p Hegemonistic ambitions are the direct offshoot of the Mao group’s extreme nationalism. Since the close of the 1950s Mao Tse-tung and his group have been trying to provide an ideological foundation for their foreign policy line, whose objective has been to secure China’s recognition as the centre of world development. In pursuance of this objective they propound the theory that the centre of the world revolution has moved to China. The notorious "thought of Mao Tse-tung" is portrayed not only as the "combination of Marxism-Leninism with the specific practice of the Chinese revolution" but also as a "brilliant combination of Marxism-Leninism with the specific practice of the world revolution”,  [220•*  and given out as the "most developed and living Marxism-Leninism”, as "the pinnacle of MarxismLeninism in the contemporary epoch”. Early in 1966 the Chinese leaders adopted a thesis about three historical epochs: the epoch of Marx and Engels as the stage of preparation for the proletarian revolution, the epoch of Lenin as the stage of the victory of the socialist revolution in one country and, lastly, the epoch of Mao Tse-tung as the stage of the "victory of the world revolution and the final eradication of capitalism and imperialism”.  [220•** 

p In the course of the "cultural revolution" the Mao group dropped its mask and completed its ideological substantiation of the claim to leadership of the revolutionary movement and of world development. The bid for hegemony became not only an ideological foundation of the Maoist foreign policy but a key component of the education of the Chinese people in a spirit of nationalism and chauvinism. The Chinese leaders asserted that the People’s Republic of China had become and was recognised by the whole world as the "only centre”, "the mainstay" and “bedrock” of the revolutions of the peoples of the world. "China," Jenmin Jihpao wrote in mid-March 1967, "is the centre to which the revolutionary peoples of the whole world are turning with hope, and the powerful base of the world revolution.” "Peking," Wenhsueh Chanpao declared on April 21, 1967, 221 “is the centre of the world revolution, the headquarters from which Mao Tse-tung directs the Chinese and the world revolution.”

p Having proclaimed that "mankind has entered the new epoch of the thought of Mao Tse-tung”, the Chinese leaders now demand that the peoples of the world follow "only the road indicated by Mao Tse-tung, the road along which China is moving”. The Maoists have not gone very far from the former rulers of China, for instance, the Ming emperors, one of which, in an edict to the ruler of a neighbouring state in Southeast Asia, wrote: "I command that in choosing a Road you follow one that is similar to the Way of Heaven" (as the emperors called their policy).

p Hegemonistic ideas and concepts, “sanctified” by the llth plenary meeting of the CPC Central Committee, are being more and more energetically introduced by the Maoists in China’s official foreign policy doctrine and practice. In 1967 Chinese foreign policy was openly set the task of "broadly establishing the absolute authority of the great commanderin-chief Chairman Mao Tse-tung and of the great thought of Mao Tse-tung in every possible way”. This is regarded as a task "of paramount importance on which depends the destiny of the people of China and the peoples of the whole world”, as a "supremely glorious and great task which the epoch and history have entrusted to us”.  [221•*  Anybody disagreeing with this is labelled a "mortal enemy" of China who "would be crushed by the advancing wheel of history”.

p The actions of the Maoists on the international scene in 1967 plainly showed that their cardinal foreign policy objective was to spread the "thought of Mao Tse-tung" throughout the world. At a high cost to themselves many countries, including Burma, Nepal, Cambodia, India, Tunisia and Kenya, found what this meant in practice.

p The national liberation movement is accorded a special place in the Mao group’s tactics to give China an exclusive role in world development. The Maoists aspire to the leadership of that movement in order to have the possibility of acting on the international scene on its behalf and utilising it in their own interests.

p The basic aim underlying China’s foreign policy activity 222 in Asia and Africa was stated by Mao Tse-tung as early as 1956. In a talk with a delegation of Italian Communists he declared that "it would he better for the Communist Parties of the old continent to leave the revolutionary movements of Asia and Africa alone, refrain from stating their opinion of them and let the Chinese work out ideology and the methods and aims of the political struggle for them”.

p In an effort to substantiate ideologically their hegemonistic designs relative to Asian, African and Latin American countries and gambling on the growth of national selfawareness in those continents, the Mao group has evolved and given currency to a thesis that Asia, Africa and Latin America are "the main zone of revolutionary storms”, that the national liberation movement plays the "decisive role" in the world revolutionary process. With the same aim in mind the Chinese leadership uses a geopolitical theory about the amorphous, extra-class "community of destinies and interests" between China and the Asian and African countries, about the division of the world into “poor” and “rich” nations opposing one another.

p But the most striking expression of the Maoist GreatPower hegemonistic plans is, perhaps, the concept of "world village and world city”, which was most fully expounded in an article by Lin Piao entitled "Long Live the Victory of the People’s War!" (September 1965). This “theory” declares that the course of modern history is determined by the uncompromising struggle between "world village" (Asian, African and Latin American countries) and the "world city”, which consists of the USA and other capitalist states and also the Soviet Union and other European socialist countries.

p This sort of “theory” is a chauvinistic, Great-Power attempt to give weight to China and undermine or even destroy the forces, which, in the opinion of the Chinese leaders, stand in China’s way on the world scene and prevent her from achieving the status of a power determining the course of world development. China has the largest territory and the largest population, and with her nuclear weapons  [222•*  she has become the strongest military power in 223 the "world village”. The task of vanquishing the "world city" can have only one meaning: the Asian, African and Latin American countries must first accept China’s leadership, subordinate their policy to that of China and then start a struggle against all other countries (regardless of whether they are capitalist or socialist) in order to make China the ruling power in the world.

p The "people’s war" theory has also been evolved to mask the Great-Power ambitions of the Mao group. This “theory” is offered as a "magic remedy”, a "universal truth applicable anywhere and everywhere”. Peking’s adventurist calls and actions against a number of African and Asian countries in the summer of 1967 demonstrated that the purpose behind this theory is, regardless of the genuine interests of the peoples, to instigate the overthrow of regimes that for some reason do not suit the Maoists.

There is another, sinister, aspect to the theory of "people’s war”. It calls on the peoples of Asia and Africa to "smash United States imperialism" by a "people’s war" in order to fetter US imperialism in flashpoints of tension as far away as possible from China’s frontiers and thereby enable the Maoists to sit snug behind the "Chinese Wall" and without expending their own forces and means compel the USA, with the hands and blood of others, to regard China as an equal. Very indicative in this connection are the words of Chen Yi, Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister, who said: "The world needs not one but three or four Vietnams.” If the Maoists’ real attitude to the Vietnam issue, their "tacit agreement" with the USA on non-aggression and the words of Lin Piao that in a people’s war it is necessary to rely exclusively on one’s own strength are taken into account, it will become perfectly clear that the true purpose of Mao Tse-tung and his group is to make others take the chestnuts out of the fire for them.