ALTHOUGH China was the world’s biggest economy for most of the last two millennia, since Britain launched the first Opium War in 1839, the country was reduced to a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society. Not for nothing is the ensuing period known by the Chinese as the “century of humiliation,” marked by unequal treaties, foreign aggression, civil wars and ultimately a victorious revolution.

When the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, China was one of the poorest societies on Earth. Illiteracy was as high as life expectancy was low. 

The subsequent political trajectory of the People’s Republic essentially falls into two distinct phases, the second commencing with the launch of the policy known as “reform and opening up” from the end of 1978. 

The first period is often described as one of following the Soviet model. 

There is some truth to this, just as contemporary China still draws on it to some extent, but it is far from the whole story. 

For example, even in its most radical phases, the Chinese revolution never completely rejected a role for the national bourgeoisie. 

This in turn meant that rather than a single party system, as in the Soviet Union, China retained, and retains, a multi-party, consultative system, based on acknowledging and upholding the leading role of the Communist Party. 

Significantly, the peasantry (with some deviation during the period known as the Great Leap Forward, 1958-62), was not taken as a source of what might be termed “socialist primitive accumulation” to benefit the cities and the promotion of heavy industry. 

Rather, policies tended to reflect the fact that the peasantry constituted the majority of the population and, even more that, they were the bedrock of the revolution.

The achievements of the Mao era should not be underestimated or denigrated. They were among the most stupendous in human history.

Despite the terrible years of 1958-62, and the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, life expectancy in China grew by one year for every year that Mao was in power.

From being practically the poorest country on Earth, Mao’s China solved the basic problems of feeding, clothing, housing and educating almost a quarter of the world’s population, provided basic medical care to the whole population, brought literacy to the overwhelming majority, massively improved the social position and role of women, and so on.

Why then was it necessary to make such a radical turn in 1978?

For all its progress, China remained at the time of Mao’s death in 1976 a very poor country, although the basic necessities of life were more or less guaranteed. 

Whilst famine had been eliminated, food was still strictly rationed. Xi Jinping, when recalling his young days working with farmers in an old revolutionary base area, has often said that his dream was that one day the villagers would be able to eat meat and eat it often. 

Although disparities and inequalities remained, China under Mao may be considered to have been one of the most equal societies on Earth, but to a considerable extent, it was a “socialism of shared poverty.”

Moreover, huge changes were underway globally. Countries and regions around China were developing rapidly, albeit inequitably.

However, this capitalist development in the region was skillfully turned into a positive factor by China as its principal source of investment in the first stage of reform and opening up.

The eagerness of investors to enter the Chinese market had a number of causes — from patriotism on the part of much of the Overseas Chinese bourgeoisie, to awareness of the size and potential of the Chinese market. From the American defeat in Indochina and partial retreat from Asia to a cynical desire to perpetuate and exacerbate the Sino-Soviet split.

For China, such investment was crucial.

It provided what the country desperately needed — a faster pace of industrialisation and employment for those leaving the countryside to begin urban life; guaranteed export markets; skills and technology transfer; capital; technical and vocational training; and advanced scientific management. 

None of this would have been possible — at least not on the same scale, to the same extent and at such a rapid pace — without the foundations laid by Mao. 

Without a basically educated, literate and trained workforce. Without housing and medical care. Without a transportation network and paved roads linking the whole country. 

This is a major reason why Xi Jinping, from practically his first remarks when he was elected general secretary of the party in 2012, has consistently stressed that the two phases of China’s socialist development should not be counterposed to one another, but rather be seen as two parts of a single revolutionary whole, one resting on the foundations laid by the other.

In the last four-and-a-half decades, from a marginal position, China has become the world’s second largest economy. It is the biggest manufacturer, largest exporter, and the major trading partner for two thirds of the world’s nations. It has rocketed up the value chain, increasingly leading the world in innovation and R&D. In just a few years, the whole country has been covered in a network of high-speed rail, accounting for some 70 per cent of the world’s total. And now Xi Jinping is emphasising the development of new, high quality productive forces, essentially conforming to the fifth industrial revolution.

Of course, no change as rapid and radical, and on so vast a canvas, as the process of reform and opening in China could possibly unfold without, as a secondary aspect, some negative features.

Whilst almost everyone has, over time, become much better off, what was once probably the world’s most equal society has become highly unequal. 

Massive damage was done to the environment and ideological and political work weakened.

This is essentially what Xi Jinping has been working tirelessly to correct since he assumed the leadership, inaugurating what the Chinese now call a new era, meaning a new stage in the long march towards developed socialism.

Among the key features of this new era are:

A merciless and ceaseless campaign against corruption. 

A rectification of the party’s ranks, decisively returning to the concept of serving the people.

A massive, targeted campaign resulting in the historically unprecedented elimination of extreme poverty across the whole country, with careful follow-up to ensure that people do not slip back and that their lives continue to improve.

Tackling pollution, preserving the environment, safeguarding biodiversity, leading the world in renewable energy, building an ecological civilisation at home, and leading the global fight against climate catastrophe. 

Rolling out by far the world’s largest programme of medical care and insurance, and old age pensions, albeit ones that remain in many respects rudimentary and with great scope for improvement. However, unlike the situation in our country, the process is going in the right direction.

Ensuring that all sectors of the economy work in the overall interests of socialism. In the private sector, relevant measures include greater regulation and supervision of the technology industry and property and real estate, including a major new drive to promote social housing; the taking of “golden shares,” partial ownership, or seats on the board of major private companies by the party and state; the organisation of party committees to exercise a supervisory role in private firms; greater unionisation of the workforce, including in new economic sectors; and the revival of a system of workers’ congresses in medium sized enterprises upwards.

A reaffirmation of the central and guiding role of Marxism.

An increasingly proactive foreign policy, with the strategic goal of building a community of shared future for humanity and featuring increased support for the other socialist countries and a more dynamic engagement with the international communist movement. 

Whilst China remains, in its own words, in the primary stage of socialism, the overall goal is now to build a modern socialist country in all respects by 2049, when the People’s Republic will celebrate its 100th anniversary.

This is truly something that will change the world.