An analysis of Mao Tse-tung’s “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People” makes it clear that it puts forward the following revisionist concepts:
* that the capitalist class in China represents a social force which supports
and works for the building of socialism;
* that the transition to socialism can be brought about peacefully, without the violent opposition of the capitalist class;
* that the capitalist class can grow into socialism by ideological remoulding;
* that socialism can be built without the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat; by means of a “state of the whole people” in which the working people share power with the capitalist class;
* that socialism can be built without the vanguard leadership of the Marxist-Leninist Party, but with leadership shared between the party of the working class and the parties of the capitalist class on a basis of ”mutual supervision;
* that during the building of socialism the capitalist class should be allowed freedom to put forward the ideology of its class;
* and that during the building of socialism the Party should adopt a policy of liberalism in all cultural fields.
This analysis makes it incontrovertibly clear that Mao Tse-tung’s programme for “The Chinese Road to Socialism” is a revisionist programme from start to finish, a programme fundamentally that of “The British Road to Socialism” of the revisionist Communist Party of Great Britain, adapted to the different position and needs of the Chinese capitalist class.
This programme, was reaffirmed at the last National People’s Congress, in 1964-5, when Premier Chou En-lai reaffirmed the “further consolidation” of the “people’s democratic united front”, in which the working people share political power with the capitalist class, (together with the principle of “long-term co-existence and mutual supervision” of the Communist Party and the parties of the capitalist class) as the basis for “socialist transformation”:
He went on to deal with the consolidation and expansion of the people’s democratic united front. The people’s democratic united front in our country is a united front which is led by the proletariat through its vanguard, the Chinese Communist Party, is based on the worker-peasant alliance and embraces the national bourgeoisie, people’s organisations, patriots of the various nationalities, patriotic overseas Chinese and all other patriotic democrats, The further consolidation and expansion of this united front is very significant for the successful advancement of the cause of socialism. ... Premier Chou said that the Party and state have adopted the peaceful method of gradual socialist transformation with regard to the national bourgeoisie in accordance with China’s specific conditions. This means that the antagonistic class contradiction between the working class and the national bourgeois is handled as a contradiction among the people… Premier Chou said that the Chinese Communist Party firmly pursues the policy of ’long-term co-existence and mutual supervision’ towards the democratic parties. (Chou En-lai: ibid.; P.32-33).