Editing Three Principles of the People (section)

=== People's Republic of China ===
The '''Three Principles of the People''' has been reinterpreted by the [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP) to argue that communism is a necessary conclusion of the Three Principles of the People and thus provides legitimacy for the communist government. This reinterpretation of the Three Principles of the People is commonly referred to as the '''New Three Principles of the People''' ({{Zh|c=新三民主义}}, also translated as '''Neo-tridemism'''), a word coined by Mao's 1940 essay ''[[On New Democracy]],'' in which he argued that the CCP is a better enforcer of the Three Principles of the People compared to the bourgeois [[Kuomintang|Nationalist Party]] and that the new three principles are about allying with the communists and the Russians (Soviets), and supporting peasants and the workers.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mao |first=Zedong |title=On New Democracy |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-2/mswv2_26.htm |access-date=7 May 2022 |website=www.marxists.org |archive-date=9 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181109212043/https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-2/mswv2_26.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Proponents of the New Three Principles of the People often claim that Sun's book ''Three Principles of the People'' acknowledges that the principles of welfare is inherently socialistic and communistic.<ref>{{Cite wikisource|title=三民主义|wslanguage=zh|chapter=民生主义第一讲}}</ref>

In response to a question from a [[Reuters]] reporter in 1945, [[Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party|CCP chairman]] [[Mao Zedong]] said: "A free and democratic China will be a country in which all levels of government up to the central government are elected by universal, equal, secret suffrage and are accountable to the people who elected them. It would realize Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People, Lincoln's principles of government of the people, by the people, and for the people, and Roosevelt's [[Four Freedoms]]. It will guarantee the country's independence, unity, unification and cooperation with the democratic powers."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-02-12 |title=What Chairman Mao wrote about a ‘free and democratic China’ |url=https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/2185677/china-doesnt-need-democracy-mao-may-have-begged-differ |access-date=2024-02-14 |website=[[South China Morning Post]] |language=en}}</ref>