On the Question of Whether Imperialism and All Reactionaries Are Real Tigers
#PUBLICATION NOTE
This edition of On the Question of Whether Imperialism and All Reactionaries Are Real Tigers has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the following edition: On the Question of Whether Imperialism and All Reactionaries Are Real Tigers, in the Beijing Review, Vol. 20, No. 37/38 (13th of September, 1977).
#INTRODUCTION NOTE
This is an article written by Comrade Mao Zedong during the Wuchang Meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Wuchang, Changsha, Wuhan, China on the 1st of December, 1958.
#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!
#ON THE QUESTION OF WHETHER IMPERIALISM AND ALL REACTIONARIES ARE REAL TIGERS
#Mao Zedong
#1st of December, 1958
#★
Here, I would like to answer the question of whether imperialism and all reactionaries are real tigers. The answer is that they are at once real tigers and paper tigers, they are in the process of being changed from real into paper tigers. Change means transformation. Real tigers are transformed into paper tigers, into their opposite. This is true of all things, and not just social phenomena. I answered this question several years ago: Take the enemy lightly in strategy and take them seriously in tactics. But why take them seriously if they are not a real tiger? Apparently, there are still people around who do not get the point, so we must do some more explaining.
Just as there is not a single thing in the world without a dual nature (this is the law of the unity of opposites), so imperialism and all reactionaries have a dual nature — they are real tigers and paper tigers at the same time. In past history, before they won State power and for some time afterward, the slaveowning class, the feudal landlord class, and the bourgeoisie were vigorous, revolutionary, and progressive; they were real tigers. But with the lapse of time, because their opposites — the slave class, the peasant class, and the proletariat — grew in strength step by step, fought against them, and became more and more formidable, these ruling classes changed step by step into the reverse, changed into reactionaries, changed into backward people, changed into paper tigers. And eventually, they were overthrown, or will be overthrown, by the people. The reactionary, backward, decaying classes retained this dual nature even in their last life-and-death struggles against the people. On the one hand, they were real tigers; they ate people, ate people by the millions and tens of millions. The cause of the people's struggle went through a period of difficulties and hardships, and along the path, there were many twists and turns. To destroy the rule of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism in China took the Chinese people more than 100 years and cost them tens of millions of lives before the victory in 1949. Look! Were these not living tigers, iron tigers, real tigers? But in the end, they changed into paper tigers, dead tigers, tofu tigers. These are historical facts. Have people not seen or heard about these facts? There have indeed been thousands and tens of thousands of them! Thousands and tens of thousands! Hence, imperialism and all reactionaries, looked at in essence, from a long-term standpoint, from a strategic standpoint, must be seen for what they are — paper tigers. On this, we should build our strategic thinking. On the other hand, they are also living tigers, iron tigers, real tigers, which can eat people. On this, we should build our tactical thinking.
This holds true for the struggle against nature as well as against the class enemy. Both the 12-year 40-article Programme for Agricultural Development and the 12-year Programme for Scientific Development, which we published in 1956, proceed from this fundamental concept of Marxism, the concept of the unity of opposites, that is, the concept of the dual nature of the development of the Universe, the concept of the dual nature of the development of things, the concept that a thing invariably manifests itself in a process and that every process without exception has a dual nature. On the one hand, we should take these struggles lightly, they are easy to handle, they are not much of a problem, there is nothing to worry about, and we shall certainly achieve success and be victorious. On the other hand, we should take them seriously, they are not so easy to handle, they present quite a problem and must not be treated casually, and we cannot be victorious without hard work and arduous struggle. Fear and fearlessness fall under the law of the unity of opposites. There is no such thing in this world as an absolutely fearless person, a carefree type without a single worry. Worry attends people from their birth. Students are worried about exams and children about their parents' partiality for their siblings. Besides, there are numerous adversities and calamities, infirmities and diseases, running a fever of 41°, and other mishaps, as expressed in the saying, «In nature, there are unexpected storms, and in life, unpredictable vicissitudes», and so on, and so forth. The difficulties we encounter in the class struggle and the struggle against nature are far greater in number. But except for cowards and the opportunist «excellencies», most people, and primarily the proletariat and the Communists, invariably put optimism and contempt for difficulties first. And only then do they take full account of things, of every piece of work, of scientific research, analyse each contradictory aspect of things, did into them, and come to understand the laws of motion of nature and society. It will then be possible to grasp these laws and become relatively free to apply them to successively solving the problems facing us, to handling contradictions and accomplishing our tasks, so that hard going can be transformed into easy going, real tigers into paper tigers, the lower stage of a revolution into its higher stage, the democratic revolution into the socialist revolution, socialist collective ownership into socialist public ownership, socialist public ownership into communist public ownership, an annual production of several million tons of steel into one of tens of millions of tons or even several hundred million tons of steel, and an output of over 100 catties [50 kilograms] or several hundred catties of grain per mu [2/3 km²] into one of several thousand or even tens of thousands of catties of grain per mu. Comrades, it is our task to bring about these transformations. Comrades, possibility and reality are two things, and they are two opposites of a single unity. Spurious possibility and genuine possibility are again two things and two opposites of a single unity. We should keep our heads cool and our heads hot, which are also two opposites of a single unity. Soaring enthusiasm means hotheadedness and scientific analysis coolheadedness. Some people in our country are a bit too hotheaded at present. They are in no mood to allow a cooling-off period, unwilling to make an analysis, and all for hotheadedness. Comrades, such an attitude is not good for people in leading posts, and they may trip and fall. These persons should make a point of cooling off their heads. Some others prefer coolheadedness to hotheadedness. They do not like some of the things that are going on and cannot keep pace with them. Those who take a wait-and-see attitude and those who want to eventually settle accounts with their opponents belong to this category. In regard to these people, we must gradually make their heads hotter.