On Mao Ze-dong’s Studying Capital:A Critique of Political Economy:Theoretical Comprehension and Practical Application
(Liu Zhao-feng)
Mao Zedong studied Capital:A Critique of Political Economy many times in his life.Through reading the history of capitalist development in it,Mao Zedong understood that“agricultural mechanization is not a necessary condition for agricultural cooperation”.China’s practice of socialist agricultural transformation is Mao Ze-dong’s shining application of Marxist political economics.With regard to the existential conditions of commodity production,Mao Ze-dong not only affirmed what Stalin called“the conditions of ownership”,but also added“the conditions of productivity”:“the great enrichment of social products”.Mao strictly distinguished between commodity production and capitalist commodity production,observing that the combination of commodity production and the socialist system is socialist commodity production—this is Mao Zedong’s enrichment and development of Marx’s“theory on the transitional period”.The elimination of private ownership (and thus that of exploitation),the demise of commodities,the“restriction”of,and even the elimination of,distribution according to work are historical tasks or practical initiatives at different historical stages which must not be confused.