THE ERA OF
RECONSTRUCTION
HI 168: Lecture 15
Dr. Howard Chiang
OVERVIEW
-
Trial of the Gang of Four
Return of Deng Xiaoping
Third Plenum and Economic Reform
Special Economic Zones
The Impact of Reforms
Consolidating the Deng Era
TRIA OF THE GANG OF 4
- Oct. 6, 1976: a group of senior members
of Politburo (including Hua Guofeng)
ordered the arrest of the Gang of 4
- ‘With you in charge, I’m at east’ – Mao
- Gang of 4 charged with:
1.
Framed and persecuted party and state leaders and plotted
to overthrow the dictatorship of the proletariat.
2.
Persecuted, killed, and tortured more than 34,000 officials
and ordinary people.
3.
Planned an armed coup in Shanghai after the death of Mao.
4.
Planned to assassinate Mao and organized an armed
counter-revolutionary coup.
TRIAL OF THE GANG OF 4
- Verdict reached on Jan. 25, 1981:
- Jiang Qing and Zhang Chuniqao were
sentenced to death with a 2-year
reprieve
- others received long prison sentences
- But: Why did hundreds of millions of
Chinese permit themselves to be so led
astray into such disastrous policies by a
mere handful of plotters?
“Gang of Four” on Trial
RETURN OF DENG XIAOPING
- Hua Guofeng: would ‘support whatever
policy decisions were made by Mao’ and
‘follow whatever instructions by Mao”
- Mid-1977: Deng was reappointed to his
old governmental positions
- 1978: reassessment of the 1976
Tiananmen Square Incident
- Aug. 1977: Deng was nominated as a
vice-chairman of the Party
- Dec. 1978: Hua’s exit, Deng’s triumph
Gerald and Betty Ford meet with
Deng Xiaoping (1975)
•
•
•
•
Veteran of long march
Studied in France
Had endured multiple
persecutions since the
1950s
Assumes power 1978-80
at the expense of Hua
Guofeng
THIRD PLENUM
- Deng’s policies: economic reform +
political authoritarianism
- Dec. 18-22, 1978: Central Committee:
- how to correct imbalances in the economy and reform the
over-centralized economic management of the country; the
development of economic cooperation with the advanced
economies of the world; improvement in science and education
to support modernization; and, last but not least, the reform of
the agricultural economy
- “Four Modernizations”: agriculture,
industry, national defense, and science
& technology
ECONOMIC REFORM
- Responsibility system:
- complete dismantling of the system of People’s Communes
- return of collectivized land to farming families
- 1983 – 98% of farm households
- Market model: allowing the production
and distribution of goods to be
determined by the market, rather than
by central government planners
- Floating population: farmers travelled to
urban centers (100-130 million by the
mid-1980s)
SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES
- Normalization of China-US and SinoJapanese relations in the 1970s-80s
- Sino-Japanese Treaty of Peace and
Friendship (August 12, 1978)
- 1979: 4 special economic zones (SEZs)
- Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, and
Xiamen
- 14 more added in 1986
- foreigners:low tax rates, transportation,
industrial plants, cheap labor force
IMPACT OF REFORMS
- 1991 to 1997, the gross domestic
product (GDP) rose at an annual
average rate of 11%
- Income inequality
- Unemployment
- Environmental crises
- Population problem
- one-child-per-family policy (except
among ethnic minorities)
CONSOLIDATING THE DENG ERA
- Dealing with Mao’s legacy
- 70% good + 30% bad
- Deng refused to take the title of
Chairman
- Consolidation of reformers’ dominance
over the Party
- No political reforms…