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From Labor Action, Vol. IX No. 37, 10 September1945, p. 1 & 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
The treaty between Russia and China is another chapter in the long history of imperialism. It is accompanied by the same kind of misrepresentation and hypocrisy which attend the signing of all treaties between antagonistic powers. In the case of China and Russia, the antagonism is of long standing. It dates back to the days when Russian Czarism warred upon China and obtained territory and special privileges from the disunited and weak Asiatic country. For a brief period of years, when Russia under Lenin and Trotsky abolished all Czarist privileges in China, relations between the two countries were marked by mutual understanding. They began to deteriorate in the Stalinist epoch when the present “ruler of all the Russias” resurrected the imperialist aims of Czarism.
There are several aspects to the present Russo-China relations which have been obscured by the signing of the treaty. The treaty, for example, recognizes the “sovereignty” of China. It recognizes that the government of Chiang is the legitimate government. Russia obligates herself not to interfere in the internal affairs of the country and not to do anything that would violate Chinese integrity and sovereignty.
Among other things, Stalin has agreed to withdraw Russian troops from Manchuria as quickly as possible.
Coming simultaneously with the increasing tension between Chungking and the Communist armies of Yenan, the treaty was hailed asa forerunner of genuine internal peace, since Russia’s recognition of Chiang would halt the impending civil war.
Thus, we are told, the Atlantic Charter and its principles triumphed in Asia, just as they did in Europe. Stalin has shown his good will to China, just as he did to Poland, Eastern Europe and the Balkans!
But all of this is a frightful deception of the peoples of Russia, China and the whole world. If one peers behind the obvious in the treaty, that is, the decorations which were cited above, it will be revealed that Stalin’s treaty with China is similar to the Russo-Chinese treaty of 1900. It reflects the same greed, expansion and imperialist aims of Russia’s old ruling class.
In addition to these concessions given to Russia, Chiang has agreed to allow in his government representatives of the Chinese Communist government.
What pressures were exerted on China to sign this treaty? Undoubtedly Russia’s threat to take Manchuria and to support the drive of the Russian-subsidized armies of Yenan to seize other territories and centers in Northern China. These pressures came not only from Russia, but from the United States and Great Britain as part payment for Russia’s entry into the war against Japan.
The recognition of Chinese “integrity and sovereignty”and the renunciation of special privileges and territories in China by Russia is, of course, a fraud. Special interests in Manchuria, re-establishment of Russian interests in Port Arthur and Dairen belie any non-intervention in China. If you want to know what such concessions really mean, think of what integrity and sovereignty would mean if an American government signed a treaty with anotherpower granting it full and exclusive rights in New York harbor, special rights in the port of Boston and joint control over the New York Central Railroad!
That is exactly what the Russo-Chinese treaty means.
Such an imperialist policy was what Lenin and Trotsky fought against. It was one of the reasons for the outbreak of the Russian Revolution. Czarist Russia’s imperialist policies led to the Russo-Chinese War of 1904–05. Stalin’s imperialist policiestoday led to Russian entry into the recent war with Japan.
When the Russian workers took power in 1917 they renounced all special privileges in China and tore up all the Czarist treaties. Lenin called the seizure by treaty of Port Arthur, predatory Czarist imperialism. Russia under Lenin defended semi-colonial China against all the big powers. The famous slogan issued by Workers’ Russia was “Hands Off China!”
Stalin has reversed all of this. He is today the great Russian nationalist, the purveyor of the imperialist demands of Czarism, the representative of a new class of bureaucrats who rule Russia in their own interests. Just as they exploit the Russian workers and peasants and falsely call this exploitation socialism, so they seek now to exploit European, workers and peasants, colonial peoples in Asia and call this exploitation “recognition of sovereignty,” “freedom and democracy.”
In all of this, Chiang acts as the servant of imperialism in helping to subordinate China to the great powers of the world.
It is time again to cry out: Hands Off China! Drive the imperialists out of the country! For a free and independent China! For a Workers and Peasants China!
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Last updated on 15 December 2017