The Characterization of the Mao Era - Essay Example

Exam 3 Part Introduction The characterization of the Mao era and the post Mao era is based on the dynamismin the political, institutional, and social scenes during Mao’s regime and after Mao regime. Mao was a communist revolutionist and the Chairman of China between 1949 until his death in 1976. He employed the Marxism Leninism, political policies, and military strategies that were collectively known as Maoism. The Mao era is characterized by an enormous industrial revolution, population change, and empowerment of different dissident groups of people. Currently, China has grown into a powerful country in the world. The population has risen exponentially and the economy has revolved into an industrial country. The political system has been changed into a democratic system that is governed by the people. However, the post Mao era has been characterized with some of the Mao era leadership tactics. In the West, the universal view is that, in spite of the drastic economic changes, China’s communist regime has remained unchanged. This essay is a discussion of the political changes and continuities in the post Mao era as compared to the Mao era. In the 1980s, the political atmosphere became repressive and divided. There was an occasional relief after the Mao regime, but there was a return of the frigid Mao regime repression. The government was divided on political liberalization with some favouring political tolerance and others favouring repression to keep order and stability. In 1986, student unrest became imminent in China. They were advocating for improvement of living conditions, racial tensions, party state corruption, and the economic unfairness (Schoppa, 396). Party nepotism had spread over the campuses. They opposed the socialist government under the leadership of Fang Lizhi, a scientist. Police were sent to disrupt the movement of students camped around the city hall. Lizhi was expelled from the party and other liberal intellectuals were asked to resign. The mere opposition of the party led to their expulsion. This indicates the lack of democracy in the post Mao regime. The regime utilized the Mao era tactics to rule. Therefore, this was a continuation of the Mao regime in China. Currently, the post Mao era has been characterized by dissident resistance movements. The movements are collective, organized, evocative and public. The resistance in the Mao era was different, since it was individual and non-public. The movements have led to an increase in pressure to the government, and thus leading to the release of most of the dissidents. The dissidents are advocating for their rights as citizens of the Republic of China. The rising resistance is indicative of the oppression the people are going through (Perry and Selden, 143). The dissidents are advocating for their civil rights, political rights, and social rights. During the Mao era, the Chinese citizens advocated for the same rights. This shows that the post Mao era is resilient in the provision of a lasting solution to these problems. This has led to the recurrence of the rising resistance in China. The changing legal concept in the prodemocracy movement in the 1990s led to the rise in the legal movements that advocated for a change in the legal system. The Post Mao legal reforms expanded individual rights and limited the repressive power of the state. The citizens articulate their concerns via the law. The law has also provided a singular platform for broadcasting of the concerns of the citizens. However, the legal system has proved to be inefficient in addressing the rights of the Chinese. Guo Ruoji, was a case in point. Guo a professor of philosophy at Nanjing University was exposed of his professorship and excluded from travelling abroad by the Communist Party committee of his university in 1991 (Perry and Selden, 147). This lawsuit was a major challenge to the ruling party despite the court ruling against Gao. In the Mao era, the state was a repressive organ, and the individual rights were not adhered to. In the post Mao era, we see a repetition of this when the court rules against Gao. This is a continuation of the Mao regime repressive power of the law. The law does not serve the interests of the citizens, but it protects the political parties (Perry and Selden, 147). In China’s political administration, from 1989 to the current president, there has risen a variety of issues that support communism and Mao regime. Hu Jintao has proved to be a rigid president who is people centered as portrayed in his slogan “harmonious society”. He placed people first in his endeavors. Hu emphasized on democracy, rule of law, prosperous society, good living standards, and environmental protection. The scientific development that is encouraged in China is meant to encourage environmental protection and improve people’s livelihood. This is indicative of a change to communism since all the people are considered equal. However, Hu Jintao has emerged as a Leninist leader who endeavors to limit the ideas that are expressed by the public. He toughened the rhetoric that regards the dissent in China. In 2005, he seized control of the internet requiring the Chinese bloggers to be registered or risk closedown using an ultimatum. This is indicative of the emphasis on people, yet limiting their political rights. Furthermore, in 2006 and 2007, the Hu Jintao made strong statements about democracy. Premier Wen Jibao later argued that it is possible to create a democratic country that ensures the rule of law using the socialistic conditions. This shows that Hu Jintao is a dictator who is promoting the Mao Leninism. The adoption of the Leninist style of leadership in the current government is an indication of the continuation of the Mao regime in the post Mao era. Mao used Leninist and Marxist approaches in his leadership that encouraged dictatorship in his government (Schoppa, 400). The household responsibility system was established in Guangxi province in the late 1980. They were formed to address the political problems without the knowledge of the local authorities. In 1987, the provisional self-governance of the villagers allowed them to elect village heads in multicandidate elections. The local administrators from other villages feared that the village committees might become uncontrollable. The local administrators started rigging and delaying elections. The villagers were later derived of their vote, and they fought to lodge the complaints at a higher level. In 2005 the villagers wanted to recall the Taishi village committee. They organized peaceful demonstrations, but the police reacted violently using clubs and fire hoses. This shoddy treatment of the people that were exercising democratic rights indicates that the democratic talk was hypocritical (Schoppa, 399). The fact that the local authorities tried to frustrate the village committee elections indicates the Mao era continuity in the post Mao era. It promoted dictatorship, and avoided democracy by all means due to their need to control the villages. In conclusion, the western countries view China’s system of government as the communist Mao era continuation. To avoid this view, I would recommend effective and full democracy in China. Freedom of speech and expression should also be upheld in China in order to protect human rights. Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution was the age when the adulation of Mao had reached its peak. The people were to dance to Mao, and he was almost regarded as a deity. The revolution led to higher human costs, chaos, and destruction. The split in the party leadership following the ousting of Peng Dehuai led to lack of confidence in Mao in building a modern socialistic state after the failure of the Great Leap Forward. A dispute that erupted between Mao’s fundamentalist approach and Liu-Deng’s pragmatic approach was also instrumental in the Cultural Revolution period (Yongyi, 326). Despite Mao’s failure, he trusted his communist goals and motivated the people through moral incentives. He believed that proper motivation of the people by revolutionary goals would lead to encouragement to use their energy to build China. The Cultural Revolution was also launched to deal with the quality of the local cadres, and to focus the party on the value of class struggle. This led to the establishment of the landlords, rich peasants, counter-revolutionists, and bad elements. This tactic allowed Mao to reach out to the countryside, and establish the classes that would be weapons of political struggle. With the commencement of the Cultural Revolution, the libraries were closed and the books were banned in China. Due to this, underground reading groups for the youths were established in China. The continued reading of the youths led them to question Mao’s revolutionary theories through the application of the Marxism-Leninism (Yongyi, 330). They examined the revolutions by drawing on the classical humanistic traditions and criticizing socialistic governance. This led the reading youths towards democracy and human rights rather than the Cultural Revolution. Youths pointed out the problems of the Cultural Revolution propositions to the public. He argued that collective production reduced output and hence it was not advantageous, compared to working on individual basis. The youths challenged Zhang and the political persecutions they experienced. They compiled an underground journal called ‘The Correspondences from Remote Comrades-in-Arms’. This journal made the youth to explore the important social and political issues, in conjunction with the Marxist-Leninism works. They also used salons that were devoted to the literary and theoretical issues in the society. The salon groups were both in rural areas, as well as urban areas. In 1970, the counter-revolutionist campaign was introduced to suppress the underground reading groups. Many participants of these groups were incarcerated and executed. However, the groups did not disappear (Yongyi, 331). The groups allowed the youths to assess the situation of the party as well as the cultural and theoretical roots. According to the Post Mao government, the Cultural Revolution has proved to be the ‘decade of catastrophe’. The spiritual awakening of the youth and their transition from radicalism to rationalism led to the end of the Cultural Revolution. The youth signified a great maturity during this period of the Cultural Revolution to enable China to grow in the current democratic state. Work Cited Perry, Elizabeth and Selden, Mark. Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance.21-39 New York: Routledge. 2010. Schoppa, R K. Revolution and Its Past: Identities and Change in Modern Chinese History. 347-402 Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall/Pearson, 2011. Print. Yongyi, Song,. A Glance at the Underground Reading Movement During the Cultural Revolution. 325-333. Journal of Contemporary China. 2007. Web. Read More