Talk:Three Worlds Theory

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Three Worlds Theory article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

International relations High‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject International relations, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of International relations on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.International relationsWikipedia:WikiProject International relationsTemplate:WikiProject International relationsInternational relations articles
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Politics Low‑importance

	Politics portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Politics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of politics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.PoliticsWikipedia:WikiProject PoliticsTemplate:WikiProject Politicspolitics articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Socialism

	Socialism portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Socialism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of socialism on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SocialismWikipedia:WikiProject SocialismTemplate:WikiProject Socialismsocialism articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Not making sense here

At least not in English. From the article:

"In 1974, then Chinese Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping (1904–97), explained the Three Worlds Theory in a speech to the United Nations, explaining the politico-economic alliances of the People's Republic of China with Right-wing, reactionary governments in the late 1970s and the 1980s."

Deng was such a genius that he was able -- in 1974! -- to explain the PRC's rightward swing of the 1980's??? And something tells me that the wording imputed to him isn't quite what he would have used.

I've studied Marxism and it does make a lot of sense to me. Deng used the Three Worlds Theory to explain why the People's Republic was and would be having alliances with reactionary regimes. --Againme (talk) 18:08, 25 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I recommend this article for deletion. Despite being a rabid anti-communist, I'm almost embarrassed for Mao on this one. It's poorly written, and I really doubt its subject matter constitutes a "theory." This just seems too lacking to remain part of Wikipedia. -128.101.53.240 08:22, 29 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I have to agree. This is not a theory, this is just a conversation.

Not to wiki's standards. This is covered in the article on the Third World. - Andrew 21:13, 7 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Needs lots of help, yes

As it is, certainly a snapshot of a point in time. Rather bad is that the context is really lacking, like 'Kaunda' is President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia. It needs to relate to issues and articles. Why is Deng Xiaoping mentioned? Shenme 06:32, 8 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

the three worlds theory was a once popular theory of Chinese foreign policy in that they were particularly anti hegemonic (undermine the first world of CCCP and USA). it was explored by Chan s. in 1985 in his paper on Chinese foreign policy.

This article is strange

The last little excerpt at the end or "interview" if you will, is very off beat. It does not really contribute any knowlegable information other than opinion and is not even backed by the speaker, eg; Mao Zedong ending the interview with: "Mao: The U.S. and the Soviet Union have a lot of atomic bombs, and they are richer. Europe, Japan, Australia and Canada, of the Second World, do not possess so many atomic bombs and are not so rich as the First World, but richer than the Third World. What do you think of this explanation?" what is that all about?

Let it stand

I think this exposes the supposed theory for what it is, i.e. nothing more than a idle element of Mao Zedong Thought. Lycurgus 04:29, 18 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I disagree. While exposing Maoism, socialism, communism—whatever flavor it is passing itself off as at a point in time—to be a moribund economic and social philosophy, why is it here? If anything this theory should be a footnote to the article on Mao, or Kaunde. It does not deserve its own page. Andrew 04:58, 29 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Merge/Expand the article

I tend to agree that the article is awkward standing alone like this. It looks as if it was written in a hurry, which is a shame, because, although the theory is somewhat antiquated (the Cold War is over) I (and this is personal opinion) think that it remains relevant on some level(if only to students of Chinese History and Politics), and therefor ought to be preserved. with that said, the current article is unacceptable. I think that it should be expanded in its content and quality to deserve its own article, or re-written (in a more professional style) and merged with either the article on Mao or the article on the CCP. I'm not a regular user so i will not include a username 08:15, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

I agree it needs to be cleaned up and drastically. However, am I the only one who actually sees this theory as a relevant one in the future? As the Chinese used it to maneuver an Anti-Soviet alliance, it can also be used to maneuver an Anti-US alliance if it comes to it in the future. Also, ideologically it is still defended in China, unlike most contributions stemming from the Cultural Revolution. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.71.100.251 (talk) 05:15, 14 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Recommended for deletion

Not only is this article inappropriate, but Mao never raised this two-minute conversation with the President of Zambia to the level of a "theory" -- this was only done by Deng Xiaopeng, who actually opposed Mao and was in back and forth struggle against Mao for decades (for those not so familiar with 20th century Chinese history). So it's not only not worthy of an article, but inaccurate. BandieraRossa (talk) 16:37, 5 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's valuable & needs to remain (- but with improvements)

I'm doing an essay on China at the moment and whilst this 'theory' was briefly referred to in a book by Chris Alden on 'China in Africa' (Zed Books 2007) it was not elaborated on and little information appears available online. If it is the case that it doesn't warrant being called a theory - that can surely be mentioned and indeed the page needs some tidying - but the important thing is that this was a valid perspective of the CCP under Mao and apparent Deng during the Cold War and should not be erased from the pages of Wikipedia because of anti-communist tendencies or because from our perspective now it doesn't count or qualify as a theory. It's relevant now if only to give some background to the current Foreign Policy of China, particularly in Africa - where it frames itself as a country in solidarity with Africa's anti-imperial/colonial past Gazzelle (talk) 11:19, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

i found a link on PRC's foreign affair website, http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/ziliao/3602/3604/t18008.htm, so i feel it is a credible topic of interest, the article descript very well the theory but I don't feel like blindly copying, I would hope there can be more editors to look at the article and transfer the ideas over so we can understand the theory and it's objective better. i would be interested to learn if this policies has affect PRC's involvement in Non-Alignment Movement, if anyone think it is worth discussing. Akinkhoo (talk) 17:45, 3 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This policy paper of Mao has had a very great inpact. It has influenced millions of people in China and some in the rest of the world who studied it intensively during some few years, it has been a fundamental part of the Chinese foreign policy during for a long time, and, as mentioned above, this influence explains some patterns even in in the present day relationship between China and other countries. 194.241.59.190 (talk) 18:05, 7 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hi

The definition of the 3 world theory is not in line with the pictorial representation on the webpage for 'Second World'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.174.157.173 (talk • contribs)

The Three Worlds Theory developed by Mao Zedong was different from the Western theory of the Three Worlds. It is already stated in the article. --Againme (talk) 18:16, 25 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Reverting edit(s) by user:Chas. Caltrop

User:Chas. Caltrop has deleted a substantial proportion of the article, including the Criticism section and verifiable information from the Introduction paragraph, please discuss whether or not their changes should be reverted and/or the user warned for vandalism:

AwiarN (talk) 16:58, 29 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

AwiarN, an RfC isn't necessary for this. If you think another user's edits are not constructive, you can revert them. It doesn't appear to be vandalism to me, as the content was entirely unsourced (although based on my personal and not-reliable knowledge of the subject, the former content did seem to be accurate and not particularly un-neutral, so I'd encourage you to reintroduce it with proper sourcing). But again, generally you don't need to get a community consensus for warning someone for vandalism. If a dispute persists, start a discussion on this page. Only if the issue continues to persist should you then open an RfC. See also WP:BRD _signed,Rosguill ^talk 00:41, 30 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Agree, w Rosguill - Be bold. If you think it is inappropriate, revert it. If he/she undoes your revert. Discuss it here on the talk page. If you and other editors can't work it out on the talk page, then mabye a RfC would be helpful, but you are not there yet.--Darryl Kerrigan (talk) 23:26, 22 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Mao did not come up with Three World's Theory

It is highly disputed Mao came up with Three World's Theory. It is more likely that Deng Xiaoping came up with it and attributed it to Mao, but there is not evidence Mao came up with it. It was a revisionist ploy in order to give legitimacy to it. Gengeros (talk) 09:45, 9 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]