937 – Memory and Healing, edited by Fei Fei Li, Robert Sabella and David Liu, ME Sharpe, New York, 2002, 278 pages.

Marxist Philosophy in China – From Qu Qiubai to Mao Zedong, 1923–1945, Nick Knight, Springer, The Netherlands, 2005, 245 pages.

Revolution in the Highlands – China’s Jinggangshan Base Area, Stephen C Averill, Rowman and Littlefield, New York, 2006, 451 pages.

Corruption and Realism in Late Socialist China – The Return of the Political Novel, Jeffrey Kinkley, Stanford University Press, 2007, 305 pages.

Mao Zedong, a political and intellectual portrait, Maurice Meisner, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2007, 222 pages.

Rise of the Red Engineers – The Cultural Revolution and the Origins of China’s New Class, Joel Andreas, Stanford University Press, California, 2009, 344 pages.

Was Mao really a monster? The academic response to Chang and Halliday’s ‘Mao – the unknown story’, edited by Gregor Benton and Lin Chun, Routledge, Abingdon, 2010, 199 pages.

The Wounds, Norman Bethune, speeches given in Canada in the 1930s, Anvil press, Ontario, ND, 35 pages.

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Robert Mugabe – writings and speeches

Robert Mugabe 1986

Robert Mugabe 1986

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Robert Mugabe (1924-2019)

Robert Mugabe became the leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) in 1975 – at the height of the National Liberation War against the racist and colonial regime of Rhodesia – eventually leading the organisation (and the people of Zimbabwe) to success and the establishment of a Government led by and comprising a majority of Black Zimbabweans.

In the 1970s and 80s he professed himself a Marxist-Leninist but as international pressures and economic difficulties increased during the 1990s his approach became more ‘pragmatic’ – although he always considered himself a socialist.

In many ways Mugabe was the only honourable participant in the Lancaster House Conference in late 1979. He accepted a disproportionate participation in the Parliament of the tiny white minority in order to undermine any arguments of the odious Ian Smith – the erstwhile Prime Minister of the renegade country since the 1960s . This agreement was due to last for ten years and probably one of Mubabe’s biggest mistakes was that he honoured that agreement.

If he had attacked white majority power during the 1980s, when there was definitely a revolutionary fervour in the country, Zimbabwe might had been more able to face the various ‘setbacks’ of the 1990s. These were a combination of events which, using the modern cliché, created a veritable ‘perfect storm’ for the country.

The events that hit the country included;

  • droughts in the 1990s, which followed drought years in the 1980s,
  • the collapse of the Soviet Union removed a potential, non-Western ally (although with conditions) from the equation,
  • the refusal of the governments of the United Kingdom (both Conservative and Labour) to live up to their end of the bargain and provide assistance (including finance) for the white minority land (the very best, most fertile and most easily irrigated) to be transferred into the hands of black Zimbabwean farmers,
  • a growing level of corruption at too many levels in the Party, Government and the country in general which were undermining any attempts to move forward without any interference from the past colonial ‘masters’,
  • the efforts of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) to force conditions upon any country receiving loans. This primarily manifested itself in the forced privatisation of national resources – a policy which was developed throughout the 1980s but which had become institutionalised by the 1990s. The fact that, throughout his time as Prime Minster/President, Mugabe refused to accept such conditions must always stand in his favour.

The documents below allow the reader to get an idea of how Mugabe thought during the time of the National Liberation War and the early years of the independent Zimbabwe.

Prime Minister opens Economic Conference, September 1, 1980, Harare, 1980, Government Printer, Harare, 1980, 6 pages.

PM’s New Year Message to the Nation, December 31, 1981, Policy Statement No 6, Government Printer, Harare, 1981, 9 pages.

PM opens Zimbabwe Conference on Reconstruction and Development (ZIMCORD), March 23, 1981, Government Printer, Harare, 11 pages.

Speech by the Honourable Prime Minister, Comrade R.G. Mugabe, at the 69th Session of the International Labour Organisation, Geneva Switzerland, June 15 1983, no publisher or publication date, 15 pages. (Apologies for the poor quality of the print.)

Prime Minister Addresses State Banquet in North Korea, October 9, 1980, Policy Statement No 1, Government Printer, Harare, 1985, 14 pages.

The Prime Minister’s speech in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, January 24, 1983, Policy Statement No 9, Harare, Government Printer, Harare, 1983, 6 pages.

The Prime Minister’s Speech to Ecclesiastical Leaders, April 5, 1983, Policy Statement No 11, Government Printer, Harare, 1983, 8 pages.

The President’s speech on the 3rd anniversary of Independence, April 18, 1983, Policy Statement No 10, Government Printers, Harare, 1983, 9 pages.

Our war of Liberation, Speeches, articles and interviews, 1976-1979, Mambo Press, Harare, 1983, 215 pages.

The Construction of Socialism in Zimbabwe, Prime Minister, July 9, 1984, Policy Statement No 14, Government Printers, Harare, 1984, 11 pages.

The President’s speech at the opening of the 1st session of the 2nd Parliament of Zimbabwe, July 23, 1985, Government Printers, Harare, 1985, 12 pages.

PM Mugabe’s address to the 40th Session of the UN General Assembly, October 7, 1985, Policy Statement No 16, Government Printer, Harare, 1985, 14 pages.

The President opens 2nd Session of 2nd Parliament, June 24, 1986, Policy Statement No 17, Government Printers, Harare, 1986, 13 pages.

Biographies

Mugabe, a biography, David Smith and Colin Simpson with Ian Davies, Pioneer Head, Salisbury, 1981, 222 pages.

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Cuba – Hell, Purgatory and Paradise

La Revolucion soy yo

La Revolucion soy yo

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Cuba – Hell, Purgatory and Paradise

[This article was first published (in Spanish) on the El Cohete website on July 18th 2021. The English version reproduced here was published on the Portside website on July 29th 2021.

Although this blog doesn’t see the Cuban Revolution in the same way as many romantic socialists we do accept that, within the confines of social-democracy, the people of the island have achieved a number of advances that have always been under attack by the imperialist behemoth to their north.

To take an independent stance against the capitalist ‘norm’ will always have consequences – especially in the United States’ ‘backyard’. We only have to look at what happened (or is still happening) to countries such as Chile, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Whatever the problems that might arise following the desire for independence it should never be forgotten that the costs, in the long term, of falling under the dominance of the US will lead to untold misery for the vast majority of the Cuban population.

All Marxist-Leninists support the right of countries to self-determination – especially when the country is being threatened by the murderous Imperialist United States of America.

This article (written by a Catholic priest, no less) should serve as a reminder that all actions, especially capitulation, will have consequences and there are no examples where kowtowing to imperialist pressure has benefited workers and peasants in Central and South America.]

Cuba: Hell, Purgatory and Paradise

by Frei Betto

Few ignore my solidarity with the Cuban Revolution. For 40 years I have frequently visited the island for work commitments and invitations to events. For a long period, I mediated the resumption of dialogue between the Catholic bishops and the Cuban government, as described in my books Fidel y la Religion (Fontanar/Companhia das Letras) and Paradise Lost, Trips to the Socialist World (Rocco).

Currently, under contract with FAO, I advise the Cuban government on the implementation of the Food Sovereignty and Nutrition Education Plan.

I know in detail Cuban daily life, including the difficulties faced by the population, the challenges to the Revolution, the criticisms of the country’s intellectuals and artists. I visited prisons, I spoke with opponents of the Revolution, I lived with Cuban priests and laity opposed to socialism.

When they tell me, a Brazilian, that there is no democracy in Cuba, I descend from the abstraction of words to reality.

How many photos or news have been or are seen of Cubans in misery, beggars scattered on the sidewalks, children abandoned in the streets, families under the viaducts? Something similar to the cracolândia , the militias, the long lines of patients who wait years to be treated in a hospital?

I warn friends:

  • If you are rich in Brazil and you go to live in Cuba, you will know hell. You will not be able to change cars every year, buy designer clothes, travel frequently on vacation abroad. And, above all, he will not be able to exploit the work of others, keep his employees in ignorance, be ‘proud’ of María, his cook for 20 years, and who denies access to his own home, to schooling and the health plan.
  • If you are middle class, get ready to experience purgatory. Although Cuba is no longer a state company, the bureaucracy persists, you have to be patient in the queues of the markets, many products available this month may not be found next month due to the inconsistency of imports.
  • However, if you are salaried, poor, homeless or landless, get ready to meet paradise. The Revolution will guarantee your three fundamental human rights: food, health and education, as well as housing and work. You may have a huge appetite for not eating what you like, but you will never go hungry. His family will have schooling and health care, including complex surgeries, totally free, as a duty of the State and the right of the citizen.

There is nothing more prostituted than language. The famous democracy born in Greece has its merits, but it is good to remember that, at that time, Athens had 20,000 inhabitants who lived off the labor of 400,000 slaves … What would one of those thousands of servants answer if asked about the virtues of the democracy?

I do not wish for the future of Cuba the present of Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras or even Puerto Rico, an American colony that was denied independence. Nor do I want Cuba to invade the United States and occupy a coastal area of California, such as Guantánamo, which has been transformed into a torture center and an illegal prison for suspected terrorists.

Democracy, in my concept, means the ‘Our Father’ – the authority legitimized by the popular will – and the ‘Our Bread’ – the sharing of the fruits of nature and human labor. The electoral rotation does not make, nor does it ensure a democracy. Brazil and India, considered democracies, are flagrant examples of misery, poverty, exclusion, oppression and suffering.

Only those who knew the reality of Cuba before 1959 know why Fidel had so much popular support to bring the Revolution to victory.

The country was known by the nickname ‘Caribbean brothel’. The mafia dominated banks and tourism (there are several movies about this). The main neighborhood of Havana, still called Vedado, has this name because blacks were not allowed to circulate there… The
United States was never satisfied with having lost Cuba subjected to its ambitions. Therefore, shortly after the victory of the Sierra Maestra guerrillas, they tried to invade the island with mercenary troops. They were defeated in April 1961. The following year, President Kennedy decreed the blockade of Cuba, which continues to this day.

Cuba is an island with few resources. It is forced to import more than 60 percent of the country’s essential products. With the tightening of the blockade promoted by Trump (243 new measures and, for now, not withdrawn by Biden), and the pandemic, which has zeroed out one of the country’s main sources of resources, tourism, the internal situation has worsened .

The Cubans had to tighten their belts. Then, the discontent with the Revolution, who gravitate in the orbit of the ‘American dream’, promoted the protests of Sunday, July 11 with the ‘solidarity’ help of the CIA, whose boss has just made a tour of the continent, worried about the results of the elections in Peru and Chile.

The one who best explains the current situation in Cuba is its president, Díaz-Canel:

‘The financial, economic, commercial and energy persecution has begun. They (the White House) want an internal social outbreak to be provoked in Cuba to ask for ‘humanitarian missions’ that translate into invasions and military interference. We have been honest, we have been transparent, we have been clear, and at all times we have explained to our people the complexities of today. I remember that more than a year and a half ago, when the second half of 2019 began, we had to explain that we were in a difficult situation. The United States began to intensify a series of restrictive measures, tightening of the blockade, financial persecution against the energy sector, with the aim of strangling our economy. This would cause the desired massive social outbreak, to be able to request a ‘humanitarian’ intervention,

‘This situation continued, then came the 243 measures (by Trump, to tighten the blockade) that we all know, and finally it was decided to include Cuba on the list of countries that sponsor terrorism. All these restrictions led the country to immediately cut off various sources of foreign exchange income, such as tourism, Cuban-American travel to our country, and remittances. A plan was formed to discredit the Cuban medical brigades and the solidarity collaborations of Cuba, which received an important part of foreign exchange for this collaboration.

‘All this has generated a situation of shortage in the country, mainly of food, medicine, raw materials and supplies to be able to develop our economic and productive processes that, at the same time, contribute to exports. Two important elements are removed: the ability to export and the ability to invest resources. We also have limitations on fuel and spare parts, and all this has caused a level of dissatisfaction, added to accumulated problems that we have been able to solve and that came from the Special Period (1990-1995, when the Soviet Union collapsed, with a serious reflection on the Cuban economy). Along with a fierce smear media campaign, as part of the unconventional war, which tries to fracture the unity between the party, the State and the people;

‘The example of the Cuban Revolution has bothered the United States a lot for 60 years. They applied an unjust, criminal and cruel blockade, now intensified in the pandemic. Blockade and restrictive actions that they have never carried out against any other country, not even against those they consider their main enemies. Therefore, it has been a perverse policy against a small island that only aspires to defend its independence, its sovereignty and to build its society with self-determination, according to the principles that more than 86 percent of the population has supported.

‘In the midst of these conditions, the pandemic arises, a pandemic that has affected not only Cuba, but the entire world, including the United States. It affected rich countries, and it must be said that in the face of this pandemic, neither the United States nor these rich countries had all the capacity to face its effects. The poor were harmed, because there are no public policies aimed at the people, and there are indicators in relation to the confrontation of the pandemic with worse results than those of Cuba in many cases. Infection and mortality rates per million inhabitants are notably higher in the United States than in Cuba (the United States has recorded 1,724 deaths per million, while Cuba is at 47 deaths per million). As the United States entrenches itself in vaccine nationalism,

‘Without the possibility of successfully invading Cuba, the United States persists in a rigid blockade. After the fall of the USSR, which provided the island with ways to circumvent the blockade, the United States tried to increase its control over the Caribbean country. Starting in 1992, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to end this blockade. The Cuban government reported that between April 2019 and March 2020, Cuba lost $ 5 billion in potential trade due to the blockade; in the last nearly six decades, it lost the equivalent of $ 144 billion. Now, the United States government has deepened sanctions against shipping companies that carry oil to the island.’

It is this fragility that opens a flank to the manifestations of discontent, without the government having put tanks and troops in the streets. The resistance of the Cuban people, fueled by examples like Martí, Che Guevara and Fidel, has proven to be invincible. And we must, all of us who fight for a more just world, stand in solidarity with them.

[Frei Betto is a Dominican friar, liberation theologian, journalist and Brazilian writer.

His roles as a revolutionary Christian, popular educator, social movement articulator, and journalist/writer provide insight into the political and religious history not only of Brazil, but of Cuba and former socialist countries of Eastern Europe. His lifepath is one of engagement with the revolutionary struggle against the Brazilian military dictatorship in favor of social transformation. His arrest in 1969 for coordinating the safe departure of political militants from Brazil, and his concern to eliminate hunger and suffering from the poorer classes, were strong credentials as he promoted dialogue between political bodies, the religious establishment and the population at large.

Strongly influenced by the propositions of Liberation Theology, a defining thread of its activities was to seek an understanding, an accommodation, between Christianity and socialism. Friar Betto maintained close relations with former Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolutionary government, and wrote about how the internal dynamics of the Cuban religious universe could be applied to other countries and to different political circumstances. His writings on socialist countries, especially Paradise Lost, are aimed at promoting understanding on several levels: between the Church and the communists; between the military and politicians; between religious leaders and the people.]

Translation by Internationalist 360°

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