Sixty years of the 'Syrian Arab Republic' collapse overnight: How did the corrupted 'Revival Socialism' bring independence and liberation to the Arab people?

Theoretical Struggle
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Originally published at: 六十载“阿拉伯叙利亚共和国”一夕垮台，变质的“复兴社会主义”怎为阿拉伯人民带来独立和解放？ – 曙光

Sixty Years of the “Arab Syrian Republic” Collapsed in One Night, How Has the Degenerated “Revival Socialism” Brought Independence and Liberation to the Arab People?

Editorial Department of the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Proletariat

Editorial Board of League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Proletariat

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On the evening of December 8th, Syrian opposition armed forces entered the Syrian capital Damascus, stormed the Syrian Presidential Palace, and then-President Bashar al-Assad fled without fighting, escaping by plane to Moscow. Subsequently, the Syrian opposition controlled the Syrian State Television and announced that "the free Syrian people have overthrown Bashar al-Assad's government," establishing the National Transitional Council. Citizens in major Syrian cities such as Damascus and Hama gathered in the city center squares to celebrate the fall of the Ba'athist government. Thus, the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party, which had been ruling Syria for 61 years, fell. The wave of anti-Assad government warfare triggered by the 2011 "Arab Spring"[1] finally came to an end. At this moment, only 12 days had passed since the opposition "Sham Liberation Front" launched an attack on Aleppo, Syria’s most important northern city.

The red area in the left picture shows the control zone of the Ba'athist government, the dark green in the northwest shows the control zone of the "Sham Liberation Front (HTS)", the light green shows Turkish-occupied territories. The yellow in the northeast indicates the Kurdish armed forces (SDF) control zone, the dark blue area is controlled by the "Syrian National Army (SNA)" supported by Turkey. The bright green in the south is the "Syrian Free Army (FSA)" supported by the United States, the blue in the southwest is the Golan Heights long occupied by Israel. The gray area is the remnants of "Islamic State (ISIS)". By December 9th, the Ba'athist government control zone had basically disappeared, with the main parts of the country controlled by the "Sham Liberation Organization" and the "Syrian Free Army" coalition (green area) and Kurdish armed forces.

The rapid fall of the Syrian Ba'athist government stunned the entire world. On November 27th, the armed group "Sham Liberation Front" launched an attack on Aleppo, a city in northwest Syria. Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, this city had never been thoroughly captured by the opposition, but it was taken within just two days. On December 5th, opposition forces captured Hama in central Syria. The next day, the "Syrian Free Army," which had accepted the Ba'athist government’s amnesty during the later stages of the Syrian civil war, launched a new uprising, controlling southern provinces and advancing toward Damascus. On December 7th, opposition armed forces entered the Syrian capital Damascus, encountering almost no organized resistance, and took control of the entire city the next day. The speed of this development exceeded everyone's expectations. Initially, almost no one believed that the Ba'athist government, which had long been supported by Russian imperialism, would fall so quickly. Many "experts" on Chinese internet believed that the Ba'athist government was merely adopting a "strategic retreat" and when news of the opposition's complete control of Damascus broke, they could only bury their heads in the sand and remain silent. From a purely military perspective, the current situation in Syria is incomprehensible. Before this round of civil war, the Ba'athist government still controlled all major cities in Syria, with an army of 300,000 on paper, supported by Russia with numerous tanks, fighter jets, and even advanced air defense missile systems. The opposition only possessed a small number of armored vehicles seized during the civil war over a decade ago, homemade armored pickup trucks, no air force, and was at a disadvantage in numbers. Yet, despite such a huge gap in military strength, the Ba'athist government still collapsed like an avalanche. The continuation of the 2011 Syrian civil war nearly turned into an armed parade, with the government forces fleeing in fear, and the most intense resistance coming from the Russian air force stationed in Syria. Most cities were taken over by the opposition with little large-scale resistance.

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"War is politics, and war itself is a political action. Since ancient times, there has been no war without political nature."[2] The reason for the defeat of the Syrian Ba'athist government also needs to be traced back to the change in the nature of its ruling party. The Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party was originally a national bourgeoisie party in the Middle East, similar in nature to the Chinese Kuomintang led by Sun Yat-sen before the "April 12" counterrevolutionary coup in China[3]. The two main founders of the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party, Zakki al-Askuz (1899–1968), known as the "Father of the Ba'athist Spirit," and Michel Aflaq (1910–1989), who actually led the early activities of the party, both came from bourgeoisie families in Damascus or coastal cities of Syria, with family members belonging to the minority Alawite sect and Eastern Orthodox Christianity[4]. Under French colonial rule, they suffered from French colonial exploitation and religious oppression from the Syrian landlord class and comprador bourgeoisie colluding with the colonizers. To realize Syrian national independence and develop national capitalism for their class, they had the historical task of overthrowing imperialist and feudal rule and establishing a bourgeois democratic republic. Aflaq and others publicly claimed to advocate "Arab socialism," claiming "the socialist revolution will change the spirit and values of every Arab." However, they were not true socialists. As members of the national bourgeoisie with some economic strength and education, they studied in France for a long time, severely detached from the real struggles of Syrian workers and peasants. This social practice determined that they could not correctly understand the role of the masses in history, and due to their bourgeois class position, they could not accept Marxism. Therefore, Zakki al-Askuz and Michel Aflaq still held a set of idealist views, unable to scientifically understand the true reasons for the colonial domination of the Arab region by Britain, France, and others, nor see the role of the working people, especially the proletariat, in the national democratic revolution. Instead, they used various vulgar arguments to explain social and historical development. For example, Al-Askuz believed that the foundation of modern society was the "liberty, equality, and democracy" brought by the French Revolution, and used a very absurd logic to justify the Arab people's motivation for national independence. He thought that human nature was an abstract "common sense and reason," and that everyone "hopes to organize themselves according to their reason, and thus hopes to take over state affairs from oppressors (colonizers)"[5]. Aflaq took an even more direct anti-Marxist route, claiming that "the nation-state essentially only maintains the interests of the bourgeoisie as the ruling class," but openly declared that "Arab countries should not accept the class and freedom concepts of communism, and that the importance of nationalist movements outweighs class struggle. Arab socialism should eliminate exploitation without restricting personal freedom"[6]. In summary, although they all demanded the abolition of the shackles imposed on the Arab people by colonizers and feudal forces, "implement socialism to eliminate exploitation," and sought to establish a unified "Arab socialist" state, their bourgeois class position made them only want to stop at the old democratic revolution and oppose establishing proletarian dictatorship.

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Because of this, the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party they established from the beginning was tainted with a "congenital soft cartilage disease," making it impossible for it to "unite true friends to attack true enemies" and become a proletarian party capable of carrying out the revolution to the end. Instead, it could only be regarded as a bourgeois nationalist party. Founded in 1947, although the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party verbally demanded the realization of "Arab unity, freedom, and socialist people's national revolution," its reform demands were often limited to the economic field, and its various economic measures were essentially "full-blown capitalism." For example, Aflaq's platform for the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party advocated nationalization of public industries, land redistribution, and government control of domestic and foreign trade. The ultimate goal of these political demands, as Lenin pointed out, was that "land nationalization means: to eliminate medieval monopolies and relations in agriculture as much as possible, to make land transactions as free as possible, and to make agriculture most adaptable to the market," and after escaping imperialist colonial rule, the final outcome could only be "the most pure, thorough, and perfect capitalism"[8]. This inherent deficiency determined that the Ba'ath Party would inevitably develop into a party with postnatal deficiencies in practice. Its policies were unstable, unable to truly represent the interests of the broad masses, especially workers and peasants, and ultimately could not achieve the goal of Arab unification. In 1958, the Ba'ath Party promoted the merger of Syria and Egypt into the united "Arab United Republic," and Aflaq then hurriedly dissolved the Ba'ath Party, completely giving up its independence and handing over leadership to the then Egyptian leader Nasser[9]. However, after the establishment of the Arab United Republic, Nasser demanded to ban all party activities in Syria, dissolved local governments, and directly controlled Syria. Politically, Egypt controlled Syria, and economically, it controlled Syria's foreign trade, exporting large quantities of Egyptian goods to Syria, leading to the collapse of many local factories and damaging the interests of the Syrian bourgeoisie; at the same time, Nasser also incited opposition from the Syrian proletariat. Although he nominally implemented some measures in Syria to limit workers' working hours and set minimum wages, ostensibly beneficial to the working class, he explicitly banned strikes and disbanded unions, sparking waves of strikes among the Syrian proletariat. These measures led both the bourgeoisie and the proletariat in Syria to oppose continuing union with the Egyptian bourgeoisie, resulting in the eventual disintegration of the Arab United Republic in 1961. The Ba'ath Socialist Party, which completely abandoned its independence and handed over leadership of the Arab United Republic, could only watch helplessly as Nasser’s measures harmed the interests of the Syrian bourgeoisie and the broad working people, making the goal of establishing a unified state led by the bourgeoisie across the Arab region a mere illusion.

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In 1960, Salah Jadid (1926–1993), from a rural petty bourgeoisie background, rebuilt the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party. After withdrawing from the Arab United Republic, he led the party to carry out a military coup in 1963, seizing power in Syria. Since the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party was not a vanguard of the proletariat, it was internally mixed with a large number of comprador bourgeoisie and old officers. After gaining power, internal factional struggles intensified. The leftist faction of the Ba'ath, representing the interests of the lower bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie, cooperated with the Syrian Communist Party and implemented policies conducive to the development of national capitalism and resolutely anti-imperialist. He advocated recruiting more workers and peasants into the Ba'ath, confiscating large feudal landlords' lands and distributing them to poor farmers, confiscating imperialist industries, and ultimately establishing a "socialist" people's democratic dictatorship based on a one-party system; externally, he demanded "export of socialist revolution," increased aid to the Palestine Liberation Organization, and united with other Arab countries to eliminate Israel, ultimately liberating Palestine.[10] Meanwhile, the Ba'ath right wing began to gather around Syria's current President Bashar al-Assad's father, Hafez al-Assad, plotting a coup to seize power. Hafez al-Assad was born into a comprador landlord family of the Alawite sect. His father, Ali al-Assad, had written letters with other members of the same sect to the French government, begging France to delay Syria's independence process in exchange for Alawite privileges—a true traitor to the country[11]. After infiltrating the Ba'ath leadership, Hafez al-Assad repeatedly demanded to end Syria's "class struggle" policy, reduce support for the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and restore relations with reactionary monarchies like Saudi Arabia. He constantly appointed right-wing Ba'athists into the Syrian government, attempting to gain control of major cities. In 1970, with the support of landlords, comprador bourgeoisie, and old officers, Hafez al-Assad launched the "Corrective Movement," using a military coup to seize power, ending all revolutionary measures of the Ba'ath left wing. From then on, the Ba'ath regime became a reactionary party representing the interests of large landlords and comprador bourgeoisie, similar to the Kuomintang after the "April 12" counterrevolutionary coup[12]. Domestically, Hafez al-Assad halted land reforms, released many landlords, rich farmers, compradors, clergy, and chieftains who had been suppressed by Jadid's regime, restoring feudal privileges to them; internationally, he betrayed national sovereignty, selling coastal areas to the Soviet Union as military bases in exchange for Soviet aid. Hafez al-Assad, a member of the Alawite sect, sought to consolidate his reactionary rule by collaborating with Alawite feudal landlords and comprador bourgeoisie, promoting relatives to high military and political positions, and oppressing the Sunni Muslim majority (over 75% of Syria's population) under the guise of "secularization." Most of the key military and administrative positions in Syria at that time were held by Alawites, many of whom were relatives of Hafez al-Assad. Alawites accounted for only 11–12% of Syria's total population but made up 80% of officers and 70% of ordinary soldiers[13]. In 1982, to suppress opposition, the Ba'ath government used poison gas in Hama, Syria, killing tens of thousands (the highest estimate being 40,000)[14]. As the Soviet Union was nearing collapse, the Ba'ath regime turned to the United States, sending 20,000 troops during the Gulf War to support American invasion of Iraq. Since Hafez al-Assad came to power, the Ba'ath right wing re-imposed the "three mountains" policy, and "unity, freedom, and socialism" became mere empty slogans. The Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party had also thoroughly degenerated into a reactionary bourgeois party, with no democratic forms left. It had become a tool of imperialist domination over Syria, losing all progressive character[15].

Entering the 21st century, Hafez al-Assad died, and his son Bashar al-Assad inherited his reactionary throne. Under his rule, Syria has become a raw material supplier for imperialism, with the only remaining industries supporting the national economy being agriculture and oil exports. Fluctuations in international oil and grain prices have severely impacted Syria's economy, and its national industry has been almost completely destroyed. In 1996, the industrial sector accounted for 18% of Syria's GDP, but by 2003, it had fallen to only 3.2%[15]. Meanwhile, Syria's inflation rate continued to fluctuate around 10%, corruption was rampant, and the people suffered greatly. In 2000, some bourgeois liberals issued the "Declaration No. 99," demanding legislative protection of free speech, which was subsequently suppressed by the Assad government. At this time, U.S. imperialism sought to exploit the wave of opposition against the Ba'athist government in Syria to install a puppet regime under its control, repeatedly claiming that the Syrian government was helping Saddam's regime in Iraq smuggle chemical weapons to create a pretext for war. Bashar al-Assad hastily turned to Russian imperialism, reopened the Tartus naval base previously sold to the Soviets, and betrayed Syrian sovereignty in exchange for Russian support, making Syria Russia's most important foothold in the Middle East.[16] In 2011, protests against military dictatorship and demands for democratic rights swept across the Middle East, igniting the "Arab Spring." The Ba'athist government could no longer suppress the people's anger, and large-scale protests erupted in major cities nationwide. However, the leadership of the Arab people's movement mostly fell into the hands of comprador bourgeoisie supported by U.S. imperialism, and Syria was no exception. The U.S. imperialist bloc used the wave of revolutionary protests against the Ba'athist government to support the "Syrian Free Army" in the south and Kurdish armed groups in the northeast as its proxies. Opposition forces formed the "Syrian National Coalition," which once advanced into Damascus. The Ba'athist government was on the brink of collapse. But at that time, both Syria and Iraq were embroiled in the "Islamic State" insurgency led by reactionary clerics and large landlords, which had taken control of northern Iraq and eastern Syria, posing a serious threat to the U.S.-backed puppet regime in Iraq. Due to the inability to support the Syrian opposition fully, U.S. imperialism had to temporarily compromise with Russia, jointly addressing the urgent threat of the "Islamic State" insurgency. Russia provided Syria's Ba'athist government with large quantities of weapons and direct air support, conducting relentless bombing of opposition forces and Syria itself, which allowed Russia to control most of the country by 2017. In fact, the Ba'athist government had long lost the support of the people; without Russian imperialist support, it would have fallen in 2011 already.[17]

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After the temporary end of the Syrian civil war, Syria has completely become a chessboard for imperialist struggles. Its main regions are controlled by the revivalist party government manipulated by Russian imperialism, the northeast by Kurdish forces supported by American imperialism, and some opposition forces have retreated to the northwest, supported by Turkey. Syrian warlords are numerous, small-scale armed conflicts never cease, and the people live extremely painful and miserable lives. Due to domestic fragmentation, the main oil-producing and grain-producing areas are controlled by U.S.-supported Kurdish armed forces, and the decayed revivalist party government faces even greater financial difficulties, relying solely on importing Russian grain to avoid famine. At this time, U.S. imperialism also imposed a blockade on Syria's oil exports through the "Caesar Act" in 2020, making the already nearly destroyed national industry even more difficult. By 2020, Syria's annual per capita GDP was only $572.4 [17], even lower than Ethiopia, known for its long-term chaos and underdevelopment. Before the civil war, the exchange rate of the Syrian pound to the dollar was about 50 Syrian pounds to 1 dollar, but by 2024, it had approached 15,000 Syrian pounds to 1 dollar. In the most developed Damascus, the average monthly wage was only about 250 RMB, yet food prices were similar to those in major Chinese cities.[18] After the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the revivalist party government’s finances completely collapsed. To maintain their rule, they simply entrusted all hopes of national defense to Russian imperialism, drastically cut soldiers’ wages. By this year, the monthly salary of an ordinary Syrian soldier was only $20 (about 140 RMB), barely enough to meet basic living needs, forcing them to rely on smuggling for a livelihood. At this point, the internal and external conditions for the fall of the revivalist party government have matured. Although they still seem to control most of Syria’s regions, population, and military forces, in reality, they have become a crumbling house that can collapse with a light kick. Meanwhile, external conditions have also matured. Since Russia is deeply embroiled in the Ukraine battlefield and unable to support the revivalist government, it has even withdrawn some troops from Syria to return to fight at home. The opposition armed forces seized this opportunity to launch a deadly blow against the revivalist government, quickly burying the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party, which was neither unified nor free, and was far from socialist.

What will be the future direction of Syria? Today, the various opposition armed forces inside Syria are also riddled with contradictions. Each faction receives different economic support from various countries, and no organization can gain a decisive advantage. The Shami Liberation Organization, which played a major role in overthrowing the revivalist government, was originally a branch of Al-Qaeda called "Nusra Front," which demanded the implementation of reactionary Islamic law, abolished women’s rights, and later split from ISIS.[19] This organization is still regarded as a terrorist organization by both U.S. and Russian imperialists, and also contains remnants of East Turkestan forces suppressed by China and the U.S. It’s unable to gain popular support for its reactionary political demands, suffering repeated defeats, and now barely survives in Idlib Province in northwest Syria, relying on Turkey’s support. To deceive the Syrian people and gain support from U.S. imperialism, in recent years, this organization has tried to portray itself as a "moderate" bourgeois democratic party, removing the "hardline" faction demanding immediate implementation of Islamic law and restoring women’s right to university education. Since the Syrian people generally oppose reactionary Islamic law, its leader Abu Muhammad al-Jolani no longer dares to reverse history. During media interviews, he removed symbols of Islamic clerical rule, took off his headscarf, shaved his beard, and wore Western-style suits. To dispel U.S. doubts, he declared in a CNN interview on December 5 that Islamic rule like the Taliban’s was wrong, saying “No ethnic group has the right to annex another; these sects have coexisted on Syrian land for hundreds of years, and no one has the right to eliminate them”[20]. He also vowed to protect these groups’ rights in the constitution, presenting himself as a bourgeois democrat. Over the past month, Jolani has met multiple times with diplomats from various countries within the U.S. imperialist bloc. The "Shami Liberation Organization" has become inevitable to turn to U.S. imperialism. Currently, the main warlords controlling various parts of Syria, such as the "Syrian Free Army" in the south and the Kurdish "Syrian Democratic Forces" in the northeast, are almost all supported by U.S. imperialism. However, these organizations represent different class groups and are supported by different countries, leading to intense contradictions among them. None are willing to be swallowed by others, yet they dare not violate the popular call to end the civil war and continue to provoke conflicts. In recent weeks, the Syrian central government controlled by the "Shami Liberation Organization" has negotiated with minority ethnic and religious groups, allowing some autonomy. It now appears that Syria may establish a "joint government" supported by the U.S., maintaining a nominal unity, but it is undeniable that Russian imperialism will be thoroughly expelled from Syria. The imperialist rivalry between China and Russia in the Middle East has already significantly declined. For the Syrian people, they have finally escaped the fascist dictatorship of the right-wing Ba'athist revivalist government that has cast a shadow over them for more than fifty years, but their future remains uncertain. The revivalist government has just fallen, and Israel has taken advantage of the chaos to occupy several villages along the border with Syria and bombed the weapons depots left by the revivalist government; the "Syrian National Army" supported by Turkey in the north still frequently clashes with Kurdish forces. The vast land from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates River remains shrouded in smoke and fire, and the 22 million Syrian people are still far from their liberation. But regardless, the Assad father and son’s right-wing revivalist government has long become a rat crossing the street, hated by everyone. It brought countless disasters to the Syrian people and betrayed their struggle for independence and freedom. The Syrian people have expressed their attitude with nationwide celebrations—they will never miss such a reactionary regime that enforces religious oppression and fascist dictatorship, and has been thrown into the trash heap of history.

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At this time, a wave of mourning for the fall of the revivalist government and a chorus of grievances for Bashar al-Assad has appeared on the Chinese revisionist internet. Many "little pinks" strive to whitewash Bashar al-Assad, attributing the fall of the revivalist government to "U.S. imperialism," and loudly proclaiming Bashar al-Assad as a "patriotic and caring leader," and the Syrian people as "ungrateful reactionaries." In fact, they do not understand the fundamental reason for the fall of the revivalist government: the internal contradictions of things are the fundamental cause of their development, and the interrelation and mutual influence of things are secondary causes[21]. They are completely unaware of this principle, thus failing to understand the true reason for the fall of the revivalist government, and ultimately blaming it on the "stupidity" of the Syrian people. These people, with no moral bottom line, who turn a blind eye or even praise the Taliban’s atrocities against women, exposing their beastly nature, now put on a hypocritical face of caring for women’s rights. They lament that the Middle East has lost a "secular" regime, "Islamic law will be implemented," and even curse the Syrian people celebrating the fall of Bashar’s government, wishing for continued chaos in Syria, claiming "they are rejoicing too early," and "once they wear headscarves, they will miss Bashar." They cry out for such a figure like Chiang Kai-shek, but who will cry for the tens of thousands of Sunni people suffering religious oppression in Hama? The "little pinks" see the Syrian people as "stupid" and "ignorant," but the Syrian people are a hundred or a thousand times smarter than them. They neither welcome the revivalist government nor accept reactionary Islamic law. Otherwise, why would the "Shami Liberation Organization" retract its fangs of implementing Islamic law? The reality in Syria has already thoroughly discredited the "little pinks": to this day, the "Shami Liberation Organization" still does not dare to force women to wear veils in any major Syrian city, restrict women’s education, or openly persecute religious minorities. If the "Shami Liberation Front" intends to impose Islamic law on the Syrian people, it will follow the old path of the revivalist party, being thrown into the trash heap of history by the Syrian people. Those shameful supporters of Chinese revisionism have never truly regarded the Syrian people as human beings; they wear the guise of "communists" but support reactionary figures like Chiang Kai-shek. Whoever benefits from the imperialist rivalry of Chinese revisionism, they support. But "the small world, how many flies hit the wall"[22]. The venomous curses of the "little pinks" against the Syrian people are just clownish nonsense. No matter how they attack Syria’s struggle for liberation, the Syrian people will learn from the failed lessons of the Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party and find a truly liberated path.

  1. "The Arab Spring" began in 2010 as mass protests across almost all Arab countries against military dictatorship, demanding political democratic rights, called "Arab Uprising" by Arabs. Major imperialist countries sought to use this movement to install pro-imperialist comprador regimes, leading many Arab countries into political chaos or prolonged warlord conflicts after the fall of military dictatorships. ↑

  2. Mao Zedong: "On Protracted War," in "Selected Works of Mao Zedong," Volume 1, People's Publishing House, August 1951, in horizontal layout edition. ↑

  3. With the help of the Chinese Communist Party, Sun Yat-sen reorganized the Kuomintang, and in 1924 adopted the "Three Major Policies" of "Unite Russia, Unite the Communist Party, Support Farmers and Workers," making the Kuomintang more explicitly anti-imperialist and anti-feudal. ↑

  4. The Alawite sect belongs to Shia Islam, while the Eastern Orthodox Church is a branch of Christianity. Both are religious minorities in Syria. When Syria was still under Ottoman rule, where Sunni Islam was dominant, the Alawite uprising against feudal exploitation and religious oppression occurred multiple times. ↑

  5. Choueiri & Youssef M, Arab Nationalism: A History of Nation and State in the Arab World. ↑

  6. Michel Aflaq: "The Transformation of the Arab Revival and Its Impact on the Syrian Civil War," "Arab World Studies," November 2018, Issue 6. ↑

  7. Mao Zedong: "Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society," in "Selected Works of Mao Zedong," Volume 1, People's Publishing House, 1967. ↑

  8. Vladimir Lenin: "The Democratic and Populist Movements in China," in "Collected Works of Lenin," Volume 21, First Chinese Edition, People's Publishing House, 1959. ↑

  9. Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918–1970): Leader of the Egyptian national bourgeoisie, second president of the Arab Republic of Egypt, and the de facto highest leader of Egypt from 1952 to 1970. ↑

  10. "The Evolution of the Syrian Ba'ath Party and Its Impact on the Syrian Civil War," "Arab World Studies," November 2018, Issue 6. ↑

  11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_al-Assad ↑

  12. After Chiang Kai-shek, the right-wing leader of the Kuomintang, launched the "April 12" counterrevolutionary coup, the Kuomintang was thoroughly degenerated into a reactionary party representing compradors, big landlords, and the upper interests of the bourgeoisie. ↑

  13. Reva Bhalla: Making Sense of the Syrian Crisis, Stratfor Enterprises, Geopolitical Weekly, May 5, 2011, https://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110504-making-sense-syrian-crisis ↑

  14. https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%93%88%E9%A9%AC%E5%A4%A7%E5%B1%A0%E6%9D%A1 ↑

  15. "Analysis of the Transformation of the Syrian Economic System," "International Observation," 2007, Issue 4. ↑

  16. The Islamic State is a reactionary organization demanding the implementation of Islamic law and launching "jihad" against other countries. From 2014 to 2016, it controlled large territories in northwest Iraq and eastern Syria. The organization abolished all women’s rights within its controlled areas, carried out genocide against Yazidis and Iraqi Turkmen, persecuted infidels, and carried out terrorist attacks in France, Russia, and other imperialist countries. There is currently no material indicating that any major imperialist country has provided economic aid to this organization. ↑

  17. https://data.worldbank.org.cn/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=SY ↑

  18. "Monthly wage about 250 RMB, Syrians suffer greatly under economic sanctions," CCTV News, https://content-static.cctvnews.cctv.com/snow-book/index.html?item_id=6387574667011048247 ↑

  19. "Evolution of the Syrian Crisis," "China International Strategic Review 2016." ↑

  20. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/06/middleeast/syria-rebel-forces-hayat-tahrir-al-sham-al-jolani-intl-latam/index.html ↑

  21. Mao Zedong: "On Contradiction," in "Selected Works of Mao Zedong," Volume 1, People's Publishing House, 1967. ↑

  22. Mao Zedong: "Full River Red - In Collaboration with Guo Moruo." ↑

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