1840 what kind of road China will take after the Opium War has become a question for advanced China people to think and explore. In order to strive for national independence and liberation, they sought the truth of saving the country and the people from the west, tried to do things according to the western capitalist system, transformed China, and pinned the hope of China's prosperity on the implementation and development of capitalism. From the Taiping Revolution led by Hong Xiuquan to the Reform Movement of 1898 led by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, and even the Revolution of 1911 led by Sun Yat-sen, all ended in failure. The Kuomintang once engaged in capitalism in the mainland, leaving behind a fragmented and riddled mess, which plunged China deeper and deeper into the semi-colonial and semi-feudal quagmire.
History tells us at the cost of blood that the capitalist road will not work in China.
On the one hand, feudalism is unwilling to take the capitalist road. The history of feudal society in China lasted for two or three thousand years, and the most complete and stubborn feudal relations of production in the world were formed in China. Although the development of commodity economy in China feudal society gave birth to the seeds of capitalism, the feudal forces did not allow China to develop capitalism in order to consolidate feudal rule and safeguard political and economic interests. In modern China, feudal forces also colluded with imperialism and oppressed the development of capitalism in China.
On the other hand, imperialist forces will not allow China to take the capitalist road. Comrade Mao Zedong once said: "Without the influence of foreign capitalism, China will gradually develop into a capitalist society." At the same time, as Comrade Mao Zedong said, "The purpose of imperialist powers invading China is by no means to turn feudal China into capitalist China." Their purpose is to occupy China's market, plunder China's resources, turn China into their semi-colony and colony, and repel and oppress China's national capitalism with strong economic power. They will never allow China to develop into an independent and prosperous capitalist country. The bourgeoisie in China does not have the conditions to establish a capitalist system. Because of their economic and political weaknesses, and because they have not completely severed their economic ties with imperialism and feudalism, they have no courage to completely oppose imperialism and feudalism, let alone the ability to overthrow feudal rule and imperialism and strive for national independence. Only by completely attaching themselves to international capitalism can they survive and develop. Therefore, relying on the strength of the China bourgeoisie, China will never become an independent capitalist country.
The capitalist road is impassable, and the old feudal rule cannot continue. Where is the way out for China? Just as the people of China were confused about saving the nation from extinction, the October Revolution brought us Marxism–Leninism. China's advanced elements saw from the victory of Russian October Revolution that China's new way out was not capitalism but socialism. The Communist Party of China (CPC) combined Marxism–Leninism's universal truth with the concrete practice of China revolution, and chose the socialist road for the people of China through the new-democratic revolution. This historic choice was found by the people of China through hardships and is the inevitable result of the development of social contradictions in China. Under the leadership of the * * * Production Party of China, the people of China overthrew the three mountains of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism, won the victory of the new-democratic revolution, and fundamentally changed the nature of China's semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.
After the victory of the new-democratic revolution, China at that time had three outlets:
First, restrict the socialist state-owned economy, develop national capitalism and take the capitalist road;
Second, socialism and capitalism have nothing to do with each other and develop in parallel for a long time;
Third, limit and transform capitalism, develop the socialist economy and take the socialist road.
Of these three roads, the modern history of China has shown that the first one is impossible; In fact, the second way doesn't work either. There is no room for reconciliation between socialism and capitalism. Only the third way can conform to China's national conditions and the law of social development that production relations must adapt to the nature of productive forces. In addition, the new-democratic revolution laid the foundation for the people of China to choose this road. Politically, we have mastered the state power, established the leading position of the working class, and consolidated and strengthened the alliance of workers and peasants. Economically, by confiscating bureaucratic capital and transforming it into a socialist state-owned economy, the country's economic lifeline has been mastered, creating the most important conditions for realizing the socialist transformation of the means of production and completing the transformation from new democracy to socialism. Therefore, choosing the socialist road is the inevitable result of China's social, economic and political development since modern times.
In a word, the establishment, consolidation and development of the socialist system in China embodies the objective laws of modern social movements in China and is the greatest and most profound change in the history of China. Only socialism can save China, which is an inevitable conclusion drawn from the development of China's modern history 100 years. Therefore, Comrade Deng Xiaoping pointed out: "If we are not Marxists, do not fully believe in Marxism, or do not combine Marxism with China's own reality and follow our own path, the China Revolution will not succeed, and China will still be divided, independent and unified."