Sunday, October 4, 2009

60 Years Of Chinese "Communism"

In 1949 The People's Republic Of China was established. Today it is recognised as one of the fewremaining communist states on earth. After decades of fighting between warlords, nationalists and communists (as well as brutal occupation by Japan) the communists eventually took power in 1949. The leader of the communists was a man who would become known to some as a brutal tyrant and to others one of the great leaders and political activists: Mao Zedong (1893-1976) Who in 1949 expelled nationalist forces from mainland China.

By the late 1950's Mao was impatient with the slowness of economic progress and in February 1958 he launched "the great leap forward" The aim was to modernise China. The project was a disastrous failure, production sharply declined and 20-30 million people died of starvation or malnutrition.

On the 9th of September 1976 Mao died. The "Gang of four" which consisted of Jiang Quing (Mao's wife), Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen tried to seize power but were arrested, tried and expelled from the communist party. At this point China had already opened up relations with the outside world after years of isolation. In 1972 President Richard Nixon visited and helped open relations with China.

From the late 1970's the dominant figure in Chinese politics was Deng Xiapingwho encouraged a free market economy as well as other economic reforms. These reforms led to a demand for political liberalization, many student protests were held across the country and in 1989 for 6 weeks students protested for democracy in tianmen square. Eventually the people's liberation army (PLA) were sent in and ruthelessly crushed the protests (Sense the irony?)

Now for a country that calls itself a socialist republic it's economic policy is far from socialistic. Socialism (according to Richard Overy in the time's complete history of the world) is a belief in communal or collective ownership were everyone has the right to the benefits and opportunities of society. Proffesor Noam Chomsky says the sore element of socialism is "Workers control over production" Personally I believe socialism is the elimination of the free market. Many if not all "socialist" Countries are more state capitalist than socialist. In Cuba for instance the majority of profit goes to the government, of course the government may use this money to help the people but then again maybe not.

These days China operates under a free market economy whether this is a good thing or not it's not socialism. As for whether it's a good thing or not the figures show it looks like it has worked. For instance between 1981 and 2001 the poverty rate went from 53% to 8% through rapid industrialisation (the developement of industry on an extensive scale) And agricultural output increased 49% in 5 years. But China remains quiet on it's human rights issues, issues such as the on child policy (which prevents families from having more than one child), the treatment of tibet and the mistreatment of workers in sweatshops.

In conclusion I believe that China no longer operate under communist or socialist law and are oppresing the people they are supposed to be liberating. Thank you for you're time.

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