Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of modern China, is often mistakenly associated with communism due to his cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party in the early 1920s. In reality, Sun was not a communist; his ideology was fundamentally at odds with Marxist-Leninist doctrine. Two of the most decisive points of divergence were his rejection of historical materialism and his rejection of class struggle as the driving forces of history.
1. Rejection of Historical Materialism
Marxist theory is built upon historical materialism, the idea that economic forces and the relations of production determine the course of history, and that all social, political, and cultural institutions are mere reflections of these material conditions. Sun Yat-sen rejected this worldview.
For Sun, history was not solely determined by economic systems but by national destiny, moral values, and political will. He believed China’s weakness stemmed primarily from foreign imperialism and internal disunity, not from the capitalist mode of production. His emphasis on nationalism (民族) in the Three Principles of the People placed spiritual, cultural, and political forces at the center of historical change—precisely the opposite of Marxist economic determinism.
2. Rejection of Class Struggle
Marxism frames history as the history of class struggles, where the oppressed must overthrow the oppressors through revolutionary conflict. Sun Yat-sen explicitly rejected this as the core principle of politics.
Instead of dividing society into hostile classes, Sun called for the unity of all Chinese—peasants, workers, merchants, and intellectuals—in the struggle for national revival. His people’s livelihood (民生) principle did include land reform and economic justice, but these were aimed at reducing inequality and preventing unrest, not abolishing private property or waging perpetual class war. Sun saw class harmony as essential to national survival, and he condemned movements that pitted Chinese against Chinese while foreign powers dominated the nation.
3. Political and Economic Vision
Communism sought a dictatorship of the proletariat and the eventual abolition of the state. Sun envisioned a constitutional republic guided by his Five-Power Constitution, blending Western republican institutions with Chinese traditions. Economically, he favored regulated capitalism, state-led infrastructure projects, and land equalization—policies rooted in
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