The History of the Peoples Republic of China - Assignment Example

THE HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (PRC) Insert Name Subect Date China’s Cultural Revolution Introduction Revolutions, with their wide-varying impacts and consequences, have indeed marked a significant part of the history of human development and commanded significant attention globally. This is so true of China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. China’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, also commonly referred to as the Great Cultural Revolution or simply Cultural Revolution, has received significant attention due to its wide-varying impacts on china. Its root is argued to date back to early 1960s immediately after Chairman Mao Zedong initiated the 1959 Great Leap Forward which was a total fiasco1. Following the cataclysmic Great Leap Forward where over 20 million Chinese people succumbed to death, the then Chairman Mao Zedong assumed a less-active role in the governance of China. Despite this, Mao Zedong noted some disappointing aspects among his top officials while governing china. Coupled with the economic depression china was undergoing, Mao Zedong initiated the cultural revolution in Beijing to direct china from the soviet model lines to china’s own government form. This Revolution lasted 10 years (1966-1976) and left resounding impacts on China. With Regards to this, this particular paper aims at critically analyzing the merits and demerits of the PRC’s Cultural Revolution. China’s Cultural Revolution Mao Zedong is undoubtedly one of China’s most prominent historical figures and who contributed significantly to what the current China has become. Historians have in fact divided this history distinctively into two parts, the first being the Mao era and the other being the post-Mao era. The Mao era was the era of the foundations of the PRC in 1949 up to December 22, 1978. Mao’s era is regarded as the first independent period for the People’s Republic of China after Mao had proclaimed the PRC from one of the top Tiananmen. After his era, the post-Mao era began. During the third plenum, which is during the 11th party congress, Deng Xiaoping’s gripped onto power. Deng Xiaoping, after taking over from Mao, reversed the PRC policy from the previous ones used by Mao2. All in all, from the foundation of the People’s Republic of China up to the end of the post-Mao era, the PRC had gone through a series of revolutions including social revolution, the economic revolution, the political revolution, and the Cultural Revolution3. While considering the various revolutions that have been witnessed in china, China’s Cultural Revolution has stood out among the rest and can be regarded as one of the most impacting revolutions of its times. This Revolution came about as a result of a complex interplay of social and political factors that saw the then relaxed Chairman Mao Zedong rise to his feet and take control of the country’s direction using his social and political ideologies. In fact, the new direction of china dissatisfied Mao hence challenging him to take the initiative of putting things in order4.While some authors have perceived the Cultural Revolution as a social upheaval, to Mao Zedong this was a novel idea to Regain china to its economic empowerment and own form of governance where soviet model lines would be totally eliminated. According to Spence, the Cultural Revolution was a very complex and intricate social upheaval that mainly began as merely a tussle between Chairman Mao Zedong and top party officials/leaders for the dominance of Chinese Communist Party, a situation which proceeded to affect all the Chinese people with the call for a ‘continuing revolution’. While Spence terms the Cultural Revolution as a social upheaval, the actual situation does not fully resound well with this statement considering that the Cultural Revolution presented both merits and demerits. In Fact, in terms of the merits of the Cultural Revolution, it promised the release of the Chinese youth from all shackles including frustrations, powerlessness feelings, lack of a voice and class bias5. Finally, it was to change the policy so as to make health, education and the cultural system less expensive6. To really know whether such came to be a reality, a consideration on the seen merits is fundamental. The People’s Republic of China was found on the land that was wasted by civil wars and foreign invasion but the revolution assisted to return the property to the ownership of the Chinese people. This was of much importance as the land could be used for both industrial and agricultural productions. As a result, the country’s economy rose significantly whereby the Chinese citizens were able to trade with the surplus7. Besides, the revolution assisted the country to transform the means of production from private entities to public bodies. Since the country’s economy was now fully under the control of the People’s Republic of China, all the private foreign investors were replaced and the country was able to nationalize her industries. By transferring the means of production from private entities to public entities, The PRC created a balanced economic model for its country8. Similarly, the cultural revolution of China assisted the Chinese people to realize some form of independence and freedom. In fact, before the revolution all means of production were under the private foreigner investors. Thus no public entity or any Chinese person was allowed to invest or involve in any economic investment. After the revolution, street hawkers and peasant farmers were permitted to trade with their surplus productions9. The government also found the freedom to plan for her people and invest as the people needed10 In addition to the above mentioned, the Chinese Cultural Revolution helped the People’s Republic of China to improve its relationship with the other countries. Taking an example, before the revolution, the PRC was perceived by the United States as a helpless country without good policies and that could not be able to carry out any worthy activity on its own except with some foreign aid11. However, after the revolution, this ideology was quickly erased and rendered obsolete after the PRC became quite famous and began receiving appreciations from other foreign nations12. It is thus clear that the revolution turned around the negative perception of the PRC to a more positive one. On the other hand, the Chinese Cultural Revolution can also be argued to have created some form of problems for the Chinese nation and her citizens during its course. First and foremost, the process of revolution created divisions among the country’s political leaders and top officials. This was especially evident in the case where criticisms were rampant among the top officials, an instance being the criticisms that were raised by the party’s General Secretary on the party’s chairperson. As a result of such attitudes and discontentment with each other, the leaders failed to work in a collaborative manner so as to achieve the country’s goals. As a consequence, a lot was being neglected and left to decipher their own course towards inconveniencing the Chinese people while the political heavyweights engaged in a more unprofessional call of ignorance. An instance is seen in the manner at which some political leaders termed Mao’s initiatives as mere empty symbols hence neglecting and disrespecting the Chairman’s views regarding the management of the Chinese nation13. The Cultural Revolution led to the breakdown of order. This consequently saw radicalization and the associated impacts being a reality in china. Actually, due to the radicalization, most people succumbed to death as the nation turned into a battlefield between warring factions. ‘The Red Guards’ came to the frontline and took the fame of ‘the frontlines in the new revolutionary upheaval’. Far from the ordinary, death became a common scene as mass and mass of Chinese people were killed. Mao Zedong commissioned attacks on the authority figures who were seen as more complacent, anti-revolutionary and more bureaucratic. Further, Mao saw the ‘Little Red Book’ become synonymous with the Cultural Revolution and its aftermaths14. Thus, local forces had a way to act in their own mandate and definitions whereby most inflicted violence on communities while also clashing among themselves. While no person wanted to be regarded as a reactionary, the absence of the official guidelines crucial distinguishing the true communists ultimately resulted in everybody becoming a casualty of abuse. Thus, during the Cultural Revolution, approximately 1, 500,000 Chinese people were killed while millions of the remaining suffered from imprisonment, property seizure, torture and general humiliation. The short term effects might have been mostly felt within the Chinese cities but the long term effect would still impact on the whole country for the coming decades. Mao’s massive attack on the party as well as the system he did create would finally yield an opposite result to the previously intended hence making many Chinese people to lose faith in such governance altogether, Similarly, it is from the Cultural Revolution that the Chinese state developed its political system that does not give significance to civil liberty. This implies that there is no equality in terms of law and regulations. As a matter of fact, the leaders who rule the country are not elected by anyone. This can also be argued in terms of the denial of freedom of expression and people being directly more obedient and loyal to the leaders irrespective of any wrong turn by the leaders. The significant effects of such-like systems are highlighted in the manner at which they easily culminate into bad political decision making. Likewise, it is also unquestionable that there is a very big gap in the production industries between the large industries and the small industries mainly as a consequence of the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese government has concentrated more on the investment within the large industries without giving a similar consideration on the investment within the small industries. Such factors were mainly promoted by the Cultural Revolution prompted by Mao Zedong15. Conclusion The above analysis has crucial points pertaining to China’s Cultural Revolution. It indicates the development of the cultural revolution under the leadership of the then Chairman Mao Zedong and critically evaluates the positive and negative impacts of the Cultural Revolution. According to the analysis, the People’s Republic of China is a nation that was found after a severe struggle to acquire the country from the nationalists. Similarly, the analysis indicates that the country has gone through various revolutions including the Cultural Revolution. In order to ascertain the impacts of the Cultural Revolution, the analysis has thus critically evaluated the merits and the demerits inherent therein. Therefore, Proper evaluation depicts that the Cultural Revolution was of much importance to the Chinese people than was to be regretted. This is due to many advantages that the Chinese got as a result of the revolution than the few disadvantages that they encountered. Despite this, the People’s Republic of China needs to amend some of its policies References Hu, Wenzhong, Grove, Cornelius and Zhuang, Enping. (2010). Encountering the Chinese. Boston: Intercultural Press. Jian, Guo, Yongyi Song, and Yuan Zhou. (2009). The A To Z Of The Chinese Cultural Revolution. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. Kirby, William C. (2011). The People's Republic of China at 60. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center. Kneebone, Susan, and Julie Debeljak. (2012). Transnational Crime and Human Rights. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Liu, Jingzhi, and Caroline Mason. (2010). A Critical History of New Music in China. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press. Peterson, Glen. (2012). Overseas Chinese in the People's Republic of China. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Rees, Helen. (2009). Lives in Chinese Music. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Spence, Jonathan.(2001). The Search for Modern China. New York: W.W. Norton and Company Szczepanski, Kallie.(2014).What Was the Cultural Revolution? The Cultural Revolution Wahlgren, Peter. (2015). Law and Development. Stockholm: Stockholm Institute for Scandinavian Law. Read More