-<Tab/>The failure of the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution (trying to put China ahead simply put it more behind).
-<Tab/>The failure of traditional communist economic planning (the communist way was flawed).
-<Tab/>The experiences of ex-communist countries of the last ten years (Russia is no longer a communist country putting pressure on the remainders to follow suit).
-<Tab/>The success of capitalist economies in Europe, USA and Japan (all these countries are miles ahead in richness and technology and without an apposed Government).
There are many facts in China that show the economy has been expanded. China is the 3rd world's largest importer of minerals. Improving railways are the most important part of transport. Telecommunications have boomed in the last 10 years. China is the 2nd largest consumer of energy in the world (coal supplies &frac34; of the energy but note that China has huge hydro electrical power potential). Thanks to the change the economy continued to grow by nearly 9%, benefiting the urban middle and upper classes in particular, but none of the basic economic and social problems that a decade and a half of rapid growth had created seemed any closer to solution (although on 1/10/01 a headline was China stumbles on long march to prosperity - Reforms are needed to prevent economic miracle ending in collapse. '...the economic miracle of the 1990s has undoubtedly come to an end').
There are a number of facts that explain the grip on power the CCP still holds. This also explains the refusal of democracy in China. Although since the death of Deng has passed the next leader has not performed any major actions such as the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 when protesters were slaughtered. In October Wang Dan, a student leader of the 1989 democracy movement, was sentenced to 11 years in prison on charges of conspiring to overthrow the government. The specific charges included publishing critical articles in foreign newspapers, raising money abroad for needy dissidents, and accepting a scholarship from the University of California. Another Chinese democrat, Liu Xiaobo, was sentenced to three years in a labour camp. In December nine pro-democracy activists were jailed; three of the dissidents were sentenced to more than 15 years. Nonconforming religious leaders and worshipers were another target of state repression. Wei Jingsheng, China's leading democracy activist, was released from prison in September 1993 after having served 14 and &frac12; years for challenging Deng Xiaoping's authority. He resumed his peaceful political activity but was rearrested on April 1, 1994. After a closed trial he was sentenced to 14 years in prison. This harsh warning against political dissent evoked condemnation around the world. A host of lesser known dissidents and democrats, including Tibetan supporters of the Dalai Lama, continued to languish in Chinese prisons. All these arrests were part of a systematic effort to implement the 1993 State Security Law, which, among other things, sought to sever ties between dissidents and their international supporters. Human Rights Watch/Asia, a human rights organization with excellent sources of information on China, reported that Chinese physicians were "harvesting" kidneys and other organs from condemned prisoners, sometimes under anaesthesia before their actual execution, to use in organ transplants for high-ranking Chinese officials or for sale to foreigners; the going price for a kidney was $30,000. This report was confirmed by the on-site investigations of Harry Wu, a former prisoner in the Chinese gulag. Seeking to undermine the Dalai Lama's authority, Beijing compelled leading Tibetan clerics to reject the exiled leader's designation of a new Panchen Lama, Tibet's second most important religious leader, in favour of China's own choice. Even though Democracy is still not allowed in the country the restraints have been loosened since the death of Deng. On the 29th of June in 1998, President of the United States Bill Clinton made a 'passionate' speech in a lecture on democracy and so did George Bush in February this year. The effects of the massacre in 1989 has made a long term fear of demonstrating against the party which I think is why a firm grip is still held on China.
China's history is very long. It spans over 4000 years of a country ruled by a succession of dynasties and emperors belonging to different families. Confucianism is the way of life propagated by Confucius in the 6th-5th century BC and followed by the Chinese people for more than 2000 years. It has traditionally been the source of values, way of learning, and the social code of the Chinese. Confucianism has sometimes been viewed as a religion and sometimes as a philosophy. More than a race, it affected the daily life and culture of Taoists, Buddhists, and Christians alike in China before the establishment of the communist regime. Its influence has also extended to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. During the Han period, Confucianism had been slowly adopted as an ideology and had gradually come to provide the officially accepted norms, morals, and ritual and social behaviour regulating the relations between ruler and subject. Direct confrontation of China with Western culture and governments, beginning in the mid-19th century, led to quick reconsideration of the Chinese worldview and way of life. When Confucianism lost its institutional support at the end of the Ch'ing dynasty and the beginning of the Republican era (1911), there were both scholars and leaders who sought to salvage something of its heritage and those who regarded it as a relic of the past. As a school of thought and practice, Confucianism has disappeared in modern China. Yet its principles remain embedded in Chinese culture.
There are a number of reasons why the CCP refuses to make China a democratic state. To them, democracy is (or at least has been) a fear to the CCP. It is treated as a way to overthrow the government (like Wang Dan in paragraph three). Chinese communists believed that the events of 1911 were the beginning of the first revolution that would end feudalism and bring capitalists to power. The chaos in China between 1912 and 1927 was known as Warlord China. Against the chaotic background of post 1911 China; two new Political parties were established. One thing the CCP stood for was the desire to free China from foreign control and the Western way. Even though the CCP has been heard to fear popular protests they keep their party safe from any action. In the summer of 2001, Beijing tightened security to prevent people commemorating the 12th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre when troops put an end to the biggest popular protest in recent Chinese history.
With approximately 40,000,000 members, the CCP is the largest political party in the world. It is a monolithic, monopolistic party that dominates the political life of China. The CCP is not mentioned in China's current constitution (1982). The CCP is also the sole policy-making body in China, and it sees that the central, provincial, and local organs of government carry out those policies. The CCP does believe that it has a right to rule China. It also feels that they represent China. They must feel that the hope that they introduced into the hearts and minds of China in the Revolution of 1949 would make them grateful and accept their policies. In China the CCP is considered to be the spearhead of the urban working class and of other workers united with it (peasants, intellectuals, etc.). Its role is to aid in the building of a Socialist regime during the transitory phase between capitalism and pure Socialism, called the dictatorship of the proletariat. In China, democratic concepts were emphasized, and constitutional amendments eliminated the party's official control, clearing the way for a multiparty system.
