Chapter 11 focuses on the creation, expansion, and operating mechanism of the communist totalitarian regimes in China. Its coverage starts from the first of these regimes, the Chinese Soviet Republic, founded in 1931, up to the founding of the nationwide regime, the People’s Republic of China, and the establishment of a full-fledged classical totalitarian system. The key communist totalitarian strategies were state mobilization and domination, including land reform and the suppression of those deemed to be counterrevolutionaries. The chapter explores the regime’s progression from decentralized to centralized totalitarianism, detailing how power became more concentrated over time. The final section explores the “Sovietization” of the state, describing the construction of a classical totalitarian system, following the Soviet model, which was characterized by strict centralized control and ideological uniformity. This transformation laid the groundwork for the pervasive and enduring nature of the Chinese communist state.

This chapter discusses the important influence of the Old Communists on the hope generation of economists. Old Communists taught them on the basis of very different, more violent memories of World War II and tended to consider Stalinism necessary to force socialism into being. Regarding economic knowledge, this chapter describes the historical situation that nourished their beliefs in the basic tenets of Marxism-Leninism: anti-fascism, anti-capitalism, class conflict, the single party system, and historical determinism.