Death of Mao & Beginnings of Reform Flashcards
What are the 12 most important points from the “Deng Xiaoping and His Successors 1976 to the Present” reading ?
- China’s Reform Era (1976-Present): The period since 1976 represents China’s return to its quest for wealth and power, following the disastrous consequences of the Mao era. The reform era, initiated under Deng Xiaoping’s leadership, involved picking up the pieces from the previous era and resuming a trajectory of development.
- Political and Economic Changes in the Reform Era: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) maintained its authoritarian rule but transitioned to a more institutionalized and regularized form. The party abandoned the aim of total control and transformation of Chinese society. Despite extensive privatization, state ownership of strategic sectors of the economy remained essential.
- Comparative Perspectives: The text offers two sets of cross-country comparisons to understand China’s reform era. First, comparisons with other Asian countries like Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea that experienced rapid industrialization. Second, comparisons with other communist and post-communist states, emphasizing China’s successful adaptation to market reforms as a crucial factor in the survival of communist rule.
- Economic Reforms and Growth (1980-1990): The text highlights the significant economic reforms that took place in China between 1980 and 1990. It mentions that per capita rural incomes increased nearly six-fold during this period. Additionally, there was substantial growth in the urban and industrial sectors, with an average GDP growth of 10 percent per year, and GDP per capita doubling. However, this economic growth also came with challenges such as inflation, corruption, and unemployment resulting from state-owned enterprise reforms.
- Limits to Political Reform: The text emphasizes Deng Xiaoping’s commitment to maintaining CCP control over the political system. It introduces the Four Cardinal Principles articulated by Deng in response to the 1979 Democracy Wall protests, which included a commitment to socialism, dictatorship of the proletariat, CCP leadership, and adherence to Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. The 1982 constitution reinstated certain rights but also emphasized the socialist system and prohibited sabotage of the system.
- Tiananmen Movement (1989) and Its Aftermath: The text provides a detailed account of the Tiananmen Movement in 1989, which began with calls for the release of political prisoners and evolved into a large-scale protest movement involving millions of people across China, particularly in Beijing. The movement was met with a violent crackdown on June 3-4, 1989, resulting in a significant number of casualties. This event had profound consequences, including the removal of Zhao Ziyang from power and the tightening of political control by the CCP.
- Hu Jintao’s Emphasis on Sustainable and Equitable Development: Hu Jintao, during his tenure as the leader of China, focused on policies aimed at achieving sustainable and equitable development. He implemented measures to address issues of social justice and promote environmentally sustainable growth. This included initiatives like expanding health insurance, improving industrial safety regulations, and addressing environmental concerns.
- Limits of Hu’s Reforms: Despite Hu Jintao’s efforts to promote a more balanced and sustainable model of development, the text points out that his reforms ultimately faced limitations. One key limitation was the lack of significant efforts to disperse political power from local party organizations. Hu’s approach did not extend to implementing democratic elections, and his emphasis remained on improving inner-party democracy.
- Hu’s Legacy and Challenges: Hu Jintao’s legacy is characterized by his efforts to address internal challenges and promote a more balanced development model. However, the text also highlights the difficulties he faced in achieving significant reforms, given the existing political framework. It suggests that by the end of his term, there was a recognition that China needed a different style of leadership to drive substantial change.
- Xi Jinping’s Background and Political Career: The text provides a detailed account of Xi Jinping’s background, including his family’s political history and his own early experiences during the Cultural Revolution. It traces his political career from joining the Communist Youth League to becoming the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and President of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
- Xi Jinping’s Leadership Style and Policies: The text outlines Xi Jinping’s approach to governance, highlighting his efforts to centralize power, combat corruption, and assert CCP authority in various spheres of life, including civil society, religion, and the military. It also emphasizes his emphasis on nationalism and the promotion of the “China Dream.”
- The Evolving Nature of Chinese Politics: The text underscores the evolving nature of Chinese politics over the reform era. It discusses the shifts in power dynamics, the challenges of balancing economic growth with political control, and the transformation of the political system from a more state-centered model to one characterized by multifaceted interactions between various state and societal actors.
What happens following the death of Mao in 1976 ?
Deng Zhao Ping is the most important party member after Mao, plays an important role in the events following his death.
Cultural Revolution: continued up until Mao’s death, but it is unsure what happens at the time of his death, do we keep going, do we stop, etc. - PLA reestablishes order, though there are still divides in the party.
Institutions are not equipped to handle the succession, so lots of questions as to what was going to happen: coup, revolution, reform, status quo ?
Ambitious elites think they should now be running the country.
What incentive do authoritarian leaders have to distance themselves from other influential members ?
Most authoritative leaders are removed by other elites. Incentive to keep them far and never explicitly appoint a number 2 as they will want to remove you to take your place, making you prematurely irrelevant.
Being Mao’s number 2 was the most risky and dangerous position to be in.
Constant conflict between personalization and succession (if the party is all about you, then when you’re gone, what happens ?)
What is the Lin Piao affaire and how does it show how dangerous it is to be near Mao ?
This man is responsible for the Little Red Book. In 1970, there is a new constitution and Lin Piao supported the position of the state chairman. Mao thought he was pushing to become his successor.
Mao spread the rumor that Lin and his son were trying to kill him and plan a coup. Lin and others fly out of China to escape, but crashed in Mongolian Airspace.
Even after his death, he was painted a traitor and there were post-mortem campaigns against him in 1974.
These campaigns are thought to have been targeting living members of the party like Zhou Enlai, but because you are not allowed to do that openly, people target the dead.
Who was Zhou Enlai and why is he another example of this risk of being near Mao ?
He is a member of the party charged with foreign affairs, was an important diplomat for China.
He died in 1976. Was a symbol of rationality, restraint and competence and was generally well liked by the populations.
There were campaigns against him after his death because Mao was jealous and petty and wanted the people to criticize Zhou Enlai instead of him (people at this time were getting frustrated with some of Mao’s policies).
Reaths are brought to Tiananmen Square for Zhou Enlai, simultaneously attacking the cultural revolution radicals. Loyal protests ask to change the policies and turn away from CR.
Who is Hua Guofeng ?
He succeeds to Mao Zedong during the transition between 1976 and 1978.
He is not an advocate of the Cultural Revolution and would not keep the policies and measures supporting it in place.
The Gang of Four, who wants power, oppose Hua Guofeng. They use propaganda, promoting Mao’s last words and saying he wished for them to “act as the principle laid down”, so keep the CR going. They use Mao’s posthumous authority.
October 1976, the Gang of Four is arrested, the Cultural Revolution comes to and end.
Who is Deng Xiaoping ?
He is the supreme leader of the People’s Republic of China from 1978 until the 1990s.
He was, however, never officially the head of the party.
Deng Xiaoping turns away from Maosim and turns to economic reforms.
He studied in France and studied Marxism in Moscow and then came back to China.
He had been an important member of the party for 40 years. He was shunt and brought back multiple times. Mao considered him someone who wanted “capitalist rule” in China.
He was sent away for 2 years, but when Mao wanted to crack down after the cultural revolution, he needed someone the army knew and liked, so he brought back Deng Xiaoping. (again with the disregard for ideology in time of expertise needs)
He is considered a moderate reformer and hated by the Cultural Revolution radicals like the gang of 4.
How would you describe Deng Xiaoping’s ideology ?
He is part of the whateverist faction - somewhat supporting a continuation of what Mao supported.
He is a pragmatist - pragmatic approach. He is consistent with Mao but reinterprets components of Maoism, and emphasized that strain.
He thinks the most important element is economic performance in line with Mao still. Less ideology, more economic practices for better results.
He preaches the cohabitation of single party authoritarian control and economic oppeness.
List off and describe the measures following Deng Xiaoping’s ascension to power.
- Military reform: makes it smaller and less demonstrative.
- Economic reform: terminates communal agriculture, instead, families rent land from the state.
Small competition on open markets. Promotes township and village enterprises (local businesses) and allows more economic decisions at the local level.
Describe the context and impact of the opening of 14 Coastal Cities under Deng Xiaoping.
With the coastal cities, China opens a space for foreign investment, free-trade, and creates an environment with less export rules.
They started as experiments to see if similar measures could be implemented in the rest of the country.
There was pushback from more Marxist factions: Deng Xiaoping answers with pragmatism, China needs more quality of life and modernization, this is a necessary compromise (suck it up).
What are the four Cardinal Principles under Deng Xiaoping ?
In a period of large and rapid change., even in pursuit of economic modernization, the party should still:
- Uphold socialism.
- Uphold dictatorship of the proletariat.
- Uphold the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.
- Uphold leninism, marxism and maoism.
Deng Xiaoping states that China needs to be more prosperous, therefore, China will be run by 1) economic growth and 2) a leninist political party.
