Research On The Early Process Of The Sinicization Of Marxist National Theory (1921-1938)

Since its inception, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been contemplating and exploring the sinicisation of Marxist natonal theory in China. Based on the pro and con experiences in the ethnical work during the Great Revolution and Land Reforming Movement periods, Mao Zedong, in his report on the national issues to the 6th Plenary Session of the 6th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, set forth the major principles for sinicisation of Marxism national theory. This thesis discusses in great depth the development of CCP's nation theory and relevant policies during the early stage of China's new democratic revolution. With an emphasis on the historic narration, it studies the various domestic and international factors that have an impact on CCP's understanding of national theory and political practices. The author hopes to shed some light on the inherent trend and empirical implication of the early development of the Marxism nation theory in China, and to come up with some theoretical conclusions.The timeframe that this study covers spans from the incept of CCP, through the two Revolutional movements, to the 6th Plenary Session of the 6th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in 1938. The author thinks that Mao's report at that meeting symbolised the establishment of the major principles for sinicisation of Marxist enthnonymics. The meeting was an important turning point during the Democratic Revolution when the change in CCP's ethnical guideline policies took place. It also represented the beginning of CCP's independent interpretation of ethnical issues and the according policy-making. Since that point, the Party's guiding philosophy, which is ethnic regional autonomy based on fairness and unification of various ethnic communities, has been gradually realised on both theoretical and practical levels.The thesis comprise three parts. The Introduction indentifies the content of the sinicisation of Marxist nation theory, explains the reasons for choosing such a topic, reviews the status of current domestic and international research in this area and illustrates the methodology used. The Body consists of four chapters.Chapter 1 The historic context for the propagation of Marxist nation theory in China. The first section summarises the basis views of Marxism-Leninism classical works with respect to ethnic issues Section 2 provides a primary discussion of the reality basis, propagation media, routes and contents of early propagation of Marxist nation theory in China. Section 3 introduce the early Chinese communists'national views.Chapter 2 Early attempts in sincisation of Marxist nation theory. This chapter is focused on CCP's principal analysis of domestic ethnic issues at its inception. In addition, it describes the primary development of ethnic autonomy and federalism by Marxists during its debates with other political parties over the confederation autonomy and issues on external Mongolia. During this period, CCP gradually deepened its understanding of the issues surrounding the ethnic Minorities within China's territory, and it also started exploring its ethnic policies.Chapter 3 The deep realisation of sincisation of Marxist nation theory. This chapter sorts out the progress of CCP exploring sinicisation of Marxist nation theory over the period between the 1928 the 6th National Congress of CCP and the end of the Long March in mid-1930s. The CCP continued employing ethic self-determination and confederation to solve ethic issues. Neverthelss, ideas of ethnic autonomy started to emerge. After the 6th National Congress of CCP, the Part gained a new understanding of the ethnic issues, and the ethnic work was rolled out across certain regions. The establishment of the Jiangxi Soviet Republic, in particular, provided a platform of practice for the CPP to consider and solve ethnic issues from the perspective of how a government was constituted. The two-year Long March, when the Red Army has gone through the Minorities regions, was actually a good opportunity for the CCP to closely propagate and practice its Marxist ethnonymics. This not only made the CCP realise the complexity and particularity of ethnic issues, but also forged a solid ground for expanded engagement of minorities and outreach of ethnic work during the anti-Japanese war. Also during this period, the CCP made effective resistance to the leftists' wrong policies and Zhang Guoshou's Han ethnicism.Chapter 4 The primary estabilishment of principles for sinicisation of Marxist nation theory. This chapter is focused on how the CCP effectively leveraged on the nationalistic sensations to encourage patriotism of all the ethnic communities and to call on all the Chinese people to fight against the Japanese invaders during the war. Over this period, with the improved CCP's theoretical knowledge as well as increased understanding of the Chinese nationalism and ethnic self-determination, the CCP acquired the endogenous conditions required for sinicisation of Marxist ethnonymics. Mao's report was ratified unanimously at the meeting, which symbolised that the CCP has proactively established the principles for the sinicisation of Marxist nation theory, that is, to combine the basic principles of Marxist nation theory with the fact that China is a county with multi-ethnicity in order to use the Marxist position, views and methodologies to guide and solve the ethnic issues in China.Conclusion The historic position and summary of expericences of early exploration of sinicisation of Marxist nation theory. The author concludes that it is an indispensable part of the historic development sinicisation of Marxist nation theory for the CCP to study and propagate the Marxist nation theory and to observe, analyse and resolve China's own ethnic issues. The Party has gradually explored a novel approach to address China's particular ethnic issues, which were consistently based on the development of international communist movements and domestic new democratic revolution, and fit in well with the country's own situations. This actually reflects how the CCP innovatively applied and further developed the Marxist nation theory as a result of combining the practical consideration of China's own requirements, the thoughts and empirical knowhow accumulated in the course of exploring and resolving China's ethnic issues, and gradually forged its own ethnic knowledge and political systems. This historic development showcased the consistently innovative attributes of Marxism, not only adding to the existing Maoism, but with empirical lessons leraned laid a solid groundwork for futher sinicisation of Marxist nation theory.