Book Description

This academic work, inheriting and developing the basic principles of Marxism, analyzes the world's historical structure by using materialist dialectics and forecasts the direction of the socialist movement and the ways to realize communism. It not only makes up for the horizontal dynamic part of Marxist theory but also points out a logical path for the development of human society. Furthermore, it predicts the proposal and practice of China's "the Belt and Road Initiative" from various aspects and provides the theoretical basis and rationale for building a community with a shared future for mankind. The theory about the contradictory movement between productive forces and production relations is the crucial part of Marxism and used to guide socialist revolution and construction as well as analyze world history. Nevertheless, classic writers failed to unveil their relations due to the historical limitations of materialist dialectics and lack of horizontal perspective to investigate the development of nature and human society. As a result, either productive forces or production relations are regarded as the only deciding factor in Marxist theory and practice, and the argument remains. This book, based on a large number of empirical analyses, solved the fundamental problem of historical materialism from the perspective of geographical competition. This book holds that after the invention of agriculture in the Neolithic Age, species competition was replaced by land-based geographic competition, which has become the fundamental driving force for the development of human society. It not only brought about private ownership and social organizations such as patriarchal clans, tribes, nationalities, classes, countries and regions, but also made the "two poles" of the East and the West compete in changing social forms, develop productive forces and shape world history after the formation of the Inner Asian nomads. This book divides the history of the "bipolar" competitions between the East and the West after 500 B.C. into three stages. The beginning of the first stage was marked by powerful feudalist China as the power core, ending with the rise of capitalist United Kingdom, which was the power core of the second stage. During this stage, with the acquisition of "land taxes" as its driving force, four relatively independent political-economic entities were formed from the East to the West with decreasing civilization degree: ancient China, Inner Asia, Islam and Europe (referred to as Zone 4, Zone 3, Zone 2 and Zone 1 respectively in this book). The second stage, with the capitalist UK as the power core, ended with the development of socialist China, which was the core of power at the third stage. The driving force at this stage was the attainment of "raw material market." Based on the first-generation bipolar world pattern, two relatively independent political-economic entities, the capitalist system and the socialist system, have been formed from the West to the East. This stage was divided into three phases of economic colonization, focusing on the realms of public goods, natural monopoly and competition. This book uses a large amount of historical data to analyze the specific levels of the two stages. Despite the fact that factual data support is not sufficient sometimes and some conclusions are open to discussion, the theoretical system is complete in line with macro events and the overall framework is convincing. By analyzing the first and second stages, this book makes a theoretical prediction about the phases and outcomes of the third stage. This book holds that the third stage began with the development of socialist China and will end with the realization of world communism and the extinction of geo-competitive relations. The driving force of this stage is the acquisition of "property rights cooperation." Based on the second-stage bipolar world pattern, it will undergo three phases of state-owned enterprises cooperation in the realm of competition, natural monopoly and public goods. The world, from east to west, will form an entity with no social difference. The author believes that under the background of the advantageous West and disadvantageous East in the economic globalization, a structural union based on geo-economy is the only option. Cross-border cooperation of state-owned enterprises is the only way to break the natural restriction of private economy, win the principal status in the world competition, solve the problem of sufficient demand at home and abroad, enhance the economic and political situation of the working class in various countries, and get rid of the dependence on the capitalist colonial system. The property right cooperation of state-owned enterprises, therefore, is the fundamental driving force for the future development of human society. This book sums up this historical process of economic cooperation as one driving force (the transnational property rights cooperation of state-owned enterprises), three phases (first Zones 4 and 3, then Zones 4, 3 and 2, and finally Zones 4, 3, 2 and 1) and three realms (first competition, then natural monopoly and finally public goods). The book was finalized in early 2013, and the Chinese version was published by the Central Compilation & Translation Press in March 2014. In September and October 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed to the world the initiative to jointly build the "Silk Road Economic Belt" and the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road". The Belt and Road Initiative, tracing its history back to the ancient Silk Road, aims to jointly build a community of shared interests, future and responsibilities through economic cooperation, featuring political mutual trust, economic integration and cultural tolerance. Since it is launched, the initiative has received extensive attention and recognition from the international community. It has achieved great success in solving China's own economic problems, providing sufficient supply to countries along the route, enhancing endogenous momentum in undeveloped countries, improving people's living standard and promoting the preservation and appreciation of surplus assets worldwide. We can see that when carrying out "the Belt and Road Initiative," the property rights cooperation between state-owned enterprises of China and other countries along the line has played a crucial role. Countries in Zone 3, such as Russia, Inner Asia and Pakistan, have taken the lead in making significant progress in cooperation with China in Zone 4. Breakthroughs are achieved in competitive fields such as infrastructure, energy, manufacturing and trade. All these have proved the book's scientific predictions about the third stage. This book not only develops Marxist theory but also proves the scientific prophecy by the practice of the Belt and Road Initiative. Since the Chinese version was issued, it has received wide attention and recognition from all sides. When preparing the foreign language version, the author has dramatically compressed and modified the Chinese version of the content, making the book more complete and more readable.