The Major Political Events of Maoist China - Literature review Example

Literature Review Report-Contemporary China Name of Student: Faculty: 2011-09-27 Background The history of Maoist China is indistinguishable from that period of Chinese history. There are various eras of Chinese history and that of the renowned Communist Leader Mao Ze Dong was responsible for much of the political history of that time. Following the Chinese Civil War (1945-1949) (Selden, 1995) the Communist Party of China (CPC) took over power in 1949 led by the leader of the CPC, Mao Ze Dong. He decreed that the country would be named the People’s Republic of China while standing at the top of the Tiananmen Gate on 1st October, 1949 with himself as dictator. Thus begun the history of Maoist China that continued till his death in 1976 although the after-effects were felt long after this. What this history entailed was a plethora of socio-economic and political restructuring based upon Communism. The objective being to change the system of land ownership that was dominated by feudal landlords to one based on equitable distribution of resources including land. Mao Ze Dong believed that class struggle was the solution to alter the existing system and reduce the position and significance of capitalists. A timeline of major political events include the seizure and control of all media in the country in order to promote Mao, his politics and party. One of his first and most contentious actions was instituting land reform in which the government took over regulation of land distribution and murdered numerous landlords in a bid to suppress ‘counterrevolutionaries’. In 1956-57, the Hundred Flowers Campaign or Double Hundred Campaign was launched in which critics of communism were encouraged to express their dissatisfaction although this was ended in June 1957 when critics were felt to have gone too far. In 1958, Chairman Mao ceded his lawmaking position due to the spectacular failure of his economic campaign known as ‘The Great Leap Forward’. In 1966, Mao initiated the Cultural Revolution to counteract threats to his power from colleagues in the CPC. This revolution created chaos within China, spawning violence that led many to suicide. This campaign ended in 1969. Literature This essay will examine the various literature that chronicle the major political events of Maoist China as outlined above, in order to critically analyse their content with a view to ascertaining their accuracy, veracity and writing strategies used. We shall be examining various literature sources which deal with political, socio-economic and cultural aspects of the Maoist era. The authors chosen for the project are Edgar Snow, Gunther Stein, Jack Belden, Theodore White and Annalee Jacoby, Mobo Gao, Maria Heirner and Stig Thgersen Milton et al., the Central Committee of the CCP, Shanghai Wenlin Pao, Chang Chun Chiao, Lucian Pye, and Xing Li, March Blecher, Bill Brugger and Tony Saich, Li Zhang, David Davies, and the BBC news, the collected works of Deng Xiaoping, several newspaper articles and David Goodman This literature has been sourced from various reading sources as outlined in the tutorials. The objective will be to examine how this era has been treated by writers documenting events at different times in history. This will lead to a conclusion on how China has been perceived at different times depending on the prevailing conditions and events and how this has impacted upon contemporary China. Findings The volume of literature is quite large and therefore shall be divided via themes to be able to comprehensively review the work. The six themes are the Yan’an Communism, Economic Reform and Social Change, Economic Reform and Political Change, the Soviet Model, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Yan’an Communism This period represents the events that led to the Maoist era. Those who wrote about this period during the 1930s and 40s largely had a pragmatic view of events, acknowledging that while the revolution did not bring into power a democratic government by Western standards, it did at least enfranchise its people by making sure they had some sort of say in government. These writers, notably Edgar Snow, Gunther Stein, Jack Belden, Theodore White and Annalee Jacoby were of the view that while the situation in China may not be ideal, from the perspective of the current circumstances, i.e. the end of the Sino-Japanese war and the corruption of the Guomindang, then Communism was the best alternative available to the people of China. Great Leap Forward Mobo Gao, Maria Heirner and Stig Thgersen give an account of the Great Leap Forward as an event that occurred because communist impresarios gave Mao and his fellow communist leaders information that may not have been accurate purely from a sense of sycophancy. This was fuelled by the desire to overtake Great Britain in industrialisation and fanatic belief that it could be done. This fanatism led to extreme experimentation with the ways of life of the population that unfortunately led to famine and death. The authors seem to display a certain sympathy for the gullibility of the communist leaders, blinded by their desire to develop the country. Only Gao gives an alternate perspective as he uses narrative to make the reader aware of the plight of the population as a result of this policy. Cultural Revolution The cultural revolution is a period which has been documented with many contradictions by authors. An examination of literature by Milton et al., the Central Committee of the CCP, Shanghai Wenlin Pao, Chang Chun Chiao, Lucian Pye, and Xing Li shows that there is a certain disconnect between the manner in which Western writers perceive this period as opposed to their Eastern counterparts. While the former tend to concede that while the Cultural Revolution did not work out as planned, the failure was one of mistaken idealism and impracticability. The Eastern writers acknowledge the disaster that happened but are much less quick to condemn the period as totally without any redeeming qualities. Those who lived through the decade tend to feel that the narrative propagated about the happenings of that time are inaccurate, dependant upon the agenda of the writer. Many authors seem to place the blame for the cultural revolution squarely upon the shoulders of Chairman Mao, while others concede that it was a collective effort involving millions of Chinese as well as other international players. The CCP on the other hand, seemed to view it strictly as a way to eliminate the proletariat from the party who, according to them, still propagated capitalist ideas. The role of the Soviet Union as a template to be followed has been noted as well as antipathy with the West that spurred the revolution on. Many contemporary leaders exploit the memories of this period as a cautionary tale of what could happen again should they not be chosen by the people. The Soviet Model March Blecher, Bill Brugger and Tony Saich seem to be fairly unanimous in their viewpoint of how China and the Soviet Union related. The reasons why China used the Soviet Union as a role model for it’s own development are unequivocal; the isolation of the Soviet Union from the rest of the world, and hostility from the West leading to the necessity of developing through their own resources was very similar to China’s own situation. As well as the desire to industrialise rapidly from a bedrock of peasantry. Furthermore, the Soviet Union was willing to give them loans to develop which was no small thing. The problem with the model according to the authors was that it was not adapted to suit the Chinese situation but simply copied wholesale. While this was successful in the short term, the tensions created between the Soviet Model and the mass line of Yan’an rectification eventually caused an implosion of the same and was a factor in the genesis of the Cultural Revolution. Economic Reform and Social Change There is a paradox in Chinese society according to authors who have documented the economic and social change that has taken place in the post-Maoist era. According to Li Zhang, David Goodman, David Davies, and the BBC news, the communism of Mao Ze Dong might have been replaced by ‘Chinese socialism’ however it still retained many aspects of that culture. The Hukou system, established in the 1950s separated rural and urban workers through categorisation as agricultural or non-agricultural workers- an inheritable designation that has led to a demarcation into class lines; the rural ‘agricultural’ poor and the urban ‘industrial’ rich. So even as Mao propagated a culture of equity in everything, he also created a situation that has evolved into a ‘class’ society with urban workers being viewed as well-to-do, better educated and socially superior by their rural counterparts. The writers seem to desire to point out the essential hypocrisy behind the Chinese system. On the one hand, they claim to have moved on from communism, but on the other, they are using communist strategies such as ‘correct modelling’ in a bid to encourage economic growth through capitalism. Economic Reform and Political Change Mao Ze Dong’s communist ideologies officially still guide the policies of modern China according to the collected works of Deng Xiaoping, several newspaper articles and David Goodman. However, this represents only the surface of the real situation in China where while the government keeps a tight rein on the political situation and largely functions as a socialist dictatorship, the economic space has opened up, meaning more Chinese are free to operate as they please within reason. Government interference in daily life has been minimised unlike in the Maoist era where tight controls were kept on every aspect of people’s lives. Conclusions Authors of Chinese history fall into two groups: Westerners and Easterners. The former group tend to be sympathetic to China and find excuses for even the worst excesses of its leaders on the most part. They perceive China through a pragmatic lens that takes into account that large population, most of whom are still living with poverty and conclude that so long as the leaders are attempting to feed the masses, their efforts should be applauded. The latter group are less objective for obvious reasons but more understanding of the dynamics of the situation with an emphasis that the populace is not an unwilling puppet, tossed about on the storms of its leaders’ whims but actual participants in the governance and development of China. There is also a contradiction that creates tension between what is written on various aspects of history from the western sources and those of Chinese scholars and the party line. Interpretations of events tend to differ markedly amongst these two categories depending on the politics and background of the writer. Motives are attributed to leading players in events according to the writer’s attitude toward them, making it difficult to locate an objective account. Further Research China is still very much a closed society and apart from Gao, very little literature is available that chronicles the actual experiences of the Chinese people in a way that is independent of government control. Western writers are able to give a point of view that is strictly that of the outsider and coloured by their own cultural background and experiences. Therefore, more Chinese scholars need to publish works that give the inside story of the situation in China. Such research would cover the influence of Yan’an rectification as it pertains to modern China. This is due to the probability of the mass line having a prevailing influence in modern Chinese society. The negativity or positivity of this influence has not been clearly articulated. Many contradictions prevail to do with the era of the Cultural Revolution and why it endangers such fear of repetition. While many Western governments believe that the current regime is oppressive to democracy, they are clearly not exterminating millions of their citizens as has happened in eras past. Yet Western governments were more responsive to these past regimes than they are to the present one. This creates a distortion in reality. If contemporary China is to be seen through a clear lens, the story of its history must be put in the hands of Chinese scholars who are able to achieve objectivity of the actual events that took place during and after the Mao era. Works Cited BBC News. China Warns on Wage Gap ‘Unrest’, 2005. Retrieved 28th September, 2011 from http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/42669... Blecher, Mark. ‘Socialist Transition 1953-1957’ an excerpt from Chinese Social Development, 1989. Print. Brugger, Bill. China Liberation and Transformation. Centre for Asian Studies. Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Decisions Concerning the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Adopted Aug. 8th 1966. Chiao, Chang Chun ’On Exercising All Round Dictatorship over the Bourgeoisie’ From Raymond Lotta (Ed.) and Mao Mokes . Banner Press. Chicago. Davies, David, J. China’s Celebrity Entrepreneurs: Business Models for Success. Excerpt from Louise Edwards and Elaine Jeffreys (Eds.). ‘Celebrity in China’ (forthcoming). Gao, Mobo. Gao Village: Rural Life in Modern China. Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1999. Print. Goodman, David, S.G. Why China has no New Middle Class: Cadres, Managers and Entrepreneurs’ Excerpt. Heirner, Maria and Thorgensen, Stig. Doing Fieldwork in China. Honolulu. University of Hawaii Press, 2006. Print. Pao, Shanghai Wenhui. Criticising and Repudiating China’s Khrushchev: Two Diametrically Opposed Lines in Building the Economy. An excerpt. Pye, Lucian W. Reassessing the Cultural Revolution. China Quarterly Dec. issue no. 108. Pp. 597-612, 1986 Saich, Tony. Governance and Politics of China. Palgrave. McMillan. (2004). Xing Li.’ The Chinese Cultural Revolution Revisited. The China Review vol.1 no. 1 (fall) pp. 137-168, 2001 Zhang, Li. Popular China: Unofficial Culture in a Globalising Society. Ed. Perry Link, Richard P. Madsen, and Paul G. Pickowicz. Lanham, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc, 2002. Print. Read More