China since World War II From Revolutions to Reforms

Outline

• GMD-CCP Civil War (1946-1949)

• Recovery and Socialism (1949-1956)

• Rethinking the Soviet model (1956-1957)

• Great Leap Forward (1958-1961)

• Recovery & growing elite division (1962-5)

• Great Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)

• “Reforms and opening up” (1978- )

Legacies of imperial China

• political philosophy of Confucius (551-479 B.C.)– ordered hierarchy of harmonious relationships– bureaucracy of scholar-officials

• political system of centralized imperial rule– endured from 221 B.C. to 1911 A.D.

• The last dynasty: Qing (1644-1911)– domestic rebellion and foreign encroachment– replaced by the Republic of China in 1912

Anti-Japanese War (1937-1945)

GMD-CCP Civil War 1946-1949

• GMD: Guomindang (Nationalist Party)– Chiang Kai-shek (President)

• CCP: Chinese Communist Party– Mao Zedong

People’s Republic of China

• 1949-10-01, PRC, Beijing

• Chairman: Mao Zedong

• 5-Star Red Flag

• Republic of China government retreated to Taiwan

Economic Reconstruction 1950s

• Soviet Union model and assistance

• land reform (eliminate landlord class)

• heavy industry (state-owned enterprises)

• First National People’s Congress (1954)– PRC Constitution

• Zhou Enlai– Premier– Foreign Minister

Great Leap Forward (1958-1960)

• abandon the Soviet model of economic development– Soviet “scientific planning”

• mass mobilization

• people’s communes

Great Leap Forward (1958-1960)

• unrealistic output targets– industry– agricultural and human disaster

Growing Division (1962-1965)

• Mao Zedong vs. Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping

• charismatic leadership vs. bureaucracy

Cultural Revolution (1966-76)

• Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)

• Purge of party cadres

• Purge of intellectuals

Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)

• Purge of Liu Shaoqi & Deng Xiaoping

• 1966 - 1971: Lin Biao

• 1972 - 1976: Gang of Four

Diplomatic Achievements

• 1971, PRC became the representative of China in UN (replaced ROC)

• 1972, President Nixon visited Beijing

Mao and Zhou Died in 1976

• Turning point in China’s postwar era

• “Gang of Four” were arrested

• End of the Cultural Revolution

Reforms and Opening up

• The 3rd Plenum of the 11th CCP Central Committee in 1978– Deng Xiaoping’s ascendancy– economic modernization became focus

• US-PRC established diplomatic relationship in 1979

Deng Xiaoping

• Deng Xiaoping as the “general architect of reforms and opening up” (1978-1997)

• Deng handpicked 3 successive CCP General Secretaries– Zhao Ziyang (1987-1989)– Jiang Zemin (1989-2002)– Hu Jintao (2002- )

• economy “growing out of the plan”

Per Capita Disposable Income 1978 - 2006 (in RMB yuan)

133.6 191.3397.6423.8462.6544.9601.5686.31708.6784 921.6

12211577.74

1926.12090.121622210.32253.422366.42475.632622.22936.4

32553587

343.4 477.6739.1899.61002.21181.41375.71510.21700.6

2026.6

2577.4

3496.2

4283

4838.95160.3

5425.15854

6280

6859.6

7702.8

8472.2

9421.6

10493

11759

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

10000

11000

12000

rural urban

Tian’anmen 1989

• CCP General Secretary Zhao Ziyang (elite reformist) was removed from all positions

• Deng Xiaoping retired from day-to-day policy making

“socialist market economy”

• break the monopoly of state ownership– 3 million private enterprises employ 43 million

people– 24 million individual businesses employ 48

million people– foreign-invested enterprises employ 9 million

• reforms of the state-owned enterprises– transformation into joint-stock companies

GDP Growth Rates of US, Japan, Russia, & PRC

-15

-10

-5

0

5

10

15

1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

US Japan Russia PRC

Foreign Direct Investment (billion US$) in Mainland China 1983-2006

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

65

1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

Mainland China's Exports & Imports 1978-2006 (billion US$)

Exports Imports

Hong Kong

• On July 1, 1997, Britain returned Hong Kong to China

• Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

China joined WTO in 2001

• Expansion of trade and investment

• weed out inefficient state-owned enterprises

• further retreat of state from economy

• further divide– urban-rural– coastal-inland

• unemployment

Recent political changes

• Then CCP General Secretary Jiang Zemin announced in 2001 that the Party would recruit private entrepreneurs

• in the 16th CCP National Congress in November 2002, Hu Jintao replaced Jiang Zemin as the General Secretary of CCP

• in the 10th National People’s Congress in March 2003, Hu Jintao replaced Jiang Zemin as the President of PRC