The Sino-Vietnamese model can and should begin with rural revolution
rather than with current reform. For most purposes this is a major limitation of
the model, since the conditions for rural revolution have mostly passed from
the world scene. But the continuing appeal of “Maoism” to radical groups in
Nepal and India indicates some relevance. The lesson of the Sino-Vietnamese
experience for ongoing rural radicalism was best put by Mao Zedong:
If we only mobilize the people to carry on the war and do nothing else, can
we succeed in defeating the enemy? Of course not … We must … solve the
problems facing the masses – food, shelter, and clothing, fuel, rice, cooking
oil, and salt, sickness and hygiene, and marriage. In short, all the practical
problems in the masses’ everyday life should claim our attention. If we
attend to these problems, solve them and satisfy the needs of the masses,
we shall really become organizers of the well-being of the masses, and they
will truly rally around us and give us their warm support. Comrades, will
we then be able to arouse them to take part in the revolutionary war? Yes,
indeed we will.