Chinas Revolutionary History and Its Relevance to an Understanding of China Today - Report Example

Contemporary China - China’s revolutionary history and its relevance to an understanding of China today Since the second millennium, China has progressively expanded from its original base to slot in additional territory and rule over other people. The more it incorporated other territories, the more it absorbed and assimilated cultural and linguistic traits of the native people. Even in cases where foreign Kingdoms managed to occupy parts of China, they needed to use and adopt Chinese institutions for them to administer effective rule. On the flipside, when China took over land at the expense of other people, the natives, no matter how hard they tried to resist, found themselves assimilating the Chinese dictum naturally. Nevertheless, as other great dynasties like the Han and Tang gained power, the formal ideology of a culturally superior China gained momentum (Rossabi 2004, p3). The aim of this paper is to ascertain the China’s revolutionary history and its relevance with respect to the present day China. The rise of Manchu Qing dynasty took place between 1644 and 1911, it embarked upon territorial expansion. In 1696, Western Mongol rulers were defeated by the Qing army which subsequently forced them to flee to Tibet which they gained control over. In 1720, the Qing army carried another attack on the Mongolians in Tibet and dispossessed them of the same. In the 1750’s, a force was dispatched by the court to an area known as Xinjiang to destroy in totality the hostile barbarians. By 1757, the Qing dynasty had taken possession of this vast domain which includes one sixth of the total territory of the present day China and is mostly occupied by Turkic-speaking Muslims. By 1760, once the Qing had appeased non-Han territories, it embarked on a mission to moderate its hard line policies in an effort to prevent non-Han resistance. It gave its officials a number of instructions to achieve this end, these instructions included; non discrimination of the native non-Han people economically, not to impose any form of restriction towards their religious practices, and not to allow Han merchants and entrepreneurs to take advantage and exploit them. The Qing court held the assumption that the native people would gradually be absorbed into China, they thought that the natives would automatically once they realized how superior the hybrid Chinese-Manchu civilization was. However, Qing’s strategy to win over the natives failed based on the fact that they overlooked the inherent challenges with respect to attracting competent officials to take up positions in non-Han regions perceived to be culturally inferior; and those who ventured into these regions were not competent neither were they honest. Incidentally, they disregarded court policy on justice and equality towards the newly subjugated population (Rossabi 2004, p 5-6: Millward, 2004, p 98)) Qing’s goal with respect to assimilation was never realized, this was based on a number of factors: Despite the fact that there were several bureaucrats of sound repute, a number of local level officials did not uphold the given instructions instead they oppressed the non-Hans, they allowed exploitation of the native people to a significant degree. They interfered with their religious practices to an extent of banning the construction of Mosques in some occasions. They collaborated with the Buddhist Monasteries situated in Tibet and Mongolia by giving them wealth and authority with the hope that this in return, would amplify the spread of Buddhism whose effect would be to undermine the Mongols’ military ethos. These officials defied court instructions; they permitted Chinese merchants, entrepreneurs, and bankers to travel with no restrictions and in other times they gave these merchants, entrepreneurs, and bankers authority to occupy the non-Han lands. In a short time duration, the non-Han elites together with the common people found themselves heavily indebted to the Han which led to the entire territory’s gradual impoverishment in the nineteenth century. As result China and the Han faced hostility and conflicts in some occasions. Some non-Han regions became extremely turbulent (Rossabi 2004, p 8-10). Revolts erupted in northwest China as early as 1781. These revolutions continued to haunt the Qing until the major rebellion that led to serious destruction and death, the major rebellion took place from 1862 to 1878. In spite of all this violence, Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Tibet remained relatively calm, this was partly attributed to Buddhism influence. However, animosity towards the Han was evident (Milton, 1974, p 3). Overwhelmed by potential foreign threats, the Qing dynasty fell in 1911. This enabled the non-Han people residing along the frontiers to pursue some level of independence in light of the ensuing chaos. The present day Mongolians detached themselves from the Chinese consequently forming the world’s second communist state, the Mongolian People’s Republic (MPR). Even though China continued claiming jurisdiction over the Mongolian People’s Republic until the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the country remained free of Chinese influence. Until 1990, the USSR had great control over the Mongolian People’s Republic. Inner Mongolia underwent considerable unrest as the Chinese Nationalist Party, the Chinese communists, the Mongolians, and the Japanese were struggling for power, that was from 1911 to 1947 (Gungwu, 1991, p 204: Keltz, 2009, p 94). From 1911 to 1949, the Chinese Nationalist Party, the USSR, and warlords fought over Xinjiang; incidentally, the natives sought autonomy through the creation of the Eastern Turkistan Republic. The turmoil that followed enabled the People’s Liberation Army to capture and gain control over the region, in 1949 to 1950, and in 1955, the government established the Xinjiang Uygur independent regions (Lo, p 32, 2003). Tibet had achieved real independence between 1911 and 1950, even though no Chinese government had dropped claims over it. In 1950, the People’s Liberation Army forces took over Tibet and engrained it back within China’s jurisdiction. The southwest, which comprised of Yunnan, continued to remain under domination of the Chinese from 1911 to 1941. In 1949, the Chinese communists seized the provinces of Guangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan. China maintained its dominance even though they founded independent regions and counties for the, the Miao, the Yi, the Zhuang, the Yao, and other non-Han people (Goodrich and Fang, 2003, p 12-15). Following 22 years of conflict, with the Japanese invaders and its nationalist adversaries, the Chinese Communist party took control over Beijing and Shanghai in 1949. The Guomindang forces retained control over the Taiwan Island in 1950. Even though Mao Zedong, the Chinese Communist party leader told the Chinese that they had stood up, the country that the Chinese Communist party had control over was still backward economically, largely agrarian, and contained a sizeable opposition to the communist rule. After its victory, the Chinese Communist party returned back to the cities that they had previously been forced to desert; develop an industrial base and a work force that they were supposed to represent, develop new political establishments and recruit officials to staff them. Tibetans refused to be incorporated in the People’s Republic of China and at the same time opposition was coming from troops loyal to the nationalists which the Chinese Communist party had fought against in two civil wars. Incidentally, several cities especially those to the south grew suspicious over the Chinese Communist party’s intention and motives. The economy had seriously deteriorated following destruction and dislocation attributed to the Japanese invasion and the civil war. Inflation was also rampant ((Milton, 1974, p 3). Based on these events, it is therefore appropriate to deduce that the gains made by the Chinese Communist party in the mid 1950’s were notable. With the exception of Taiwan, the country was unified; the rural revolution came to an end, inflation tamed, and a steady economic growth attained. The early 1950’s in China is referred to as the golden age of solid progress and social stability. At this point in time, one might have thought that the search for a suitable state in China that would facilitate its modernization and assist in its modernization had been reached. However, few years down the line the Chinese Communist party led its people to through a chain of violent movements that tore the ruling elite apart, led to famine and social dislocation on a wider scale and gave birth to the famous Cultural Revolution (Milton, 1974, p 3). The Cultural Revolution also known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was an aggressive mass movement that led to political, social, and economic turmoil from 1966 to 1976. This revolution culminated to stagnation, economic disarray, and nation-wide chaos. This revolution was initiated by Mao Zedong on the basis that certain liberal elements had infused the party and the society at large; further, he alleged that their intention was to bring back capitalism. Mao emphasized that based on his permanent revolution theory; these elements should be completely eliminated through revolutionary aggressive class struggle by rallying the youth in China whose response to this appeal was formation of the Red Guard groups all over the country (Schoenhals, 1996, p 33). This movement consequently spread to the armed forces, urban workers, and to the party leadership as well. Although Mao, in 1969 personally affirmed the end of Cultural Revolution, its active phase continued till the death Lin Biao in 1971. The ensuing political instability and power struggles from 1969 to 1976 is presently considered as part of the revolution. In 1976, following Mao’s death, elements that had opposed Cultural Revolution within the party, led by Deng Xiaoping, gained eminence, and most economic, political and educational changes attributing to the revolution were discarded in 1978. Since then, the Cultural Revolution has been officially viewed at as a negative phenomenon. All the people who were linked to instituting the Cultural Revolution policies were victimized. In its formal; historical judgment of the Cultural Revolution, the party mainly held Mao Zedong responsible, incidentally, they blamed Lin Biao and the Gang Four for contributing and accelerating its worse excesses (Pye, 1986, p 597-612). In 1958, following China’s initial five year plan, Mao Zedong campaigned for increased growth with respect to grass root socialism in an effort to bring forth a bottom up method so as to turn the country into a communist society that is self sufficient. As a means to achieve this end, Mao Zedong initiated the Great Leap Forward through the establishment of the Special People’s communes along the countryside through mass mobilization and joint labor. Several communities were rallied to produce a single product-steel, and Mao guaranteed that he would double agricultural output twofold (Heimer and Thogersen, 2006 p 65-66). Unfortunately, the great leap turned out to be an economic failure. There was industry unrest because peasants were producing low quality steel in large proportions while other areas were not considered. Incidentally, illiterate low income famers were poorly equipped and ill trained in the production of steel, they moderately relied on backyard furnaces to reach production targets. In the meantime, vital farm tools were smelted down for the purposes of producing steel, this in effect led to a reduction of the harvest size. Consequently, a downward trend was observed in the production of several commodities with the exception of substandard pig and iron steel. Matters were made worse by the local authorities who regularly exaggerated production figures, thus concealing and amplifying the problem for many years (Chuntao, 1990, p 270). According to Kaplan (2010), China’s historical borders pull out to the edge of Arabic regions. Its sheer size implies that successive dynasties in China have been susceptible to a weak central government, rebellions, and warlodism. The downfall of both the Ming and Qing dynasties was brought about by growth in population, which in turn led to a gap between the rich and the poor. Poverty worsened among the peasants while the welfare of merchants and landowners with respect to wealth improved. Consequently, revolution by the peasants was against poverty, while merchants on the other hand revolted against high taxes and imperial control. The same vulnerability that was witnessed in the past continues up-to-date. Lessons learnt by China leaders from Tiananmen Square originate from their own history. They were aware of all that, as in the past, most of the demonstrators were more disturbed by the economic conditions than about liberty per se. They were also aware of the fact that anarchy in the past, from the Ming revolution to Mao Zedong’s Great cultural rebellion, led to death of millions of people. Deng Xiaoping, China’s leader in 1989 lived with sad memories of a crowd that forced his son to jump from a window in the upper storey window. The Communist party opened up the society and the economy, the latter much more than the former. In the past decade, lives of the China people have dramatically changed for the better than any other period in history. Incidentally, personal freedom of the Chinese people has increased dramatically. According to two China experts, a former ambassador to Burma, Burton Levin and Lampton David of the John Hopkins School, made an observation that the Chinese Communist party had gone from controlling every aspect of the daily Chinese life to controlling the media political opposition. It has been a long duration since the Chinese experienced security and liberty. Subsequent to the 1911 downfall of the Qing dynasty, China got immersed in mob violence, in a nation ruled by warlords; Chiang Kai-shek was considered as a first among equals. Then following the Second World War, Japanese devastation of the country took place which led to nearly 10 million Chinese casualties, Mao Zedong’s communists took over power which ultimately led to decades of mass murder and famine inflicted government. In Chinese history today, the most liberalizing regime is that which is frequently attacked by the Western Media, intellectuals, and politicians- the same groups that had put up with abuses attributed Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek (Kaplan, 2010: Goodman, 2009, p 145-148). Western Nations allege that China’s new standard of behavior is notable. This they attribute to the cold war and China’s increasing concern with regards to Human rights. They emphasize that China leaders should be lauded in their efforts to maintain the same. This is because these leaders effectively got rid of communism prior to collapse of the Berlin wall. Presently, the Communist Party of China has less influence on its country’s economy compared to other years. References Chuntao, X, (1990) The Communist Party of China in Power. Beijing Goodman, D (2009) The Chinese state in transition, Routledge Publishers, New York. Goodrich, L., and Fang, C (2003) Dictionary of Ming Biography. Columbia University press Gungwu, W. (1991) Rhetoric of a lesser Empire. The University of Michigan: Oxford University Press. Heimer, M., and, Thogersen, S. (2006) Doing field work in China. University of Hawaii press Kaplan, R. (2010) Do we really want democracy in China? The world’s most populous country could fall apart. Keltz, C (2009) Liberal Utopianism is destroying the United States, Xulon Press, New York. Lo, B, (2003) Vladimir Putin and the evolution of Russian Policy, Blackwell Publishing Limited Millward, J. (2004) New Qing imperial history: the making of inner Asian empire at Qing Chengde. Routledge Publishers, New York. Milton, D. and Franz, S. (1974) Great Social Experiments. University of California, Random House. Milton, D. and Schurmann, F (1974) Great Social Experiments. The University of California Pye, L. (1986) Reassessing the Cultural Revolution. University of Melbourne Rossabi, M. (2004) Governing China’s Multiethnic Frontiers. University of Washington Press, Seattle. Schoenhals, M (1996) China’s Cultural Revolution. Library of Congress. United States of America Read More