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International Relations
in the Age of Empire
US Imperialism is a Paper Tiger
Mao Tse-tung, July 14, 1956
Selected Works of , Vol. V, Foreign Languages Press,
Peking 1977, First Edition, pp. 308-11.
 "..Now U.S. imperialism is quite
powerful, but in reality it isn't. It is very weak politically because
it is divorced from the masses of the people and is disliked by
everybody and by the American people too. In appearance it is very
powerful but in reality it is nothing to be afraid of, it is a paper
tiger... Strategically, we must utterly despise U.S. imperialism.
Tactically, we must take it seriously. In struggling against it, we must
take each battle, each encounter, seriously...
What use is imperialism? The Chinese people will have none of it, nor
will the people in the rest of the world. There is no reason for the
existence of imperialism. "
" Imperialism is an institution under which one nation
asserts the right to seize the land or at least to control the
government or resources of another people."-
John T. Flynn
"As the country that benefits most from global
economic integration, we have the responsibility of making sure that
this new system is sustainable.. The hidden hand of the market will
never work without a hidden fist - McDonald's cannot flourish
without McDonnell-Douglas, the designer of the F-15. And the
hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's
technologies is called the US Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine
Corps....The global system cannot hold together without an activist
and generous American foreign and defense policy. Without America
on duty, there will be no America Online...
" Thomas Friedman, "A Manifesto for the Fast World", New York Times
Magazine, March 28, 1999
[see also
America,
America, American War Paar Ada! அமேரிக்கா, அமேரிக்கா, அமேரிக்கன் வார் பாரடா! -
Audio Video Presentation ]
The United States is flaunting the anti-communist banner
everywhere in order to perpetrate aggression against other countries.
The United States owes debts everywhere. It
owes debts not only to the countries of Latin America, Asia and Africa,
but also to the countries of Europe and Oceania. The whole world,
Britain included, dislikes the United States. The masses of the people
dislike it. Japan dislikes the United States because it oppresses her.
None of the countries in the East is free from U.S. aggression. The
United States has invaded our Taiwan Province. Japan, Korea, the
Philippines, Viet Nam and Pakistan all suffer from U.S. aggression,
although some of them are allies of the United States. The people are
dissatisfied and in some countries so are the authorities.
All oppressed nations want independence.
Everything is subject to change. The big decadent forces will give way
to the small new-born forces. The small forces will change into big
forces because the majority of the people demand this change. The U.S.
imperialist forces will change from big to small because the American
people, too, are dissatisfied with their government.
In my own lifetime I myself have witnessed such changes. Some of us
present were born in the Ching Dynasty and others after the Revolution.
The Ching Dynasty was overthrown long ago. By whom? By the party led by
Sun Yat-sen, together with the people. Sun Yat-sen's forces were so
small that the Ching officials didn't take him seriously. He led many
uprisings which failed each time. In the end, however, it was Sun
Yat-sen who brought down the Ching Dynasty. Bigness is nothing to be
afraid of. The big will be overthrown by the small. The small will
become big.
After overthrowing the Ching Dynasty, Sun Yat-sen met
with defeat. For he failed to satisfy the demands of the people, such as
their demands for land and for opposition to imperialism. Nor did he
understand the necessity of suppressing the counter-revolutionaries who
were then moving about freely. Later, he suffered defeat at the hands of
Yuan Shih-kai, the chieftain of the Northern warlords. Yuan Shih-kai's
forces were larger than Sun Yat-sen's. But here again this law operated:
small forces linked with the people become strong, while big forces
opposed to the people become weak. Subsequently Sun Yat-sen's
bourgeois-democratic revolutionaries co-operated with us Communists and
together we defeated the warlord set-up left behind by Yuan Shih-kai.
Chiang Kai-shek's rule in China was recognized by the governments of all
countries and lasted twenty-two years, and his forces were the biggest.
Our forces were small, fifty thousand Party members at first but only a
few thousand after counter-revolutionary suppressions. The enemy made
trouble everywhere. Again this law operated: the big and strong end up
in defeat because they are divorced from the people, whereas the small
and weak emerge victorious because they are linked with the people and
work in their interest. That's how things turned out in the end.
During the anti-Japanese war, Japan was very powerful, the Kuomintang
troops were driven to the hinterland, and the armed forces led by the
Communist Party could only conduct guerrilla warfare in the rural areas
behind the enemy lines. Japan occupied large Chinese cities such as
Peking, Tientsin, Shanghai, Nanking, Wuhan and Canton. Nevertheless,
like Germany's Hitler the Japanese militarists collapsed in a few years,
in accordance with the same law.
We underwent innumerable difficulties and were driven from the south to
the north, while our forces fell from several hundred thousand strong to
a few tens of thousands. At the end of the 25,000-li Long March we had
only 25,000 men left.
In the history of our Party many erroneous "Left" and Right lines have
occurred. Gravest of all were the Right deviationist line of Chen
Tu-hsiu and the "Left" deviationist line of Wang Ming. Besides, there
were the Right deviationist errors committed by Chang Kuo-tao, Kao Kang
and others.
There is also a good side to mistakes, for they can educate the people
and the Party. We have had a good many teachers by negative example,
such as Japan, the United States, Chiang Kai-shek, Chen Tu-hsiu, Li
Li-san, Wang Ming, Chang Kuo-tao and Kao Kang.
We paid a very high price to learn from these teachers
by negative example. In the past, Britain made war on us many times.
Britain, the United States, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, tsarist
Russia and Holland were all very interested in this land of ours. They
were all our teachers by negative example and we were their pupils.
During the War of Resistance, our troops grew and became 900,000 strong
through fighting against Japan. Then came the War of Liberation. Our
arms were inferior to those of the Kuomintang. The Kuomintang troops
then numbered four million, but in three years of fighting we wiped out
eight million of them all told. The Kuomintang, though aided by U.S.
imperialism, could not defeat us. The big and strong cannot win, it is
always the small and weak who win out.
Now U.S. imperialism is quite powerful, but in reality it isn't. It is
very weak politically because it is divorced from the masses of the
people and is disliked by everybody and by the American people too. In
appearance it is very powerful but in reality it is nothing to be afraid
of, it is a paper tiger. Outwardly a tiger, it is made of paper, unable
to withstand the wind and the rain. I believe the United States is
nothing but a paper tiger.
History as a whole, the history of class society for thousands of years,
has proved this point: the strong must give way to the weak. This holds
true for the Americas as well.
Only when imperialism is eliminated can peace prevail. The day will come
when the paper tigers will be wiped out. But they won't become extinct
of their own accord, they need to be battered by the wind and the rain.
When we say U.S. imperialism is a paper tiger, we are speaking in terms
of strategy. Regarding it as a whole, we must despise it. But regarding
each part, we must take it seriously. It has claws and fangs. We have to
destroy it piecemeal. For instance, if it has ten fangs, knock off one
the first time, and there will be nine left; knock off another, and
there will be eight left. When all the fangs are gone, it will still
have claws. If we deal with it step by step and in earnest, we will
certainly succeed in the end.
Strategically, we must utterly despise U.S. imperialism. Tactically, we
must take it seriously. In struggling against it, we must take each
battle, each encounter, seriously. At present, the United States is
powerful, but when looked at in a broader perspective, as a whole and
from a long-term viewpoint, it has no popular support, its policies are
disliked by the people, because it oppresses and exploits them.
For this reason, the tiger is doomed. Therefore, it is nothing to be
afraid of and can be despised. But today the United States still has
strength, turning out more than 100 million tons of steel a year and
hitting out everywhere. That is why we must continue to wage struggles
against it, fight it with all our might and wrest one position after
another from it. And that takes time.
It seems that the countries of the Americas, Asia and Africa will have
to go on quarrelling with the United States till the very end, till the
paper tiger is destroyed by the wind and the rain.
To oppose U.S. imperialism, people of European origin in the
Latin-American countries should unite with the indigenous Indians.
Perhaps the white immigrants from Europe can be divided into two groups,
one composed of rulers and the other of ruled. This should make it
easier for the group of oppressed white people to get close to the local
people, for their position is the same.
Our friends in Latin America, Asia and Africa are in the same position
as we and are doing the same kind of work, doing something for the
people to lessen their oppression by imperialism. If we do a good job,
we can root out imperialist oppression. In this we are comrades.
We are of the same nature as you in our opposition to imperialist
oppression, differing only in geographical position, nationality and
language. But we are different in nature from imperialism, and the very
sight of it makes us sick.
What use is imperialism? The Chinese people will have none of it, nor
will the people in the rest of the world. There is no reason for the
existence of imperialism. |
