One country two social systems breeding counter-revolution in China

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THE Hong Kong pro-democracy protests have now moved into their second week.

The Hong Kong Federation of Students withdrew from planned negotiations on Friday, accusing the government of allowing gangs to attack protesters, a claim denied by Hong Kong’s security chief, Lai Tung-kwok.

The reality is that the policy of the ruling Stalinist bureaucracy of ‘one country-two social systems’ has nourished a new bourgeoisie in China, with strong links to US and UK imperialism, which now poses a real counter-revolutionary danger to the Chinese working class and the huge gains of the Chinese revolution.

The policy was unveiled in 1984 by the ‘capitalist roader’ Deng Xiaoping who came to the fore as the leader of the right wing who dominated the Chinese Communist Party after the end of the cultural revolution, (during which he was pilloried as a ‘capitalist roader’) and after the death of Mao in 1976.

In June 1984 Deng wrote ‘One country-two systems’. He stated: ‘The Chinese Government is firm in its position, principles and policies on Hong Kong. We have stated on many occasions that after China resumes the exercise of its sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997, Hong Kong’s current social and economic systems will remain unchanged, its legal system will remain basically unchanged, its way of life and its status as a free port and an international trade and financial centre will remain unchanged and it can continue to maintain or establish economic relations with other countries and regions.’

He added: ‘We are pursuing a policy of “one country, two systems”. More specifically, this means that within the People’s Republic of China, the mainland with its one billion people will maintain the socialist system, while Hong Kong and Taiwan continue under the capitalist system.’

He continued: ‘It is against this background that we have proposed to solve the Hong Kong and Taiwan problems by allowing two systems to coexist in one country.’

Deng added: ‘Our policy towards Hong Kong will remain the same for a long time to come, but this will not affect socialism on the mainland. The main part of China must continue under socialism, but a capitalist system will be allowed to exist in certain areas, such as Hong Kong and Taiwan. Opening a number of cities on the mainland will let in some foreign capital, which will serve as a supplement to the socialist economy and help promote the growth of the socialist productive forces. For example, when foreign capital is invested in Shanghai, it certainly does not mean that the entire city has gone capitalist. The same is true of Shenzhen, where socialism still prevails. The main part of China remains socialist.’

Deng then calls for a government of patriots when Hong Kong is returned to China.

He stated: ‘What is a patriot? A patriot is one who respects the Chinese nation, sincerely supports the motherland’s resumption of sovereignty over Hong Kong and wishes not to impair Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability. Those who meet these requirements are patriots, whether they believe in capitalism or feudalism or even slavery. We don’t demand that they be in favour of China’s socialist system; we only ask them to love the motherland and Hong Kong.’ The wolves were invited into the fold!

That this ideology has nothing in common with the outlook that inspired the Chinese revolution and its victory in 1949 is obvious.

Since 1984 the Deng leadership has turned tens of millions of Chinese workers into wage slaves for western monopolies, while it has propped up US imperialism by buying trillions of dollars of its debt.

Now the imperialists are being driven by their crisis to use Hong Kong Kong as the base for seeking to restore capitalist rule and capitalism to China, which would be a massive blow to the workers of the world.

This plan can only be defeated by a political revolution of the Chinese working class to overthrow the capitalist ‘restorers’ of the Stalinist bureaucracy by imposing rule through workers and peasants soviets, as part of struggle for the victory of the world socialist revolution.