Peoples Republic of China
The Chinese Communist Party 1949-present
Tiananmen Square 1989
Shang Dynasty
Its civilization was based on
agriculture, augmented by hunting
and animal husbandry.
Two important events of the
period were the development of a
writing system and the use of
bronze metallurgy.
Shang Dynasty 1700 - 1100 BC
Eastern Zhou Dynasty
The Eastern Zhou dynasty was
marked by a proliferation of new
ideas and philosophies. (Spring
and Autumn Period)
The three most important, from a
historical standpoint, were
Daoism, Confucianism, and
Legalism.
Eastern Zhou Dynasty
771 - 221 BC
Legalism and Confucianism
Legalism derived from the teachings of
another one of Confucius' disciples, a
man named Xun-zi.
Xun-zi believed that humans were driven
by self-interest therefore basically evil.
Consequently, the Legalists designed a series of draconian laws
that would make people easier to control.
The fundamental aim of both Confucianism and Legalism was
the re-unification of a then divided China, but they took
difference approaches.
Historical roots of authoritarianism?
Confucian ideology divided Chinese society into four classes:
The land-owning gentry and bureaucrats who administered the
empire in the name of the emperor, and both groups had a vested
interest in preserving the status quo. The peasants; artisans and
merchants.
Confucianism depended on virtue and natural order; Legalism
advocated rule with an iron fist.
Legalism system starts with the idea that the Emperor is the Son
of Heaven and has the Mandate of Heaven to rule, there is no
such thing as legitimate dissent and thus no concept of "loyal
opposition".
Legalism advocated techniques such as maintaining an active
secret police, encouraging neighbors to inform on each other, and
the creation of a general atmosphere of fear.
The politics of the
Warring States period
Rival factions Struggle for
Control over China
Massive armies (half a
million per army was not
an uncommon figure), long
battles, sieges, were all
common features of the
Warring States battlefield.
Warring States Period
475-220 BC
Qin Dynasty
Much of what came to constitute
China Proper was unified for the
first time in 221 B.C.
In that year the western frontier
state of Qin, the most aggressive of
the Warring States, subjugated the
last of its rival states.
Qin Dynasty 221 - 207 BC
Han Dynasty
The Han dynasty plays a very
important role in Chinese history.
The Han Chinese are the
predominant ethnic group in China
and claim the Han dynasty as their
ancestry.
Han Dynasty 207 BC - AD 220
The later Han ruled China for nearly 400 years. In AD 220, the
Han dynasty collapsed, plunging China into 350 years of chaos
and disunity.
Most importantly, the Han dynasty developed the administrative
model which every successive dynasty would copy.
Why is the development of bureaucracy so important?
Ancient China was a big country. Until Russia laid claim to Far
East Siberia, China was the largest country in the world.
It was also the most populous (60 million people at the time),
To do things like collect taxes, keep the peace, and basically run
a government required an efficient bureaucracy.
The Chinese bureaucratic system is based on the study of the
Confucianism, which provides an ideological reference point for
proper behavior and loyalty to the Emperor.
By developing this system, the Han emperors were able to run
China with a reasonable degree of efficiency.
Yuan Dynasty
Genghis Khan’s grandson Kublai
Khan established a capital at what
is now Beijing and militarized the
nation's administration.
While the time of Mongol rule is
called a dynasty, most Chinese
now consider it a government of
occupation.
Mongol rule came to an end with
the establishment of the Ming
dynasty (1368-1644), with
capitals at Beijing and Nanjing.
Yuan Dynasty 1279 - 1368
Ming Dynasty
Characteristics of Ming Civilization:
1) the defeated Mongols were considered
barbarians and savages, so the Ming
emperors tried to eradicate any trace of
their presence. To do so, they sought to
recreate the splendor of the past, that of Ming Dynasty 1368 - 1644
the Han, Tang, and Song Dynasties.
2) the government was autocratic, with more power in the hands of
the emperors than before.
3) the army, which was utilized for defense, reached a size of four
million men, but there was little technological innovation and
China lagged behind the West.
In 1421 the Forbidden City and the Imperial Palace of the
Ming emperors were built. The Great Wall was also built in
this time period.
China and the Europe
Contact with Europeans began in 1515; networks of trade
developed, even though a one-way voyage required a year.
The Portuguese were established in Macao. The Dutch also
traded with the Ming Dynasty.
Catholic missionaries arrived in the sixteen century, and the
Jesuits won influence at court.
Beginning about the 1550s, the Ming rulers sought to isolate
themselves from the rest of the world and to protect their land
borders (great turning inward).
Ming rule lasted until the rise of the Manchus in the 17th
century.
Qing Dynasty
The Manchus established the
Ch’ing Dynasty, which ruled
China until 1911.
The ultra-conservative Manchus
had no room in their world-view
for relations with other nations.
Qing Dynasty 1644 - 1911
There was the rest of the world,
and then there was China.
This viewpoint was so pervasive that Chinese reformers who
advocated more flexibility in China's dealings with the West
were often accused of being “Westerners with Chinese faces”.
National Awakening
The “Opium War” – marks the
beginning of modern Chinese
consciousness.
In the 19th century trade
flourished, but British purchases
of silk and tea far outweighed
Chinese purchases of wool and
spices.
The Opium Wars
1839-1842, 1856-1860
In 1773 the British decided to balance the books by
encouraging the sale of opium.
By 1840 the Opium Wars drew Britain and China into conflict.
The resulting treaties led to
the cession of Hong Kong
and the signing of the
humiliating Treaty of
Nanjing.
A subsequent land-grabbing
spree by Western powers
saw China carved up into
spheres of influence.
Treaty of Nanking 1842
The Chinese agreed to the US-proposed free-trade Open
Door Policy and all of China's colonial possessions soon
evaporated.
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia went to the French, Burma to
the British, and Korea and Taiwan to Japan.
Post-Imperial China
Puyi - Last Emperor
1908-1911-1924
Revolution of 1911
Frustrated by the Qing dynasty’s
resistance to reform, young
officials, military officers, and
students became inspired by the
revolutionary ideas of Sun Yat-sen.
Advocated the overthrow of the
Qing dynasty and creation of a
Republic of China.
A revolutionary military uprising
on October 10, 1911, led to the
abdication of the last Qing
Emperor.
Sun Yat-Sen
Leader of 1911
Revolution
As part of a compromise to overthrow the
dynasty without a civil war, the
revolutionaries and reformers allowed high
Qing officials to retain prominent positions
in the new republic.
One of these figures, General Yuan Shikai,
was chosen as the republic's first president.
Before his death in 1916, Yuan
unsuccessfully attempted to name himself
emperor.
Yuan Shikai
His death left the republican government
President/Emperor
shattered, ushering in the era of the
of China
"warlords" during which China was ravaged 1912-1916
by shifting coalitions of competing
provincial military leaders.
Era of the Warlords 1916-1928
Liberalism and the May 4th Movement
The era of warlords, ironically, coincided with a wave of
support for western style liberal democracy.
The May 4th Movement, which began around 1915 and
reached its peak in 1919.
The May 4th Movement epitomized the critique of
Confucianism, which was seen as the source of China’s
weakness:
• too weak to fight off foreign invaders
• too restricted by Confucian traditions to adopt more
effective policies
• too conservative to consider more innovative ideas in
politics and basic social values.
During the May 4th Movement, Chinese intellectuals advocated
the adoption of western style liberalism in China.
They exalted the superiority of democracy and science over
China’s Confucian traditions.
Their slogan was “Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred
schools of thought contend”
This slogan would be reprised by Mao in the 1950s.
Chinese support for liberal democracy ended abruptly however,
after the German defeat in WWI, when Germany territorial
possessions in China were awarded by the Western powers to
Japan.
China under the Kuomintang
In the 1920s, Sun Yat-sen
established a revolutionary base in
south China and set out to unite the
fragmented nation.
With Soviet assistance, he
organized the Kuomintang (KMT
or "Chinese Nationalist People's
Party") and entered into an alliance
with the fledgling Chinese
Communist Party (CCP).
Sun Yat-Sen
Kuomintang (KMT)
Chinese Nationalist
Party
China under the Kuomintang 1928-1937
Many in China felt that the KMT
was too moderate and founded a
more zealous Chinese Communist
Party in 1921, also with assistance
from the Soviet Union.
A bitter rivalry developed between
Chiang Kai-shek’s KMT and the
CCP.
Chinese Communist
Party
In 1927, Chiang destroyed the
CCP's party organization and
executed many of its leaders.
The remnants fled into the
mountains of eastern China.
Kuomintang (KMT)
Chinese Nationalist
Party
The Long March
Finally, driven out of their mountain bases in 1934, the CCP's
forces embarked on a "Long March" across China's most
desolate terrain to the northwest, where they established a
guerrilla base at Yan'an.
It’s estimated that of the original 100,000 people who began
the six thousand mile march, only 8000 survived to reach the
mountains.
During the "Long March," the Communists reorganized under
a new leader, Mao Zedong.
The bitter struggle
between the KMT
and the CCP
continued through the
14-year long Japanese
invasion (1931-45).
The KMT preferred to eliminate the communists before moving
on to confront the growing Japanese threat.
However, with the invasion of China in 1937, the two parties
nominally formed a united front to oppose the Japanese.
The Empire of Japan 1937-1945
The Japanese were brutal occupiers.
The most notorious act of Japanese
brutality was the Nanking Massacre
in 1937 where over 250,000 Chinese
civilians were killed in less than 6
weeks.
Nanking was not unique however,
and evidence of Japanese atrocities in
the countryside push the total civilian
dead closer to 800,000 during that
same time frame.
Nanking Massacre
1937
Chinese Civil War 1945-1949
Despite some wartime cooperation between the KMT and
CCP, their civil war resumed after the Japanese defeat in
1945.
By 1949, the CCP occupied most of the country.
The success of the CCP was primarily found in the charismatic
appeal of Mao Zedong to the peasantry, a policy of political
moderation built on principles of Chinese nationalism.
Mao’s People’s Liberation Army
Nationalists Withdraw to Taiwan 1949
Chiang KaiShek in
Taiwan
1950-1975
Chiang Kai-shek fled with the remnants of his KMT
government and military forces to Taiwan, where he
proclaimed Taipei to be China's "provisional capital"
and vowed to re-conquer the Chinese mainland.
People’s Republic of China 1949-present
Mao proclaiming the PRC
from Tiananmen Square
Politics in Mao’s China
During the Maoist period there
were three important eras:
Hundred Flowers Movement
Great Leap Forward
Cultural Revolution
Mao Zedong 1949-1976
Hundred Flowers Movement in 1957.
The idea behind the movement was that
constructive criticism was healthy to the
state.
Mao expected mild criticism, but
instead got a stream of complaints about
the fundamental nature of the system.
There were complaints about the
absence of democracy, the rule of law,
free expression, and above all about the
party.
Hundred Flowers
Movement 1957
This led to a reactionary crackdown called the Anti-Rightist
campaign, purging the party of dissidents and replacing them with
loyalists.
Following the Anti-Rightist
campaign, Mao started a
campaign that became known as
the Great Leap Forward (1958–
59).
A campaign to encourage people
to work harder not through higher
wages, but by propaganda and
persuasion.
The Great Leap
Forward 1958-1959
Next came the Great Proletarian
Cultural Revolution.
By the mid 1960s, Mao began to
emphasize the importance of the
class struggle and building the
Marxist utopian state.
Mao felt increasingly marginalized
by moderate reformers and
worried that the spirit of the
revolution was loosing steam,
especially in the younger
generations.
Cultural Revolution
1966-1976
China’s Foreign Policy Under Mao
The Sino-Soviet Split
Invasion of Tibet 1959
Reform and Opening After Mao
Deng Xiaoping was the symbol of
the “second generation” of leaders.
He was one of the party leaders
persecuted during the cultural
revolution and then rehabilitated in
1977, to become China’s next
president and party general
secretary.
Deng Xiaoping will be remembered
for dramatically improving the lives
of many in China, but also for
disappointing those who believed
that political reform should
accompany economic reform
Deng Xiaoping 1978-1990
The Reform Era (1978–Present)
Increasing market forces
Dismantled the communes and encouraged individual farming,
eliminated prices controls allowing prices to fluctuate with
supply and demand, focused on specialization and comparative
advantages in production.
Increasing foreign trade and investment
Created Special Economic Zones or open cities to encourage
foreign trade and investment.
Reliance on the private sector
In the 1950s China’s private sector was virtually eliminated.
It began to revive in the 1980s in the form of small
business.
In the 1990s it exploded.
In 1990 there were only about 10 thousand private firms in
China. Today there are over 4 million.
In 1990 the private sector accounted for less than 10% of
China’s economic output. By today, its more than half.
China is also experiencing a dramatic urbanization as
migrants leave the farms in the countryside for industrial
jobs in the cities.
Economic reform: a balance sheet
Tremendous growth (10% annual GDP growth)
Problems of corruption persist and China is now considered
one of the most corrupt countries to do business in.
One particular concern are the so-called “red capitalists” –
business elites who are also party elites.
Rising inequality – the gap between rich and poor, city and
countryside is increasing dramatically.
Profile of Jiang Zemin
Zemin gets much of the credit
for the reforms as the man who
led the “third generation” of
Communist Party leaders who
succeeded Deng Xiaoping.
Zemin’s tenure also
experienced the rise of
problems of corruption, crime,
poverty, and environmental
devastation.
Jiang Zemin 1992-2003
China’s leaders today
Hu Jintao: leader of the fourth
generation of leaders in the PRC.
If Jiang Zemin could be characterized
as an elitist, then Hu Jintao is more a
populist, taking on causes of the rural
poor and working classes.
Although he has served as president
during a time of economic growth and
prosperity in China, he’s been a
disappointment when it comes to
political reforms.
Chinese political institutions
Communist Party of China
Consists of:
The Politburo
The General Secretary of the CCP
Elected by:
The CCP Central Committee
Elected by:
The CCP Party Congress
The Politburo
The top party official is the
General Secretary.
Mao had the title of
“Chairman” but that position
was eliminated after his
death in 1976 to prevent
anyone from every aspiring
to Mao’s level of personal
power.
CCP General Secretary Hu Jintao
2002-
CCP Party Congress
The General Secretary and Politburo are elected by two
larger bodies – the Central Committee and Party Congress.
The State
Structurally, China’s government looks very much like a
parliamentary system:
The governing party appoints ministers and other key
government officials, and drafts most legislation.
The key difference is that China’s ruling party was not
voted into office and does not hold popular elections.
China’s state institutions are highly centralized.
The executive branch is
headed by a prime minister (or
premier), who appoints
officials to head other
government ministries called
the State Council.
Chinese Prime Minister
Premier Wen Jiabao 2003-
China’s legislative branch
is called the National
People’s Congress
The weakest of China’s
major state institutions –
i.e. below the party and the
government.
National People’s Congress
One of the duties of the
National People’s Congress
is to elect the President of the
People’s Republic of China,
who serves as head of state.
The current president is Hu
Jintao, who also serves as
Secretary General of the
Party (not uncommon).
President Hu Jintao
2003-
Hu Jintao also serves as
Chairman of the Central
Military Commission, making
him a the most powerful party,
government, and military leader
in China.
Chairman of the Central
Military Commission
Hu Jintao 2004-