The Chinese government at the start of the twenty-first century refuse to give its people democratic rights despite encouraging private enterprise in industry, commerce and agriculture and how do you see this situation developing in the next few years?

Tom Gale 10N 10/05/2007

Why does the Chinese government at the start of the twenty-first century refuse to give its people democratic rights despite encouraging private enterprise in industry, commerce and agriculture and how do you see this situation developing in the next few years?

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Tom Gale 10N

By 1900 the Chinese empire had many different rulers and systems of government. During this time the Chinese had become one of the most advanced civilisations in the world. China has, for most of its history been a communist country. Communism is where all people are treated equal and therefore there are no classes in society. In an ideal communist state everyone contributes to the state and then everything that has been taken in is handed out equally. There is no private enterprise, everything is owned by the state. China is seen to be one of the most communist countries in the world. But why do we then see this paradox. The puzzle is that now there is private enterprise in industry, commerce and agriculture which is seen as capitalist and the opposite of communism. In a capitalist state there would be competition and many private industries. This is also associated with western society. If we look back we can see many important events occurring over the past century; civil war, many revolutions, famine and many more occurrences that may have lead to the situation that China is in today of many different cultures and mixed feel about the government which may lead to a change in how China is run.

If one person is to have absolute power over the country then they must have social stability which then in turn would accept autocracy, absolute power by one person. To provide that social stability the rulers were keen to emphasis the importance of Confucianism. This is a philosophical idea which forms the basis of the social make-up. The main themes of Confucianism help to explain why China has ruled for over 2000 years in this way. There were also to be 5 main relationships: Father to son, husband to wife, brother to brother and friend to friend. Those people who are higher than you in a relationship should be obeyed, but the people below should be treated fairly. This teaching of Confucius was targeted at the ruler. If he followed this teaching then he would have a successful country, but if he didn’t and get hungry for power then it would fail. This all links into the idea of communism, which is sometimes mistaken as Confucianism because of undemocratic views and the idea of everyone helping each other.

The years of 1900 – 1949 were years of rebellion, foreign intrusion and civil war. China, by 1900, had grown weak which therefore allowed European powers gain influence in the region. However, European rule is resented in China with a lot of passion. Mainly because Europe is seen as democratic and also as a result there was a rebellion. The main rebellion that took place was the Boxer’s. They blamed Europeans for their problems so rebelled. They killed European forces on their way through. So a 6-nation force was sent to China. The brutally resented the rebellion. Also Europe is seen as democratic and so they don’t want to take on their methods as is would go against communism. In 1911 a rebellion against the government began. Yuan Shikai was appointed Prime Minister and crushed the rebellion but instead of disciplining them he made a deal and became President of the Republic. He set up the “constitutional republic” which was meant to be democratic. However, Shikai wanted too much power and started to ignore the parliament’s decisions. In 1914 the National Assembly had been dissolved. Shikai made himself President for the next 12 years. This is now shown as why democracy doesn’t work in China. From 1916-27 there was a period of civil war. The Warlords fought against each other and they were only concerned in their own power. This made them break into Civil War. In 1921 the main Chinese party was formed, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). They and the Kuomintang marched in “The March to the North”. The Kuomintang (nationalist party) played a main part during this period. Their main principals were; nationalism, democracy and social reform. They were first lead by Sun Yatsen but Chaing Kaishek took over after his death in 1925. However, the CCP broke off and decided to go to war against each other. The CCP’s army was known as “The Red Army” as red is the colour of communism. Today the people of China may feel grateful towards the CCP as they rescued them from Civil War. They also united the nation under one leader.

In 1934 Chaing Kaishek launched a series of extermination campaigns against the communists. The first four failed but the fifth one trapped them and started the communist’s “Long March”. “The Long March” justifies, to some extent the special position that the CCP has in China. They carried communist ideas to the peasants in far out place in China. Mao Tse-tung, the leader of the CCP, marched 100,000 men through its provinces spreading the communist ideas as it went. This also showed the Communists to be affective fighters even though 80% of their men were lost. This great achievement also ...

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Mao improved upon the life and standards of living in China. In the liberated areas, which were controlled by the CCP, new land reforms were made. There were a lot of changes but the few most important were: Taxes reduced, big estates handed out to the poorer, interest free loans and new tools were provided for farmers. Social reforms were also introduced. Such horrid practices as foot binding, child slavery and the sale of women were abolished. This all calculated in the Communist support growing. Also, Mao set out the “Common Programme” which outlined the party’s aims. The government would be “A People’s Democratic Dictatorship”. This meant the Government would be democratic for most but a dictatorship for any one who went against their rule. The Communists were very successful in gaining support from the peasants. On the 1st October 1949 the communists had beaten the nationalists and proclaimed the “People’s Republic of China”.

In 1958 Mao set out the “Great Leap Forward.” The main aims were to overtake the west in economy and goods, construction projects and bring together the peasants. However the plan famously failed. It failed for many reasons due to the utter lack of planning. Firstly, because rivalry was introduced and that lead to lying about amounts of food production so they could win prizes. As a result many went without food because of the lack of crops now coming out of farms. Secondly, because with the plan to make steel by introducing the peasants into taking part themselves at home many neglected jobs which were important to the country. Also, this steel was weak, impure and useless and so most went to waste. However the last reason is probably the most dramatic. In 1960 food production fell by 25% and so 20million (certainly more due to figures produced by the government were false to cover up any further damage) died of famine.

Since 1979 the Chinese government has brought in many economic changes. This may be due to failures of the previous communist planning. Mao wanted china to become one of the world’s leading industrial powers. So he put in place an ambitious plan to make massive industries. It worked well in certain areas such as new factories and industrial production more than doubled. Mao also concentrated on farming. Co-operative farms were introduced; these are where 200 or more families would join up and share their land, labour and tools. 95% of peasants had joined by 1956. But there was to be a down-side to this plan. Cities population rose by 40million as people were keen to work in the new factories and this resulted in overcrowding and food shortages. Also many people then began to criticise the CCP. Another of Mao’s ideas which eventually failed was “The Cultural Revolution”. In 1966 schools were shut down in order to rewrite the syllabus in a communist way. The Red Guards tried to promote Mao but the power went to their heads. They began to be violent. Mao was forced to call the revolution off in 1967. There were massive implications on the lives of China’s children as most became illiterate and the farming had been disrupted.

Some people believe that because of China’s rapid economic growth over the last twenty years has made the CCP rule seem the right way to lead China. China’s economy really started to grow again after Deng, the new leader in 1978, made dramatic changes to the way the economy was to be run. He encouraged free market economy. This was mainly to deal with the poverty many people were living in. Free market economy introduced a certain amount of free enterprise. Peasants were given a quota of food to grow and any more than that which they grew could be kept. All of this culminated in peasants growing more and therefore building up their economy Also there was the “Open Door Policy”. This had three key ideas. Firstly, the importing of technology from abroad. Secondly, encouraging foreign investment. Lastly, encouraging trade and tourism from the West. Competition was introduced into the insurance market and the banking system transformed. This was in a major effort to make the countries infrastructure a more productive one. Deng’s famous quote “It does not matter if the cat is black or white if it catches mice it is a good cat” probably summed up how he wanted the economy to work, by making competition and not standing for failure. This however left China with its paradox still seen today. In a country which has been communist for hundreds of years and one which still follows in their ways, why does it have an economy rather suited to the Western World?

There is a belief today that China faces great challenges today, these come from areas like political, social and environmental areas and the only way to deal with them are through strong government. From a political point of view there have been many problems for the government to face, such as corruption, SARS cover-up and a new leader. One main problem has been the use of the internet. Once the internet was made accessible worldwide even China got involved. Now with the freedom to go out and buy a computer and the necessities to get the internet that is what many Chinese did. This was until the government found out that there were many sites with pro-democracy messages being seen by the Chinese people. The government therefore decided the only way out of this for them was to ban certain sites, and arrest people going against communism. In one particular case, written by a Sunday newspaper, was that of someone who gave 30,000 email addresses to an American based pro-democracy magazine. Many problems have also come from China’s society, gaps in the new social classes, farmers forced off land and a town vs. countryside divide. Probably the most famous problem came in 1989. It was at Tiananmen Square whilst the Russian leader, Gorbachev, was visiting. A vast group of pro-democracy students swarmed into the square and rioting broke out. The government decided to take a hard line and introduced troops into the square. There were many deaths that day which shocked the world. This shows that the government does take the hard line to solve many of its problems. These harsh lines are also being seen with environmental problems. Farmers land is being taken away from them without any compensation to give way to massive housing developments. This harms many animals’ habitats and could even be the end for many species in China. But the government doesn’t care and just builds new cities throughout the countryside.

There have been many experiences of other communist states which have encountered problems since there ending of communism. For example in Russia after 70 years of communism it is understandable that Russian leaders lack experience and don't know how to react in a crisis. A feeling is evident that the present system is only temporary, that the country is waiting for something better to come along, a system that will usher in another 300 years of stability.

The future holds many different things for China and the Chinese people. Firstly, in the way in which the government is run. At the moment we know it is a communist style government. But many people predict that this will have a massive change even in the near future. With newspaper articles saying, “The party to transform itself into a national party with elements of national discourse” and “Communism is Stone-Dead,” these coming from people who have looked at China for many years, we have to seriously consider this change. It would mean that the government would change into one which gives its people more rights and more chances to express their political freedom. However, it seems to be that it may be a while longer before we see China becoming a totally democratic country as there is still a wide appreciation for the current system.

Secondly, a big change may be that of China’s economy. Over the past 10 years we have seen China’s economy grow drastically. It has become the fourth richest nation in the world and this is only to be viewed to grow and grow. One main reason behind this is of China’s people having the freedom to spend more. For example “2.04 million cars were sold in China – nearly twice the number the previously year.” The World Bank has predicted that by 2020 China will be the second largest exporter of goods and will contribute to about 10% of the total world’s exports. So China will become richer as each year goes on and will end up mostly as a western style economy which actually earns more money than most western countries except perhaps America. I feel that this is most likely to happen because of the increases that can still happen and that China has only started to run an economy I this way for the past 20 years and has got this for and other countries have been running their economy in this way for maybe a couple of hundred of years and is now “poorer” than China.

Thirdly, the freedom of choice that the Chinese people will have will increase. Already after years of trying to get rid of foreign influence we see massive signs advertising European and American products such as McDonalds, and Apple Computers. From the TV documentary “Mao’s Children” there are many examples of this. Tiananmen Square where the massacre of 1989 occurred has become a tourist attraction and has virtually been forgotten about. Also, the influence of music is a main change. There is now a massive music scene in China with all different kinds of music which again is mostly being influenced by foreign types of music. Chinese people aren’t told that they shouldn’t be influence by foreign things like music and they don’t have restrictions on how they lead their lives, apart from maybe the internet, which they may have had 20 years ago. These influences and pressure on the government to allow the freedom to have these choices is surely going to keep increasing.

In conclusion it seems to me that the Chinese government hasn’t given its people democratic rights because it has been scared that China would fail as a country and the people would revolt by voting against the leading party and the overall leader of the country. However, now it has seen the benefits of a traditionally democratic economy it may change its mind and start to introduce in small areas like in the CCP party and maybe in small local elections. Personally I can see that China will keep growing economically and at one point maybe in the next century being the dominant world leader as America is now. This may come about because of its wealth, the amount of citizens that actually live there, and its political reforms that will pave the way for other countries to follow its style and also become richer and a better nation for the citizens to live in.

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