China 1910-Present
Goals:
Evaluate the modernization of China.
Evaluate the Chinese Communist Party’s governance of China.
“Century of Humiliation”- 1840’s- 1940’s
• Opium Wars & foreign concessions
• Christian proselytizing; clash w/traditional faiths
• Taiping Rebellion
• First Sino- Japanese War (1890’s)
• Boxer Rebellion
****Shows Qing Dynasty is falling apart, foreigners are taking advantage of
China
1911- 4,000 Years of Dynastic Government
Ends
• Last Qing Emperor (Puyi) abdicates
• “Republic” set up by Chinese nationalist Sun Yat-sen (educated by and
baptized by American missionaries and lived in modernizing Japan)
• Founds Kuomintang/Guomindang (KMT/GMD) Party based on “Three
Principles of the People (basically western-style social democracy) :”
1.
2.
3.
Nationalism
People’s rights (i.e. democracy)
People’s livelihood (proto-socialism, economic security…food, jobs, edu, etc.)
Woes in the New Republic- 1910’s- 1920’s
• Popular protests & “revolutions” against foreigners
• Internal division and rival warlords (most notably Yuan Shikai) carved
up China and civil war erupted
Major Places to know: Beijing, Shanghai,
Nanjing, Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang
Profile: Chiang Kai-shek (called Jiang Jieshi in
SOL speak)
• Lesser KMT official, but controlled military. President of China 19271949 (1975 in Taiwan)
• Established a military school in the more prosperous and progressive
Shanghai region
• Built a base of power, decent army, and reconquered most of China
(“Northern Expedition”) by 1926
• Kuomintang becomes ruling party of China…no elections though
•
•
•
•
•
•
More conservative- promoted traditional values
Rejected western-styled democratic socialism of Sun
Terribly corrupt
Stagnant economy despite reforms
Supported by Western powers (notably USA)
Capital established at Nanjing (Nanking)
Chiang Kai-shek
• Also, proof that the more doo-dads you
wear, the more of a douche you are….
Profile: Mao Zhedong
• Son of a (relatively wealthy) peasant from Hunan province
• Inferiority complex?
• Became a defunct intellectual in Beijing in the tumultuous 1910’s. Studied
western philosophy & economics, eventually influenced by October
Revolution in Russia & Vladimir Lenin
• Joined/Founded Chinese Communist Party in 1921/22 in…Shanghai (French
concession)
• Eventually, Mao & other CCP Marxist-Leninist thinkers created a new
revolutionary ideology: Marxism-Leninism-Maoism
• Marxism-communism is ultimate form of social organization, requires class
struggle/war of proletariat (workers) against bourgeoisie (owners of means of
production)
• Leninism- the proletariat needs a “vanguard;” a party to educate the workers and
lead the revolution
• Maoism-….we don’t have any workers in China….we have peasants though. So, let’s
have an agrarian, peasant (proletariat) based revolution. Bourgeoisie=land-owners.
• Concept of “continuous revolution” added later on (first articulated by Trotsky). Mao began
to fear “counter-revolutionary,” “conservative,” backlash and retrenchment (basically feared
“Thermodorian Reaction.”) Prevent Thermodor by launching a continuous revolution… Is this
possible?
Chairman Mao
(“The Great Helmsman”)
Civil War 1927-1937
• At first KMT & CCP cooperated in a united front (this was Russian
Bolshevik’s model).
• In 1927, Chiang, fresh off Northern Expedition victories, turned on
CCP and led a purge of CCP in the KMT, first in Shanghai, then
throughout the country
• Between 1927-1935, the CCP fought a (mostly losing) war against the
KMT
• Attempts at sparking peasant uprisings (failed)
• “The Long March”
• Mao & CCP emerged battle-tested, and strong
Chinese
Civil War
Japanese Invasion, WWII in China
• Japanese invaded Manchuria (northern China) in 1935-37, KMT powerless
• Japanese pressed their advantage and by 1940’s, conquered most of coastal and central China
• Set up puppet gov’t in “Manchuko” (Northern China) under ol’ Puyi (Qing Emperor)
• Lots of Japanese atrocities. e.g. “Rape of Nanking” and “Unit 731”
• Still contentious today, Japanese have never fully apologized, basically just said “My Bad”
• On the surface, KMT & CCP cooperated to fight the Japanese…but
Chiang: “The Japanese are a cancer of the skin, the Communist are a cancer of the heart”
• CCP gained upper hand during WWII because:
1.
2.
3.
4.
They fought the Japanese, not other Chinese
KMT was corrupt & inept, KMT troops fled Japanese
CCP troops gained respect and loyalty of peasants by paying for housing, food, etc.
More practically, the KMT was worn down by decades of conflict and the Japanese successes proved what
everyone already knew: the KMT was inept
• Flowers of war scene? John Rabe scene?
Chinese Civil War (again…) 1945-49
• KMT super weak, discredited….CCP wins, takes over (1949)
• KMT flees to Taiwan, sets up Republic of China under Chiang Kaishek
& son dictatorship…Taiwan had UN Sec Council seat til ‘72
• Taiwan modernizes, eventually holds elections, and has democracy,
today (“Asian Tiger”)
• China claims Taiwan as part of China
• USA is kinda, sorta tied to Taiwan’s defense by the Taiwan Relations
Act of 1979 (US does not have diplomatic relations w/Taiwan…but we
do….AND is required to provide defensive military weapons in the
event of a Chinese attack
Great Leap Forward (2nd Five Year Plan)
• Mao’s first Five Year Plan to grow the economy did not….work
• So, a super ambitious 2nd Five Year Plan was launched 1958-1962...it become known as
the Great Leap Forward
• The idea: Sell China’s only real export good (agricultural products) to pay for
development of industry (the hallmark of development…also, proletariat envy?)
• Industrialization would trickle into agricultural sector, boosting production, hence exports, hence
$$$ to reinvest into industry
• So, basically trying to grow agriculture & industry at the same time
• The problem: Through mismanagement, agricultural production plummeted. Food was
still sold abroad, leaving peasants without enough to feed themselves. 50 million+
starved in 3 years.
• Less tragically, industrial output also suffered, industrial growth actually declined as a result of
hair-brained ideas like “backyard” furnaces, where peasants were encouraged to make steel using
recycled metal. That steal was useless. Worse, they melted down their farm tools to make it…
• How did this happen?
•
•
•
•
•
Faith in and desire to please Mao (and lying to please him)
Faith in peasants & human spirit (and lying about their production)
Collectivization removed incentive to produce
Good old fashion mismanagement, e.g. train schedules got jacked up so wheat rotted in boxcars
No naysayers….those are counter-revolutionaries! (In a democracy, we call it trouble-shooting)
The Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution
(“The Cultural Revolution”)
• In a democracy, after a disaster like the GLF there would be criticism
of the gov’t.
• So Mao launched the “100 Flowers Movement…” to allow people to
criticize how things had gone wrong
But…
Cultural Revolution 1965-1976
• He used this period of opening to identify opponents. Many party
leaders jailed (Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, for example)
• Ya’ see, the problem is Mao was so tied to the Great Leap Forward,
that criticizing it, was like criticizing Chairman Mao…and that can’t
happen with a cult of personality
• So Mao encouraged his “Red Guards” to openly denounce, humiliate,
arrest, and beat any “counter-revolutionaries,” “reactionaries,”
“Capitalist roaders,” and/or “Foreign sympathizers.”
• 100,000’s arrested, beaten, killed. Children were encouraged to
denounce elders, parents, teachers, etc. Workers denounced their
bosses, party leaders were targeted. No one was safe.
• Attempt to erase Confucian heritage, btw.
• “Continuous Revolution;” but its exhausting for a society to live in constant
fear.
Chairman Mao dies in 1976, paves way for
new group of leaders
Recently built & demolished Mao in Henan Province
Profile: Deng Xiaoping
• Peasant background. Joined CCP in 1923. Veteran of Long March, Chinese
Civil Wars, and Mao supporter.
• After Great Leap Forward, Deng helped to restore some of the pre-GLF
economic system. This was generally popular.
• But, Mao sensed betrayal and competition
• Deng was labelled a capitalist reactionary and purged (twice) from the CCP during
the Cultural Revolution
• After Mao’s death, Deng became the leader of the CCP (although he held
no formal post) and led China down the path of opening and economic
development.
• “It does not matter if it is a white cat or a black cat. As long as it catches mice, it is a
good cat.”
Deng-Xiaoping
Deng, SEZ’s, and economic opening
• Beginning in 1980, Deng started to slowly open China to foreign
investment in the coastal Special Economic Zones (SEZ’s) like Shanghai
• But knowing about mice, Deng should have known that if you give a mouse a
cookie, it’s going to want… (In other words, limited opening led to lots of
opening).
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Privatization of SOE’s (some, but not all)
Reform of collective farms
Property rights
Market forces to determine prices
Foreign investment throughout the country
A stock exchange
An exchangeable currency
*****Will the mouse demand political opening (aka democracy & human rights) in
addition to economic liberalization?*****
Thermador? (=period of “conservative”/”counterrevolution” after a revolution)
• Is this liberalization period starting in the 80’s a Thermadorian
Reaction?
Tiananmen Square Protests & Masscare
• So by the late 80’s, some CCP officials were quietly calling for political
opening. After funeral (April 1989) of one of these dudes (Hu Yaobang),
university students went to Tiananmen Square to mourn. This turned into
protests, which eventually involved up to 1 million peeps (mostly students).
Their demands: freedom of speech & press, government accountability,
crackdown on corruption, kittens.
• Protests spread to 400 other cities
• The government went back and forth between leaving them alone,
speaking with them, and eventually demanding they leave the square.
• Many protesters went home, but thousands refused to leave. Army and
police went in on June 3-4 and forcibly cleared Tiananmen. 100’s-1000’s
killed, leaders arrested.
Tiananmen fallout
• CCP super scared.
• Continued restrictions on assembly, press, speech, etc.
• How do ordinary Chinese see it?
• Some regret they gave up so quickly
• Some view some of the protests as rabble-rousers who do not appreciate all
the CCP has done for China
• They have bought into the CCP narrative: China cannot have democracy, because that
causes chaos. China can have prosperity, but only by the CCP leadership.
(CCP=“Helmsman”)
• So, CCP has tied its legitimacy to economic growth. What happens if the growth stops?
My favorite China photo
Hong Kong- “concession” to Brits after 1830’s
Opium Wars (& an “Asian Tiger”)
• Under British administration, Hong Kong’s economy grew rapidly, so
did HDI, democracy, and a generally open society flourished
• Brits handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997
• Chinese promised to be nice for 50 years and allow “2 Systems in 1 Country”
(basically allow Hong Kong democracy & capitalism).
• Did they renege on their promise? Last 5 years have seen slow, but
increasing Chinese clamp-downs:
•
•
•
•
Mainland interference in politics
Journalists disappearing
Book sellers disappearing
Force to learn Mandarin (phase out Cantonese)
Goals of CCP
• Maintain Power
• No rival ideologies, religions, etc.
• Restrictive press/ “Great Firewall”
• Human rights abuses, prison/labor camps
• Econ growth & poverty alleviation
• Attack corruption…at times, turn a blind eye at other times
• Corruption is difficult to attack in closed societies…who will publicize it? Isn’t
accusing the gov’t of corruption scary when you could go to labor camp for
“whistleblowing”?
• Limit Pollution- they know its bad….really bad
• Limit population growth. Once Child Policy laxed up in 2015
• Generation of namby-pamby’s, sex-ratio is way off (sex-selective abortion)
China today- Modern? Communist?
• Photos from trip?
EVALUATION- Pick one of the following.
Write. Cite specific data or facts.
1. Evaluate the modernization of China
2. Evaluate the Chinese Communist Party’s governance of China