What Are The Most Important Groups In Deng Xiaoping's Economic Reform

In the eyes of those who matter the CCP remains a legitimate government. Before Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms, the workers and peasants were seen as the two most important groups in the Chinese social apparatus. However, as China’s middle class grows and develops, the former two groups have become less important to the prosperity of China. As such, the middle class’s environmental grievances are heard and acted upon while the workers’ employment issues and the peasants’ land theft and corruption problems are not. Unlike under Mao, the middle class is the primary support base of the CCP. As the primary beneficiaries of the CCP’s market reforms, the middle class’s impression of the Party determines whether the group continues to exist. Though all the grievances presented by the three groups demands all challenge Party rule, each group can be addressed differently due to their economic role in the current economy.

For the middle class their grievances are taken seriously and very little force is used against them.

while both the workers and peasants are provided at times slight concessions, but are still aggressively repressed. To maintain popular support especially among the new urban elite the CCP emphasizes that it is responsible for the continued economic gains of the populace and makes selective agreements with other members of the populace. In the end, though all groups do have grievances against the Party, it is likely that China would continue to practice market authoritarianism. For a successful revolution, a large concentration of the classes must reach a consensus that the CCP is a detriment to China. Though the peasants and workers have reached this conclusion to some degree the middle class has

not.
Unlike both the workers and the peasants, environmental grievances such as the middle class’s desire for pollution elimination is in many instances taken seriously and not repressed. Take for example the sharing of China’s general air pollutant levels, after it was discovered that the Chinese government had not taken in depth readings of air pollutants, the government instead of repressing the findings instead worked to provide more accurate readings (Shapiro 228). Though the reports about the government were damaging, officials saw it necessary to respond to the calls of the middle class for reform. Unlike the other classes the urban elite are the primary beneficiaries of Chinese marketization. Though some initiatives would likely slow China’s economic development, it is tolerated because the alienation of the middle class would weaken the legitimacy of the party in some of its key supporters.
In contrast to the elite, attempts by workers to receive equal treatment are often aggressively repressed or minimally addressed. Unlike the elite, they have little leverage against the Party. In times before the economic reforms the proletariat was seen as one of the primary interest groups within the party (Weston ). However, since the rise of a strong and prosperous middle class, their position has been lowered and demands such as the right to organize and greater benefits have been ignored (Weston 70). Take for example the treatment of labor leaders Yao Fuxin and Xiao Yunliang, because of leading protests to voice the grievances of unemployed workers. In addition to being labelled as subversive elements to order, they were also slandered as being terrorists (Weston 78). In bringing to the attention the grievances of the workers, they were viciously slandered and imprisoned by the party. Because of the refusal to provide workers with a better quality of life, the Party has increasingly been seen as an illegitimate government.
Like the workers, China’s economic development has led to the suffering blatant acts of injustice. Local officials have performed heinous acts such as vote rigging, land theft and over taxation. At times when peasants seek their rights protected as stated within the Chinese Constitution, they are often ignored or not carried out. Mr. Ma for example, was a lawyer that successfully won cases to protect the peasants, instead of honoring the rule of law and accept that he had fairly defended his clients from local official corruption he was imprisoned (Johnson 21). The fact that he was imprisoned after defending the rights of the peasants was not only