history, as elaborated by the great historians of the Han dynasty (Sima
Qian and Ban Gu), conceived of it as a cyclical process. Each new
dynasty, in gaining the mandate of Heaven, reinstated the moral order
that the last emperor of the previous dynasty had neglected. Marx, by
contrast, was a European progressivist, a true son of the Enlighten-
ment, for whom time moved inexorably into the future. So it did for
Chinese Marxists, who accepted that history was not just linear, but
progressive in that it favoured progressive forces, notably the CCP.
The victory of communism in China, Chinese Marxists believed, was
the first surge in a new tide of revolution that would sweep across Asia
and the world and free all subject peoples from imperial domination
and exploitation.
Another major change was to Chinese beliefs about the signifi-
cance of economic forces. Whereas in Confucian China interest in
economic development focused principally on collection of taxation
necessary to meet the costs of administration and the imperial court,
for Marxists, economic production was the driving force of history and
the primary source of social power. It was the role of the state actively
to stimulate production and facilitate distribution. International trade
was thus no longer a matter of little concern to government, to be
left in the hands of merchants of lowly status. Rather, it became a key
consideration in relations between states.
Finally, certain characteristics of communist parties, including
the CCP, spilled over from domestic politics into state behaviour to
influence international relations. Among these we shall note two: the
role of ideology, and a tendency to paranoia. Because intra-party pol-
itics tended to be fought out in terms of ideological orthodoxy, foreign
relations could never be immune to ideological criticism. The influ-
ence of ideology on foreign policy has been particularly marked in the
case of China, at no time more so than during the Cultural Revolu-
tion. As for paranoia, since one-party states by definition allow no
overt political opposition, any opposition that arises must remain
clandestine. It must be conspiratorial. This is exactly what ruling
Communism and the Cold War