After the Opium War, the social nature of China changed. Politically, it changed from an independent feudal country to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country. Economically, China's self-sufficient feudal economy gradually disintegrated, and the China market was involved in the capitalist market. Social contradictions began to change from the contradiction between the landlord class and the peasant class to the contradiction between foreign capitalism and the Chinese nation, feudalism and the masses of the people, and the contradiction between foreign capitalism and the Chinese nation was the most important contradiction. As a result, China entered the period of the old democratic revolution, and the people of China shouldered the dual revolutionary responsibilities, which was the beginning of China's modern history during the Opium War.

Changes of the principal social contradictions in China after the Opium War.

The contradiction between imperialism and the Chinese nation, feudalism and the masses of the people are the main contradictions in modern China society, and the contradiction between imperialism and the Chinese nation is the most important contradiction among all kinds of contradictions. The existence and intensification of these contradictions will inevitably lead to the development of the revolutionary movement, which is the profound social root of China's revolution. China is a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.

Changes of China's Revolutionary Tasks after the Opium War

After the Opium War, the nature and principal contradiction of China society not only became the fundamental reason for the occurrence and development of the China Revolution, but also determined the object, task and nature of the modern China Revolution. That is to overthrow imperialist oppression externally, realize national independence and people's liberation, overthrow feudal rule internally, and realize national prosperity and people's democracy. These two tasks determined that the modern China Revolution was not only an anti-imperialist national revolution, but also an anti-feudal democratic revolution, which was the unity of the national democratic revolution.