Fascinating Interview in Red Star with Ai Ping, Director General, International Department, Communist Party of China

You have met with Maoist leaders during your visit in Nepal. Can you tell us about deliberations you have had with Maoist leaders?

During my very first meeting with the Maoist leaders, I tried to explain that in China, we don’t use the term ‘Maoism’. Actually CM Mao himself opposed the adoption of this term. He believed that ‘Marxism’ is the source of our ideology. And Mao Tse-Tung Thought is only the application of Marxism in accordance with the concrete situation in China. Some people have suspected that maybe Chairman Mao was just being modest. But anyway, we do not use this term.

For example, now we say in China we have two successors in the integration of universal truth of Marxism in the concrete conditions of China. The result of the first success is Mao Tse-Tung Thought, we use the term “thought”. The second one is what we say the theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, and this part of our guiding ideology actually consists of three parts. The first part contributed by Comrade Deng Xiaoping and we say the “Deng Xiaoping Theory”, the second part-the better half of our guiding ideologies, is the contribution made by the third generation of leadership. We say Comrade Jiang Zemin and his core, and we use another term for his contribution that is, the important thesis, you will notice we are using still another term, the important thesis of a “three represents”. And the latest success of our party’s radical development ‘scientific concepts of development’ put forward by Comrade Hu Jintao and his comrades. Anyway we have developed such a tradition.

I think in Nepal, you regard theoretical development in a different way. Chairman Prachanda once said that he believes that CM Mao’s contribution in the liberation and development of ‘third world’ countries is so important and so innovative, that he would rather use the term ‘Maoism.’ I don’t want to debate with him what terms we should use, we should go the essence and not stick to dogmas and we should apply the universal principles in an innovative way. We have to change and go along with the times and try our best to understand the objective law of this society and to be innovative in the theoretical development.

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW IN RED STAR - THERE IS A LINK ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THIS PAGE TO THE LATEST EDITION OF CPN MAOIST RED STAR