Commentary
Newsday
WAYNE KUBLALSINGH
ON OCTOBER 1 the People’s Republic of China celebrated the 76th anniversary of the Chinese republic. Three principles of Chinese republicanism are uncompromising anti-imperialism, self-reliance and mass mobilisation.
Imperialism first came to China in the form of British and American narco-imperialism. Narco-imperialism refers to the use, weaponisation and politicisation of narcotics to achieve military, economic and political conquest. Here is a synopsis of China’s historical war against imperialism, and its quest for self-reliance and mass mobilisation.
Towards the end of the 18th century, the British and Americans sent emissaries to the emperor of the Manchu (people of Manchuria) Dynasty. They sought trade. They sought a market for their manufactories in populous China. But China was a world unto itself. The emperor saw no need to import Western goods. “But what silly toys are these?” he uttered on examining samples of Western goods, an air pump, a gun.
This sent the British and the Americans ruminating. How do we break into the Chinese market? We buy so many precious goods from China, and we are made to pay in hard cash. Where can we find Chinese cash to pay for these goods? The answer: opium!
British ships introduced opium to the Chinese sailors at the seaports of China. The Chinese became addicted. By 1838, the British were exporting 40,000 chests of opium a year to China. Their source? Afghanistan. Their route? British-owned India. The British and Americans amassed huge cash fortunes which they used to purchase Chinese goods.
In the late 1830s the emperor decided to act against the opium trade. Over 20,000 opium chests were seized and burned. The British declared that their “interests” were threatened. They declared war against China. The emperor suffered a humiliating defeat; remember, he had refused to buy European guns and cannons.
In the 1842 treaty ending this First Opium War, the British were remunerated 21,000,000 silver dollars for the confiscated opium and for British war expenses. The emperor was forced to surrender Hong Kong to them, and to open five “treaty ports” for British and US tax-concessionary trade. British subjects were exempt from obeying Chinese law.
In 1844 the US enforced its own treaty allowing itself to freely navigate major Chinese rivers; to trade and establish bases in the Chinese hinterland. The Germans, Italians, French, Russians secured similar rights.
In the Second Opium War (1858-1860), British and French troops looted and destroyed the emperor’s summer palace in Peking. Lt Thomas Lyster described this event as follows: “I never saw a demolition so complete – it does credit to the British soldier!” Following these wars, the Europeans and Americans established their “concessions,” their own political, economic and military enclaves in China. From which they supervised the emperor and accessed resources in the hinterland.
Following the Opium Wars, the Manchus suffered a number of catastrophic defeats. In 1912 Sun Yat-sen, the revolutionary, philosopher and physician, put the final nail on the coffin of the Manchus and upon its remains (feudalism, landlordism, Confucianism, rule by warlords, etc) he established the Republic of China. He became the leader of the Kuomintang, the Chinese nationalist party. However, his dream of republicanism was never fulfilled. He was succeeded by Chiang Kai-shek a bosom-buddy of the imperialists in China.
But by then opium had already taken root in China. It was customary, for example, to add a pinch of opium to sugar cane to soothe fretting babies. Even high-ranking generals and government officials used opium fashionably.
The death blow to imperialism in China came with the Red march of Chinese peasants and workers. Led by Mao Tse-tung and heroic leaders such as Marshal Zhu De. Mao and his guerillas were dead set against imperialism and the opium trade. While Chiang Kai-shek made humiliating compromises to the Japanese invasion and occupation of Manchuria (1932-1945), the Red Army uncompromisingly attacked the occupiers.
The Europeans and Americans provided Chiang Kai-shek with political cover, airplanes, tanks, artillery, gunboats, riverboats and newspaper and radio propaganda in its drive to exterminate the Red Army. The Germans sent General Alexander von Falkenhausen to advise Chiang Kai-shek and to protect German business interests.
When Chiang Kai-shek’s army chased the Red Army towards the northwest of China, a biblical retreat known as the Long March, they faced dire hunger and some boiled their sandals for soup. Of the 300,000 soldiers who embarked on the 6,000-mile march, 1934-1936, only 8,000 survived.
When Chiang Kai-shek planes dropped propaganda leaflets, the Reds wrote their own propaganda on the back of these leaflets; the Kuomintang had established a blockade on paper and other commodities. The Reds wrote slogans on their own paper currencies. They mobilised through skits and plays. They established their own universities, printeries and co-operatives. They mobilised partisan armies and the youth; some of the buglers and flag-bearers in military columns were as young as 12. The Reds won their weapons by capturing them from the Kuomintang army.
Anti-imperialism, self-reliance and mass mobilisation are forged in the historical trenches of Chinese history. From the real dialectics of Chinese struggle. Today in China, the possession of one kilo of opium could fetch you a swift execution.
And today, the US narco-imperialists have weaponised and politicised cocaine and fentanyl to harass, weaken or destroy the Bolivarian Republic. They are vying to control and enforce concessions for Venezuela’s valued assets – gas, oil, gold, etc. And traipsing along with these narco-imperialists is our Prime Minister.
