Abstract
The proclamation of the PRC marked the end of the 22-year Chinese Civil war and the "century of shame." While the PRC's early days under Mao were marked by mismanagement and incompetence with failed reforms such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, they allowed for the necessary political support from within the CCP to propel Deng Xiaoping's liberal economic reforms. Since then, GDP growth in China has averaged 10 percent annually. More than 800 million people have been lifted out of poverty with significant improvements in access to public services such as healthcare and education. China is now the world's second-biggest economy, poised to become the largest in just 8 years, and is now on the verge of becoming a high-income country. Although the CCP has flaws with the lack of human rights and democratic values, it is largely a positive force in China because it promotes the national interests of the Chinese people and fosters peace and prosperity for not just China, but the whole world.
Introduction
The People's Republic of China (PRC), rising from the ashes of a bloody 22-year civil conflict, was proclaimed on October 1st, 1949, by Mao Zedong, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chairman. Famously declaring "the Chinese people have stood up" in his victory speech, the proclamation of the PRC marked the end of the "century of shame," a period stretching from 1839 to 1949 where China was constantly bullied and subjugated by outside imperial powers. The creation of the PRC was predicated on the idea of a robust communist state without oppression and inequality, coupled with a prosperous utopian society with abundant food and consumer goods. Although the early stages of the PRC were marked by poverty and hardship, the development of the CCP and the PRC was largely a positive development for the people of China in the end because it fostered peace and prosperity for hundreds of millions.
The CCP's policies in their infancy were severely mismanaged and incompetent, ruining the lives of millions across China. Mao's initial goal was reconstruction and consolidation; he wanted to focus on bringing China through three critical transitions. Firstly, move the country from a near economic cascade to economic growth; secondly, achieve political stability; and lastly, transition the government from military to civilian rule (Denis). In 1958, Mao wanted to accelerate China's economic transition from a largely agrarian economy into a modern industrial economy. Mao instituted the ambitious second 5-year plan known as the Great Leap Forward, which aimed to enable China to overtake western powers such as the UK and the US in as little as 15 years (Scribner). The plan had two goals: collectivizing the agricultural sector to bolster productivity and inducing rural industrialization to increase output capacity. In order to increase agricultural productivity, Mao eliminated private farming. Instead, farmers were forced to work on collectivized farmland and were organized into communes where all factors of production were controlled centrally. Moreover, a nationwide campaign to exterminate sparrows was commenced as Mao believed they were a major pest on crops, resulting in massive swarms of locusts without the natural predation of sparrows. To achieve the second goal of rapid industrialization, backyard steel furnaces were built across the country. Steel production was targeted to double in just the first year, but these backyard furnaces produced useless low-quality pig iron (Boyle). This resulted in a catastrophic failure that resulted in tens of millions perishing from famines alongside a stagnating economy despite massive amounts of capital and resources pouring into China's factories (Boyle). The devastating aftermath of the Great Leap Forward put Mao's power in jeopardy, and many people in China, including those inside the CCP, distrusted his revolution. In order to regain his grip on power, he launched the Cultural Revolution, where he tried to renew the revolutionary spirit in China (Kenneth). He quickly purged those who opposed him inside the party and swiftly closed China's schools to organize the urban youth into "Red Guards," who were told to destroy traditional values and anything that resembled capitalism. The aftermath was anarchy, where many intellectuals and elderly were abused and killed, and many valuable ancient books, arts, and architecture were burned and destroyed (Kenneth). Among the damage caused was an entire generation of Chinese youth named the "lost generation," of which millions never received an education. Many Red Guards participated in marches and riots instead of classes while educational institutions were targeted. Even when schools started to reopen in the early 1970s, they did so with watered-down curriculums (Chipley). It was not until the death of Mao in 1976 that the Cultural Revolution finally ended. However, the damage was already done, millions died, and an entire generation of people was ruined.
With the death of the chairman and a distrustful public, Deng Xiaoping becomes China's next leader with the promise of change. Deng introduced the Four Modernizations in the late 1970s, developments in agriculture, science, industry, and defense. Deng emphasized pragmatism over politics in policymaking; in contrast to Mao's idea of "better to be poor under socialism than rich under capitalism," Deng asserted that "poverty is not socialism" and "to get rich is glorious," famously saying the color of the cat does not matter as long as it catches mice (Chipley). Deng gradually introduced market reforms to bolster industry output and economic growth. He opened China to foreign direct investment (FDI) and globalization, instituted bonuses to enhance productivity, and encouraged entrepreneurship (Pong). Aside from industry, Deng aimed to ensure food security for a burgeoning Chinese population; he dismantled communes and instead adopted a farming system on land contracted out to private households with farmers allowing them to sell surplus yields to the market (Pong). Moreover, to foster the development of science, Deng started a comprehensive reform of the country's schools to reverse the grave harm done to China's educational system during the Cultural Revolution (Chipley). Deng's comprehensive reforms proved to be highly successful. GDP grew by nearly 10 percent annually, and several hundred million rural poor were brought out of poverty, with a hundred million jobs created in nonagricultural sectors (Pong). Unfortunately, remarkable economic growth also has flaws; corruption was rampant, and inflation was through the roof. By 1989, a growing discontent amongst university students started to arise. Exposed to new liberal ideas and a higher standard of living, students started to demand further economic and democratic reform. Tens of thousands of students marched into Tiananmen Square and protested, calling for democratic reforms in China, and for a while, it seemed like China was on the edge of radical change. However, on June 4th, 1989, patience amongst senior CCP leaders ran out. Deng called for over 200,000 armed troops to storm Tiananmen Square, resulting in the massacre of hundreds of civilians (Britannica). Although the massacre was a senseless act of bloodshed, many analysts argue that a hard stance had to be taken to ensure political stability. Deng feared revolts in China similar to those in Eastern Europe during the 1980s; if political instability proliferates, Civil war could quickly engulf China (CNA). Nevertheless, Deng resigned as chairman in November 1989, facing growing opposition inside the CCP. (CNA Documentary).
With no tolerance for political instability, third-generation CCP leaders followed Deng Xiaoping's pragmatist approach to building a strong and prosperous China. However, this policy has caused China to be often rated as a country with one of the worst human rights records, with no free elections, free speech, or freedom of the press. Officials often ignore the legal rights of defendants, with millions denied access to lawyers. Many political prisoners are accused of offenses such as a subversion of state power, making it impossible for lawyers to mount a defense (Christopher). Nevertheless, this policy of zero tolerance toward political liberalization seemed to have worked. Following Deng's southern tour in 1992 to revitalize economic liberalization, rapid capitalist reforms in China's command economy continued under the new CCP general secretary, Jiang Zemin. Like Deng, Jiang was a pragmatist, and he continued to diversify the economy across China; as a result, FDI poured into China, and special economic zones along the coast thrived (Clibbon). This translated into massive economic growth at an astounding rate of 10 percent annually, coupled with low inflation. The ever more robust economy was able to weather the Asian financial crisis with little to no damage, and household incomes in the same period skyrocketed, creating a consumer revolution (Chao). In the same period, Deng also focused on improving international relations with other countries, overseeing the return of Hong Kong in 1997 and Macau in 1999. A few years later, in 2001, China was admitted to the World Trade Organization after more than 15 years of stringent negotiations. Under the new membership, China's economy exploded with booming exports and receding tariffs on Chinese products. From 2002 to 2007, China's share of net exports as a share of GDP increased by more than 5 percent, the percentage of workers employed in the agricultural sector decreased from more than 50 percent to just 10 percent, and FDI inflows increased by 30 percent, creating millions of new jobs (Graham). At the age of 76, Jiang stepped down as General Party Secretary and led a peaceful transfer of power, allowing Hu Jintao to become the next leader of China. Even though Hu inherited a booming China that has recently become the world's sixth-largest economy, he also inherited a country with an ever more dividing society, a tattered welfare system, and massive unemployment and environmental hurdles. China in the 2000s was quite literally choking on its own success; rapid economic growth and industrialization resulted in massive amounts of environmental degradation. Pollution was blamed for killing hundreds of thousands yearly alongside millions that lacked clean drinking water (Kahn). In the same period, inequality was rapidly rising; China rose from a moderately unequal country in the 1990s to a highly unequal country in the 2000s, with coastal areas of China becoming booming centers of production while the central government neglected inland communities. Although Hu continued to focus on economic growth akin to his predecessors, he proposed to set up a harmonious society in China, which aimed to lessen inequality and focus on those left behind. To achieve this, Hu wanted to move China from prioritizing GDP growth at all costs to a more balanced governing system where factors like social inequality, environmental damage, and welfare were included (Mohanty). The Beijing Summer Olympic Games in 2008 signaled China's accession as a prosperous modern power that was opening the door to the rest of the world (deLisle). When Hu stepped down as general secretary in 2012, China's economy was blistering, averaging more than 10 percent growth, overtaking the UK, France, Germany, and Japan to become the second-biggest economy in the world, just behind the US with Chinese citizens' per capita purchasing power more than tripling, from $2800 to $9100, propelling China into a middle-income country.
Riding off the momentum of Hu's booming China, Xi Jinping became China's fifth and current general secretary in 2012, with a promise to spearhead the "great rejuvenation" of the Chinese people. After Xi came to power, he immediately called for a massive anti-corruption campaign to crack down on "tigers and flies." He created an eight-point guide to install more discipline among political officials to bring the party closer to the people and cut back on privilege (Jingtao). The campaign captured hundreds of high-ranking officials alongside one and a half million indicted for corruption. However, many analysts argue that the anti-corruption campaign is merely a convenient cover for the most extensive political purge since Mao Zedong to allow for the quick consolidation of power (Mahon). The lack of opposition has allowed Xi Jinping to become the most powerful leader in China since Mao Zedong, with essentially absolute power after being elected to a second term and the removal of presidential term limits in 2018 by the National People's Congress. Though absolute power in one person's hands is a recipe destined for disaster, Xi has managed to use his power to reform the country and promote national interests rapidly. Intending to eliminate poverty in China, Xi continued the comprehensive market reforms commenced by Deng. He further decentralized and deregulated the economy by retreating the role of the government in allocating resources such as capital, energy, and land. Instead, reducing its responsibilities to 5 primary functions: managing the nation's macroeconomic policy, regulating markets, delivering services to the public, supervising society, and protecting the fragile environment (Kroeber). At the same time, Xi aimed to boost interconnectedness and trade abroad and domestic income and consumption by creating the new "silk road." Launched in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) plans to boost infrastructure development and investment across Asia and Europe by building a vast network of railways, container ports, airports, and energy pipelines (Chatzky). By 2018, the BRI has invested hundreds of billions of dollars into infrastructure projects across over 70 countries, with projects planned to reduce travel time by 12 percent and increase trade by up to 10 percent, and increase income by over 3 percent, lifting millions out of absolute poverty (The World Bank). Despite increasing trade connectedness, Xi also desires to build a more robust domestic economy that can be self-reliant after engaging in a trade war with the US in 2018 and the supply chain challenges present in 2020 after the outbreak of the Covid pandemic. As a result, Xi introduced the Made in China 2025 strategy, a plan to comprehensively upgrade Chinese manufacturing and industry and make it less reliant on foreign imports. Specifically, it aims to raise the domestic production of core components to 70% by 2025 in 10 high-priority sectors such as robotics, information technology, aerospace, transportation, biotechnology, and many more (Kennedy). Aside from domestic policies, Xi has also focused on creating a more nationalistic and assertive Chinese on the world stage. He has repeatedly asserted that China will never seek to dominate the world. Instead, he wishes to promote a world with more peace, stability, and cooperation to tackle international challenges (Ruhlig). Having said that, the most significant challenges to Xi's rule In the present and the future will be climate change and Covid 19. To tackle climate change, Xi has pledged to the UN that China will accelerate its transition to renewable energy with carbon dioxide peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. However, many critics argue that this timeline is far too late to meet the Paris Agreement. Moreover, even though China's zero covid policy has successfully contained the pandemic, it has also resulted in a stagnating economy with growth of just 2.9 percent (Kynge). Nevertheless, Xi remains one of the most consequential presidents in Chinese history, eliminating absolute poverty in China and doubling household income in just 10 years, as well as expanding the Chinese military to increase China's sphere of influence both in Asia and abroad (Bloomberg).
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