China and Political Issues
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| Academic Level | Undergraduate |
| Citation Style | APA |
| Length | 4 pages |
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China and Political Issues
Your Name
Your University
Your School of Engineering, Social Sciences, etc
Number and Name of Course
Instructor's Name
Date of Paper
Any author's notes should be entered here, flush left
China and Political Issues
Goumindang (GMD) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
The Goumindang, also known as the Kuomintang, is the oldest political party in China. In Chinese culture, this fact alone would give the party prominence. However, many of China’s great leaders have been members of the Goumindang and this also emphasizes the importance of the part. The philosophy that the Goumindang is based on roughly translates to nationalism, democracy, and livelihood for the People. It is easy to see why that stated philosophy would appeal to a wide variety of peoples. Today, Goumindang stands for Chinese nationalism, reunification, and what used to be called socialism but is now more often referred to in China as Democracy. Goumindang has a strong emphasis on labor, and has been instrumental in ensuring that Chinese workers are unionized and have contracts to work. Both the benefits and insurance are popular with the Chinese and leads to support of the party.
The disadvantage of the Goumindang is that has been perceived as being less modern, and out of touch with present social reality. It is supported by big business and smaller business owners may be intimidated because of its emphasis on labor support. Gourmindang also had a reputation of trying to enforce one party ideology.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is established in the Constitution of china and as thus, it is essentially above the law. Most military officers and civil officials are members of the Party, giving it great appearance of authority and power. The CCP is extremely large, and extremely well-organized. The CCP has its own commission that investigates allegations of wrongdoing by party members, and this cadre is much feared. In that sense the presence of the commission is both an advantage, and a disadvantage. Ironically, the strength of the commission may have sprung from the actions of Communist leadership at Tiananmen Square, and resulted from fears that the party was out of control. The CCP espouses atheism and requires that its members be atheist, which is an advantage to the party but disadvantage to individual members.
The CCP was able to defeat the GMD and take over control of China in 1949 after a war in which the KMT army, which was over three times the size of the communists’ army, was killed because they were very badly demoralized and had terrible leadership. During the war the CCP took land and distributed it to the very poor, leaving enough land to the rich land owners to buy their favor. KMT troops defected to the CCP side and the merchants and civil servants through their support behind the Communist party. Chiang, the ruler at the time, stepped down and the CCP was declared to hold power.
What Happened to the CCP?
During the early 1950’s, Chinese mortality declined; the Chinese began to live longer and to have better lives. Mao set about reconstructing the nation; he launched marriage reform and ideas that would protect women; he cracked down on crime as well as the so-called victimless crimes like prostitution and drugs. He tried to end corruption. However, when he tried to speed up the process of improvement, rather than letting it develop at its own pace, people began to get nervous. The two campaigns that harmed the initiative the most were a campaign for town factories and communes. The population members who were very old or very young could not tolerate the position that Mao’s communes and rural agricultural initiative put them in and many died. When the party officials questioned him or tried to make suggestions, he derided them and literally called them names. He tried to get anyone out of power who seemed to be a capitalist. When he tried to encourage the Youth to rise up and stop party officials that he felt were inappropriate, he set up a situation where the party was at war with itself. This nearly led to civil war; the military had to be called to restore peace. This drug on for years, with the students wearing red armbands and marching to photos of Mao.
Mao’s actions essentially paralyzed China. He tried to use the youth and their Red Guard to hunt out the bourgeois that were hiding inside the Chinese government and society and aiming to bring capitalism to China. Those who supported Mao led violent class struggle that literally filtered through every level of society. It was this struggle that lead to a vast overthrow of the status quo, including the seizure and torture of a large number of people. Everything from public humiliation and abuse to torture and the seizure of private properties occurred to those who were “capitalist”. The movement mutated into a “Down to the Countryside” initiative, which took young people from the cities and deposited them in rural areas. The result, not surprisingly, was the destruction of cultural sites, religious sites, historical relics, and various religious and civil artifacts.
After careful consideration of the situation Mao declared the revolution to be over, and invited the US to enter China and bring its ping pong team. Mao met with the US president. Some individuals hailed him as a genius, but others were very bitter indeed that he was taking this step. Soon after, he died. In China, people’s legacy follows them at least as well as it does in life. Thus, Mao’s reputation as a vulgar and uncouth romantic who was out of touch with the reality of the current world is what followed him after his death. This did nothing to convince the Chinese that Mao’s party had the right idea. Mao’s whole history galvanized the Chinese people into two camps: one which thought Mao was a genius to be revered, and other which wished to forget him and begin real recovery.
Looking back on this, and at some of the propaganda posters used during this era, one does not need to be Chinese to understand fairly effectively what the posters said. In fact, the propaganda posters clearly stimulate the young to violent action. One wonders what Mao was thinking, and whether or not he really believed that the power of youth, once unleashed, could be stuffed back in the bottle without damage. From a historical perspective, Mao began by getting rid of anyone in the media who disagreed with him, used the controlled media to whip up the populace, used the Red Guard to get rid of political people who disagreed with him, and kept the nation in a great deal of upheaval for many years.
Deng Xiaoping’s Reforms
Deng Xiaoping was rumored to have said that he did not care if his cat was black or white, he only cared that the cat caught mice. By this, he meant that he would take methods and use people to make change without regard to who or what they were, as long as he could engender change. He decided to open China to the west and did so in a very flashy manner by ordering a number of jumbo jets. He invited Coca Cola, the bastion of capitalism, to open a plant in China. That act alone signified opening to capitalist ventures and a change in culture. He emphasized developing and manufacturing products for export.
Deng Xiaoping reopened courts and centers of justice that had been closed during Mao’s reign. He opened law schools to give people legal protections that had been denied under Mao. China invited a US attorney to come lecture. Lawyers who had been banished were allowed and encouraged to return, and thousands of people who had been put in jail were rehabilitated and turned loose. In honor to the ancestors, some of those who died in prison were deemed to be rehabilitated and their records were cleared.
More reforms continued. Patent laws were adopted, religious freedom was restored, churches were reopened, and even the Party underwent changes. More and more party members became college graduates and their education was used to help address the problems in China. Educated party members were given supervisory sports in rural areas to help modernize. Communes were taken apart, and people were allowed to farm alone if they wished. Managers were allowed to run their own businesses and to hire people. Price controls were lifted. Foreign direct investors were invited in.
These policies have continued to develop and liberalize, and today, thousands of American MBA grads go to China each year to be introduced to China and prepared for doing business in that nation. Deng Xiaoping essentially made China what it is becoming.
Your Name
Your University
Your School of Engineering, Social Sciences, etc
Number and Name of Course
Instructor's Name
Date of Paper
Any author's notes should be entered here, flush left
China and Political Issues
Goumindang (GMD) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
The Goumindang, also known as the Kuomintang, is the oldest political party in China. In Chinese culture, this fact alone would give the party prominence. However, many of China’s great leaders have been members of the Goumindang and this also emphasizes the importance of the part. The philosophy that the Goumindang is based on roughly translates to nationalism, democracy, and livelihood for the People. It is easy to see why that stated philosophy would appeal to a wide variety of peoples. Today, Goumindang stands for Chinese nationalism, reunification, and what used to be called socialism but is now more often referred to in China as Democracy. Goumindang has a strong emphasis on labor, and has been instrumental in ensuring that Chinese workers are unionized and have contracts to work. Both the benefits and insurance are popular with the Chinese and leads to support of the party.
The disadvantage of the Goumindang is that has been perceived as being less modern, and out of touch with present social reality. It is supported by big business and smaller business owners may be intimidated because of its emphasis on labor support. Gourmindang also had a reputation of trying to enforce one party ideology.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is established in the Constitution of china and as thus, it is essentially above the law. Most military officers and civil officials are members of the Party, giving it great appearance of authority and power. The CCP is extremely large, and extremely well-organized. The CCP has its own commission that investigates allegations of wrongdoing by party members, and this cadre is much feared. In that sense the presence of the commission is both an advantage, and a disadvantage. Ironically, the strength of the commission may have sprung from the actions of Communist leadership at Tiananmen Square, and resulted from fears that the party was out of control. The CCP espouses atheism and requires that its members be atheist, which is an advantage to the party but disadvantage to individual members.
The CCP was able to defeat the GMD and take over control of China in 1949 after a war in which the KMT army, which was over three times the size of the communists’ army, was killed because they were very badly demoralized and had terrible leadership. During the war the CCP took land and distributed it to the very poor, leaving enough land to the rich land owners to buy their favor. KMT troops defected to the CCP side and the merchants and civil servants through their support behind the Communist party. Chiang, the ruler at the time, stepped down and the CCP was declared to hold power.
What Happened to the CCP?
During the early 1950’s, Chinese mortality declined; the Chinese began to live longer and to have better lives. Mao set about reconstructing the nation; he launched marriage reform and ideas that would protect women; he cracked down on crime as well as the so-called victimless crimes like prostitution and drugs. He tried to end corruption. However, when he tried to speed up the process of improvement, rather than letting it develop at its own pace, people began to get nervous. The two campaigns that harmed the initiative the most were a campaign for town factories and communes. The population members who were very old or very young could not tolerate the position that Mao’s communes and rural agricultural initiative put them in and many died. When the party officials questioned him or tried to make suggestions, he derided them and literally called them names. He tried to get anyone out of power who seemed to be a capitalist. When he tried to encourage the Youth to rise up and stop party officials that he felt were inappropriate, he set up a situation where the party was at war with itself. This nearly led to civil war; the military had to be called to restore peace. This drug on for years, with the students wearing red armbands and marching to photos of Mao.
Mao’s actions essentially paralyzed China. He tried to use the youth and their Red Guard to hunt out the bourgeois that were hiding inside the Chinese government and society and aiming to bring capitalism to China. Those who supported Mao led violent class struggle that literally filtered through every level of society. It was this struggle that lead to a vast overthrow of the status quo, including the seizure and torture of a large number of people. Everything from public humiliation and abuse to torture and the seizure of private properties occurred to those who were “capitalist”. The movement mutated into a “Down to the Countryside” initiative, which took young people from the cities and deposited them in rural areas. The result, not surprisingly, was the destruction of cultural sites, religious sites, historical relics, and various religious and civil artifacts.
After careful consideration of the situation Mao declared the revolution to be over, and invited the US to enter China and bring its ping pong team. Mao met with the US president. Some individuals hailed him as a genius, but others were very bitter indeed that he was taking this step. Soon after, he died. In China, people’s legacy follows them at least as well as it does in life. Thus, Mao’s reputation as a vulgar and uncouth romantic who was out of touch with the reality of the current world is what followed him after his death. This did nothing to convince the Chinese that Mao’s party had the right idea. Mao’s whole history galvanized the Chinese people into two camps: one which thought Mao was a genius to be revered, and other which wished to forget him and begin real recovery.
Looking back on this, and at some of the propaganda posters used during this era, one does not need to be Chinese to understand fairly effectively what the posters said. In fact, the propaganda posters clearly stimulate the young to violent action. One wonders what Mao was thinking, and whether or not he really believed that the power of youth, once unleashed, could be stuffed back in the bottle without damage. From a historical perspective, Mao began by getting rid of anyone in the media who disagreed with him, used the controlled media to whip up the populace, used the Red Guard to get rid of political people who disagreed with him, and kept the nation in a great deal of upheaval for many years.
Deng Xiaoping’s Reforms
Deng Xiaoping was rumored to have said that he did not care if his cat was black or white, he only cared that the cat caught mice. By this, he meant that he would take methods and use people to make change without regard to who or what they were, as long as he could engender change. He decided to open China to the west and did so in a very flashy manner by ordering a number of jumbo jets. He invited Coca Cola, the bastion of capitalism, to open a plant in China. That act alone signified opening to capitalist ventures and a change in culture. He emphasized developing and manufacturing products for export.
Deng Xiaoping reopened courts and centers of justice that had been closed during Mao’s reign. He opened law schools to give people legal protections that had been denied under Mao. China invited a US attorney to come lecture. Lawyers who had been banished were allowed and encouraged to return, and thousands of people who had been put in jail were rehabilitated and turned loose. In honor to the ancestors, some of those who died in prison were deemed to be rehabilitated and their records were cleared.
More reforms continued. Patent laws were adopted, religious freedom was restored, churches were reopened, and even the Party underwent changes. More and more party members became college graduates and their education was used to help address the problems in China. Educated party members were given supervisory sports in rural areas to help modernize. Communes were taken apart, and people were allowed to farm alone if they wished. Managers were allowed to run their own businesses and to hire people. Price controls were lifted. Foreign direct investors were invited in.
These policies have continued to develop and liberalize, and today, thousands of American MBA grads go to China each year to be introduced to China and prepared for doing business in that nation. Deng Xiaoping essentially made China what it is becoming.