Chairman Mao passed away 31 year ago today. “31” is not a sexy number, but still one would expect that some commemorative articles would have appeared in the Chinese press. There was no such thing. Chairman Mao's death went by unobserved in China. The party leadership doesn't really know what to do with Mao's legacy. It has clearly betrayed his ideology and policy recommendations. But the leadership also doesn't want to ditch Mao completely. The resulting debate could be devastating for the Communist Party, which remains a communist party only in name. An public debate would open the floodgates. On the other hand the current leaders of the Communist Party are following a policy so opposed to everything the Chairman stood for, that they decided to just ignore him.
But amid the dislocations, exploitation and misery caused by the current capitalist development, many people have not forgotten Mao. He created a massive social experiment, and indeed many things went wrong. Social engineering on the vast scale of China is not an easy matter. And most experiments don't succeed on the first try. But if the imperialist U.S. and the rising capitalist power China are common stakeholders in a “harmonious world”, something must be wrong.
Socialism, let alone communism, cannot be realized in poverty. Only when the forces of production are highly developed can socialism be realized. Deng Xiaoping argued that some people could get rich first and common prosperity would be realized. The migrants flooding China's cities in search of factory work are better off toiling in the sweatshops compared to life on the land. But that doesn't mean they are not exploited. Moreover, income disparities between urban and rural residents are still widening. Historical experience proves that capitalist development cannot be skipped. But going out for all round capitalist development also means a revolution is in the making.
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