How Did The Civil War Change China Into A Dystopian Society

“There is danger0from all men.0The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man0living with power to endanger the0public liberty.” says Ayn Rand. The novel Forbidden City by William Bell tells us a real story about students and civilians democracy in0Beijing, China in 1989. The government no0longer works for people when the movement0becomes violent and a power struggle between the government and people appears. In a word, power0can take over0freedom when a certain0group of people controls it all, but it can’t control people’s0thoughts forever. Firstly, the setting shows the background0which is thousands of students were doing hunger strike in Tian An0Men Square because of freedom. The Character Lao Xu is one of the leaders in the activity of hunger strike Lao Xu sacrificed because saving students. Finally the conflict between China0and citizen shows that government cannot ignore any citizens and controls their thoughts.

China has always been renowned for being successful in the domains of science and arts, however in previous decades, China has been ravaged by famines, civil discomfort and foreign outsourcing. China was consumed by this injustice until well after the Second World War when Mao Zedong introduced Communism adapted from the U.S.S.R, and created an autocratic socialist system which imposes firm constraints upon the Chinese social, political and economic system. It wasn't until the 1980's China's following leader Deng Xiaoping who focused focused on developing China into a

(Lihua) Again, the unwillingness of the Chinese to retaliate against established authority becomes increasingly evident, and can also be traced back to Confucianism. It is important to the Chinese that they maintain the order that has been put into place, simply because it acts as the basis on which harmony can grow. The Chinese do not generally think of the government as a system that they can change if they actively participate in it; but rather, if they do actively participate, it is usually for the good of their country and for the preservation of the political system that has already been put in order. This idea stands as a stark contrast to the democratic attitude of the American, whose involvement in the political system is usually used only as a means through which to lessen the grip of the government on the people, or to ensure that what grip the government does have is benefiting the people the best that it can.

China is in a state of foreign dominance. Europeans and Japanese are taking over its territory. The people have lost faith in their government and they want to start a new one. Revolutionary parties begin to rise and expand. They want their government to get rid of the Europeans and Japanese but they aren’t able to. They have to take matters into their own hands. The people are started to learn from the westerners and they want to modernize. They want the power to defend themselves. They want the power to be able to control their own people and reinforce their own laws. They don’t want Europeans or Japanese to think that China is a part of their own country. Peasants

This would lead to an “unending series of defeats,” including the “British in 1942, the French and British jointly between 1856 and 1860, and by the French again in 1864,” and the Japanese in 1894 (Spence 35). Revolutionary efforts led by men like Kang Youwei and Sun Yat Sen would eventually overthrow the Qing Dynasty. Even after several failed uprisings, Sun Yat Sen was still able to maintain a, “steady stream of support of new followers, and he was always able to get enough funds from overseas Chinese,” (Spence 110-111). On the first of January, 1911, Sun Yat Sen and his fellow revolutionaries would found the Republic of China (Spence 135). In 1945, after emerging victorious in a conflict with Japan, China’s Nationalist and Communist Parties would enter into a civil war, with Mao Zedong and the communists winning the conflict and founding the People’s Republic of China in 1949 (Spence 359). China under Mao would be subjected to killings and acts of propaganda meant to control a population being molded for communism. Mao’s legacy is a strange one. Even though he did help give many Chinese more rights than ever before, his willingness to keep the population under control would create a very controversial China to say the least (Spence 387).

In a nation’s history there are times of downfall: poverty, war, and inhumanity, and times of prosperity: a period of peace and harmony and cultural development. Modern China, 1900-1970, was a point of isolation, poverty, and lack of freedom. In “Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China”, the author Jung Chang tells the first hand experience of her grandmother, mother, and herself living in China during the Japanese invasion, the Kuomintang rule, and Mao Zedong rule. Changes in gender treatment, education, freedom, and government occurred from the beginning of the period to the end, whereas the downfalls in the economy, familial customs, hierarchy, and the harsh consequences of disobeying government and culture were continuities of Modern China.

The current Chinese government fits into the category of Authoritarian Regimes because Chinese government just use the coercion to limit political pluralism in order to maintain their power, but allows some social pluralism and does not use ideology or coercive mobilization to shape citizen’s interests, or support for the regime. However, China had been in a category of totalitarian regimes once after the World War 2 ended. After the world war 2, under the Mao’s control, China’s sovereignty imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people, which is the totalitarian regime. When China was under Mao’s control, citizen’s interest and identities were shaped by the ideology created by the government, and the ideology motivated Chinese citizen to act politically in particular way. The ideology that China promoted under Mao’s control was the communist ideology, which they believe that efforts should be made to redistribute economic wealth as much as possible and that a single political party should direct the government and control the state. After 1978, Mao’s successor Deng and other leaders focused on market-oriented economic development and by 2000, output had quadrupled. Therefore, after 1978, China changed the system of government to allow more freedom for citizens instead of the total control over citizens by the coercive mobilization.For much of the population, living standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal

Twentieth century China was a period when the nation experienced the biggest changes in Chinese history. By comparing the Maoist period with the reform era, I argue that there is a drastic transformation between the two periods in context of their impacts on political ideology, social movements and cultural identities. For this reason, the transition was essential to China’s current fast-growing economy and its strong position in the world today.

As a result of the civil war in 1927 to 1950, the Communist Party gained political control over China and defeated the opposing Nationalist Party. This essay will examine and analyze the benefits of Mao Zedong’s leadership of the Communist Party throughout the civil war, such as his influence over the military and the Chinese people. There is no doubt, however, that other factors such as the opposing Nationalists’ corruption, military tactics and relationship with the people all played an even greater role in ensuring the victory of the Communist Party. It will be argued that while the leadership of Mao Zedong was a large part of the Communist Party’s victory, the failures of Chiang Kaishek’s leadership were crucial to the success of the Communists.

The history of China is as complex as its citizens. There are many people in China and they offer insight into China’s history. These people have different perspectives based on their status and power. People with different status and access to power very depending on the section of Chinese history, during the twentieth century the people with different stations are Communist Party members and the average working class citizen. These different view points help explain the difference power makes in a person’s life. The stories of Communist Party members and average working citizens help one to understand China’s history under the Communist Party, especially, during the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution.

Even before WWII, communism had already existed in the Chinese story and now it would grow to become a foundational characteristic of its government. In-between WWI and WWII, Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-Shek and been squaring off against each other in a civil war. WWII interrupted the civil war, but the disputes that had created conflict in the first place had been far from settled. WWII sucked any strength the Chinese government had in its fight against Mao. As a result, Mao Zedong took control of the government from Chiang’s nationalists and established the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949. Mao’s reign of China lasted for almost three decades and China experienced massive change from the new government. In particular, two of Mao’s most well-known policies radically altered the fabric of the Chinese society. First, the Great Leap Forward saw the country succumb to mass starvation as Mao took the collectivization of rice to the maximum level of state control. As a result, estimated numbers and poor management created a system that took the life of millions of Chinese peasants. Second, the Cultural Revolution saw entire families being ripped apart due to their political affiliations. Laing Heng’s story shows how the Cultural Revolution affected the average Chinese citizen. At the age of four, Laing Heng would be forever tarnished from his dreams as his mom was labeled a rightist and, therefore, was not able to join the professional basketball team decades later.

Revolutions, we can safely say, are a historical constant. The human desire for change and the will to fight for one’s future have led to revolutions of varying size and scope since the earliest of ancient times. The 20th century too saw revolutions of all kinds. And yet, of the many revolutions that marked the past century of human history, very few had such effects and such impact as the Chinese Communist Revolution of 1949, or the War for Liberation, as many Chinese know it. Truly, the revolution of 1949 has dramatically changed the world, both in an economic and political context and beyond. It has forever changed not only China, but the very Chinese nation, and paved the way for her to become one of the giant global players of today. But scholars often challenge the communist nature of the revolution, stating that, while it was the communists who led it, the revolution itself was in many ways not

First, China defined its own version of democracy, which is called socialist democracy or “with Chinese characteristics” (Green & Luehrmann, 2011, p. 337). In China, apart from the Communist Party of China, there are eight different political parties called democratic parties, which were mostly founded during the anti-Japanese war and the national liberation war (crienglish.com, 2014). These parties, however, do not involve with ruling party in China, but rather only participate in the discussion and administration of the State affairs. In the contrary to how China claims to have its own democracy version, there is a government hierarchy of executive power in China, in which the authoritarians have justified their centralization of power as a way to secure their countries from collapse. (Green & Luehrmann, 2011, p. 339) In other word, such government is described as “personalist regimes”, which means that there is such a consolidation of power in the hands of one individual that this leader comes to personify the nation (Green & Luehrmann, 2011, p. 340). For example, China’s prime minister Wen Jiaobao, also known as “Grandpa Wen” or “ the crying prime minister” has established his symbol as “rescuers at

The need to understand this current Global Superpower has never been more pressing than in the present day. When I found my first interest in the topic of China, it was in large part because we hear so much of how economic status teetering on the economic dependency we have developed over the last couple of decades. This paper will introduce philosophy, culture, and the evolutions and revolutions that took course threw the last 100 years of China’s timeline. Important events will be brought to light and discussed in detail about their impact then and how it has shaped the modern ideals and communist government. Taking it a step further we will see what current impacts the culture and government is having on a country so diverse, and what is to be expected in the future.

Zakaria writes, “They know that to introduce capitalism into China requires much more than economic changes, so they have allowed significant reforms of the administrative and legal systems as well” (81). Although Zakaria argues that China must reform its political system, he says a quick transition to a liberal democracy can lead to chaos, because of the large size of the country and the small size of its middle class. Other reasons, and probably more realistic reasons for China’s slow progression towards a democratic state is that the leaders want to clasp to its stronghold on the political system.