From Victory to Defeat: China's Socialist Road and Capitalist Reversal

New Roads #1

by Pao-Yu Ching, J. Moufawad-Paul (Preface)

How can a country that developed the most advanced socialist society in the history of the world change directions so quickly and so completely? In From Victory to Defeat Pao-yu Ching dissects this question, providing economic analysis of what it means to actually “build socialism” with all of the necessary contradictions and obstacles that must be overcome.

Addressing seven commonly asked questions, Pao-yu Ching gives accesible explanations to the complicated issues China faced in its socialist transition and the material basis for its capitalist reversal.

Genres: China, History, Politics, Economics, Nonfiction, Asia, Sociology

124 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Pao-yu Ching is a Chinese-American Marxist–Leninist–Maoist economist and professor emerita of the Marygrove College. Her works focuses on the socialist transition in Modern China, regarding its economics but also the changes in society, culture and women's rights. She is noted for her critical analysis of the Chinese economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping.

Reviews

[João Nunes · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know how this book has such a good rating, I think it's almost insulting for anyone that has been reading about China for a while (and lives in China), insulting also for anyone that can distinguish between fabricated western media and tries to collect real evidence.
This person doesn't acknowledge even one mistake from the Maoist era when the Chairman himself was pretty harsh in his self-critique. Any decent Maoist book about that era tries to contextualize what and how happened (Mobo Gao for example does this).
This person goes as far as acknowledging Tiananmen as a given fact as stated by the BBC, and nothing from the anti-china rhetoric is based on any kind of evidence. The author uses only what's available online. Embarrassing...
A disturbing fanatical book.
This is not Maoism, this is opportunism and a great help to the West.

[J. Moufawad-Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent intervention from one of the great radical political economists. Everything I have to say about how good the book is can be found in the preface I had the honour of writing.

[celestine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected a little more considering this book considered itself an expansion on the previous polemic by the author. Plus it had 20 extra years for more research gathering, right? But it fails in the exact same ways the previous book does. It is scant on material analysis of the situation in post-Mao China, and disturbingly, what analysis it does provide is scantily backed up by “research” from reliable outlets such as Forbes. It is baffling (but unsurprising considering Maoists’ consistently bad Marxism) how highly regarded this is. Don’t get me wrong. The first 3/4 of this book are strictly about the successes of Mao-era China and that’s genuinely good stuff (minus the tacked on moments at the end of sentences throughout that where the author says “but now China is capitalist and they’ve undone all that!”). The last quarter, which you’re led to believe is the point of the whole book before opening it, is painfully dumb and surprisingly ignorant (in the definitional meaning of the term). Really kind of humorous how poorly researched and how out of date this book is on post-Mao China when it’s referencing stuff from 2018, and meanwhile I’m reading a book published in 2014 that is an official textbook on Chinese Marxism and Socialism with Chinese Characteristics (Jin Huiming’s) that basically directly addresses EVERYTHING the author brings up here in great detail, woeful contradictions that have risen up from Reform and Opening Up and all. That’s one fuckin’ basic textbook. That’s all you had to read. But you couldn’t manage that, instead you rely on the fact that some Chinese companies are now on the Forbes 500 list.

Some other things I thought about. The author defines part of imperialism as the need to import technology in colonial countries and points out China started doing that in the Deng era, and that part of socialism is self-reliance in opposition to imperialist importation. China did that for a bit but the whole time has done that only to push self-reliant evolution of that technology. Deng literally made that point in his speeches in the beginning of the Reform era. And now they’re leading the world in the development of tons of technology. Embarrassing moment for the author considering this book is only a couple years old. The book is full of moments like that, where they seemingly point out ways that China is indeed still on a socialist path in opposition to imperialist hegemony and way of doing things yet do not realize that and instead say they are capitalist. The author points out colonial countries’ need to depend on the imperialist world system due to lack of options and in the same breath calls China imperialist for having to deal with those same options. The author points out the environmental damage that has been done by the rapid development of China in the Reform era— well, yes, the CPC is deeply aware of that too. And now they’re leading the globe in tons of green technology/development/change/etc. Mao-era China was not free from environmental damage. One specific reference in this regard is made to the air pollution in China. Well, in the past decade, China’s greening initiatives have reduced air pollution by ~45%. The dots just do not seem to connect for the author, frequently. It smacks of an inability to truly comprehend the material reality of things.

The CPC appears to have a long term vision that has been totally lost on (Western) Maoists. I say that based on the research that I’ve done so far on what the Party has said about their goals from Deng to Jiang to Hu to Xi, and what we see in reality. It seems like they’ve continued in a line that lines up with Marxist materialism. Reform and Opening Up is not without its warts and contradictions, but the Party seeks to rectify those contradictions and errors each time they reconvene. I specify (Western) because the author mentions near the end some Maoists from within China who stress that reform *within* the party is essential and the author insists that they are incorrect and that the party is too Capitalist. They would.

[Joma Geneciran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone should read Pao-Yu Ching's 5-page introduction. The rest of the text is really approachable given the Q&A formatting. Broken into 7 questions. In just over 100-pages (and accessible via a free PDF from 'foreign languages books' and as an audiobook for free from 'Manifestering Podcast'; there is no excuse not to engage her important work.

[Leo46 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great data and statistics to back up the very fact of complicity in both capitalism and imperialism by China after the capitalist roaders took over. It's beyond me how certain communists in the West still believe China to be socialist when the very analysis by Marx in Capital fits most of the functions of Chinese society today. Of course, the more general purpose of state planning has made for a much better welfare state and expedient development against Western powers, but class struggle has been betrayed, homelessness is still very high, and wage-labor clearly exists. Labor struggles have also gone unnoticed because of state repression and Pao-Yu Ching shows many more examples that are a necessary read for evaluating China's position in the global order today.

Edit: Changed to 5 stars because I’ve been reading Governance of China, and that has highlighted how pertinent Ching’s analysis is especially with it being published around the time of Xi’s first speeches. There’s a lot here that counters Xi’s mere rhetoric with concrete examples.

[bugs · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be one of the best books ever written on China’s socialist development. I wish it expanded more on the transfer of power from Mao -> Deng and the line struggle against reactionaries which led to the inter-Party coup following Mao’s death. Instead, the book vaguely talks about how counter revolutionaries “seized power,” without detailing how they did that.
I also wished it talked about more insults that are brought against Mao such as the alleged brutality of his leadership, and the famines that occurred during his leadership.
Regardless, maybe no where else will you find such a thorough investigation of the development of agriculture and industry, the contradictions that arose in these fields, and the relationship between the peasants and the workers in their collective effort to construct socialism!
5 stars for a stellar, superb book. was absolutely effervescent and delighted to read it

[Gage Hoefer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good analysis going against the Eurocentric view that socialism in many countries has failed, and positing that existing socialism did not “fail” as a result of internal contradictions but was defeated due to the continuation of class struggle even after revolution (as Mao made explicitly clear).

My critiques are few: I would have liked to hear more about the phasing out of commodity production in the industrial sector, but I think that’s an issue for a different book. Also unrelated to the content of the book, I think I read a translation or something because there were some publishing issues (grammatical mistakes, words missing letters) that were slightly annoying.

[Brian Mcquaid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ching not only gives an approachable analysis of socialist construction in China, she also uses this history to demarcate what socialism is and what it is not. I recommend this to anyone seeking to learn about what socialism can look like in the real world. The history of the fortitude of Chinese farmers and workers during the period under examination is deeply inspiring.

[Lyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

An essential, relevant, incredible report on the socialist transition, capitalist reform and real daily life of workers and class struggles during all these periods as well as the present.

[Madeline Maurer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very succinct and insightful analysis of the defeats and setbacks faced by the Chinese revolution, as well as highlighting and analyzing the victories and success of the Chinese revolution.

[JC]

I wish I had more time to comment on this. But it was a very accessible question-and-answer format text with an introduction by J. Moufawad-Paul. I have an STS classmate now (who completed a PhD in philosophy at York). He's an anarcho-communist/Wobbly (radicalized on the picket line) who dated a Maoist in a past life, and despite his critiques of certain doctrinaire Maoists, thinks well of J. Moufawad-Paul (who he simply refers to as Josh)

Ellen Wood is mentioned both by J. Moufawad-Paul and Pao-Yu Ching and I'm still a little perplexed by the comment. I always thought Wood was an anti-Eurocentrist and was against the idea of capitalism being natural and inevitable and therefore a necessary stage on the road to socialism. But the authors imply the opposite. This is something I still need to sort out.

In this text by Pao-Yu Ching, there's a bit of Maoist nostalgia that I disagree with (especially around the Cultural Revolution), but I do think there's a strong case that very important advancements happened under Mao that set the stage for the rapid progress in China that's always attributed solely to Deng (especially regarding issues of land reform). The critiques of Dengist reforms are very strong in this book. I feel like I'm too ignorant to have an opinion on this text, so I'm not rating it. I read this a few months ago so I don't remember too much from it actually, but I think it provided a lot of clarity for me regarding why China's development is perceived as socialist by economists like Pao-Yu Ching, with commentary on issues ranging from commodity production down to specific policy decisions which are presented with a lot more nuance than is typically offered.

The focus on directing labour to useful necessities was something that I was particularly interested by as well as the reframing of socialist 'failure' to socialist 'defeat'. I do think there were some failures that the left has to take responsibility for, but I think so much that is framed as failure is better understood as a very strong and sustained attack by capital on proletariat societies.

[Jacob Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reads as either a poor introduction, or an insufficient end point. As J. Moufawad-Paul notes in his introduction, this book *is* useful for its philosophical orientation, and indeed it is also useful for putting some content and context into theorisation about China. However, as he also notes, this book is supposed to be a work of political economy, and as such, it has an impoverished notion of monopoly capital upon which it relies too much. Moreover, the author feels somehow both too sanguine about revolutionary China, and too dour about contemporary China, making the disjuncture between the two stark, but perhaps too polemical to scan well. If fleshed out further, this could be very good, but at only 124 pages, it falls short. 2.5 stars, rounded up.

[Qwerty Uiop Keyboard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm here because of a stranger on Youtube who replied nicely to my comment about not being a big Deng fan (thanks mate!)

Why are we going over Maoist China so much in the beginning? This is probably a silly critique I'm making, but it feels.... Out of place? I came here for a critique of post Maoist China, not a quick recap.

And speaking of quick recap, this book does leave a LOT of the _JUICY NUANCES_ out. Example: The Gang of Four is mentioned, but we don't dive into the details and context behind them and their actions.

There's also this slight tone of putting Mao on a pedestal. We don't really get any of his mistakes mentioned. At all.

The whole "Red Guard" thing was a pretty big mistake Mao made. Essentially militias that went around destroying anything "anti-socialist" and sacking people's homes. The PLA eventually got called in to restore order. (Why Mao didn't, like, confront the CCP in person or something after he retired is BEYOND me, but whatever.)

There's also a section regarding "mechanical-materialism" and how that viewpoint doesn't allow swapping the dominant aspect of contradictions, like "Productive forces" and "Relations of production". Honestly, I'm not really convinced. I'd say dialectical materialism is much more about "Seeing what the f**** is happening" and "Doing something about it" so to speak.

The selection of sources is also odd, and quite one sided. "Oxford University Press"? "Hong Kong Economic Press"? "China Labor Watch"? These are either western organizations, or organizations that have heavy influence from the west.

On page 98 we're citing Wikipedia itself. Like, _come on._

Citing western sources isn't _bad_ but the issue is Pao-Yu isn't properly accounting for biases these sources have. What she SHOULD have done was do stuff like include more CHINESE sources. With more Chinese biased sources, see what the so-called "capitalists in the CPC" have to say. With this, she would've been able to compare and contrast both sides, to "balance out" the biases so-to-speak. Then again this is a political work, not a historical one.

Oh, and there's largeish sections that just.... Don't have sources? Like the claim with Deng and his "evil secret plans" and not revealing them to the public in full. Like, where did that come from? Why can we have a source on Honda factory strikes but not a broad claim like this?

Some answers are also just not SATISFYING! The claim that China is imperialist begins with the BRI, but then kind of just.... Ends. Like, how is China using the BRI to further imperialism? How does it use these infrastructure projects to maintain political and economic control over other countries? China is leasing a port to Sri Lanka for 99 years, but we don't get any details on how that lease works.

I'm kinda just, disappointed, really. I was coming in expecting something SPICY, but left with bell peppers.

Oh, one last thing!

I can't help but but draw a connection between the Pao-Yu's works and the whole thing with Trotskyism being tolerated by capitalists to try and mislead/discredit Marxism-Leninism.

I can't help but suspect that Pao-Yu is being used by the American capitalists in an attempt to discredit China and to lead leftists down a "dead end".

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars, it clarified terms, slogans, etc.

I already by 2020 March figured out China's government is technically so complicated because it's like USA's where we have a private sector & a public sector, even though they're both melded together. I defended china for about a year, due to how the overton window worked circa 2019, but now I see it's miserable. I'm still trying to figure out how they dealt with COVID19 though if they're socialist.

I want it to be known that when I write reviews, they're generally meant for me & they're kind of like a personal journaling because goodreads has been kind of like a catalog for me in remembering the books I've read, finding new ones, etc. I had a hard time finding stuff I actually enjoyed long before 2012 when I started using goodreads. So when I write this, please keep in mind that if you want information about what the book says that you're likely going to do better tonight read it. I found the ending to be a lot more informative, but still.

It gives decent gauges for determining whether the Dictatorship is Proletarian or Bourgeois. For example, environmentalism, food sovereignty, etc.

It also clarified to me what self-reliance means: don't take foreign loans for investment, do the damn work with your own.

This is why apparently when I was a kid, my public library put Dengist China next to Margaret Thatcher & Gorbachev. Like, Deng was hailed as someone who brought China into "the world", which the unstated norm of the overton window in that time was neoliberalism. So yeah, Bay Area415 is kind of a trip.

The book also taught me things are very similar to USA. It taught me that xenophobia is a big problem, and possibly why the party has a 95% approval rating when there is polarization. It also clued me into looking for mafias with local governments & possibly human trafficking, maybe some mercy murder-suicides.

I'm also reading around this time that book by that German economist about consent & authoritarianism in the workplace russia vs china, and I'm about to now start that eurocentrism book by samir somebody. There's also some hawaiian nationalism/independence book I'm finally picking back up. So yeah, interconnectivity is nice, comforting, yayful, and it's a lot & so little time.

So yeah, China isn't socialist. However, it should be known that they do have enough labor organizing to make a difference. Technically people in USA call it building dual power & mutual aid, but I feel that's not accurate because we haven't quite figured out the dealing against enclosure attacks over here in USA. I remember reading about how people incorrectly thought that Japan was an anti-imperial power back in the 20th century. Anyways, enjoy yourself.

[kz · Rating 4 out of 5]

With how short this book is Pao-Yu Ching really lays down a broad umbrella of history of the actions of Communist Party of China in regards to the peasants and industrial workers after the national revolution in 1911 overthrowing the Qing Dynasty. Although they skip 1911-1949 pretty much. I really enjoyed this work for the fresh perspective that it presented without just trying to point out negative sensationalist headlines and using those isolated incidents to say “China bad, blah blah”. Although some of those headlines do pop up in towards the end of the book they were throughly explained in a concise manner on how those actions were allowed against the workers in the export driven multinational factories that we hear so much of today.

I really enjoyed the explanation of the three-tiered Chinese commune system and the collective sector that was brought around by the Land Reform put into act by Mao Zedong. I thought it was interesting that the workers on all 6-tiers of the political economic structure (adding in 3 tiers of governmental bodies to make up for the state sector) were paid on a work point system which sounds like something close to labor notes that I thought Marx discouraged the usage of in Das Kapital (maybe I got that mixed up with another Marxist writer). And I do like that the logic that guaranteeing employment is a way to eliminate labor as a commodity to be exploited. (Full employment is something I back anyways but it makes way more sense when framed like that)

I appreciated the picking apart of Deng Xiaopings actions during the opening of China when the capitalist roaders came into power. And how those actions affected the workers and peasants that used to be proud of and rely on worker-peasant alliance.

I say this is a good read for anybody interested in the leftist side of the China debate. People who are pro-China can definitely get a lot of this as it’s not all CPC bashing.

[Comrade Zupa Ogórkowa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a Maoist so don’t care for this. Maoists are basically trotskyists for China- they deify a single leader (mao/lenin) and then harp on about how great real socialism was in that country (China/ussr) until some evil, greedy new leader (deng/stalin) comes along and ruins it for No Good Reason. Look, mao himself said that China could fix the contradictions internally between the classes or externally between China and the rest of the world and that the former could not happen without the latter. The idea that the “revisionism” China is experiencing is anything like what led to the collapse of the ussr is insulting and idealistic. Clearly China is improving the material conditions for their citizens and protecting their state from collapsing/being destroyed better every single year.

[Devourer Connecticut · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to this via audiobook but plan to buy the book in paperback as it was so fantastic. An excellent analysis in China's socialist road and later capitalist path and a must read for any marxist confused about the legacy of socialist China. The economic data provided alongside the analysis of growth and the changing living standards is amazing and refreshing, as opposed to the common narrative that socialist China was a failure, that the GPCR was the fantasy of a dictatorial mad-man and that (as often stated by left wing anticommunists) China was not socialist, or at least heading in that direction.

[YHC · Rating 3 out of 5]

i am a bit confused about the author's viewpoint on Maoism ? good or bad? for author, seemed to be wonderful! Don't forget it has caused the biggest scale of famine.
Is current China having one of the best infrastructure countries among all the western countries?
I think so. I think the last 1/4 jumped to too much development, not protection well nature and worker's welfare. Please watch the massive result of getting rid of poverty vs. How western society facing the middle class impoverishment.

[Kern Sus · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's great! This book goes through how China economy worked during the Mao period and how it changed when Deng took power and introduced capitalist reforms that both impacted both the base and the superstructure. The book is made up of 8 frequently asked questions about Mao and China and delves deep into many different subjects, all while being very easy to read and introductory. Read it and oppose revisionism!

[Claudio Rocha · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The future of the Chinese people, and in fact the future of all people in the world and the natural world itself, depends how long we allow monopoly capital to dominate the future of the earth and of humanity. That is to say, our future depends on how revolutionaries can unite the international working class to resolutely destroy international monopoly capital, to end capitalism and to build socialism."

[Hasnain · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really breaks down how China went from building a real socialist project after the revolution to sliding back into capitalism after the reforms. I liked how it highlights the gains of the socialist period stuff like land reform, health, education and then shows how much of that got rolled back once profit and inequality came back. Honestly, it’s a good reminder that “growth” isn’t the same as socialism, and that if you’re on the left you can’t just take China’s model at face value.

[Julian · Rating 4 out of 5]

fand vor allem den teil über den sozialistischen aufbaus in china unter mao sehr interessant und freu mich auf weitere literatur über mao und maos china. die kritikpunkte am heutigen china sind sicherlich valide, aber weiß nicht, ob so stark, wie sie dargestellt werden; hab vom heutigen china allerdings recht wenig ahnung.

[Ztu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A interesting, yet all too brief look at the key gains and losses of the Chinese revolution. Wishing it could have been more detailed, particularly discussing those events that are most used to discredit the revolution in the West.

[Harry Liuson · Rating 3 out of 5]

More interested in polemics than analysis. One should be skeptical, I think, every time someone starts talking authoritatively about China as if it were a single place, and not a country with a population and land area the size of Europe.

[maoppw · Rating 5 out of 5]

super good intro to china

[Morgon George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good introduction to the history of socialism in China

[Sky · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first mention of the term "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" actually SICKENED me.

[. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic and concise review of the historical successes of socialism and the communes in Mao's era, and the calculated role the Rightists played in the capitalist reversal of China. Thoroughly recommend this book for those who are conflicted about the capitalist and imperialist nature of modern China; Pao-Yu Ching illustrates the crushing of strikes amongst domestic workers, the export of capital to Africa, and the exploitation of third world workers.