MAO [Post- C.R]: OPENING TO THE WEST

1971: Ping Pong diplomacy. China takes its first baby steps

out of isolationism. The US ping pong team, who were playing in a tournament in Japan, are invited to Beijing and lavishly received by Mao (events snowballed in Japan after a US player approached a Chinese counterpart by saying in Chinese: “Hi, Chinese, long time no see.”).Months later, US National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger holds secret meetings in Beijing to establish groundwork for further talks. In October, Taiwan loses its seat on the UN and is replaced by China.

Prime Minister Zhou Enlai with an awkward-looking Nixon.1972: US President Nixon’s historic visit to China was a watershed in geopolitical relations and a key milestone for a China seeking a broader role in the world. Nixon meets with Mao and Premier Zhou Enlai—resulting in the Shanghai Communique, which becomes the foundation for the US and China relations. The Taiwan issue was (and still is) a major stumbling block, however, Kissinger’s artful use of “constructive ambiguity” enabled agreement—leaving the question of China-Taiwan relations open-ended.

THE END OF THE MAO ERA (FINALLY)

June 26, 1976: Mao has a heart attack.July 28, 1976: A massive earthquake kills 700,000 in northern China (an omen?).September 9, 1976: Mao dies in Beijing at the age of 82.Oct 1976: The Gang of Four—the strongest proponents of the Cultural Revolution—is arrested. Mao’s wife refuses to admit her crimes and receives the harshest sentence. Her

death sentence is later commuted to life imprisonment. In 1991, she hangs herself while suffering from terminal cancer.

THE DENG YEARS: AN IMPRESSIVE TURNAROUND

After Mao dies, Deng reemerges from exile and becomes China’s new (informal) leader after a tough power struggle. The country is ready to move on. The new post-Mao government uses the face-saving formula that Mao had been “70% right, 30% wrong” (exceedingly generous if you ask me).

“SOCIALISM WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS”

Much more of a pragmatist than the ideological Mao, Deng was China’s father of economic reform. Recognizing that poverty and lack of incentive for self-improvement were fatal constraints, he impressively transformed China’s economy through innovative combinations of communism and capitalism. 1979: Signing an accord with Jimmy CarterAmong his most famous quotes: “It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice,” and “It is glorious to grow rich”.Over the last three decades, the speed and scale of modernization of his socialist market economy have been overwhelming. Yet, as the Tiananmen Square uprising showed in 1989, there were limits to the Deng Reforms—democratization, in the western sense anyway, wasn’t in the cards (indeed, never had been).

1978: Start of Deng’s Four Modernizations program (agriculture, industry,

defense and science). Coca-Cola is admitted into the Chinese market.1979: Touting China’s new “Open Door” policy, Deng tours the US. Deng is named Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year” (winning the honor again in 1985).1980: The One Child Policy is rolled out nationwide as the population reaches 900 million.1980: Shenzhen—next to Hong Kong—becomes the first of China’s “Special Economic Zones” (SEZ) to attract foreign investment. Hong Kong companies are the first to set up factories. In a matter of years, the small rice village is transformed—replaced with skyscrapers and new railway and airport to link it with rest of China. (2010 population: 9 million).

Shenzhen: 1980 and today.Shenzhen’s success catalyzes the rest of China. In the mid- to late-1980s, China opens more than two-dozen additional coastal cities as SEZs, where Korean, Japanese and Western companies build and manage factories.1983: China’s new openness and liberalization leads to the rise of organized crime—gangs return to cities. As part of the campaign against “spiritual pollution,” thousands are arrested and executed during an anti-crime drive.1984: China launches its first communications satellite into space. Huge lines for first KFC in Beijing.1987: Western-style fast food hits China– KFC opens its first stores. McDonald’s will follow in 1991 (I know, it sounds lame….until you go there and find yourself eating it daily).1989: China’s first stock markets open in Shenzhen and Shanghai.1989: The Dalai Lama is awarded The Nobel Peace Prize, evoking international sympathy (similar persecution of Muslims in Xinjiang continues to receive less publicity).But despite overall economic progress, many are unhappy with the speed and direction of change. As China grows more open and liberal, people become less shy about making their voices heard (for political reform, against corruption & wealth disparities, etc).  As early as 1978, Deng was quoted as saying, “The masses should be allowed to vent their grievances.”

In 1989, reformer Bao Tong asks: “How is it that the workers and peasants who are named in the Constitution as ‘the basis of the country’ have nothing left to depend on –  turned into a voiceless group of colonized weaklings, who are routinely bullied and humiliated by those with power and money?”

1989 TIANANMEN SQUARE UPRISING

A memorial Service for Hu Yaobang — a liberal CCP general-secretary who was popular among students — grows into mass demonstrations at Tiananmen Square.Although the western media mostly portrayed the incident as clamors for democracy (which was partially true), it mainly started out as students angry over poor job opportunities.

Deng’s reforms had largely disadvantaged the educated class. One popular slogan during the mid-1980s was that, “Those who hold scalpels earn less than those who hold eel knives.” Other gripes were part of the mix—ranging from mandatory calisthenics to crappy cafeteria food to wanting campus leaders chosen by open elections.Soon, crowds of non-student Beijingers (angry at corruption, rich getting richer, etc) enthusiastically join in. The crowd swells, spilling over nearby streets. After seven weeks of government inaction, the crowd has mushroomed to an estimated 2-3 million. June 4, 1989: The sh*t hits the fan. PLA tanks and soldiers empty the streets and fire on demonstrators (almost all those killed were not actually in Tiananmen Square but on the nearby streets). The death toll estimates vary widely, however most killed were non-student civilians, somewhere in the range of several hundred to a few thousand.The incident is today referred to by Chinese as “six-four” (for June 4).

THE NINETIES:

1990: China’s biggest SEZ launches in the suburbs of Shanghai at Pudong, designated to be China’s new financial and commercial hub (2010 population: 1.7 million).

A view from Shanghai: Pudong (opposite side of river), 1990 and today1993:  Former Shanghai mayor Jiang Zemin becomes the President of the PRC. During the 1990s, he accelerates economic reform and growth by privatizing state enterprises.1994: Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam.

1995-6: Taiwan Strait Crisis. In the run-up to Taiwan’s 1996 presidential election, China launches a series of live-ammunition “missile tests” off the coast of Taiwan. The elections are Taiwan’s first-ever free elections after decades of one-party KMT rule. US President Clinton cools things down by sending two aircraft carrier battle groups to the area.February 19, 1997: Deng Xiaoping dies at the age of 92.

CHINA IN THE 21st CENTURY

At start of 21st century, China has become major global force— confident and booming economically (as if you didn’t already know). The country’s transformation has been blinding and unprecedented—with worldwide impact since it’s taken place in context of globalization.Buoyed by cheap labor and capital, China has become the world’s fastest-growing major economy, with an average annual growth rate around 10% over the last three decades. Since launch of economic reform in 1978, more people have been materially better off in a shorter span of time than ever before in human history. Between 2002-2006, China’s GDP doubles to 21 trillion yuan ($2.8 trillion). With a quarter of global workforce, China has titled international economics in the space of a decade.In addition to becoming the biggest produced of steel and aluminum, among many other things, the PRC has launched a number of huge infrastructure projects—topped by $25 billion Three Gorges Dam (a project originally dreamed of since imperial days).But China still remains deeply conservative politically—it remains the only one of the ten major global economies not to be a multi-party democracy.Under Mao, China sought to export revolution. Today it looks to deploy its massive cash reserves, spreading “soft power” around the globe. Throughout, the PRC insists that it’s pursuing a “peaceful rise” in search of a “harmonious world”.

1997: Hong Kong is anti-climatically returned to China.1997: US President Bill Clinton hosts a state dinner for Jiang Zemin, marking the first visit to the US by a Chinese head of state in twelve years.1999: Macau reverts to Chinese rule after 450 years under Portuguese rule. In 2006, Macau—with about US$7 billion in annual gambling revenue—surpasses Las Vegas in the world’s top gambling market (you know  Asians love to gamble!).1999: The Falun Gong movement stages a huge rally in Tiananmen Square—some 10,000 members sit-in and demand an end to official criticism of the group. Founded in 1992, the FG—with central tenets of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance— is an apolitical, spiritual group that performs meditative qigong breathing exercises. The movement is energetically suppressed after being classified as a xiejiao (“evil cult”) and made illegal. Several thousand are reportedly detained in prison camps. (The crackdown is perhaps less surprising given China’s long history of secret societies, particularly a movement that had a committed, widespread, and multi-class membership in the millions).2001: After the 9/11 attacks, a rare state accord is reached by the US, China and Russia—each with a vested interest in combating the spread of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism in Central Asia. 2001: China is admitted into the World Trade Organization (WTO).2003: SARS outbreak in Hong Kong and Guangdong province.2003: Hu Jintao succeeds Jiang Zemin as the President of the PRC.2004: China signs a landmark trade agreement with 10 Southeast Asian countries, which could eventually unite 25% of the world’s population in a free-trade zone.2005: Sparked by a Japanese textbook which China says glosses over Japan’s World War II record, Sino-Japanese relations sour amid sometimes-violent anti-Japanese protests in Chinese cities.2005: China and Russia hold their first-ever joint military exercises.2007: China flexes it muscles in space with an exercise in which it shot down one of its own old weather satellites.  The move is seen by the Pentagon as a potential threat to America’s communication systems and military (In recent years, the PRC started a program to build aircraft carriers and modernize its fleet).

2007: China offers resource-rich Africa triple the aid that the continent got from Western nations. That year’s summit of the African Development Bank was held in the most un-African location: Shanghai.2007: China passes the US as biggest emitter of greenhouse gases (though still far behind in terms of per capita emissions).2007: New labor laws are introduced after hundreds of men and boys were discovered working as slaves in brick factories.2007: Food and drug scandals spark international fears about the safety of Chinese exports. China’s food and drug agency chief is executed for taking bribes.2008: New Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou (KMT, which has evolved to be the pro-China party) warms relations with China. Direct flights are established, Taiwan is opened to Chinese tourists, and restrictions are eased on Taiwan investment in China. Many pro-independence Taiwanese (DPP party) are angered by the moves.2008: The Tibet unrest (known in China as the “three-fourteen riots”) is suppressed by Chinese riot police. Death toll estimates vary widely (several dozen likely killed, including Chinese civilians, Tibetans and police).2008: Sichuan province earthquake (death toll around 70,000)2008: China hosts the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Meanwhile, a 2008 Gallup poll revealed that 40% of Americans considered China to be the world’s leading economic power (with only 33% choosing their own country). 2008: Over 50,000 Chinese children get sick after drinking tainted milk, leading Premier Wen Jiabao to apologize for the scandal.2009: Scores of people are killed and hundreds injured in the worst ethnic violence in decades as a protest in the restive Xinjiang region turns violent.2009: China executes British citizen Akmal Shaikh for drug smuggling, despite pleas for clemency from the British government.2009: China becomes the world’s largest automobile market 2010: China overtakes Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy.2010: In response to alleged cyber-attacks on e-mail accounts of human rights activists, Google ends its compliance with Chinese internet censorship and starts re-directing web searches to Google Hong Kong.2010: The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese human rights activist who was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009. Three weeks later, China announces it’s own peace prize, the “Confucius Peace Prize” (awarded to Lien Chan, Taiwan’s former vice president of the KMT).

Jan 2011: US President Obama hosts Hu Jintao–the first full “state dinner” for a Chinese head of state since 1997.