China

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China
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Peoples Republic of China

• Worlds most populous nation (1,273,111,290)
• Worlds second largest economy after the United
  States (purchasing power parity 4.5 trillion)
• Oldest continuous (and self-conscious)
  civilization in the world.
• Syncretism (Marxism Confucianism heritage of
  Empires)

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Chinese Legacies

• 1. More than two millenia of strong rule under a
  single ruler (First Emperor unified China and
  ended feudalism in 221 B.C.E.). Entrenched
  beliefs on that China can remain united only
  under a unified, strong, and centralized power.
  Unitary state.

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Chinese Legacies

• 2. Inventors of Bureaucracy (China had the most
  developed pre-modern bureaucratic organization.
  Recruitment of officials through exams. Well
  organized but not large 20,000)

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Chinese Legacies

• 3. Confucian tradition of moral governance
  (development of groups of gentlemen who could
  judge and decide in a wise and moral way).
  Legitimacy of Confucianism, stable and well
  governed society
• Recruitment of public officials through tough
  examinations on Confucian philosophy and moral
  principles (three levels) Tradition of rule by
  educated elites (wealth scholarship)

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no feudalism

• Peasant (but no feudal) society
• Strong central authority of a well-organized
  state (monarchy also based in Confucianism
  through the mandate of heaven)
• ? West/Japan
• (pre-colonial) Mexico

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Chinese (Main)Historical Periods

• Zhou Dynasty (BCE 1122-255)
• Qin Dynasty (BCE 255-206)
• Han Dynasty (BCE 206-221 AD)
• (Period of disunion 221-589)
• Tang Dynasty (618-907)
• Song Dynasty (951-1280)
• Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty (1280-1368)
• Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)
• Qing (Manchu) Dynasty) 1644-1911
• Republic of China (1912-1949)
• Peoples Republic of China (1949- )

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Mid-19th century Crisis of the Empire

• Demographic crisis (caused by a long period of
  peace and good crops during the Qing/Manchu
  dynasty in 1644)
• Population 410 millions in 1850.
• Rebellions

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Taiping Rebellion (largest rebellion in human
history)

• Impoverished peasants join forces (differences
  between the value of copper and silver linked to
  imports of opium from the West). Western
  influences
• Leader Hong Xiuquan (learned on Christianity and
  thought of himself as Jesus brother)
• Claims communal ownership of land equalization
  of wealth
• Western led and financed Ever Victorious Army
  was organized to defeat the Taiping (1864).
• (Military and economic) Exhaustion of the Chinese
  central state in suffocating the Taiping
  rebellion ? Localization and Militarization of
  the Chinese society

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From the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries

• China ? Battleground for different forces and
  powers (? Japan, in China No new elite emerged)
• Warlordism (peak in 1910/20s) Western and
  Japanese Imperialisms
• Cosmopolitan/Self-Strengthening/Nativist Mov
• Self-Strengthening Movement (1860s-1894/5)
• Desire to integrate Chinese and Western culture
  (Chinese learning as the essence, Western
  learning for practical use.). Long-lasting
  influence (Deng Xiaping in 1978), but never
  worked well (Technology brings cultural values
  with it). Chinas defeat by Japan in 1895 ended
  the mov.
• Movement Towards Revolution
• Sun Yat-sen (1911 Revolution ended the Qing
  dynasty and the Confucian-based system of
  government)
• 1911-1949 Chinese Civil War

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Nationalism

• Roots in 1895 by Kang Youweis led rebellion of
  examinees against the Qings dynasty (the Qing
  signed peace with Japan)
• Rise of mass nationalism (May 4, 1919). Student
  protests rejection of the governments
  signature of the Versailles Treaty (that turned
  German concessions in China to Japan).
• Critique of the Confucian past (for its elitist
  character)
• Rapid growth of the movement
• Strengthened the Chinese Nationalist Party (GMD)
• Creation of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in
  1921

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Nationalist/Communist Front

• Kuomintang government (1920-25)
• Sponsored by the Communist International
• Expeditions
• 1926 to the North led by Chian Kai-shek (murder
  of thousands of Communists ?Radicalization of the
  Communists)
• 1927 to South-Central China led by Mao Zedong ?
  the Long March (military disaster but symbolic
  success of mythological proportions)
• 1931 Japanese invasion
• Communist Victory in 1949 (unifies China with the
  exception of Taiwan)

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Chinese Communism

• ? Russian Communism, the Chinese Communist regime
  achieved support and popularity (Pragmatic,
  peasant grassroots influences, fronts)
• Land reform, socialization of the economy
• Stability and unity
• Rapid economic recovery
• (but)
• Dramatic Shift

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Totalitarian Shift

• Once in power, the CCP started a policy of
• Censorship
• Persecution of the opposition (landlords, GMD
  supporters, pro-Japanese criticized, jailed, and
  even executed)
• Wide local penetration of society by the state
• 1950 First Five-Year Plan (industrialization)
• Fast economic growth, but exhaustion of the
  countryside. Newly created inefficient bureaucracy

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Mao, complex and contradictory

• -Insisted on the value of research but ignored
  reality
• A brilliant man, despised intellectuals
• The leader of a peasant revolution, led millions
  of peasants to starvation and death
  (industrialization)
• Maoism
• Good Principles Bad
  Principles

Practice Sinification of Marxism Mass line United
Front
Contradictions Mass Mobilization Will Power
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Hundred Flowers

• 1957 After Kruschevs critique of Stalin, Mao
  (against party advice) called for criticism and
  debate
• Overwhelming demands (peoples requirements to
  open up the political system allowing other
  parties)
• Maos shift anti-rightist campaign (every
  organization had to denounce 5 of their members
  as rigthists 500,000 people ostracized)
• Radicalization

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Great Leap Forward (1958-1960)

• Goals industrialization and decentralization
  (local self-sufficiency). Extreme and wasteful
  policies
• Maos Will to power (raw human labor against
  difficult economic situation).
• Result around 20 million people died of
  starvation.
• Severe political repression (to hide the results
  of the Great Leap Forward), and
• Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) opposing the
  four olds (old customs, old habits, old
  culture, old thinking), Red Guards would
  intervene in peoples lives in search for
  bourgeois and rightist elements. Affecting
  all realms of Chinese life (ended with Maos
  death). Thousands died.
• Red Guards sent to the countryside to learn
  from peasants
• Ended in 1976 after Maos death (a member of the
  Gang of Four, Maos wife and 3 other leaders
  were arrested).

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State structure

• Legislative National Peoples Congress (NPC)
  (supposedly elected every five years, meets once
  a year and it is the highest authority on paper)
  (increasingly active role in recent years, it has
  reduced bureaucratic apparatuses and organized
  Committees)
• Administrative
• State Council (Headed by the Premier, who is
  elected by the NPC after recommendation of the
  Party). Vice Premiers
• Ministries

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Party and Government

• Long-lasting ties between Communism and
  Nationalist sentiment
• Overlap between party and state structure (
  Soviet Union)
• Party Chairman? Secretary General
• Democratic centralism

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Deng Xiaoping

• Amazing socioeconomic transformation
• Free Trade Zones
• Dramatic process of economic reforms and
  modernization
• End of isolationism
• Emergence of a modern private economy
• Increasing inequality.
• Migration
• Corruption
• Growth of a lively civil society (and political
  opposition met with repression)

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Challenges

• Tensions between an emerging society and a
  still-closed political system
• (Protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989 left over
  700 deaths)
• Need to create new consensuses and ideas (revival
  of nationalism and Confucianism)