What Led to China's 1989 Student Demonstrations Essay example

The cultural revolution is a strange period in Chinese history laced with intense struggle and anguish. The cultural revolution mobilized the all of society to compete for all opposing factions that they belonged to (Ong, 2016). Mao mobilized the young people of society during a background of political turmoil, which helped Mao to mobilize the students in order to enforce his political legitimacy and ideas (Ong, 2016). Mao’s charismatic authority created his personality cult and most defiantly leant a helping hand in mobilizing the red guard movement (Ong, 2016) (Weber, 1946) (Andreas, 2007). No matter which faction of the red guard they belonged to, they all mobilized against their common enemy; the better off, upper class. (Ong, 2016). Multiple ideologies within the youth led red guard movement explain why the movement gained momentum and became incredibly powerful (Walder, 2009).

The Chinese communist party had a great influence on the peasants, this sparked a sense of nationalism between the two classes this is shown in documents 1 and 2. Mao Zedong stated in document 1 that “peasants will rise like a mighty storm” and that “they will smash all chains that bind them and rush forward along the road to liberation”. Here Zedong’s tone is intimidating and determined. Zedong shows confidence in the peasants and their abilities

The purpose of this investigation is to examine the extent to which the Chinese Cultural Revolution impacted China’s economy from 1966 to 1970. The main body of the investigation will focus on the persecution and violence towards high-level party officials and capitalists by the Red Guards and the “Destroy the Four Olds” campaign. The “Destroy the Four Olds” campaign was significant because it inhibited industrial and agricultural innovation and production of an entire country for a decade as it placed the country’s economy and industry into the hands of inexperienced revolutionaries. Two sources that will be used will be China: A New History and Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present, and they will be evaluated in regards to their purpose, value, and limitations. An analysis of these sources and the evidence will be used to form a conclusion as to how and to what extent the revolution impacted the Chinese economy.

Originally, Liang’s “parents were deeply involved in all the excitement of working to transform China into a great Socialist country” (4). Over a serious of unfortunate events, though, he became the child of a “Rightist’s cap” mother and a “Reactionary Capitalist stinking intellectuals” father (9, 51). Impacted by the shattering of his family and horrific bloodshed created by fighting, Liang Heng began to question the Cultural Revolution. He claimed that his “family had scarified so much… but it had given [them] nothing in return” (148). Liang Heng presents his shift in ideology to demonstrate that most Chinese were no longer in support of a Communist nation. His “troubles were common enough and anyone could see there was a discrepancy between the glorious words of the newspapers and [their] painful reality (232). Even Liang Heng’s father, after many years of devotion, found that he could no longer defend the Party’s policies after he experienced the ill-treatment of the peasants in the country

Many factors such as, growing liberalization, economic disparities, and inflations. led to the protests. During Mao Ze Dong's leadership, the Chinese government collectivized industries and agriculture. After his death, his successor Deng Xiao Ping implemented the Gai Ge Kai Fang policy, de-collectivizing industries and agriculture. (Huenemann 2017) This policy also allowed citizens greater freedom. Some academics even received encouragement from the government to take an active political stance. (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica) Following the privatization of agriculture and industries, China experienced great economic growth. Unfortunately, this also caused the rate of corruption, and economic disparities to surge. China also experienced price inflations as it

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

As many other countries around the world China has its long history of a struggle for equality and prosperity against tyrants and dictatorships. The establishment of People’s Republic of China in 1949 seemed to have put an end to that struggle for a better life. “The Chinese people have stood up!” declared Mao Tse-tung, the chairman of China’s Communist Party (CPP) – a leading political force in the country for the time. The people were defined as a coalition of four social classes: the workers, the peasants, the petite bourgeoisie and the national-capitalists. The four classes were to be led buy the CPP, as the leader of the working class.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the Maoist government in China implemented a socialistic economy wherein the state controlled nearly every aspect of national and economic development. The process of making the Chinese economy public took the better part of the decade, but resulted in an explosive rate of expansion. Both the nation’s industrial and agricultural sectors grew exponentially until finally reaching a tapering off point during the late 1960s.

This caused a shift towards a fast growing consumer society. Slowly the Chinese began to be able to buy more consumer goods due to their increased revenue. However, the dawn of the 80’s made Deng question the growth of China. A fear for two much freedom and inflation made Deng re-polarize and backtrack, slowly limiting spending. This form of rising expectations met by failed expectations from the young and growing consumer market ultimately led to the fatal incident of 1989. The change and freedom in laws gave the younger generation a feeling of empowerment and euphoria. High expectations grew out of this booming mixed economy. However, signs of corruption and inequality led for friction in the ranks of Chinese society. A call for increased standards of living for educated citizens caused uproar countrywide. Their protest that came to a bloody end is what we know as the Tianan Men Square Massacres.

This investigation will assess the significance of the propaganda that arose out of the student protesting Tiananmen Square in 1989. Using specifically the "Tank Man" photograph taken by Jeff Widener on the 5th of June 1989 during the protests, I will investigate the extent to which this piece of media influenced relations between Australia and China immediately after the events of the student protest. In short, the investigation will try and answer the question as to how influential western media coverage was in its representation of China and if it acted to highlight divisions in foreign relations.

Zhao Dingxin claims that “The country quickly acquired a level of political freedom and economic affluence that it could not even have dreamed of during Mao’s era” (42). People enjoyed not only a convenient life with color televisions or refrigerators but also the sudden influx of Western culture. However, the rapid growth of Chinese economy also led to inflation, corruption, embezzlement, economic crimes and increased the difference between the rich and the poor. On the other hand, the intensive absorption of Western literature and popular culture trends (such as pop music, movie stars, jeans, brand names or disco dance) created “social fevers” in Chinese society. Having the chance to approach the Democracy ideology, Chinese reexamined the values they had always respected. They questioned the ideality of Socialism and Communism, they wanted to have democracy as other Western countries and they realized the over-domination of the communist state. As it was stated in the March 1989 report of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, the youth thought “Marxism is outdated, others that China has the worst record of democracy even among socialist countries” (Zhang 18). They hungered for Capitalism and Westernization and they wanted an absolute change in the way the Chinese state ruled the nation.

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).

The Communist Party of China held on to power by instituting complete control over the Chinese military, media, and government. As Deng is the undemocratically elected leader of the Communist Party, he was both in controlled of and responsible for these institutions. These institutions allowed him to control any oppositions to him such as using the judiciary system to arrest dissidents and using the media to air progovernment messages. When a protest started due to unpopular price control policies in 1989, the Deng and the party used a heavy-handed approach to end the protest resulting in deaths. As a result, Deng and the party’s reputation was damaged.

Deng Xiaoping has been the individual with the most impact on China since the 1970’s. Along with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, he is looked at as one of the key figures in evolution of communism in China . Deng Xiaoping will be remembered as a national hero, but this was not always the case. The real story of Deng includes the fact that, on more than one occasion, his peers ostracized him. During his lifetime he has been a part of the many changes in China throughout the twentieth century. He was by Mao Zedong’s side through all of the struggles of the Chinese Communist Party; battling with Chiang Kai-shek and the Guomindang over

China's Survival of Crisis Due to Economic Reforms In the years before 1976, many unwise policies were carried out which brought China into a crisis of communism, or a state in which communism was threatened. The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution were specifically the main causes of the crisis of communism and the mastermind between these two movements, Mao Zedong, can be held responsible for their initiation. The Great Leap Forward was a great economic failure. Years of famine and intense suffering came about as a result of this skewed project of Mao's.