Mao's Winding Road to Socialism

The formation of most modern capitalist countries can in large measure be traced back to European Enlightenment conceptions of rational self-expression and the right to pursue happiness, with the formation of the state serving as a means to achieve the end.

China after the Xinhai Revolution in 1911 was still torn by uprisings, conflict and war. Meanwhile, a civil society with capitalist characteristics emerged, which paralleled an increasingly strong awareness of nationhood among the public. This created tensions with the drives of the Enlightenment-based New Culture movement and the patriotic segment of the May Fourth movement. These were very separate discourses, with one asserting the supremacy of human rights and the other putting the nation above all else. It has been lamented that the need to save the country ultimately overpowered a need to satisfy enlightenment ideals.