ABSTRACT
The postrevolutionary transition of China from state feudalism to state and private capitalism has been largely implemented by the state feudal bureaucracy itself, as part of a strategy to achieve the objective of modernization. The idea of modernization is an expression of a version of Marxian theory that has gained dominance within the CPC since the death of Mao Zedong. The modernist vision at the core of this version of Marxism is grounded in technological determinism. Technology (the forces of production) is understood as the driving force (determinant) of social transformation (the social relations of production). Thus, in more than one sense, the Chinese transition from feudalism to capitalism has much in common with the Japanese transition under the Meiji Restoration, which was similarly focused upon technological improvement and implemented from the top levels of the feudal hierarchy based upon the notion that technological transformation would necessarily constitute the type of social progress desired.
