GMD IDeology
"The Nationalists were also a genuinely ideological party with a patriotic agenda, and Chiang Kaishek was throughout his life every bit as strong an anti-imperialist as Mao Zedong." Rana Mitter from 'A Bitter Revolution'
Key Points
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LinksSun Yat Sen 3 Principles of the People -Primary Source
The Three Principles of the People -from Funfront, comprehensive |
Historiography: Rana Mitter on the Three Peoples' Principles
- "The principles were minzu, minquan, and minsheng, most conveniently, if not entirely accurately, translated as ‘nationalism, democracy, and socialism’. In fact, none of the terms could be translated quite that neatly, nor had they the fixed and relatively uncomplicated meanings that these later translations implied.The ambiguity of the terms themselves reflects the fluid nature of the politics of the era as people scrambled to comprehend and interpret the new political vocabulary that had been thrust upon them"
John Fairbank"Although Sun now sought and accepted Soviet Russian aid, communism in his mind did not supplant his own Three Principles of the People—Nationalism, People’s Rights or Democracy, and People’s Livelihood—as the program for the Chinese revolution, even though he found it useful to incorporate in his ideas the Communist emphasis on a mass movement fired by anti-imperialism." |
Jonathan Fenby"Having adopted Borodin’s organizational ideas, which accorded with his insistence on autocratic leadership, Sun was careful not to let himself be led along the Bolshevik ideological path. He had a reference to the leading role of workers and peasants expunged from the KMT manifesto. Two thirds of party officials were reckoned to be non-leftists." |
Tasks
1. Which aspect of GMD party ideology could be seen as Socialist?
2. What differences were there between GMD and CCP ideology?
3. Why was Sun Yat Sen so careful not to be led down the Bolshevik ideological path?
4. What evidence is there from modern China that the three peoples' principles had a large impact? Hint: Source A below may be useful for assessing significance of the Three Peoples' Principles
2. What differences were there between GMD and CCP ideology?
3. Why was Sun Yat Sen so careful not to be led down the Bolshevik ideological path?
4. What evidence is there from modern China that the three peoples' principles had a large impact? Hint: Source A below may be useful for assessing significance of the Three Peoples' Principles
Source A: Rana Mitter From "A Bitter Revolution"
"Sun was a powerful enough figure that Mao himself, in his 1940 speech ‘On New Democracy’, felt it necessary to pay homage to them and declare that the CCP was putting forward a new Three People’s Principles as he sought to widen the Party’s appeal."