The International Development of ChinaSun, Yat-sen
History
The International Development of China
Sun, Yat-sen
China -- Economic conditions -- 1912-1949; Railroads -- China
of the country. In my International Development Scheme, I intend to
make all the national industries of China into a Great Trust owned by
the Chinese people, and financed with international capital for mutual
benefit. Thus once for all, commercial war will be done away with in
the largest market of the world.
Class war is a struggle between labor and capital. The war is at
present raging at its full height in all the highly developed
industrial countries. Labor feels sure of its final victory while
capitalists are determined to resist to the bitter end. When will it
end and what will be the decision no one dares to predict. China,
however, owing to the backwardness of her industrial development,
which is a blessing in disguise, in this respect, has not yet entered
into the class war. Our laboring class, commonly known as coolies,
are living from hand to mouth and will therefore only be too glad to
welcome any capitalist who would even put up a sweat shop to exploit
them. The capitalist is a rare specimen in China and is only beginning
to make his appearance in the treaty ports.
However, China must develop her industries by all means. Shall we
follow the old path of western civilization? This old path resembles
the sea route of Columbus' first trip to America. He set out from
Europe by a southwesterly direction through the Canary Islands to San
Salvador, in the Bahama Group. But nowadays navigators take a different
direction to America and find that the destination can be reached by a
distance many times shorter. The path of western civilization was an
unknown one and those who went before groped in the dark as Columbus
did on his first voyage to America. As a late comer, China can greatly
profit in covering the space by following the direction already charted
by western pioneers. Thus we can foresee that the final goal of the
westward-ho in the Atlantic is not India but the New World. So is the
case in the economic ocean. The goal of material civilization is not
private profit but public profit. And the shortest route to it is not
competition but coöperation. In my International Development Scheme,
I propose that the profits of this industrial development should go
first to pay the interest and principal of foreign capital invested in
it; second to give high wages to labor; and third to improve or extend
the machinery of production. Besides these provisions the rest of the
profit I should go to the public in the form of reduced prices in all
commodities and public services. Thus, all will enjoy, in the same
degree, the fruits of modern civilization. This industrial development
scheme which is roughly sketched in the above six programs is a part
of my general plan for constructing a New China. In a nutshell, it is
my idea to make capitalism create socialism in China so that these two
economic forces of human evolution will work side by side in future
civilization.
APPENDIX I
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