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After the fall of Qing Dynasty, China was in a topsy-turvy. The nation saw the worst nightmares as the people were without an authority to rule over. She soon became rudderless giant. Many land lords took advantage of the situation and gradually the situation became worse. The period of warlordism in China lasted from 1916 to 1927 when warlords fought against each other regardless of common ideas or purpose. This was a dark period in China’s history.
Meanwhile the principles of communism began to spread in the country and those ideals attracted a majority of the people. The people who belonged to the lower strata were for these principles especially for the law of equality.
The rise of Communism in China is mainly due to a man named Mao Zedong. He was poorly educated as a child but highly intelligent. Zedong left home and had become a member of the Nationalist Army as the Revolution began around 1911. He was soon introduced to and became powerfully influenced by the philosophies of Marxism.
Following the Boxer Rebellion1 of 1900, (ridding China of all foreigners, massacring all missionaries and Christian converts), China's citizens experienced starvation, extreme poverty, and grief resulting in the loss of many innocent lives. This set the stage for the acceptance of men like Zedong and the godless Communistic philosophies of Karl Marx. After being under the rule of warlords around 1916, many Chinese began joining revolutionary groups and political parties in hopes of changing their country. During and after the Great Revolution (1914—1918), China saw several movements which strongly fostered a path into Communism.
After decades of civil war and invasion by Japan, the communists under Mao prevailed. The opposition nationalists fell and barely managed to retreat offshore to Taiwan.
Communism came to power in 1949 under the power of Mao. Communism began as a movement that paved the way for the liberation of the proletariat. Proletariat is that class of society which lives entirely from the sale of its labor and does not draw profit from any kind of capital; whose weal and woe, whose life and death, whose sole existence depends on the demand for labor – hence, on the changing state of business, on the vagaries of unbridled competition. The proletariat, or the class of proletarians, is, in a word, the working class of the 19th century.
Anarchy was to some extend controlled by Mao but he faced failure many times. Mao’s initiatives did cause a kind of equality to emerge in China, but it was not one in which all the inhabitants of China benefited. Contrarily, many of them suffered extreme poverty and greatness was lost in the realms of academia, science, and technology which hindered China’s ability to become a modern nation capable of interacting on the global scale.
Chinese policy changed after Deng Xiaoping took control in 1977 after Mao’s death. Deng Xiaoping succeeded him although he possessed different views than those of Mao’s – especially in regards to economic matters. Deng Xiaoping believed that it was necessary for China to embrace a more free market system so that it could recover economically.
Though he failed in developing the steel industry of the country he could implement his improvement policies in most of the other fields. China’s economy began to flourish and Deng began promoting modern industrialization as well. He allowed people to once again own land and businesses which resulted in many of the government’s collective farm and industry programs to be stopped. Deng also allowed for loans to be given to some state supported businesses. He also encouraged citizens to invest in these companies and to work hard by allowing a system of incentives to be developed for hard work.
As a result of embracing slightly capitalistic principles, China was able to begin the reconstruction of its economy. Despite many governmental controls that were still in place on industry and trade, China’s economy began to flourish and Deng began promoting modern industrialization as well. China has continued to stay true to being a socialist state because it still regulates lending, especially to private companies which still often find it difficult to obtain credit or a loan for their ventures.
In 2003 President Jiang Zemin did for the first time since the Communist Party took control of China entertain the idea of allowing private entrepreneurs to exist in China. Despite the many regulations that still exist today in China – primarily for the purpose of maintaining the large number of jobs that state owned companies provide – China has proven to be one of the global leaders for economic growth as it accounted for 1/3 of the total global growth. The Chinese government reported that that its official GDP growth rate was 9.7% in 2003 although other global economists believe it to be potentially as high as 13%.
The Chinese government, although pleased to be a global competitor and manufacturer, does not want to completely succumb to capitalistic elements and also does not want to risk the problems that rapid inflation could induce. The Chinese government is currently is continuing to implement the plans discussed in the 15th National Congress of the CPC which is devoted to the strengthening and monitoring of the socialist market economy system.
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