Market Maoists: The Communist Origins of China's Capitalist Ascent

Before Deng Xiaopings market-based reforms, commercial relationships bound the Chinese Communist Party to international capitalism, leaving lasting marks on China's trade and diplomacy. Market Maoists reveals that this paradox is nothing new, as Communist traders and diplomats have sought deals with capitalists since the 1930s to fuel political transformation and the restoration of Chinese power. Even Mao Zedong saw no fundamental conflict between trading with capitalists and chasing revolution. Chinas ties to capitalism transformed under Mao but were never broken, and sustained contact with foreign capitalists shaped the Chinese nation under Communism and left deep impressions on foreign policy. Deals demanded mutual intelligibility and cooperation, facilitating the exchange of ideas, habits, and beliefs, leaving subtle but lasting effects on the values and attitudes of individuals and institutions.

Format: Hardback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 28 May 2021
Publisher: Harvard University Press

Before Deng Xiaoping's market-based reforms, commercial relationships bound the Chinese Communist Party to international capitalism, leaving lasting marks on China's trade and diplomacy. Today, China appears caught in a contradiction: a capitalist state led by a Communist party. However, as Jason Kelly's book, "Market Maoists," reveals, this paradox is nothing new. Since the 1930s, before the Chinese Communist Party came to power, Communist traders and diplomats have sought deals with capitalists to fuel political transformation and the restoration of Chinese power. For as long as there have been Communists in China, they have been reconciling revolutionary aspirations at home with market realities abroad.

Kelly unearths this hidden history of global commerce, finding that even Mao Zedong saw no fundamental conflict between trading with capitalists and chasing revolution. China's ties to capitalism transformed under Mao, but they were never broken. And it was not just goods and currencies that changed hands. Sustained contact with foreign capitalists shaped the Chinese nation under Communism and left deep impressions on foreign policy. Deals demanded mutual intelligibility and cooperation, leading to the exchange of ideas, habits, and beliefs, which had subtle but lasting effects on the values and attitudes of individuals and institutions.

Drawing from official and commercial archives around the world, including newly available internal Chinese Communist Party documents, "Market Maoists" recasts our understanding of China's relationship with global capitalism, revealing how these early accommodations laid the groundwork for China's embrace of capitalism in the 1980s and after.

Weight: 654g
Dimension: 167 x 242 x 32 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780674986497