The Chinese Revolution and Asia
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205100600104 |
| Published date | 01 March 1951 |
| Date | 01 March 1951 |
| Author | Robert C. North |
| Subject Matter | Article |
THE
CHINESE
REVOLUTION
AND
ASIA
Robert
C.
North
ATk
AMEETING
in
Moscow
near the
close
of
1926,
Dimitri
Manuil-
sky,
a Stalinist
spokesman, described
to
leaders
of
the
Communist
International
a
coming
Pacific
War
in
which
the
United
States
and
Great
Britain
would eventually
defeat
Japan
in
a
struggle
for
the
raw
materials
and
markets
of
Asia.
After
this
war,
he
said,
the
conflict
would
then
change
its
face,
turning
into
a
vast
liberation
movement
of
Asian
countries
oppressed'
by
world
imperialism. A
"liberated"
China,
Manuilsky maintained, would
then
become
a
major
power
in
the
Pacific,
a
magnet
for
all
the
peoples
of
the
yellow
race
in
East
Asia,
and a
"menacing
threat"
for
the
capitalist world
of
three
continents.
Chinese
revolutionaries,
he
said,
would
fulfil
this
task
by
harnessing
the
dynamic
of
local
unrest
and
by
exploiting
local
hatred
against
foreign
imperialism."
At
the
same
gathering
another
Communist
leader, Nicolai
Bucharin,
emphasized
the
"direct
political
influence"
which
the Chinese revolution
was
certain
to
exert
on
colonial
and
semi-colonial
areas
of
Asia.
China
was
already
proving
to
be
"a
great
centre
of
attraction
for
the
awakening
masses
of
the
Colonial
East,"
he
said,
and
in
time
the
capital
of
revolu-
tionary
China
would
inevitably
become "a
sort
of
Red
Moscow"
for
the
rising
masses
of
the
Asian
colonies.'
Nearly
twenty-five
years
have passed
since
Manuilsky
and
Bucharin
made
these
predictions.
The
process
has
been
much
slower
than
most Communist
leaders
foresaw,
and
yet
today,
in
1951,
we
see
Communist
China
fulfilling
these
very
functions--drawing
the
revolutionary
movements
of
Asia
like
a
magnet
and
menacing
the
capitalist
world
of
three
continents.
The
importance
of
this
new
Chinese
position
was
made
clear
in
January,
1950
when
the
Cominform
reprimanded
anti-Mao
Communists
in
India
with
a
quotation from
Liu
Shao-chi,
a
Chinese
Communist
leader:
The
path
taken
by
the
Chinese
people
in defeating
im-
perialism
and
its
lackeys
and
in
founding
the
People's
Republic
of
China
is
the path
that
should
be
taken
by
the
peoples
of
the
various
colonial
and
semi-colonial
countries
in
their
fight
for
national
independence
and
a
people's
democracy.'
1
Discussion
on China,
Seventh
Enlarged
Plenum
of
the
Executive
Committee
of
the
Communist
International,
International
Press
Correspondence,
Vol.
6,
pp.
1592-1597.
'N.
I.
Bucharin,
Capitalist
Stabilization
and
Proletarian
Revolution,
pp.
23-25,
69,
74-78.
'Quoted
by
an
editorial
in
For
a
Lasting
Peace,
For
a
People's
Democracy,
January
27,
1950.
The
full
text
of
Liu's
speech
was
transmitted
in
English
Morse
to
North
America
November
23,
1949.
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