Fateful Embrace of Communism } 17
that these constitutions represented an ideal to which their drafters aspired, a
goal to be achieved.^20 The fact that the CCP won power in 1949 on the basis of
a promise of democracy substantiates Nathan’s view.
Leninist dictatorship of the proletariat state such as the CCP imposed on
China after 1949 was not what the CCP had promised during the post-1945
struggle with the KMT. In “On Coalition Government,” which was the pro-
gram on which the CCP challenged the KMT after 1945, Mao offered a vision
of multiparty coalition government under conditions of extensive political
freedom. There was to be an end to “one-party dictatorship.” A broadly dem-
ocratic multiparty coalition government—though one led by the Chinese
Communist Party—was to be established. Secret police and concentration
camps were to be abolished. All laws and decrees suppressing freedom of
speech, press, assembly, association, political convictions and religious belief,
and freedom of the person were to be abolished. The legal status of all “demo-
cratic” parties and groups was to be recognized. Nationalist political indoc-
trination in schools was to be abolished. Nor were these liberal arrangements
to be a short-term expedient. In “On Coalition Government,” Mao promised:
Some people are suspicious and think that once in power the Communist
Party will follow Russia’s example and establish the dictatorship of
the proletariat and a one-party system. Our answer is that.... Our sys-
tem of New Democracy is different in principle from a socialist state
under the dictatorship of the proletariat. ... throughout the stage of New
Democracy China cannot possibly have a .... one-party government and
therefore should not attempt it. ... The Russian system has been shaped
by Russian history ... The Chinese system is being shaped by the present
state of Chinese history, and for a long time to come there will exist a
special form of state ... that is distinguished from the Russian system.^21
(Italics added)
The CCP’s shift from advocacy of multiparty coalition government in 1945
to imposition of dictatorship of the proletariat in 1950 again encountered
strong opposition. Many intellectuals and a large part of the population of
China’s internationalized coastal cities dreamed of liberal democracy, not
proletarian dictatorship, for China’s future. This opposition was repressed
with extreme violence once the Korean War began. Opposition welled up
again during the Hundred Flowers Campaign of 1957 when Mao persuaded
critics of the regime to speak out. Again critics were struck down.
By 1957–1958, Mao saw that the model of socialism being imported from
the Soviet Union differed significantly from the utopian vision of socialism
and communism that he imagined. Mao also began to doubt the revolu-
tionary credentials of the new Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, and whether
the Soviet leader was taking the USSR and the world communist movement
in the “correct” direction toward communism. Mao then launched China on