Effect of Chinese Empire on the Modern Chinese State - Assignment Example

Name Tutor Course Institution Date How free is the media in China? The Chinese government has successfully limited the freedom of traditional as well as new media to circumvent potential sabotage of its authority. The Chinese government has often used tactics such as strict medial controls through monitoring news, legal restrictions on bloggers, journalists and activists and monetary incentives for self-censorship. There is no country where the clash between freedom of flow of information and government control that is vividly on display like in China. The Chinese government has gone as far as jailing dissident bloggers, journalist and activists as well as shuttering websites or publications. Though China is doing well economically, it being ruled by a government which is not accountable to public opinion and hence China represent an important test case of state control of media. How is the Chinese government dealing with the increasingly open nature of the internet? The Chinese government has come up with several regulations to control how its citizens use the internet. It has in place intricate systems which work just like an Intranet to allow it to regulate the Web. Moreover, it has hired human censors who remove content in the internet which is considered unfit for its people. The Chinese government charges high user-fee to restrict many people from accessing the net. Furthermore, the Chinese government is the only provider of internet service and hence limit access to internet. Apart from heavily censoring its own internet news websites, it also censors international news websites. The Chinese government has often blocked international news websites which tended to criticize it. The heavy surveillance of internet content has made Chinese Internet users to practice self-censorship when online to avoid paying the price of being dissidents. How has the ancient Chinese empire influenced the modern Chinese state? The modern Chinese state is a product of eras of evolution. This state has been decisively influenced by the ancient Chinese empire. The 19th century’s political activists were dealing with issues of control, competition and participation in the framework of state of affairs inherited from the 18th century. They were reacting to a constant domestic constitutional agenda which links the ancient empire with modern empire. The underlying structure of the constitutional agenda of the early 19th century can be linked to the agenda of modern state. The three issues which engaged politicians of the ancient Empire state have endured and in fact appear to have gained momentum in this modern state. The Chinese modern state is concerned with how increased political participation can be reconciled with increasing the legitimacy and power of the state as well as how political competition can reconciled with the local community’s needs. This contemporary constitutional agenda originates exclusively in the complicated local crisis which beset ancient empire. What is the international perception of China in the modern era and how has it changed? The international perceptions of China are positive in the modern era. Generally, the growing mighty of China economic is perceived as a good thing by many countries. However, in recent times, the international perception of China is increasingly becoming polarized. Although China is being positively perceived by some countries, especially developing countries, such as African, Asians and Latin American most developed countries, such as Germany, Japan and US, have perceived China as having a negative influence on the world. This polarized perception is due to stagnation as concerns human rights issues despite the fact that it has grown in terms of its military power during the last few decades. This has hampered its international image and status and it now viewed as a security threat. Is the People's Congress an influential policy making body? The people’s Congress is the most powerful policy making body in China. This organ is simply more of a rubber stamp for party decisions. The Congress consist of around 3,000 delegated appointed by provinces, independent regions, municipalities as well as the armed forces of China. The delegates are supposed to hold office for a period of five years whereas the full congress is supposed to meet once every year. This periodic and unwieldy nature shows that real power lies in a standing committee made up of around 150 members appointed from congress delegates that meets after a few months to examine and approve new policies, rules, the budget as well as major personnel changes. Many national legislation is adopted by People’s Congress in China. Moreover, many initiatives are presented to this organ for review before being endorsed. What is the influence of the Communist Party on modern China? The Communist Party continues to influence the government in the modern era. Despite the market reforms in China during the late 1970s, the modern China has remained purely a Leninist system. The party committees in all government institutions maintain an influential and vital role in administration at all level, particularly as concerns politics and related issues. The power of the modern Communist party in China lies of on three pillars: propaganda, control of personnel and institutions. Most of its members are men who are mostly farmers. In modern China, private ownership plays a significant role in the economy just as was the case in Community Party Control over people. What role does gender play in modern China? Gender plays a significant role in modern China. The economic reforms in the last few decades affected the role gender play in modern China. Both women and men are actively searching for employment outside their home areas. The fact that women are no longer guaranteed employment under the government-controlled economy means that they have to go out and look for employment. As a result, young women are increasingly migrating from their home areas in search for work. Many families have used their resource to give top-notch education to their daughters. As a result, women are now competent enough to compete with fellow men in employment opportunities in the most competitive organizations. This has seen a reduction in cases of women early marriages in China. However, women are still expected to play the role of mothers and wives in modern China. Why did the Chinese government decide on the one child policy? The Chinese government decided to initiate the one child policy as a means to limit the size of the family units to one kid each. The justification for implementing this policy was to lower the population growth rate of the huge population in China. This is because family planning and birth control had failed to curb the high rate of population growth in China. This policy was intended to ensure that people growth does not outdo economic development as well as to ease natural resource and environmental challenges as well as imbalances bought about by a rapidly growing population. How has China's economy changed over the past 20 years since the Deng era? The economy of China has considerably changed in the last two decades. After two decades of change, the economy of China now experiences one of the biggest booms in the world. Agriculture as well as light industry have mainly been privatized, though the state still maintains control over a few heavy industry. Private entrepreneurs keep up expanding into sectors initially kept for public enterprise despite the state’s ownership domination in petroleum, finance, telecommunication and other crucial sectors of the economy. Moreover, prices have been liberalized. Since the Deng era, the GDP in China has risen tenfold as a result of increased productivity. This has also led to increase in per capita income and average wages. This has translated into decreased poverty level in the country. Would you describe the Chinese economy as planned or free market? In the last two decades, china has shifted from a planned market to a free market economy. The economy of China is now characterized by price liberalization, stabilization and privatization. China has now put in place a liberalized dual-track pricing system that provides incentives, resources and signals to private enterprises. Private ownership is the cornerstone of a free market economy. China has a rather devolved economic system. It gives protections and subsidizations to the nonviable entrepreneurs so as to encourage them to venture into the formerly suppressed sectors. It has done away with all the institutional distortions resulting from the planned economy. Mao's Great Famine HDTV great leap forward, history of china This movie was documented by the historian Dikotter and is about the Great Famine that occurred in China between 198-1962 during the Mao reign. This famine can be characterize as the worst disaster in the history of China as it is estimated that about 45 million of people lost their lives as a result of this famine. This famine which lasted for four years can be attributed to the decisions that were made by Beijing government officials that show an increase in food purchase quota from the rural area to cater for international imports which led to starving its own citizens to death. It’s interesting to note that these top officials did this knowing that it would result to death of millions of people. This created a situation of survival for the fittest and the Chinese people resorted to smuggling, cheating, hiding, stealing, foraging, tricking, pilfering, manipulating or else outsmarting the government. There were many cases of armed attacks on granaries and trains. Many people lost their lives as a result of torture, beating or assassination for political reasons, mostly at the slightest violation. Local communist cadres were able to withhold food from anyone they did not like because they were responsible for food distribution. Often, the sick, weak and old were viewed as unproductive and thus expendable. Top officials in the government did nothing to stop the famine as whereas famine was destroying the nation, free food was exported to supporters as well as giving them financial aid and low-interest or even interest-free loans. Rural houses were demolished and villages relocated to pave way for road and infrastructure building or at times as a punishment for political rebellion. The rural environmental system was completely ruined as many trees were cut down in some areas. PBS Documentary - China from the Inside - Power and the People The PBS documentary analyzes a number of major challenges that the Chinese society is facing in this modern era in four episodes lasting around 55 minutes each. The episodes includes the Power and the People; Women of the Country; Shifting Nature and Freedom of justice. The Power and the people episode examines the rule of Communist Party in China. It covers issues such as government disapproval of autonomy in the profoundly Muslim region of Xinjiang, the efforts of the Party to create a thriving society, the administration of Tibet, the People’s Congress that is an influential policy making body, the election of a village board as well as the fraud in the Party. The Women of the Country episode examines the challenges experienced by women in the modern China, particularly in rural regions where majority of the people in China lives. It examines birth controls, marriage, women who reside in the rural areas whereas their husbands are employed in the urban areas, Tibet’s women, the hopelessness of most Chinese young women, the Xinjiang’s Muslim women as well as the hardships and opportunities for women in towns. The Shifting nature episode examines the pollution caused by rapid industrialization as well as the huge water diversion projects which entail relocating the people of whole towns. The final episodes examines the restrictions of religion freedom and control of mass media, death as a result of AIDS which the state could have avoided, the dislocation of poor people for road and infrastructure building, and discriminations within the justice system. Crackdown This documentary reveals the government of China increasingly cruel suppression of the Uighurs, which is a small Muslim society living in the far-western region of Xinjiang. The Chinese government has subjected the Uighurs to harsh crackdown despite them seeking an autonomous homeland. The government in china is using terrorism, separatism and religious extremism to increase its decade-long crackdown on Uighurs. The government of China has been condemned internationally for imposing death penalty on the well-respected Uighur professor IIham Tohti for criticizing it. The Chinese government has harassed and intimidated the Uighurs, a minority ethnic group. Xinjiang has been shaken by ethnic clash between the majority Han Chinese and the minority Uighurs. The repressive policies of the Chinese government in Xinjiang, such as controls on Islam and forced intermarriages have triggered conflict. Moreover, the Chinese government have denied the Uighurs the freedom of religion. It has put in place limits on Islamic dress that prohibited Islam to wear veils in public arenas. This actually destroyed the sovereignty of religious societies. The Chinese government’s tough crackdown on Xinjiang has resulted to death of many people in the largely Uighur regions of Xinjiang. The Chinese government crackdown on Uighurs could radicalize young Uighurs in the country. China the biggest domino This movie shows that despite that China is experiencing impressive economic growth rate, it is balancing on a corrupt level of borrowing as well as dwindling foreign demand. Professor Michael Petties foresee a trouble future in a country of optimism where everything appears to be moving at an impossibly high rate. He presents a ghost city where an entire town in Inner Mongolia is built from scratch and where several apartment blocks, library and a theatre sit empty. This is perfect example of China whereby government-owned banks offer loans to more government-owned organizations, possibly where there is no demand. When the global economic crisis provoked a collapse in global demand of China’s goods, China appeared undeterred. It responded using an enormous $800 billion incentive package. Critics warns that China is too reliant on foreign markets, particularly with US and Europe in an economic recession. They argue that unless consumers in China begin spending more, the speed of the economy is unmaintainable. China keeps its currency value low in an effort to encourage domestic spending, however, some experts argue that this top-down strategy is generating imbalance and over-capacity. Despite this theory that the economy of China is about to collapse, the Chinese people are ever-optimistic and China is well-known for confounding the opponents and absorbing all financial hitches and charging ahead. The suffering caused by China's one child policy This movie shows that the one child policy in China has led to suffering of many women. Women who have fallen pregnant without permission and are not able to pay the regularly high fines for breaching the policy are subjected to forced abortions. Moreover, many women have been sterilized since the initiation of this policy rendering them incapable of giving birth again even in the eventuality of their one child death. This implies that a woman would remain without a child in case her only child dies. Many families have been forced to free from home villages to neighboring provinces so as to give birth to a second child. This policy has also seen the rate of women suicide in China to be the highest in the world. This policy has reduced females to objects, numbers as well as means of production. The one child policy has made women to have no control of their bodies and deprived them the essential human right to decide freely and maturely the number as well as spacing of their kids. The fact that the Chinese family tend to favor a son child, many women have been forced to abort girl child or else discard them immediately after birth. Read More