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Politics in the People’s Republic of China since 1949
By www.Empereur Wu. Wei
The People’s Republic of China has being established for more than five decades. If we examine the record of this latest Chinese central government, the "New China", after 50 years of social turbulence, its economy has been improved exceptionally, notably since the last decade. Infant mortality decreased the average life expectancy increased, and the most merit we can accord to the Chinese government is to have the capacity to feed its one billion citizens. However, politically, few have been changed. The economical reform policy of Deng has certainly strengthen the decreasing legitimacy of "people democratic dictatorship," but meanwhile, in various aspects, the current social situation in China is just like this under K.M.T(Kuomingtang) rules before 1949, a state of social instability due to an unbalanced development with a feeling of distrust from the mass toward the authority. In order to understand how C.C.P could establish a strong political legitimacy before 1949, from the creation of Red Army to the establishment of People’s government, and why ever since, the later has lost its image of "government of the people," due to a series of critical reasons. It is important to begin our analysis with the misfortune of Chinese people in the modern history.
As Harold Isaacs mentioned in the beginning of "The Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution," The new pressures on the old Chinese society generated conflicts which soon accumulated, gathered momentum, and drove the country and its people convulsively forward in search of new solutions. The impact of foreign invasions from the 19th century throughout the 20th was catastrophic and revolutionary. Indeed, the entire social equilibrium was upset and social conflict accumulated, life was jagged and irregular, and the Chinese economy is forcibly transformed. China at that time was forced by the very survivor of its four hundred million people to find a new framework of government.
In the middle of the seventeenth century, the Manchus came to power by taking advantage of one of these peasant rebellions. Three centuries later, KMT or the Nationalist Party takes power in 1911 due to effects of the imperialist invasion on the fabric of Chinese society. It is a nationalistic revolution; the purpose is to establish and to define itself as a Nation-State. Chinese intelligentsia who is the avant-garde thought by doing so, China could at last by the principle be respect by the imperial western countries. Yet, the treaty of Versailles gave them wrong! As an ally, Japan received the ShanDong province, a former Germanic concession, as reward from European allies. Chinese intellectual were outraged. The hope, which was based on the Fourteen Points of President Wilson vanished, with it, the illusion about the West. The protestation of May 4th created a new generation of rebels, whom felt be humiliate by the west and impressed by the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia. In 1921, the same group of youth founded the Chinese Communist Party in French district of Shanghai.
The development of communism in China before 1949 was a long and laborious process. The first important transition of its development happened after "Autumn Harvest uprising," when Mao withdrew to the province of Jiangxi and created the very first Soviet.
After its creation in 1921, the C.C.P was totally under the Soviet’s influence. Overall we have to recognized that firstly, with the emergence of communism in China, for the first time, the notion of equality, democracy or Keming (revolution) were introduced to Chinese elitists, among them the president Sun Yat-sen and his young wife. President Sun admired very much the Soviet organization and how its revolution processed, as the result, the early infrastructure of K.M.T was copied variously from Russian’s. During the leadership of Chen Duxiu as the head of C.C.P, he regarded the labor union as the first priority, yet with the brutal suppression from warlord, it was predominant for the young movement to form a union front with the K.M.T, as the Comintern had suggested. As the result, the C.C.P grow rapidly and its influence overshadowed this of K.M.T. In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek organized the "white terror" in order to eliminate the entire communist organization; this was the first decline for C.C.P. Presumably, the idea of to take the power by corroborating with K.M.T became unrealistic. As ordered by Moscow, Qu Qiubai replaced Chen, and Qu carried the new policy of organize urban insurrection. At the time, the C.C.P was weaponless, with the failure, members who had survived the "white terror" became even fewer.
The lesson from this period is that because the unpractical policies, which were decided by Moscow, Chinese communist revolution was almost disappeared from the political scene. For lots of revolutionaries, the foreigners were once again betrayed them. This may seems nationalistic, but for certain, they doubt that if Marxist Leninism could really apply to China and if the U.R.S.S. model could solve Chinese problem. When Mao created the first Soviet in Jiangxi with Zhu De how was graduated (1911) from the Yunnan military academy and others, from this point, the C.C.P was literally separate into two bastions. The first, which Mao as the head, is the faction of Internalist, which preferred to begin the revolution with the peasants in rural rather then cities. Then, the faction of Externalist, who followed Moscow’s order and believed on the U.S.S.R doctrine, they were radical orthodox communists. Li lisan and Wang Ming were the representative successively of the Externalist. The whole C.C.P organization was based on the Russian model at this period and the supremacy was control by Central Committee. Unfortunately for Mao, when he started to develop the Jiangxi soviet, the Committee that was based in the city of Shanghai was control by a group known as "the Twenty-Eight Bolsheviks." They considered Mao’s theory with a low opinion. In fact, they regard the last as a typical Chinese peasant rebellion.
As J. Stalin suggested, Mao was a "radish communist." For the reason that in the case of Russia the revolution stared in St. Petersburg, and it took a very rapid period to accomplish the take over. And Mao, in contrast preferred to go back to the countryside, as a peasant rebellion leader (like those historic figures) to create a regular army and a territory base. The social context of pre-revolution era between two countries is enormously different. Firstly, Russia already entered into industrialization, most cities in Russia are concentrate in the west side of Ural mountains, and in fact most people live there. St. Petersburg was the heart of Russia, by taking over St. Petersburg Bolsheviks took all Russia at once. Mao on the other hand could see the contrast. China had about four hundred million populations at that time, who were separated into a very vast countryside. And cities, as Bolshevik had focused were totally controlled by Nationalists, foreigners and capitalist, which form a prefect complex. It was neglected to believe that with some energetic students and workers, Chinese communistic movement could survive among them. Mao knew it and went to the countryside.
Indeed, the central committee was chased from Shanghai, and relocated to Jiangxi soviet in 1933. This event certainly demonstrated the vision of Mao. The relocation of central committee decreased also the U.S.S.R’s influence over the C.C.P. But the supreme authority of Mao over C.C.P did not come after the Conference of Zunyi in January 1935 during the period of Long March. The significance of the Zunyi conference was that Mao, as the leader of Internalist became the head of C.C.P and the direction of the party’s political doctrine consequently changed. From a disciple of Russian model, C.C.P became a self-determinate revolutionary movement as a whole.
Mao considered the peasant movement as early as 1925, when he was assigned to Hunan, his home province, to organize peasant movement. He was convinced that within the peasantry, there was an enormous revolution potential. For Mao, to understand peasantry is to understand the majority of people, which he qualified as "mass line." Mao believed that it is strategic to have the peasants’ support, because once you’ll have their support, you’ll have the potential to takeover China against K.M.T.
The "mass line" is actually a vague nation. Mao saw masses as peasants, workers or proletarians. Mao argued that "the basic method of leadership is to sum up the views of the masses, take the results back to the masses so that the masses give them their firm support and so work out sound ideas for leading the work on hand." This sounds as a sage governmental decision, which is trying to minimize the social cap between the rulers and ruled. "From the masses, to the masses" said Mao, and the correct leadership can only be developed on the principle of "from the mass, to the mass." What feared Mao was the C.C.P would not link the leadership with the masses, and if so, the C.C.P will lose its legitimacy of being a revolutionary movement from the Chinese people, and for this purpose, the party’s cadres need to participate in the labor production.
During the era of Yan An soviet for instance, Red army was send to the mountains side in order to help agriculture production and increase the size of farmable land. Cadres like Zhou Enlai at meantime were working in the textile sector. For the young C.C.P, it was essential to understand the needs of local people, the slogan was "people are the water and we are fishes." As the result, in terms of policy making, they would be appropriate and concentrate on the need of mass. By doing so, the distance between cadres and commoners will disappear. Because the policy of ‘mass line" C.C.P could build a strong image of popularity and defeat the nationalist army which was ten times stronger in terms of weaponry power.
After the founding of People’s Democratic Dictatorship, Mao continued to use his famous slogan of "Correct leadership can only be developed on the principle of from the masses, to the masses." Yet, the reason became different. Mao believed "a revolution is not dinner party," and therefore, the revolution must continue. By using the force of commoners, and as a prefect Machiavellian, president Mao counterattack the growing power of Rightist, which disagreed with his policies. The Rightist is composed of technocrats, intelligentsia or peasants, in sum who have a different opinion than this of Mao. Marshal Pen Dehuai, Liu Shaoqui and Deng Xiaoping were the principal antagonists. They were more concentrate on the social economic issues rather then communism development in China. Their enemies are the Leftists, with Mao as the leadership. And Premiere minister Zhou stayed in the middle as the negotiator, until his death in 1976. Leftist and Rightist all believe on notion of communism, they both share the desire of to create a strong, sovereign nation with ideal of communism as frame. But Mao felt the menace from dissident, as the result he organized the "Hundred Flowers Movement," followed by the "Anti-Rightist Campaign." Once Mao eliminated the potential threat from no orthodox side, he started "the Great Leap Forward" movement. Mao would put the peasants which are a huge number into a industrial production, therefore, "the Great Leap Forward" movement would implement communism in a way compatible with Chinese doctrine rather than copy the Russian’s. In countryside, large agricultural units called communes were formed, in peasants’ backyard, furnaces were build in order to increase the steel production. Farmers in the countryside or worker in cities were sending to eat c so that they have more time to work. Mao tried to change or disrupt the social norms in order for China to enter to the great age of communism, but the result was a disaster. This is known as Mao’s adventurism, more than 20 million people starved, and he had to withdraw temporarily from public view. The failure of this program also resulted in a break with the Soviet Union, which cut off aid. Mao accused Soviet leaders of betraying Marxism. In December 1958, Mao announced that he would not stand for a re-election as chairman of the PRC. In 1959 Liu Shaoqi who represent the Technocrats and an opponent of the Great Leap Forward replaced Mao as chairman of the central government council, but Mao retained his chairmanship of the Communist party politburo. Liu shaoqi studied in Russia, he was known as a foremost expert on organization and party structure. But Mao could not tolerate Liu and Deng’s "Bourgeois expertise" policy. Therefore in 1966 he launched the Culture Revolution campaign in order to re-establish his ideological line and counter opposition.
From 1966 through 1976, culture revolution, a mass mobilization of Chinese youth begun and led by Mao and his wife, Jiang Qing smashed the Communist party bureaucracy, paralyzed education and research, and left the economy almost a shambles. The goal was to prevent development of a bureaucratized Soviet style of communism. Yet, it was directed against the party leadership. Liu and others were removed from power in 1968. Mao closed schools and encouraged students to join Red Guard units, which persecuted Chinese teachers and intellectuals and enforced Mao's cult of personality. The left wing was in a state of madness. Liu, Deng and others were attacked during the early stages of the Cultural Revolution, Lui was the "number one capitalist-roader" and a "revisionists." They and their relative were beaten and expelled from the party. Mao's personality cult remained strong until his death on Sept. 9, 1976.
Shortly afterward, however, a power struggle was under way. Hua Guofeng, the new chairman of China, purged a month after Jiang Qing and Gang of Four. And Mao's surviving opponents, members of the party who had been purged by the Cultural Revolution returned to govern China. Chief among them was Deng Xiaoping.
Deng was long acclaimed as a reformer who resisted rigid Communist ideology. He was born in Sichuan province in 1904. While studying in France at age of 16 he became a member of the Chinese Communist party. Because he was impressed by the western technology and production system, he always thought that China in order to become a strong nation needs advanced technologies. For Deng "It does not matter whether it is a black cat or a white cat, as long as it catches mice it is a good cat." For the purpose of people’s welfare, capitalism also has its positive output that Chinese communism can learn from. He was attacked as the "Number two Capitalist Roader" after Liu and sent to work in a tractor factory. After the death of Mao, Deng regain the power for the third time. He instituting a variety of economic reforms aimed at decentralizing China's economy and opening the country to world trade. Nevertheless, these progressive policies are strictly economic. During the Deng era, China finally begins his economic development of "Four Modernizations." Yet, even within the reform team, modernist and conservatives exist. Chen Yun a pure equalitarian believer and Marxist economist represented the strongest leftist figure. Yet, Chen knew the importance of economic reform, that is way Yao Yilin, Qiao Shi or Li Peng could not attack reform theory deliberately. At the beginning of the 1987, the secretary of C.C.P Hu Yaobang had been ousted because his compassion toward dissidents and his support of Western-style democracy were blamed for a rash of student demonstrations for reform.
The premiere Zhao Zeyang took over the party leadership as the result. Zhao and Hu were both reformers and protégé of Deng, but they could not fit together. When Hu died in early 1989, the affaire became the reactor for Chinese people to demonstrate their outrage again social unequality and government corruption. The demonstration ended in the massacre of unarmed civilian in Peking on June 4. Deng's other designated heir, Zhao, was removed from his function and arrested under the order of premiere Li Peng, because he favored concessions to the protesters. The economic almost collapsed and the Chinese government faced the most difficult time since the death of Mao. However, we must admire the courage of Deng to continue his economic reform doctrine after such terrible circumstance. Nevertheless, a conservative man was chosen by Deng as his new successor. Jiang Zemin, the mayor of Shanghai known for his law-and-order stance during demonstrations became General Secretary. Jiang Zemin and Li Peng are both conservative, yet ironically, under this pro leftist government the annul growth rate was about 10 per cent consecutively. In Feb. 19, 1997 Deng Xiaoping was dead, and ever since China and its communist government still carrying he economic reform doctrine. China after a century of social uncertainty seemed to have stabilized now. It has a standard economy basis; its domestic policies and programs appeared to focus on improving the economy, the educational system, and the level of scientific and technical achievement.
One particular effort was made in the early 80’s concerning agrarian and farmer’s living condition. During the revolution, Mao Zedong urged that the party concentrates its efforts on the rural peasantry, and eventually this strategy proved successful. The Communists gained power in China partly because of the bad rural conditions that existed there. However, not much have improved either until the death of Mao in 1976.
As communist had promised, the land from the big landlords was given to peasant cultivators. However, Central planning was introduced after liberation, by 1955 all land was taken over by the state and organized into collective farms. It was state ownership of all land and major equipment, what Marxists called the "means of production." In 1952 the government initiated mutual aid teams, which organized peasants into labor groups that would work together to raise production. Peasant wasn’t happy about it, but the only thing they could do was boycotting the production. Three years later, the mutual aid teams were combined into producer cooperatives, which pooled the peasants' lands so they could be farmed collectively. In the following year, 1956, large collective farms were established and the state took over ownership of the land. The nightmare came when Mao initiated the Great Leap Forward, the collectives were merged into large units called communes and other inappropriate policies were introduced. For example, farmers were forced to eat at messhalls, no family could have their own privet production, and rural industries were introduced. Because farmers could not concentrate on their agriculture production, food production began to decline.
When Deng took over the control, he introduced a new system of farm production called the Family Production Responsibility System. Each family as a unit can lease land for farm production. In exchange farmers have to agree to a quota levied by the collective. Overall farm production rose rapidly, some peasant who live near cities did particularly well and became notional models.
Today, problems in countryside
are rising again. Policy from the central government could not be carry
out appropriately by local cadres, the tension and unhappiness growth.
Since the rice production is not profitable anymore, framers prefer to
specialize in other sectors. They are moving to cities for instance to
find a seasonal job in the construction field. This moving population is
one of two crucial problems that contemporary China is facing, the rise
of unemployment rate and decline of government legitimacy. The future of
China is unpredictable because of his unbalanced reform. In one side, cities
like Guang Tong or Shang Hai are as liberal as New York or Tokyo economically,
yet on the other hand, they are controlled by pure communists who have
no desire to give up their political dominance. The unwillingness of to
change have had made China miserable in various occasions, now what China
needs is a healthy political environment. The ball of political reform
is in the camp of communist, but no body knows who will have the courage
to kick the ball at first and after how long?
Please, give me a confirmation if you like my essay
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