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The impact of the Chinese cultural revolution
The impact of the Chinese cultural revolution
Deng Xiaoping’s Chinese economic reforms in the 80s
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From 1977 to his death in 1994, China was under the influence of Deng Xiaoping’s rule. Deng Xiaoping was the mind behind most of the economic and social changes. Hua Guofeng took power right after Mao’s death in 1976. However, he was removed for being too soft on student revolts in 1987. Some of the changes were big changes to the economy, which also changed the government from a socialist type to a Bureaucratic government to a what government?. Under Mao, the country was strictly communist, and everything was controlled by the state. These implemented changes in the system of the economy and the that impacted the changes in everyday life in modern day China. Deng Xiaoping’s reforms were a detrimental economic impact for both China and the …show more content…
The extreme economic growth and falls threw many daily life for people off balance. Some of these were large cuts to living standards for citizens. Inflation was said to be officially 19%. However, it was thought to be in the range of 25-30%. Because of this, many families were not being able to live as well, resulting in seven million students dropping out of school along with tens of thousands of teachers. Not only education was affected. Factory workers received cuts to their pay or joined the 400,000 other workers who got laid off . Some may argue that Deng brought stability to China after Mao’s death, because the end of an almost cult-like following post cultural revolution led to growing unrest in China. However, some people disliked the idea of open commerce, some even went to the point of calling it “Japan’s second occupation”. The stability was indeed there, but it came with a price. Deng sought to find it at all costs. The massacre at Tiananmen Square was one such occurrence. 241 killed and another 7,000 wounded. This was not the only event where people were hurt. In 1975, Deng ordered the army to hunt down a muslim village in Yunnan which resulted in a staggering 1,600 deaths, 300 were children. Deng did achieve his goal, but not without repercussions. Deng’s effects on China still ripple through the country today. The gap between the poor and rich are beyond average.
Following the Chinese Revolution of 1949, China’s economy was in ruin. The new leader, Mao Zedong, was responsible for pulling the economy out of the economic depression. The problems he faced included the low gross domestic product, high inflation, high unemployment, and high prices on goods. In order to solve these issues, Mao sought to follow a more Marxist model, similar to that of the Soviet Union. This was to use government intervention to develop industry in China. In Jan Wong’s Red China Blues, discusses Maoism and how Mao’s policies changed China’s economy for the worse. While some of Mao’s early domestic policies had some positive effects on China’s economy, many of his later policies caused China’s economy to regress.
Throughout, 1900- 1950 there were a number of changes and continuities in China. From the fall of the dynasties to the rise of the Communist Party, these changes shaped China’s government and society. Although, many political changes were made multiple continuities were held constant such as, consistent rebellions and the lack of democracy.
Ever since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the legitimacy of the revolution of which it was built upon has perennially been in question. For example, in a 1999 issue of the International Herald Tribune, a prestigious scholar claimed that all of China’s tragedies are ‘sustained by a mistaken belief in the correctness of the 1949 revolution’ and that the future progress of China depends on the recognition that the revolution was a failure. However, the CCP government was certainly not perfect and its most significant failures were its political failures such as the Anti-rightist movement and the Cultural Revolution and also economic failures such as the great leap forward. Millions of peoples were falsely accused and persecuted during the political movements of the Mao period as the CCP focused on class struggle instead of economic development during the period and tens of Millions of peoples died due to starvation as there were widespread food shortages during the great leap forward movement.
Most of China was ruled by Chiang Kaishek, a military dictator. The rest of China was ruled under communism by Mao Zedong. Chiang Kaishek aimed to modernise the railways, the postal services. and the telecommunications industry. In addition, powerful foreign companies.
Once China’s population began to grow at an exponential rate the government feared that there would eventually be social unrest, and chaos. This social unrest and chaos would eventually cause an internal crisis for the country. At that time, China’s leaders believed that population control was one of its top priorities because it was precondition for the coun...
...) and bring China under uniform thought as well. Thus, in his attempt to accomplish his goals he placed less emphasis on freedom and more on developing a sturdy political backbone. Deng, on the other hand, wanted to thrust China in the global community for economic fortune at the expense of everything Mao had established. In the process, he brought a freedom and wave of democracy to the People's Republic, endowing the Chinese citizens with dreams of wealth and prosperity that were never even considered in the time of Mao. As China, progresses further into the twenty first century, its role seems quite unclear. A return to Post-revolutionary authoritarian communism seems unlikely, as does the institution of a true democracy but perhaps a new form of stability will arise to grant greater liberty to individuals or possibly even another Tiannenmen lurking in the future.
The primary political goal was to change ideologies of the people from imperialism to communism through techniques such as thought reforms and re-education campaigns that urged people to believe in Mao’s vision of China and socialist ways of thinking, working and living by dedicating themselves to ‘serve the people’ instead of their own self-interest. From 1949, Mao established a communist political system influenced by Marxism, which was altered slightly over the years but still remaining the kind of system he wanted. However, changes made by leaders such as Deng Xiaoping after The Great Leap Forward introduced new right-wing capitalist policies, such as the encouragement of private markets, which would allow the Chinese economy to recover from The Great Leap Forward. These measures were sustained as the policies proved to increase productivity and growth. This threatened Mao’s views of the kind of socialist society he aimed to create and so he and the Communist Part of China (CCP) launched the 1966 Cultural Revolution to bring China back to its ‘pure’ socialist system. From this, it can be seen that Mao’s political goals of the 1949 Communist Revolution were achieved to some extent as a communist system was established. His goal, however, was not achieved to a full extent as changes made by Deng Xiaoping in 1966, changed his creation of a ‘pure’ communist system into a socialist system economically powered by
Deng Xiaoping was a force for evil and that he was responsible for taking away
In States vs. Markets, Herman Schwartz presents two economic development strategies that have been employed by late industrial developers in order to either take advantage of existing comparative advantages or facilitate rapid industrial growth through state intervention and provision in order to gain a competitive foothold in world markets. Schwartz demonstrates how China was able to employ elements of these development strategies to generate capital from an abundant rural labour supply in order to pursue industrial development and attract foreign investment through economic reform starting in the late 1970's.
China has been ruled by the Communist Party ever since. It was the events between 1946 and 1964 that strengthened communism in China. At the end of World War II, the Nationalist Party (GMD) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) raced for power in China. The chairman of the Communist Party was Mao Zedong and their army was known as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The Nationalist’s were led by Chiang Kai-shek and their army was the Kuomintang.
Despite the death of Mao in 1976 and the trial of the Gang of Four in 1980, the Cultural Revolution continues to hold significant influence over China’s political decisions. This is particularly evident in 1989, during the Tiananmen Incident. Despite the celebration of the May Fourth student movement as the catalyst in the formation of the Communist Party, Deng Xiaoping (a victim of the Cultural Revolution) and other hardline Party members were adamantly against the gathering of students in Tiananmen Square. The experience of the Cultural Revolution has led Chinese political leaders to be cautious about large scale political movements, and student activism in particular. The lingering resonance of the Cultural Revolution is also evident in the fact that the CCP saw the need to address Mao’s responsibility while trying to maintain his legitimacy and importance as the ideological leader of the Party.
During the Tiananmen square protest, the red government put importance in protecting the current political system rather than fulfilling the people’s desires. While in the Great Leap Forward, the red state focused on completely restructuring the economic system within the country than ensuring citizens have enough food rations to survive famine seasons. As a result of both events, citizens come to the realization that communist party’s interests are more important than the people’s personal expression wishes. The people may protest to have their voices heard, but they are unlikely to have their intended goals pursued or met by the state. The protestors in Tiananmen square knew of some possible risks going forward with displaying civil disobedience, but the end goals justified the risk.
Liu Shaoqi, also a prominent factor in the leadership next to Mao decided to confront Mao about the deplorable conditions all over China, and the deaths recorded in the archives. This book clearly described Mao as the kind of leader who was not to be confronted or challenged in any type of setting. But the book also described how important and necessary it became to enable Mao to understand the actual devastation his plan caused China, and its peasant population. Trade countries were complaining about the quality of the produce received and millions of tons of produce were rotting due to low capability of transportation.
China became communist since Sun Zhongshan announced his three principles of the people, which were: nationality, livelihood, and rights. (Craig p.788) These principle basically advocated for a democracy of the Chinese people however, Zhongshan believed that a democracy there could only be a one-party dictatorship so he believed all citizens were equal and below the government, thus, China became communist. (Craig p.788) Communism was a popular philosophy since it was influential in student organizations, labor unions, and within Guomindang (GMD). (Craig p.788-789) Organizations like those can help influence governments since tons of citizens are in those, thus, more votes could equal that certain type of government or they may have power to put pressure in it depending on the organization type since most are probably political which is government related. The Chinese wanted to free China from Japanese control since they took over the northern part known as Manchuria, so China would be independent and not controlled by their enemy Japan. (Craig p.791)
When the new Chinese Government was set up in 1949, the new government faced a lot of problems. First on their agenda was how to re-build the country. As Communist Party of China (CPC) is a socialist party, their policies at the time were similar to that of the Soviet Union’s. Consequently, the CPC used a centrally planned strategy as its economic strategy when it first began. For a long time, the Chinese economy was a centrally planned economy in which none other than the state owned all companies. In fact, there were absolutely no entrepreneurs. As time went on, the problems of a centrally planned economy started to appear, such as low productivity, which was the key reason for restricting the development of China. With the population growing, the limitations of the centrally planned economy were clear. In 1978 China started its economic reform whose goal was to generate sufficient surplus value to finance the modernization of the Chinese economy. In the beginning, in the late 1970s and early 19...