The Chinese Revolution Essay

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.

When Jan Wong first arrived in China, she was filled with the complete belief that China’s totalitarianism way of government was the best way of governing, and that no other way would do. While natives smiled behind false expressions, she failed to realize the true extent of the miserable lives under the Maoist regime until she herself experienced the injustices faced by the Chinese citizens. In Red China Blues, author Jan Wong writes of her experiences during her life in China and after, and how her whole journey led to the realization of the harsh reality that Maoism really was. As Wong learned more and more about the truth behind the totalitarian government, her own experiences helped her to transform

It called for huge communes in rural areas, which ended private property in the countryside. The Liang family experienced this both by the hunger they felt while still in Changsha, and later on when they joined the countryside.

China has been a communist country. Despite persistent debate over an extended period of time, the question whether which Chinese government is the most responsive to its people has never been permanently settled. However, I dare to claim that Qing Dynasty was the most open and receptive to its people among several Chinese governments. Some people might contend that Republic of China, Warlords, and Chinese Communist Party were the most responsive to its people. However, a close examination throughout this essay will clearly reveal the fallacious nature of their argument. My line of reasoning will derive its support from the most fundamental sources of human wisdom and history.

In 1949 Mao Zedong and his communist revolutionaries had won control of China after a civil war that had lasted more than 20 years. Mao’s revolution was based on a society where the workers control the government. During this time China was a substandard country due to the years of war, disease, and natural disaster. To help make china stronger Mao called for couples to have more babies because babies equal more workers and more work leads to a stronger China. To help economically, people were forced to abandon farming and help aid an industrial China, thus known as The Great Leap Forward. With the replacing of farms, China was reconciled to food shortages, which then led to the killing of an estimated 30 million people. Therefore mao turned

"The Great Leap Forward was begun in 1957 by Chairman Mao Zedong to bring the nation quickly into the forefront of economic development. The rural society was to keep pace with the dream by producing enough food to feed the country plus enough for export to help pay for industrialization. These changes were intended to improve conditions for everyone by collectivizing agriculture and establishing communal eating facilities where peasants could eat all they wanted free of charge" (chronicle.uchicago.edu). The Great Leap Forward was a program by the Communist Party of China that aimed to change the country from an agrarian economy into a communist society through fast industrialization and

Under Mao Zedong, China experienced profound social and economic changes. Industry increased, prostitution and opium use was reduced, and many experienced an increase in social standing as land was redistributed to the peasants, prior to collectivization. But many of the policies that were enacted had negative, even disastrous consequences, which were never properly apologized for or rectified. In 1981, 5 years after Mao’s death, the Chinese Communist Party stated that Mao was essentially 70% good and 30% bad. But Mao’s disconnect from the actualities of his policies, paranoia towards his status in the Party and his public image, and lack of foresight in regards to the consequences of his decisions had extreme ramifications on China that not only led to the death of millions, but fundamentally undermined legitimacy of the government. Through the specific policies of the Hundred Flowers campaign, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution, Mao’s lack of understanding of his actions, and his poor treatment of those who criticized him are very apparent. And while not all of Mao’s policies and actions were disastrous, his errors outweighed his merits. In actuality, Mao’s actions were more likely 80% bad and 20% good.

“The Party: The Secret World Of China’s Communist Rulers,” by Richard McGregor is a book which provides detailed insight into the Communist Party of China, revealing many of the secret underpinnings of how the party is run, and explores the question of how they have continued to stay in power for so long. While other strong socialist powers, such as the Soviet Union and Eastern Germany, fell at the end of the 20th century, the CPC was able to stay in control and ultimately come out of that period even stronger. In McGregor’s own words “the party picked itself up off the ground, reconstituted its armor and reinforced its flank. Somehow, it has outlasted, outsmarted, outperformed, or simply outlawed its critics, flummoxing the pundits who have predicted its demise at numerous junctures.” Instead of letting its own ideologies weaken its power, the CPC has continually adapted and transformed its policies and goals in order to maintain their stronghold over the nation. Through his impressive list of Chinese scholars and political contacts, McGregor is able to lay out the fundamental workings inside the Chinese government and the impressive actions they’ve taken to remain such a powerful organization.

China has been in a state of revolution and reform since the Sino-Japanese war of 1895. As a result of Japan’s victory over Russia in 1905, China’s constitutional reform movement gathered momentum. This forced the Manchu government by public opinion to make gestures of preparation for a constitutional government, an act to which reformers in exile responded enthusiastically by establishing a Political Participation Society (Cheng-wen-she) (1, pg.84).

In the year of 1989, the People’s Republic of China remains under a communist regime. As the world is moving forward with new technologies and innovations empowering new beliefs, democracy is becoming the next big government. China’s economy is slowly flourishing and their traditions still hang on. But with the increasing amount of western influences pouring into China through foreign trade, people are beginning to notice the wrong in communism. Citizens of China gradually learn more and more of the values and benefits of democracy and a small spark of change for a better government soon turns into a blazing inferno seen across the globe. The Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 is related to this year’s theme of standing up because it sent shock

The Great Leap Forward planned to develop agriculture and industry. Mao believed that both had to grow to allow the other to grow. Industry could only succeed if the work force was well fed, while the agricultural workers needed industry to produce the modern tools needed for modernisation. In order to achieve this, China was reformed into a series of communities called communes. The changes Mao made in the Second Five Year Plan were significant.

As public services such as health and education suffered under the GMD and living conditions in rural areas worsened, civilians rapidly joined the Communist party. Many soldiers who fought for the Nationals changed sides and began fighting for communism. The essential focus of Mao’s revolution revolved solely around the peasants who made up 85% of the population. His new land reforms meant taking land from rich landlords and dividing it amongst poorer peasants. Mao also introduced national health care as 95% of individuals in China had never seen a doctor

China’s new communist party general secretary Xi Jinping raised hope for a change in the communist party’s relationship to the law back in December of 2012 when he called for full implementation of China’s state constitution and declared that, “No organization or individual has the special right to overstep the constitution and law, and any violations of the constitution and the law would be investigated.” Xi has also repeatedly mentioned the need for the Party to police itself rather than allowing any outside body to do so. The Chinese communist party dominates state and society in China. Its power rest on four pillars: its control of China’s approximately 2.25 million person-strong military, the People’s liberation army, its 1.5 million person-strong paramilitary forces, the people’s armed police, and it’s 800,000 other internal security forces. The people’s liberation army is not a national army belonging to the state. Rather it is an armed wing of the communist party, with the party’s exercise of absolute leadership over the military. The national people’s congress oversees the state council, as well as four other institutions: the presidency, the supreme people’s court, the public prosecutors’ office, and the military(Lawrence&

In accordance to this, China went on a construction binge. Whole factories were purchased from abroad while others were built with local resources. By 1978, the frenzy for new projects reached a level that reminded some people of the Great Leap Forward. In an effort to promote agricultural production, the government released many of the restrictions on the 'spontaneous capitalist tendencies' of the peasantry. (173) In the late 1980's, the government decided to expand the scope of private marketing. The next step was to increase the amount land assigned to the peasants. The peasants were now not responsible to the government for the use they made to the private plots. They simply could grow what they wished, for the sale to the government or to private markets. This led to furious rebuilding and inflow of foreign investments. All this enabled China to remake itself into Asian's hub of finance, trade and culture.

Mao built communes throughout areas of china which contained on average five-thousand families. These turned out to be well controlled communities where the residents gave up all ownership of possessions, land, etc. The elderly and young children were looked after so healthy family members could work and not have to worry about them. Mao in May of 1958 launched another plan: the Great Leap Forward. This was Mao's economic plan to transform China into an industrial nation in two years. The plan was to decentralize agriculture and create communes which would promote heavy industry and agricultural production. The Great Leap Forward seemed to symbolize Mao's embrace of technology and industry. In 1958 700 million people had been placed in to 26, 785 communes. Small villages would set rice quotas and economic priorities and work as a group, sharing resources for the harvest. Communes can be seen as based on the Confucian idea of obligation. Traditionally, Confucianism obligated a child to respect a parent. Communes, according to Mao would replace that obligation to parents, with an obligation to Communism. The government worked tirelessly to keep workers motivated by vast propaganda tools. Devices such as, political speeches played in the fields, or goal setting was common. Also back-yard steel smelting furnaces were used which unfortunately produced poor qualities of steel, and over-consumed coal which led to a massive shortage.