A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details Explaining the paradox of market reform in communist China: the uneven and combined development of the Chinese Revolution and the search for ‘national salvation’ Luke Cooper University of Sussex July 2013 Thesis submitted for the fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in International Relations at the University of Sussex. 2 Abstract This thesis addresses the paradox of capitalist market reform being introduced by a politically undefeated communist state in China. It does so by developing an historical account of the Chinese polity’s relationship with the modern world. Chapter one offers a critique of existing explanations; these tend to focus narrowly on the immediate circumstances surrounding the decision to reform and thereby eschew analysis of the specific dynamics of the Chinese Revolution. In so doing, they also ignore its origins within the welter of contradictions arising from the process of capitalist internationalization, giving no causal efficacy to ‘the international’ in explaining this dramatic social transformation. In response to this neglect, chapter two invokes Leon Trotsky’s ‘theory of uneven and combined development’ as an alternative approach to the study of social contradictions within and amongst societies across the longue durée. This approach is then applied to the Chinese case in three steps, which consider, successively, the impact of British colonialism on the Qing dynasty, the emergence of a Chinese nationalism, and the specificities of Maoism. Chapter three shows how British imperialism integrated Qing China into the capitalist world by revolutionising global finance and imposing ‘free trade’ through military force. This capitalist penetration of a tributary state created a unique amalgam of social relations that inhibited China’s ability to ‘catch up’ with the advanced capitalist powers. Focusing on how these processes and pressures fostered a transformation in social consciousness, chapter four then outlines the emergence of a ‘national imagination’ amongst a new stratum of intellectuals outside of the traditional scholar-gentry ruling class. These layers turned to anti-imperialism, but also found their own country deficient in the face of colonialism and longed for a mythical restoration of ‘lost’ Chinese power. The Russian Revolution dramatically raised the horizons of these new, modern Chinese, but also exposed a deep tension between internationalist and nationalist responses to the crisis of colonial capitalism. Chapter five outlines the role of national patriotism in the authoritarian decay of the communist project, arguing that Maoism represented a complementary amalgam of Soviet Stalinism with Chinese nationalism. This nationalism, however, resulted in tense relations with the Soviet Union after 1949 as China’s elite rejected its tutelage. Chinese communists desired ‘national salvation’ and, once Soviet-style planning failed to achieve it, they took the ‘capitalist road’ to build a strong nation-state. 3 Existing explanations of Chinese economic reform overlook this concatenation of local and global processes across the longue durée. The thesis shows, however, that this ‘methodological nationalism’ results in a failure to give sufficient weight to the real-world political nationalism that underpinned market reform. The theory of uneven and combined development answers this absence by placing Chinese development in the global setting. Its dialectical account of history rejects the view that sees ‘cultural analysis’ as an alternative to class based explanation, but rather treats nation, culture, ideology and class as essential moments in the uneven and combined reproduction of the world system. Acknowledgments Thanks must be extended to the staff and students of the International Relations Department at the University of Sussex, whose many genial thoughts and robust criticism provided a limitless source of inspiration. There are far too many individuals to mention by name, but particular thanks, of course, must go to my supervisors, Justin Rosenberg and Kamran Matin for their help and guidance throughout. The regular participants of the Sussex Uneven and Combined Development Working Group created an excellent atmosphere for critical exchange and argument, and kindly gave feedback on numerous drafts and papers. The responses to the two draft papers I presented at the International Studies Association Conference in San Diego (2012) helped a great deal too, even if they simply underlined the scale of the work I had still to undertake. Thanks also to friends, old and new, for their affection and solidarity in both the good and bad times alike. A special acknowledgment must go to my partner, Natalie Sedacca, for her incredible tolerance and enduring love. And also to my stoical mother, Pamela Cooper, without her generous support it would have been impossible for me to finish my studies. Statement I hereby declare that this thesis has not been, and will not be, submitted in whole or in part to another university for the award of any other degree. The thesis draws on primary and secondary source material, and a full bibliography is attached. The thesis is wholly my own original work and has not been produced in collaboration with others. Signature: 4 Contents Introduction 6 1. Broadening horizons? Tracing global lineages of development in China’s turn to ‘market socialism’ 12 1.1 Deng Xiaoping in historical perspective 1.2 The traditional view of the Marxist-Leninist regime and its negation 14 1.3 Explaining Chinese economic reform: (i) a process driven by ideology? 20 1.4 Explaining Chinese economic reform: (ii) was Mao-in-Command? 23 1.5 Explaining Chinese economic reform: (iii) the lost promise of the institutional turn 28 1.6 Explaining Chinese economic reform: (iv) the rise of IPE 32 1.7 Maoism as ‘national salvation’: the contribution of Chalmers Johnson 37 1.8 Reconceptualising Chinese economic reform as a search for jiuguo 40 2. Theorising capitalist modernity: uneven and combined development in the longue durée 41 2.1 Introducing uneven and combined development 2.2 In defence of a theoretically-informed ‘narrative strategy’ 42 2.3 The Marxist method: conceptualizing ‘lawfulness’ in historical processes 46 2.4 The theory of uneven and combined development 49 2.5 ‘Combination’ as an indeterminate site of social interaction and conflict 53 2.6 Moments of rupture and/or the longue durée? 56 2.7 Beyond eurocentrism via social-historical combination 63 2.8 Understanding China: the variety of forms of social-historical combination 68 3. From late developer to imperialist hegemon: Britain ensnares China in the new realities of global capitalism 73 3.1 China in the Western imagination and the rise of Britain 3.2 Britain as late-developer: technological achievements of Imperial China 76 3.3 The tributary system: the class structure of Qing China (1644 – 1911) 81 3.4 The late Qing crisis as a product of combined social development 92 3.5 Combined development as semi-colonial ensnarement: the rise of British imperialism 96 3.6 Imperialist geopolitics and the ‘century of humiliation’ 107 3. 7 The humiliating imposition of ‘backwardness’ 114 5 4. The imagined community of ‘China’ as combined social development: from humiliation to the Chinese Revolution 115 4.1 Modernity as ‘a maelstrom of perpetual disintegration and renewal’ 4.2 Imagined national communities: transformation toward ‘homogenous empty time’ 118 4.3 The messianic apprehension of time in Imperial China 123 4.4 Chinese national identity as combined development: (i) colonial fear, colonial emulation? 126 4.5 Chinese national identity as combined development: (ii) sociological conditions 137 4.6 Chinese identity as combined development: (iii) ‘myth of descent’ as ideological amalgam 143 4.7 Two forms of Chinese nationalism: messianic idealism versus pragmatic paternalism 150 4.8 Nationalism as combined development: (i) Kuomintang dreams of ‘China’s Destiny’ 155 4.9 Nationalism as combined development: (ii) Chinese communism, Chinese nationalism? 159 4.9.1 The rise of Chinese nationalism in the longue durée 165 5. The long march of Maoism in the age of extremes: ‘market socialism’ and the search for national salvation 167 5.1 Legacies of combined development in the longue durée 5.2 A challenge to colonial power: the hope and decay of the Russian Revolution 173 5.3 Understanding the rise of Stalinism: substitutionism, nationalism and the ‘Third World’ 179 5.4 Ideological infusions: the origins of Chinese Bolshevism 188 5.5 China’s dress rehearsal: counter-revolution and the origins of the Maoist road 192 5.6 A revolutionary subject? The role of the peasantry in China’s combined revolution 196 5.7 Power falling into the hands of the Maoists amidst the crisis of global capitalism 203 5.7 In search of national salvation and global power: the nature of Maoism in power 212 5.8 Two souls of Chinese nationalism in the Maoist amalgam 230 5.9 Closing a chapter in world history: the rise and fall of ‘state socialism’ 232 5. Conclusion 234 6. Appendix 238 7. Bibliography 239 6 Introduction Describing reform and opening as the importation and development of capitalism and viewing the main danger of peaceful evolution as coming from the economic field are leftist manifestations Deng Xiaoping As we can see now in retrospect, the strength of the global socialist challenge to capitalism was that of the weakness of its opponent Eric Hobsbawm Having survived into the second decade of the twenty-first century, China’s ‘state socialism’ has an enigmatic quality.