Reflection on China
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Jonathan Hald
Jonathan Hald
4/17/15
IS-336X
Word Count: 1,517
During the turn of the 20th century, China grew to an unprecedented level of power and
prestige due to a massive industrial push within its own borders. One hundred years from now
this is what history textbooks are likely to say, considering that the past thirty years in China
have been an era of economic development at a rate more rapid than any civilization in all of
history. When evaluating Politics in China, the most prevalent theme I found is that China is
growing exponentially, but with these changes come challenges that have never before been
undertaken on such a massive scale. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has done an
exceptional job in transforming China into an industrial powerhouse and real world player;
however, with these developments come problems such as the struggle for political
representation, corruption, economic mobilization, migration, minority rights, and environmental
conservation. With a limited Knowledge of China it is easy to overlook many of these issues
such as the environmental impact of industrialization or large rural migrations and focus on the
push for democracy and China’s international standing. At the start of the course this is what I
did, but now I am aware of the broader picture and how all these challenges are connected. To
understand how China’s problems are all relative, it is imperative to first look at how the CCP
operates as the ruling power over 1.3 Billion people.
Within the papers I wrote this semester, the main theme I covered was the political
tension between the party and citizens. The push for democracy in China is a widely known
collective action movement known throughout the world, especially in the aftermath of the
Tiananmen Square protest. The iconic image of the lone man standing in heroic defiance against
the tanks spread knowledge of the cause to the West, but there is much more happening in terms
of reform within the modernizing Chinese political system. In my first paper I described the
transformation of the Chinese political and economic landscape in the past 30 years, beginning
with the death of Mao Zedong. China’s new direction is oriented towards massive
industrialization efforts where they want to maintain control of China while also building up its
economic capabilities. To achieve these goals the Chinese Central Committee first enacted
reforms such as the National Rural Works Committee in 1982. This was China’s first step
towards private ownership which encouraged farmers to produce a surplus of crops, thus
transplanting China into a market economy. Twenty years later, China joined the World Trade
Organization in 2001. In the past 30 years China’s GDP has multiplied from about RMB 360
Billion to around RMB 30 Trillion.1 Recently, President Xi Jinping, the current ruler of the
Chinese Communist Party, has created committees on ending corruption and promoting national
security, but for many years the change was slow and unstable. To illustrate this, consider that it
took nearly 30 years for the Central Committee to design and implement a complete legal
system, and even longer to start decentralizing the party’s power.2 These economic changes have
been made in order to grow the economic capabilities of China while appeasing some of the
people’s desires. My papers throughout the course were what allowed me to gain the knowledge
of the CCP’s intents; however, it wasn’t until the second part of this semester that I discovered
the results of these changes3.
A pivotal point in this course was a skype conference between cadets and Chinese
university students. My expectation going into the lecture was that the Chinese government is
viewed by everyone as oppressive, but after reading my blog posts before the conference I now
1
Keping, Yu. 2014. "Sixty Years of Political Development." China's Political Development. Edited by Yu Keping
Kenneth Lieberthal. Cheng Li. New York: Brookings Institute. 62-64.
2
Ibid, 50-52
3
Hald, Jonathan. 2015. "The Chinese Political Evolution." Politics In China Report, Lexington.
see that I also thought the party was trying to make a very slow switch to democracy. My belief
was that the CCP was listening to the people and taking note of the movements such as the
Umbrella Protests. I was surprised to hear some of the university students support the Chinese
Communist Party. It wasn’t all of them, but enough to make me reconsider my opinion of the
Chinese political system. My assumption was that as students they would all be advocating
democracy, but I wasn’t entirely correct about this. Their opinion was not that the CCP is the
best regime in existence, but that it does an adequate job in managing Chinese affairs. I believe a
large part of my incorrect assumptions stems from my view on America. In my blog posts I
wrote that the US has many different levels of government such as state and local governments
which look into local matters and the federal government which sets interstate policies and
international affairs. In China the party sends out members to oversee local towns and provinces.
The accountability in China is largely effected by party rankings where the local governors want
to see profits from industry and care less about what the people want. The most noticeable
difference between the US and Chinese governments is the different forms of accountability. In
the US local officials are elected locally, but in China they are sent out by the Central Committee
and only stay for three to five years. This has led to many unhappy citizens who feel they are
unrepresented and sold out for industrial production and profit4.
As I looked over my other blog posts I was reminded of other problems pertaining to the
local party officials. In one of my recent blog posts I discussed the theme of the popular
documentary titled “Under the Dome” which was a film targeted at exposing the horrors of
massive industrialization in China. Because local officials are appointed and judged based on
4
Hald, Jonathan. 2015. Jon Hald's Blog. Spring. Accessed April 16, 2015. http://sites.vmi.edu/haldje16.
performance they push for more factories and greater output, which in turn pollutes more into the
air and water systems. This has led to the creation of several movements such as the Not in MY
Back Yard (NIMBY) effort. One article I pulled from an online magazine discussed the
explosion of a chemical factory which was shut down as a result of this movement due to high
levels of paraxylene. This is one successful attempt by local organizers to stop damaging
industry, but the massive damage in China’s air and water systems is the resultant of
industrialization during the past 30 years.5. Another recent theme I discussed is the massive
mobilization within the borders of China. It is estimated that there are around 220 million
migrants in China looking for work in the cities and surrounding areas. The sad truth is that there
aren’t enough resources or money for everyone to be happy and prosperous, and so to survive
many people are forced into the cities in search of work. Due to the system of Hokou which
restricts traveling away from your birthplace, these migrants are illegal and don’t receive benefits
from social programs such as education or healthcare. In the rural countryside there isn’t enough
work or pay so many families are forced to disobey their Hokou orders to stay and must travel in
search of menial jobs such as garbage collectors or sweatshop workers6. The last theme in my
blog posts is the way the CCP tries to cover these issues up. The government tries to hide antiregime sentiment through censorship over the internet and other media sources. The
documentary mentioned above was sanctioned by the party, but once it spread and gained
support it was censored. Any real criticism of the CCP such as blogs, art, or videos are subject to
5
Allen-Ebrahimian, Bethany. 2015. Explosion of Once-Scuttled Chemical Plant Riles China’s Web. April 6. Accessed
April 14, 2015. https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/04/06/chemical-explosion-china-px-nimby-environment-weibo/.
6
Subramanian, Sushma , and Deborah Jian Lee. 2012. Foreign Policy: China's Left Behind Children. May 2. Accessed
April 16, 2015. http://www.npr.org/2012/05/02/151837775/foreign-policy-chinas-left-behind-children.
censorship. This is a measure taken by the party prevent the spread of these grievances and
causing more discontent and protest7.
In retrospect, I can trace all that I’ve learned in the past few months through my
submissions of papers, blogs, and experiences within class. The Chinese Communist Party is
walking a thin line between developing the nation and taking great leaps in its industrialization
process. Unfortunately almost impossible for even the best leaders to keep the 3.1 billion
Chinese inhabitants content amid the problems that have risen from the industrial and economic
changes. Whether its migration, environmental damage, protests, or political representation, the
areas in need of reform are caused by China’s massive undertaking of modernizing the country
through industrialization. In conclusion, the Chinese culture is greatly influenced by the party’s
modernization. The state is doing everything is can to produce more goods and increase retinue,
but it must also enact strict regulations and social policies to maintain order in a changing world.
7
Hald, Jonathan. 2015. Jon Hald's Blog. Spring. Accessed April 16, 2015. http://sites.vmi.edu/haldje16.
Works Cited

Allen-Ebrahimian, Bethany. 2015. Explosion of Once-Scuttled Chemical Plant Riles China’s Web.
April 6. Accessed April 14, 2015. https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/04/06/chemical-explosionchina-px-nimby-environment-weibo/.

Hald, Jonathan. 2015. Jon Hald's Blog. Spring. Accessed April 16, 2015.
http://sites.vmi.edu/haldje16.

Hald, Jonathan. 2015. "The Chinese Political Evolution." Politics In China Report, Lexington.

Keping, Yu. 2014. "Sixty Years of Political Development." China's Political Development. Edited
by Yu Keping

Kenneth Lieberthal. Cheng Li. New York: Brookings Institute. 62-64.
Subramanian, Sushma , and Deborah Jian Lee. 2012. Foreign Policy: China's Left Behind Children.
May 2. Accessed April 16, 2015. http://www.npr.org/2012/05/02/151837775/foreign-policychinas-left-behind-children.