China’s Bourgeois Democratic Revolution Explained | Generated by AI

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Question: Translate the previous explanation (about the nature of modern Chinese society, main contradictions, and the nature of the Chinese revolution) into English.

Answer:

The nature of modern Chinese society and its principal contradictions determined that the Chinese revolution was a bourgeois-democratic revolution.

Detailed Explanation:

  1. Nature of Modern Chinese Society (1840–1949)
    After the Opium War in 1840, China gradually transformed from a feudal society into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.
    • Semi-colonial: China retained nominal independence but suffered severe violations of sovereignty (e.g., foreign control over customs, concessions, extraterritoriality, spheres of influence carved out by imperialist powers).
    • Semi-feudal: The feudal landlord land ownership system still dominated, and the landlord class remained the main exploiting class.
  2. Principal Contradictions in Modern Chinese Society
    • The contradiction between imperialism and the Chinese nation (national contradiction)
    • The contradiction between feudalism and the masses of the people (class contradiction)
      Among these, the contradiction between imperialism and the Chinese nation was the most fundamental and principal one.
  3. Revolutionary Tasks Determined by Society and Contradictions
    Because China was still a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, the central tasks of the revolution were:
    • Oppose imperialism → achieve national independence and restore full sovereignty
    • Oppose feudalism → eliminate the feudal land system and liberate productive forces
      These two tasks exactly correspond to the historical content of a bourgeois-democratic revolution (anti-imperialist and anti-feudal).
  4. Why not the other options?
    • A. Peasant revolution: Although peasants were the main force of the revolution, “peasant revolution” only describes the main participating class or reliance force, not the fundamental nature of the revolution.
    • C. Proletarian revolution: A proletarian revolution aims to abolish capitalist private ownership and establish a socialist system. However, China at that time had not yet developed a mature capitalist society, so the bourgeois-democratic tasks had not been completed.
    • D. Socialist revolution: A socialist revolution presupposes a certain level of capitalist development and the principal contradiction becoming that between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. In modern China, the main contradictions were national and feudal, so the stage for a direct socialist revolution had not yet arrived.
  5. The Communist Party of China’s Classic Judgment
    Mao Zedong clearly stated in works such as The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party and On New Democracy:
    “The present stage of the Chinese revolution is a bourgeois-democratic revolution, not a proletarian socialist revolution.”
    However, this bourgeois-democratic revolution was carried out under the leadership of the proletariat (through the Communist Party), and is therefore called the New Democratic Revolution.

Conclusion

Because modern China was a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, and the principal contradictions were those between imperialism and the Chinese nation and between feudalism and the masses of the people, the immediate tasks of the revolution were anti-imperialist and anti-feudal. This places the revolution in the category of a bourgeois-democratic revolution.
Therefore, the correct answer is B.

The reason you chose D (socialist revolution) is likely due to confusing “the leading class of the revolution” (proletariat) with “the nature of the revolution itself”, or mistakenly applying the post-1949 socialist revolutionary stage to the entire modern period of the Chinese revolution.

References:

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