Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping Developmental Strategies - Essay Example

Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping Developmental Strategies Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping are very important figures in China’s history as both were great leader who tried to bring about reform for their country. They made significant contribution to economic and social development of China, but not all of their efforts were successful. These two leaders carried out different movements to modernize China. Their approaches towards modernizing China were same based on socialism but they were rather different. This paper explores the differences and similarities between the developmental strategies of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, and it discusses the successes and failures of each strategy. The focus on economic and agricultural reform is what made the two leaders very similar. That is, they were both concerned about improving their country through agricultural and economic reform. More so, they were both communists looking forward to lead China in that direction. They both started many social, cultural and economic reforms in which some failed and some were successful. According to Deng, socialism was a means to economic development (Ash, Howe and Kueh 2013, p.15). Deng Xiaoping has been identified as a good leader whose actions led to the improvement of the Chinese society. On the other hand, Mao’s actions resulted in more damage than good for the Chinese citizens. Notably, Mao Zedong suggested many strategies in the establishment of Chinese socialism. Some of these included large-scale land reforms and collectivization of agriculture, which were meant to recover the economy and modernize China. In addition, he transformed the living standards of individuals in rural areas by improving healthcare and introducing middle-school education (Bramall 2008, p.549). The land reforms were marked with the enactment of the Agrarian Reform Law of 1950, which aimed at dismantling China’s feudal system (Shen 2000, p.3). After land reforms, individuals were able to produce more and the increased production provided enough raw materials for industrial development. Thereafter in 1958, Mao introduced the Great Leap Forward under which high targets were created for industry and agriculture. Mao hoped that China could catch up with Britain in steel and other industries, and so he introduced the collectivization of agriculture under which individuals were to leave their land and join cooperatives. However, this policy failed and had catastrophic impacts as individual’s working incentives declined leading to food shortage. About fifteen million Chinese people lost their lives due to starvation because food production reduced significantly. This was because Mao was interested in modernizing the society through collective farms, but this only led to agricultural problems that resulted in the loss of many lives. In addition, Mao wanted to create a classless and socialist society and he came up and led the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976. This revolution was an awful incident that resulted in the murder of millions of educated people in the country. Mao empowered the Red Guards, a radical group that concentrated on purifying Chinese society of disorderly capitalist activists and opponents of the revolution. The Chinese society’s cultural artefacts were destroyed and the urban city torn apart during the Cultural Revolution (Bramall 2008, p.546). The Red Guards harshly treated their victims and they severely punished or brutally killed many individuals especially those who disobeyed Mao and his policies (Shen 2000, p.10). The Cultural Revolution helped in eliminating those who opposed his policies but it led to instability in the country that forced him to bring in the military to restore order in 1967. Mao founded and led the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that aimed establishing a socialist society, which the leaders realized that could only be achieved by adopting a moderate policy of political and economic recovery called New Democracy, which restrained the capitalist system of ownership in industrial sectors. Mao also stated that in the socialist construction, China needs to incorporate Marxism-Leninism with the real situation of the country (Lawrance 2002, p.5). Mao never believed in embracing or copying the successful experience of other nations in the exploration of Chinese socialist construction. Mao believed that the collective will power of individuals could transform Chinese economy and help eliminate poverty (Chang 1996, p.379). In addition, he was so determined to stimulate the rate of economic advance and he even compared China’s economy with that of Britain. More so, Mao developed some basic economic strategies. For instance, he played a significant role in promoting agriculture and placing it in a prominent position. He focused more on how to develop agricultural industry. In addition, his socio-political programs focused more on the revolution and development of productivity. Further, Mao’s determination to establish a new socialist society made him to gather all positive elements necessary in the socialist construction. These positive elements included the domestic and overseas power. Mao’s strategy helped in improving productivity base on China’s large population and weak economy. After Mao’s death, Chinese government under Deng Xiaoping was more concerned with improving the country’s economic performance and raising living conditions (Zhu 2012, p.110). Deng focused on modernizing China by transforming it form a developing country to a world power in economic and political terms (Ye, Levine and Liu 2011, p.74). As a result, he managed to transform China into the world’s fastest growing economy (Chang 1996, p.377). He managed to accomplish success easily and the China made significant steps in improving the major society problems such as poverty and economic difficulties. He opened up China to the outside world (Cheng and Zhang 2009, p.91), and this marked the commencement of private economy and foreign investment in the country. Since he had faith in trying other forms of production and entrepreneurial activities that would allow China to develop its economy, he tried the capitalist methods of production. He argued that it does not matter whether an economic policy is capitalist or socialist, provided it stimulates to economic growth. During his time, the economic improvements result in increased pressure from students and city dwellers for better living conditions, reduced restrictions on studying abroad, and increased freedom to choose jobs after completing their degrees. Xiaoping made positive improvements in China as he enabled China to end the persistent problems of poverty and underdevelopment in the country after adopting practical approaches in the years after Mao’s rule. More so, the per capita income increased tremendously during the 1980s (Wu 2013, p.391). The education, housing and sanitation in city residential areas improved, and the agricultural and industry output increased. However, during this time, in 1980s, there was increased inflation in China and many workers were not satisfied with their pay. More so, many individuals were not satisfied with the ruling government, many showed criticism towards the corruption, nepotism and discrimination especially in the way senior officials, and party members were treated. Xiaoping came up with four modernization strategies to assist in improving the Chinese society. These were the industry, agriculture, science and technology, and national defence and according to him, these were the things that were not present in the Chinese society but they were very important in improving the lives of Chinese people. Under these innovations, all the limits against revenue guidelines were eliminated and all Chinese citizens were advised to put more effort in their work to improve their living standards and benefit the Chinese society. Deng was convinced that modernizing and restructuring the national defence will assist in linking China to the international economy (Harding 1987, p.46). Deng replaced Mao’s collectivization with the Responsibility System to rural areas. Under this policy, peasants were given plots, which they were fully responsible over the land as they could sell the products and give the government a fixed amount of what they produced. Xiaoping’s leadership significantly helped in improving the living conditions and the lifestyles of the Chinese citizens. For instance, the Chinese people were allowed to purchase important items for their homes and they had more personal freedom, which they never had when Zedong was in charge. The problems relating to greed and corruption were minimal during Xiaoping’s leadership era. However, some individuals felt that Xiaoping’s policy left another important component of modernization, democracy, which is very important to the success and development of China. Agreeably, the two leaders handled their reforms differently. To begin with, Mao Zedong has a more vigorous point of view on his reforms and this implies that individuals were not happy with what they were doing because they were forced to do so. Notably, his pragmatic viewpoint led to major disasters of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution which really affected the Chinese people (Teiwes 2001, p.6). During the Maoist era, estimates of the per capita income revealed that China remained a poor country even after a long period of planned development (Nolan and Ash 1995, p.983). Deng Xiaoping also aimed at achieving the same goals but he was less forceful in his approach. For this reason, most of his reforms were successful than Mao’s. Some of his notable reform measures include proprietary rights, and separation of government from state-owned enterprises (Chen 2009, p.306). Xiaopings developmental strategies worked much better because of the tactics he used and this enabled him to facilitate fast integration of the Chinese economy into the world economy (Zhang 2002, p.10). Zhao (2014, p.58), posits that Mao’s Era is characterized by revolution whereas Deng’s Era is determined by development. In conclusion, Deng Xiaoping was a leader for the people who worked hard to ensure the living condition of the Chinese people improved. Notably, Xiaoping transformed the economic, living and industrial conditions of Chinese society. Under Deng’s rule, China became more modernized, the economy developed, the educational level of Chinese people improved, and China developed a good relationship with foreign countries. In contrast, Mao Zedong was against the people as seen in most of his policies, which did not help improve the awful living conditions of the people. Some of his policies such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution failed and this in turn prevented China from developing and catching up with the West. Even though they both had similar goals for their country, Deng played a leading role in shaping China into the country it is today. References Ash, R., Howe, C. and Kueh, Y., 2013, China’s Economic Reform: A Study with Documents, London: Routledge. Bramall, C., 2008, Chinese Economic Development, London: Routledge. Chang, M.H., 1996. 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