There is also a question whether the Chinese Communist Party under the banner of Maoism should replace the Russian party, establish Mao as the fourth founder after Marx, Lenin, and Stalin, and become the leader of world communism, or whether it should collaborate with the Russian party, at least temporarily, and thus ensure China Russian support.  When, however, Chinese youth was summoned to take up the fight for Mao and his group, forces were loosed which could not be controlled.  Following independent action by youth groups similar in nature to youth revolts in Western countries, the power and prestige of older leaders suffered.  Even now (1969) it is impossible to re-establish unity and order; the Mao and Liu groups still oppose each other, and local factions have arisen.  Violent confrontations, often resulting in hundreds of deaths, occur in many provinces.  The regime is no longer so strong and unified as it was before 1966, although its end is not in sight.  Quite possibly far-reaching changes may occur in the future.

Three factors will probably influence the future of China.  First, the emergence of neo-communism, as in Czechoslovakia in 1968, in an attempt to soften traditional communist practice.  Second, the outcome of the war in Vietnam.  Will China be able to continue its eighteenth-century dream of direct or indirect domination of Southeast Asia?  Will North Vietnam detach itself from China and attach itself more closely to Russia?  Will Russia and China continue to create separate spheres of influence in Asia, Africa, and South America?  The first factor depends on developments inside China, the second on events outside, and at least in part on decisions in the United States, Japan, and Europe.

The third factor has to do with human nature.  One may justifiably ask whether the change in human personality which Chinese communism has attempted to achieve is possible, let alone desirable.  Studies of animals and of human beings have demonstrated a tendency to identify with a territory, with property, and with kin.  Can the Chinese eradicate this tendency?  The Chinese have been family-centered and accustomed to subordinating their individual inclinations to the requirements of family and neighborhood.  But beyond these established frameworks they have been individualistic and highly idiosyncratic at all times.  Under the communist regime, however, the government is omnipresent, and people must toe the official line.  One senses the tragedy that affects well-known scholars, writers and poets, who must degrade themselves, their work, their past and their families in order to survive.  They may hope for comprehension of their actions, but nonetheless they must suffer shame.  Will the present government change the minds of these men and eradicate their feelings?

Communist China has made great progress, no doubt.  Soon it may equal other developed nations.  But its progress has been achieved at an unnecessary cost in human lives and happiness.