Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.12, 2013

The Evolutionary Trajectory of the CPC’s Thinking on the “Popular Regime” During the National Revolution

(Abstract)

Yu Huamin

The national revolution provided an important historical opportunity for the young CPC to take the political center stage in modern China. Party members ceased to pursue the immediate establishment of a Soviet-style dictatorship of the proletariat and, using a Marxist viewpoint and methods, began to analyze the basic structure of Chinese society and its main contradictions, as well as the nature and features of society thus determined. They examined the economic and political situation of the main historical classes and their attitudes to revolution and on this basis formulated the goal of a multi-class united dictatorship. As the revolution developed, there was divergence within the Party on basic questions of the Chinese revolution, especially on how to understand the position and role of class in the national revolution’s united front. This gave rise to two different approaches and strategies for the revolution. The great revolution provided Party members with profound experiences and lessons, and simultaneously opened up the historical advance of the Sinicization of Marxism.