China 's New Economy For The New Millennium

There can be no denying that the first half of the 20th century was such an important period in Chinese history. Within the span of 38 years, China overthrew two different national governments. In 1911, the Qing Dynasty was overthrown, and the Republic of China (ROC) took its place. In 1949, the People’s Republic of China would replace the ROC. Though both were revolutions, there were significant factors that differentiated the two.

China has changed in certain ways and remained the same in others from the early Golden Ages to the late 1900s. China has experienced a series of cultural and political transformations, shaping the lives of many Chinese citizens. Culturally, the country’s art and literature hardly changed for almost eight hundred years. Along with their culture, China remained politically the same from the beginning of the Golden Ages all the way until the 1800s. On the other hand, China’s government and society were restructured after new leaders took over. From a monarch to total communism, China’s society had a multitude of new ideas and policies they had to adapt to.

The China Boom: Why China Will Not Rule the World, by Ho-fung Hung. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016.

Perhaps one of the greatest countries in the world, China, was created through struggle, sacrifice, and much more. Many of the changes in China have affected the way we think, act, and what we consider normal. This most famous, and influential country was formed through wars, governmental change, and the formation of a central religion. Governmental changes have been a huge part of China’s history. The first major government was the Dynasties.

Until the mid-twentieth century, China’s government stood in its own way of economically advancing and modernizing. China’s path to communism is somewhat of a surprise and debated topic due to historians access to available resources to find and analyze the complete story for why the country went socialist. Two of the biggest leading historians of Chinese politics at the time included Lucien Bianco and Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong lived from 1893 to 1976 in which a part of his life was spent under the rule of a Feudalist system before reforming the country into a red state. Lucien Bianco was born in 1930 and most of his life still consists of living under a communist government. Both authors offer distinctive different answers for what

Located in Eastern Asia, China is a country known for being a worldwide economic superpower that has had a communist government for several years. Beginning in 1978, China, under Deng Xiaoping’s rule, began to incorporate capitalistic ideas in the government. Deng created various reforms unlike any of the policies or reforms in prior years that began to reconstruct China’s economy through modernization and by establishment of international trade.

China has been a communist country since the communist revolution took place in 1949, since then China has been ruled by the dictator Mao Tse-Tung. However the Chinese dictator died in September 1976, he was hailed abroad as one of the worlds’ great leaders. Certainly one of the more impressive aspects of the Chinese communist government, has been the willingness of the people to protest against it (3, pg. 4).

Today’s China is perceived as an economic powerhouse and a seriousl player in Asia and more broadly in the international arena. However, China’s path to both economic and political prominence has been long and tortuous.The Great Leap Forward was an attempt to modernize China economy so that by 1988, China would have an economy that rivaled America. The “Great Leap Forward” was a setback to China instead of an economy booster. The main reason this atrocity occurred was the advancement of China economy. The ‘‘Civil War’’ generated economic devastation. It also displaced the majority of Chinese people from their residency into a series of communes. Political decisions/beliefs took precedence over common sense and communes faced the task of

. Xiaoping implemented significant change going from a centrally planned economy run by the state, towards a private entrepreneur market based economy. This transition to a new type of socialist thinking, known as the socialist market economy, proved highly successful as it allowed China to move from a nation in poverty ruled by a single person to the second largest economy in the world. A more sudden or abrupt change could have easily resulted in the fall of China’s economy, similar to what certain European countries experienced in 1991 at the end of the cold war between the super powers.

There is controversy whether the rule of Mao Zedong was beneficial or destructive, though by looking into the depths of history the answer is revealed. As Mao Zedong took control over China on October 1, 1949, he immediately installed many reformations to China’s economy, culture, and government. These reformations proved to be devastating towards the people of China. After decolonization Mao Zedong’s enforcement of communism and international isolation lead China into attempting industrialization by imposing labor-intensive methods, and preventing China from technologically advancing.

China is considered to be a democratic system however it has always heavily been ran by Communist parties. This used to be successful, China was considered to be the largest and most advanced economy all the way up to the 19th century. Their economy began to slow, then stagnate, and then eventually begin to decline after the beginning of the 19th century. They had a small up rise in the 1930’s however continued to decline thereafter. Chinese government attempted to run China through a planned economy system however this method did not work efficiently at all and left the Chinese economy stagnated. In 1949, Mao Zedong, the Chinese Communist Party, also known as chairman Mao believed in Marxist- Leninest theories, unique military strategies and different political policies. Mao Zedong attempted a Great Leap forward in which he attempted to rapidly transform China’s economy from an agrarian economy to an industrial one. This change did not pan out, leading to a massive famine killing nearly 20 million and his government position weakening. The Cultural Revolution was initiated in 1966 by Mao Zedong as a way to attack current party leadership and argued for the reemergence of capitalist traits as well as reinstate his power. Mao Zedong attempted to move China’s party system away from the current political party system due to the fact that he believed it was steering China in the wrong direction. His revolution included shutting down schools and the organization of Red Guard

China has rebuilt itself from having an unstable economy, a collapsed government followed by a few turbulent years of corruption and political instability to having the world’s largest population, state-of-the-art technological advances, an incredibly growing economy and several influential leaders. The country has been credited for many inventions indispensable today such as paper, the compass, mechanical clocks, and gunpowder among others and always thought to be ahead of its time technologically. The Chinese government continues to place emphasis on innovation by allowing its people to do research on various subjects such as stem-cell research and gene therapy; these are widely controversial in other

In 1949 a powerful communist leader by the name of Mao Zedong came to power based on his idea for a, “Great Leap Forward.” This idea was meant to bring China’s economy into the twentieth century. He had assembled a revolutionary government using traditional Chinese ideals of filial piety, harmony, and order. Mao's cult of personality, party purges, and political policies reflect Mao's esteem of these traditional Chinese ideals and history. However, the product of this revolution created a massive national shortage in vital materials and initiated a wide scale famine to China’s people (Gabriel).

The Chinese country was primarily a farming nation until 1978, when the government took drastic measures to bolster the economy and decentralize state sectors. Before 1978, the chinese government worked on a command model, where the government was responsible for for managing the economy. It wasn 't until Deng Xiaoping, a capitalist who introduced new principles into the economy, that these drastic changes occurred. With the new capitalistic ideals, the Chinese government saw extraordinary growth within their economy. The economy has averaged a 10 percent growth in GDP over the last several decades. Their market has grown from 168 billion in 1978, to about 8 trillion. Xiaoping did this by making state governed sectors more independent. They adopted some of the more western ideas like laissez-faire, or an attitude of letting businesses operate without interference. Many of the state owned sectors became private enterprises which grew rapidly under a competitive environment. Banks were also split up which allowed them to grow quickly while also reducing risk to the economy. In 2011, the Chinese government decided that they needed to implement new reforms. Known as the 12th five-year year plan, the government wants to focus more on domestic consumption so they can be less dependent on exports.

China is considered the second largest economy in the world. During the past two years, this country has faced a number of both positive and