Take the process of China’s democratic revolution,[4-480]which began with the Revolution of 1911; it, too, has several distinct stages.[4-481] Perhaps there are still several stages through which it must pass before this revolution will be completed. Although no change has taken place in the nature of the fundamental contradiction in the process as a whole, i.e., in the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, democratic-revolutionary nature of the process (the opposite of which is its semi-colonial and semi-feudal nature), China has nonetheless[4-482] passed through four or five[4-483]stages of development in the course of more than twenty years; during this time many great events have taken place – the failure of the Revolution of 1911 and the establishment of the regime of the Northern Warlords, the formation of the first national united front and the great revolution,[4-484] the break-up of the united front and the desertion of the bourgeoisie to the side of the counter-revolution, the wars among the warlords,[4-485] the war of the Soviets,[4-486] the loss of Manchuria, the ending of the war of the Soviets, the transformation of the Guomindang policy, the establishment of the second united front,[4-487] and so on. These stages are marked by particular features such as the intensification of certain contradictions (e.g., the contradiction between China and Japan),[4-488] the partial or temporary resolution of other contradictions (e.g., the destruction of the Northern Warlords and the confiscation of the lands of the landlords in the Soviet areas), and the emergence of yet another contradiction (e.g., the conflicts among the new warlords, and the landlords’ recapture of the land after the loss of the Soviet areas).[4-489]
In studying the particularities of the contradictions at each stage in a process,[4-490]we not only observe[4-491]them in their interconnections or their totality, but also observe the two aspects.[4-492]