Reviewed by John Peterson

November 4, 2025

 

Selected Works of W. B. Bland; Volume 1: The China Report is available for purchase via Erythros Press and Media, LLC or through Amazon.

 

This book should be read by anyone with an interest in the events leading up to and following on from the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. As the preface explains, Bill Bland was a British Marxist-Leninist with vast theoretical and practical political experience, dating back to New Zealand from before the second world war and extending until his death in the UK in the year 2000. His intellectual activities were always underpinned by engagement in day-to-day political struggles, to the extent that even those who disagreed with some of his views would assert that he had ‘always performed his communist duty’.

Bland’s writings were largely devoted to deconstruction of revisionism in all its forms, resulting in an extensive archive of writing, much of which is now available via the internet.

His method was informed both by Marx – ‘doubt everything’ – as well as the observation attributed to John Adams – ‘facts are stubborn things’. These sentiments were deeply embedded in his writing which set out to look below the surface of things, construct an explanatory hypothesis on the basis of his findings, and invite informed criticism that would further advance understanding of historical and current events.

His written work is characterised by the inclusion of many referenced quotes from relevant literature. Here, he was attempting to set out the facts in print, challenging  detractors to debate these rather than engage in personal polemics. This was difficult for some, who preferred the simple but intellectually indefensible alternative of stating disagreement with his analysis and conclusions but without making the effort to set out their explanation of why.

The recently republished ’China Report’ represents the start of a process that will entail publication of much more of Bland’s work in the hope that this will stimulate debate and further enrich our collective understanding of historical events. Focusing in this report on how the revolutionary process unfolds in a colonial country, the starting point for Bland was how different classes (working class, national bourgeoisie, comprador bourgeoisie) jockeying for power and influence within the People’s Republic of China, would struggle to promote their class interests within the confines of the Communist Party – now the only party available to them for the exercise of political power.

By approaching the events that took place in China as manifestations of class struggle, Bland sought to examine the twists and turns in policy and explain otherwise inexplicable phenomena such as the ‘Kao Kang Affair’, the ‘Hundred Flowers Affair’, the ‘Great Leap Forward’, the ‘Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution’, the death of Lin Piao in an air crash while defecting to Russia, and the post-Mao economic reforms. His analysis led him to the conclusion that under the leadership of Mao Tse-Tung and his followers, the Communist Party of China at times pursued not Marxist-Leninist, but revisionist policies, which served the interests of sections of the Chinese bourgeoisie.

The subsequent development of China into a modern super-power suggests that Bland’s analysis was both prescient and deserving of close attention in today’s world. The same can be said of his other theoretical works, to be published in subsequent volumes of this series.

 

-The reviewer, John Peterson, lives in Britain.