Xinhai Revolution

“ And one is able to imagine that in the revolution of politics in Eastern Asia which this great Revolution will inevitably bring about, and it were found necessary for China's regular army to proceed en bloc to the east of the Empire, the tribes of the west would be able to create a situation, by civil war and open rebellion against the Government, of so serious a nature that years would intervene before China could completely conquer the people and gain their moral support. ”

“ The whole course of the Chinese revolution, its character, its prospects, undoubtedly indicate that the Chinese Communists ought to remain in the Kuomintang and intensify their work in it. But can the Chinese Communist Party take part in the future revolutionary government? It not only can, it must. The course of the revolution in China, its character, its prospects, speak eloquently in favor of the Chinese Communist Party taking part in the future revolutionary government of China. This is one of the necessary guarantees for the hegemony of the Chinese proletariat becoming a concrete reality. ”

“ It is not confined to one or more populous cities or provinces as at first was thought it would be, but this protest against Manchu ascendancy has received approval wherever the Chinese reside. Never in the history of any revolution have the people been more united in sentiment, or has established authority more quickly admitted the justice of that sentiment than the one which has now convulsed China from centre to circumference. ”

“ Should Yuan Shih K'ai concede the point at issue and assent to a Republic, what then? A Republic would have the same difficulties as a Constitutional Monarchy, difficulties which well might baffle the ablest statesmanship. If peace should be established, there still would remain all the great problems which make China an invalid among nations, accentuated by famine, and the strain of the Revolution. ”

“ It is true that occasionally there are local agitations, whose chiefs go so far as to pounce upon offending representatives of authority and convey them to the capital of the district, or province, to demand their degradation, which is more often than not accorded—a fact which inspired an English paper at Shanghai to descant on the ‘democratic manner in which the Chinese participate in their government.’ Oppression tempered by revolt is the rule which prevails in the Celestial Empire, but there is no fear of a general revolution against so degenerate a system. ”

“ The position is that the rule of imperialism in China expresses itself not only in military power but above all in that the imperialists have the power of disposal over the main threads of industry in China, the railways, the factories, the mines, the banks, etc. The result is that the questions of the struggle against foreign imperialism and its Chinese agents play a predominant part in the Chinese revolution. This is exactly what links the Chinese revolution directly with the revolutions of the proletarians of all countries against imperialism. ”

“ This tradition, the ideology called Confucian, was the device whereby the scholar-officials of the old imperial bureaucracy controlled society. Government itself was subordinate to the moral and social leadership of the intellectuals, who relegated the economic and military professions to the less honored categories of society. The whole fabric of Chinese life was made up of interlocking patterns; the West, by destroying a part, tore the whole asunder. Modern China faces more than political problems; a totalitarian revolution has engulfed it. ”

“ They know nothing about revolutions or reforms. They have it in strong for the Chinese, and are boiling over with a spirit of revenge. It is with these people that China will have to deal during the {248} next decade. If China were to be engaged in an altercation with any other Power, this tribal danger would be formidable; if all becomes peaceful, when the Revolution shall have passed onward, the task of putting all men and things in China underfoot of the Government will not be accomplished without effort. ”

“ To China the sweeping into eternity of thousands of fellow-mortals is for the benefit of those who remain, and the destruction of property in their national hysteria matters not a moment of passing thought. So to those of us who know China, and who cannot believe that all that we see and hear is true of the bewildering reform that is alleged to have caught the country and its people into its arms, it was not a great surprise to see the Imperialists carrying out their threat to burn the city to ashes. ”

“ Nevertheless, the geniuses of the Chinese revolution could not rely upon the loose and personal system of influence hitherto trusted. To organize Chinese nationalism, to give it direction as well as force, the power of the people must be run through a machine—the State. ”

“ But by the policy of conservatism, that "China for the Chinese" policy, a great majority of her literati are weakening her from the inside—and to such an extent that she may yet have to eat humble bread. For as the disturbances in Szechuen have so forcefully proved to the world, China has not by any means succeeded in {246} putting her own house in order, and the Revolution has given us another overwhelming truth. ”

“ How is the power of the counter-revolutionary generals to be explained? In that they are backed by the imperialists of all countries, the owners of all possible railways, concessions, factories, banks and business houses in China, For this reason it does not depend alone, it does not even demand to any large extent on whether foreign troops enter the country, but on the support given by the imperialists of all countries to the Chinese counter-revolution. Intervention by using other people—that is the kernel of imperialist intervention at present. ”

“ The story of the revolution is not complex.4 In a great part of China the people awoke to find no government. In the North the imperial officials and princes clamored for the assistance of a man whom they had once slighted: Yüan Shih-k'ai, the leader of the modernized armies of the Empire. He held the fate of China in his hands. But he betrayed the Empire so that he might betray the Republic; he joined the revolutionaries and thrust a settlement upon the ruling house. With his intervention the whole picture of Chinese politics changed. ”

“ In failing to provide a stopping point for the revolution before they started it, the Nationalists were scarcely guilty of rash action. No human being could have foretold the consequences of revolt against a civilization. The revolutionaries were men who had passed through the transition from the old Confucian ideology to that of the West with relative ease. They did not realize that what was obvious to them would be a mystery to the masses and that the political changes contemplated would rip asunder the very fabric of thought in China. ”

“ Only under the condition, therefore, of the working class playing the leading role, and the peasantry furnishing the main driving force and the city petty-bourgeoisie supplementing this combination with its technical and political aid, is it possible for the Chinese revolution to move forward now to the establisment of a firmly united China proceeding to solve its social and economic problems and holding its own against foreign aggression. ”

“ This was the period which began with the reorganization of the Kuomintang Nationalist government, the split by Chiang Kai Shek and the establishment of the Nanking government, and ended with the breakup of the reorganized National government of Wuhan. It was a time of civil war in almost every city and town which the Delegation visited. A tremendous regrouping of class forces was occurring in the Chinese Revolution. ”

“ But with regard to those Revolutionists, who ferment race hatred, who desire to create a feeling of enmity between the Manchus and the Chinese, they are not working for the reformation of the Government, but are simply dealing out ruin all round in order to gratify their private hate, and for this there is no justification. We are labouring for the prosperity of the kingdom and the happiness of the people, and We cannot make the Government a constitutional one till the Empire is at peace. ”

“ To effect revolution in China would be easy but for one thing—the great difficulty in controlling the citizens. The people, never having known laws, never having been used to any proper discipline, are utterly demoralised. Life and property would be in danger from the masses the moment they became excited. From the soldiers, who are of the most degraded class, we expected trouble. They would certainly engage in looting the {206} moment they had discovered a change in the order of things. ”

“ The Chinese officials, pressed for money, and relying on foreign support, would become more than ever cruel, corrupt, and oppressive; and the Chinese, deprived of popular insurrection, their rude but efficacious remedy against local oppressors, would with justice throw on the foreigner the odium of excesses which his presence alone would render possible. The consequence would be, popular hostility, reprisals, and that train of events which would render it necessary to appropriate permanently the province occupied, or to retire from it, leaving behind a bitter ill-will among the people. ”

“ The statement, therefore, that the Chinese Revolution has the greatest chance to unite China, is not exaggerated.
Lenin once said:
"A basic revolutionary law, which has been confirmed by all revolutions and particularly by the three Russian Revolutions of the 20th century, consists in the following: it will not suffice for a revolution that the exploited and enslaved masses realize the impossibility of continuing to live in the old way, and in that they demand a change; what is necessary for the revolution is that the exploiters can no longer live and govern in the old way. ”

“ Because a revolution has shown it to be the will of the country that there should be a change in the administration of Chinese affairs there is no reason why Imperialists should not unite with Republicans in friendly conference, and see if between them it be not possible to evolve an administration better than any now existing, and thus magnify their proud position of being the oldest nation in the world. Both sides are Chinese. Why not meet and set younger civilisations an example in civics?
"If democracy be a dream, self-government is an illusion. ”

“ And there can be no doubt that, actuated by a perpetual desire for the subjugation of the Chinese, by a vicious craving for aggrandisement and wealth, the Manchus had governed China to the lasting injury and detriment of the people, creating privileges and monopolies and erecting about themselves barriers of exclusion in national custom and personal conduct which were rigorously maintained throughout the centuries. ”

“ There is free talk about a revolution occurring if the break takes place, so determined are certain leaders not to be dominated by "foreign influence." Many Chinese can be bribed, but the Chinese in general cannot be fooled, and no glowing compliments about China's "masculine" attitude can deceive them as to the yoke they must wear should they decide to surrender [Pg 221] themselves and place their nation at the disposal of European interests.
On the morning of March 26 one of the papers contained this significant article, under the caption of Tibetan Affairs:
Reported British Demands. ”

“ A massacre of innocents, a wholesale destruction of property. Where do these statesmen get the nerve to face the world with their phrase of protecting life and property?
The Chinese revolt is of world importance. It effects the struggle of the oppressed and exploited the world over. The nationalist army in China fights for these masses. And they must fight for the Chinese. They must organize so that their will, their action, may prevent their respective imperialist masters to mobilize their forces against the Chinese revolution. ”

“ If you are really in sympathy with the Chinese, you should take your opportunity to turn Republican with your troops and attack Peking. If you are hankering after the dignities and honours that the Manchu Government may confer, then you should pray that the revolutionary army may hasten its march to the Yellow River. For, when the Manchus see that they cannot withstand the revolutionary advance, they will give you all the higher honours to induce you to fight for them. ”

“ For knowledge and wealth, when acquired by the Chinese, cannot but impair the supremacy of the Manchus, which has been maintained, like highway robbery, by sheer force. A China emancipated, therefore, means a China prosperous and enlightened. Except one or two nations whose principles are not above those of the Manchus, and who delight in land-grabbing and carnage of warfare, we feel sure that the world desires China to be a progressive and enlightened country. ”

“ For you to live in retirement for your own enjoyment as you have done is of no benefit to China. The success of the present movement has come by the {105} strength not of man but of God. What man could convert Szechuan, Kiangsi, Anhui, Kiangsu, Kwangtung, Kwangsi, Yunnan, Kweichow, Shansi, and Shensi to republicanism? Besides all the gunboats and torpedo destroyers have turned revolutionary. There is no Manchu force to hinder us from marching on Peking with the exception of your little army. The renaissance of the Chinese and the maintenance of China's sovereignty depend on you. ”