Of all the events that took place in the closing decades of the twentieth century, China’s full entry into the global economy and its decision to commit itself to economic development may in the long run prove to be the most significant. Since its emergence as a unified empire in the third century B.C.E, China for many centuries was the world’s most successful state in terms of size, wealth, technological sophistication, and the continuity of its political institutions. This was easy to forget in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when China became a pawn of the Western powers and a victim of political disintegration, military defeat, and deepening poverty. In the 1980s, however, China’s leaders set a new course for their country, which, if successful, might well restore China to its preeminence in Asia, if not its primacy among the world’s powers.The man responsible for launching China on its new path was Deng Xiaoping. Born into the family of a well-off landowner in 1904, Deng studied in China and then in France after World War I. Having run out of funds, he worked in a French factory before returning to China by way of the Soviet Union, where he studied in 1925-1926. On his return to China he joined the Communist Party and became one of Mao’s most loyal followers in the struggle against the Japanese and the Guomindang.
After 1949 Deng became a member of the politburo and party secretary general, with responsibilities for overseeing economic development in southwest China. He supported the strategy of developing China’s economy by following the Stalinist model of agricultural collectivization, centralized planning, and investment in heavy industry. This was scrapped in 1958 when Mao instituted the Great Leap Forward. In a little more than two years, some 24,000 People’s Communes were established, each containing approximately 30,000 people who performed industrial and agricultural work, received political indoctrination, and participated in various social experiments. The Great Leap Forward was an economic disaster, and in its wake, Deng and other moderates were responsible for dismantling the communes and reintroducing centralized planning.
This made Deng a prime candidate for vilification after Mao launched the Great Cultural Revolution in 1966. Designed to revive revolutionary fervor and rescue China from materialism and Soviet-style bureaucratization, the revolution unleashed the energies of millions of young people who were urged to rise up and smash “bourgeois” elements throughout society. Deng fell from power, was paraded through the streets in a dunce cap, and put to work in a mess hall and a tractor repair shop. As the intensity of the Cultural Revolution faded, Deng was reinstated as a party official, and after Mao’s death he led the moderates in their struggle with the radical faction led by Mao’s widow, Jiang Qing. Deng’s faction won, and in December 1978, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party officially abandoned Mao’s emphasis on ideology and class struggle in favor of a moderate, pragmatic policy designed to achieve the Four Modernizations in agriculture, industry, science and technology, and the military.
To encourage economic growth, the government fostered free markets, competition, and private incentives. Although Deng claimed that China had entered its “second revolution,” it was an economic revolution only. Reformers who demanded the “Fifth Modernization”—democracy—were arrested and silenced in 1979. When millions of Chinese demonstrated for democracy in the spring of 1989, the government crushed the demonstration in Beijing with soldiers and tanks, thus assuring the continuation of the party dictatorship. After 1989 Deng withdrew from public life and died in early 1997. The excerpts I would like you to read are from speeches and interviews given by Deng between 1983 and 1986. You can read them by clicking here.
After reading the excerpts, I would like you to think about and discuss the following: According to Deng, what had been the shortcomings of China’s economic development planning under Mao Zedong? According to Deng, how is China’s new economic policy truly Marxist and truly socialist? How does Deng view China’s role in the world? What implications will China’s new economic priorities have for its foreign policy? What is Deng’s rationale for opposing democracy in China? What similarities and differences do you see between Deng’s economic program for China and Stalin's plans for the Soviet Union in the late 1920s and 1930s? What similarities and differences do you see between Gorbachev's statements about perestroika and Deng’s comments about the needs of China? Your thoughts…
15 comments:
Deng refuses to use democracy simply because China cant use it at this point to prosper. He disagrees with having three branches because it results in conflict when discussing certain policies. Also he focuses on increasing the standard of living in China. He says that the countryside SOL should increase first because they are the base of food and without them the rest of the country would fall apart. second should be the urban area because it will be trickiest and hardest since they are new to the technology etc. Mao neglected the development of productive forces which is why he failed at increasing SOL. Deng also says to open up foriegn relations with other countries. In the past, they have been isolated which as led them to fall behind from the rest of the world. Because of the Maoism movements with the students, student uproars have been occuring. Deng say this needs to stop and those involved should be persecuted.
I think he is lot worse than Mao. Only thing that he seems to emphasize on is his country's economy, and not the people's voide
The shortcoming of Maoism wer the mindset of "eating from the same pot" rather than responibility. He suggests that Mao failed to develop productive forces which is imperitive for socialism. Deng saws the new economy is truly socilaist because public ownership will a lways be predominant and there will be greatest prosperity instead of polarization. Deng believes that China's problem with isolation is a source of its problems. He believes China must open up. Implications will be increase in trades and more exports. Deng believes firm measures must be taken to make a clear cut stand agains bergois imperialism. He is reffering to quelling student pro-democracy protests. Deng's plan is very different than Stanlin's plan butr they both stress development of productive forces. Perestroika is similar to the Four Modernizations in that it results in market reforms toward a system that resembles capitilism more. They turn out differently politically. This is seen in the year 1989, the Berlin Wall fell in Germany, but students were shot down in Tiananmen Square. It is interesting the Deng refers to Sun Yat Sen's idea of China being a heap of Loose Sand. Mr. Prill, if Sun Yat Sen did not die do you think there would be a People's Rebublic of China? I think there would be, but it is hard to tell. Sun Yat Sen was not effective in leading China.
In response to Ho Chan, did Mao listen to the people? I think not... The Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution are proof of that... they are very reminiscent of the 5year plan and Great Purge, on this note are you going to post documents on a more human level of people effected by the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution? That would be really enlightening
Deng felt that China needed to become less isolated from the rest of the world. He wanted a better standard of living for the people and wanted for all people to have food avaliable to them, so they would need to increase the productivity of the land. He doesnt want a democracy because he feels that different branches of government will only lead to conflict and arguments,
Mao didn't do so well, during his time of control and power and all. The country would've have done better with the people running it, well I think...
Deng was a crazy guy like Mao too.
A more, what you expect out of crazy guy guy, like he didn't go out and start a war with birds or anything but Deng shot down his own people that he sent out to be his assistants in the near future. I guess they were both too stubborn to accept their failures and made it an even bigger problem by doing so.
both china and the soviet union they didn't have enough consumer goods, so the people weren't really benefiting. stalin decided to focus then more on building a stronger soviet state, whereas deng acknowledged that the people weren't benefiting and wanted to fix that problem.
Deng accuses Mao of contradicting himself, like "Establishing communes in defiance of the laws governing socio-economic development". He says that Mao wanted to help China, but he just made some stupid decisions on the way. Deng says that communism needs "productive Forces" to be built, and Marxism can realize and build "productive forces". Therefore, in order to have affective communism you need Marxism. Socialism is being used here to develop public prosperity and keep public ownership the dominant economic force. Considering other communist countries' economic systems, that seems like really weird logic to me. Deng wants to actually get help from other countries in developing their economy and establish good relations with everyone. Deng talks about setting up more "Economic zones", certain areas where foregin trade is allowed. This plan is to build up the city, like he talked about in Shenzhen. It's a lot like Japan's Nagasaki bay, Deng even calls it "A window for our foreign policy". Deng's main argument against democracy is that it is impossible to have a socialist economy in a democracy. Wasn't it once impossible to have a capitalist economy in a communist government???
Before commenting on the documents, since my Adobe Reader decided to update itself anyway, Mao and Deng both were not men of the people. Both sought economic reforms, the differences were while Mao's "Great Leap Forward" crippled China politically and economically, plunging it into a civil war in 1976, Deng's reforms show us the possible cooperation between Communist and Capitalist ideas with the Socialist Market System, and opening up the economy. Alec you made some very good comparisons, that I can't argue against. Mao was not a good leader, initially being a bit of a Stalin, with, surprisingly, more demands. The Cultural Revolution, while he took to the student population of teenagers, and young adults, he was not listening to them, but using them to persecute "Revisionists." Deng was not necessarily a man of the people either, but a man of the economy, which by extension, settled any opposition that could spark. Neither cared about the people, and both were obviously enemies, since Deng was one of the black-listed "revisionists," and surely, through somewhat bias means, he sought a much different path to reinvigorate the economy. They didn't care for the people, they kept to their economic policies, Deng just came out as more of a victorious figure because his economic policies lead up to China's massive economic growth that it's experiencing, even though we're in an economic recession, China is doing better than most, which is really saying something for a country that is globally involved in economic policies.
Deng said that income of peasants and works only rose a little, standard of living remainded very low, and GNP was under $250 after 20 years. He recognized the leadership of Mao Zedong to form the Communist country, but his economic policies were lacking greatly.
Deng says the new policies are truly Marxist and socialist because the point of socialism is to end poverty, and what Mao Zedong's policies failed to do, his would succeed in doing things such as improving standard of living and developing productive forces. The idea was to expand economy and raise GNP, and provide for any impoverished.
Deng saw China as a strength, a force to help the world once it's economy would rise above poverty. He saw China as a possible contributor to help mankind once they had shaken off poverty and raised their GNP to high levels.
Deng's priorities are that they need to open the economy. They will develop a powerful domestic and open their doors to foreign investments, foreign technologies, which are to further the economic growth of China. He uses China's history of secular economy to justify his reasoning behind believing in an open economy that involves itself in global economy and foreign investments.
Deng's opposition to Democracy derives from the United States three branch system. With three branches checking the powers, opposition in any branch can get in the way of advancing in the country. Three branches pulling in different directions, he says, makes trouble. This would stunt the economic growth capabilities of China as a whole.
As far as Stalin goes, he seems more like Mao, with their policies of expanding industry, setting deadlines, and collectivization of agriculture. Deng only shared expanding productive forces with Stalin(I agree with you, Alec).
Gorbachev and Deng were very similar with the Perestroika and Four Modernizations, and also like Glasnost, Deng accepted criticism. Not of him though, just Mao...Which is why he didn't handle Tiananmen Square like Gorbachev took things like the Berlin Wall(like Alec described), or Poland's stray away from Communism.
I'm not sure why I said the country plunged into civil war in 1976, it left a power vacuum...Sorry about that haha...
i personally think Deng helped China out more than Mao. He might not have listin to the people, but he sure did more than Mao. He really wanted to better China. Sure you could critize China's past, but not the present. He repeated Mao in that manner. Of course not as severely.
First, Deng states that Mao ZeDong made the mistake of neglecting productive forces. He also says that the forces of Marxism that Mao brought to China, need to be more focused and issued. Dneg also wants to open up foreign trade and relations with other countries. Suring China's early years...they have been isolated which cuased China to decline.
While Deng praises Mao for his leadership, he slightly criticizes him for Mao's mistake of neglecting the development of the productive forces. Also, he criticizes Mao for his socialist ideology. Deng believes that Communism must be build upon highly developed productive forces. He states that China's new economic policy is truly Marxist because Socialism means to eliminate poverty.
Deng’s utter lack of regard for the people’s wishes seems to be the real reason that communism has a bad name. He is pro communism, but bad mouths Mao because of his lack of concern for the economies of China. I think it is sad how he is being entirely money minded for his own benefit at the expense of the people of China, and using Marxism to defend his actions. He also seems to demolish Chinas policy ion which they stay reclusive. He is busting the door wide open, perhaps loosing Chinese culture, for economic gain.
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