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The Canton rising of December 1927 was an event of international significance in Chinese Communist history. In order to understand it in proper perspective it is necessary to trace Comintern policy on rural and urban revolutions in China from 1920 to 1927. From the beginning the Comintern approach to the revolution in the East was different from that in the West. In the West the revolution was one of the industrial proletariat against the bourgeoisie with the rural toilers as the auxiliary revolutionary force. In the East, where there was almost no industrial proletariat or where, in some relatively advanced countries the industrial proletariat was just beginning to grow up, the Comintern supported the native bourgeoisie temporarily and the peasantry permanently in its grand strategy against "capitalist imperialism" and "feudalism" represented chiefly by landlords. While Comintern support for the bourgeoisie of the East was not expected to hinder future communist work against the native bourgeois democratic tendencies, Comintern support for the peasantry was so complete that no communist programme was considered possible in the pre-capitalist countries if it was not based on the peasant movement. The proletarian revolution was not a problem in the East at the outset.

The political system established by the Chinese Communist Party in 1949 had its origins, in many respects, in the Chinese Soviet Republic of 1931-1934, based in southern Kiangsi province about 400 miles southwest of Shanghai. The Kiangsi period was important because it gave the Chinese Communists their first opportunity to govern an extensive area and a large population, and in so doing to develop methods of mass mobilization as well as new techniques for conducting party and government affairs. Kim explores the evolution of the Chinese Communist movement during the Kiangsi soviet period, especially its organizational concepts, behavioral patterns, and development techniques of ";mass line"; politics. He seeks answers to several questions: What notions of organization shaped the Kiangsi political system? Who formulated the policies? How were they implemented at the rice-roots level of government? By analyzing Mao Tse-tung's writings on organization and comparing them with those of other Chinese Communist theoreticians, he achieves fresh insights into Mao's approach to administration and bureaucratic organization. The distinct contribution of this book lies in its focus on such issues as how the Chinese Communist leaders viewed organizational problems within their movement, especially following the failure of the 1947 revolution; how they responded to these problems; and how they maintained a balance of power among the party, the government, and the Red Army while administering the expanding territorial base and managing complex organizations. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1973

This article attempts to present the impression made by Chinese communism in Hong Kong during the germinal period of the Chinese Communist Movement from 1921, when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was founded, to 1934, when the communist presence in Hong Kong and Guangdong had virtually disappeared and communist activities were not to be revived until shortly before the outbreak of China's war with Japan. The early perception of communism and its importance have to be understood in the context of the dual society of the colony, with the British as the ruler and the Chinese as the ruled in almost totally separate communities.

Afterlives of Chinese Communism comprises essays from over fifty world- renowned scholars in the China field, from various disciplines and continents. It provides an indispensable guide for understanding how the Mao era continues to shape Chinese politics today. Each chapter discusses a concept or practice from the Mao period, what it attempted to do, and what has become of it since. The authors respond to the legacy of Maoism from numerous perspectives to consider what lessons Chinese communism can offer today, and whether there is a future for the egalitarian politics that it once promised.