People and Politics Worldwide
China

Overview (Source:  CIA World Factbook)

Geography:
3rd Largest country in the world

Climate:  varied; everything from tropical to subarctic

Terrain:  mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west;
plains, deltas, and hills in east

Natural Resources:
coal, iron ore, petroleum, natural gas, mercury, tin, tungsten, antimony, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite, aluminum, lead, zinc, uranium, hydropower potential (world's largest)

People:
Most populous country in the world:  1.3 bln

Fertility Rate:  1.72 births per woman (2005 est.)
Sex Ratio at birth: 1.12 males per female

Ethnic groups:
91.9% Han
8.1% Zhuang, Uygar, Hui, Tibetan, Miao, Manchu, Mongol, Buyi, Korean and others

Religion:
Taoist, Buddhist, Muslim 1-2%
Christian 3-4%
Officially atheist

Economy:
GDP: $8.158 trilliion (ppp)
GDP growth: 9.2% (2005 est.)
GDP per capita: $6200 (ppp)

GDP generated by sector:
AGriculture 14%
Industry 52%
Service 32.5%

Employment by sector:
Agriculture 49%
Industry 22%
Service 29%

Unemployment:
Urban 4.2%
Rural 20%

Pre-Modern Political History
"Oriental despotism"

Ancient political dynasties
Feudalism, fragmentation during:

Xia Dynasty 2200-1700 BCE
Zhou dynasty 770-256 BCE
    produced K'ung Fu-tzu (Confucius)
    and Laozi (Lao-tzu)

Qin Dynasty 475-221 emerges
    First Qin Emperor 221-210 BCE
    system of prefectures, counties under central control
    intensive agriculture
    irrigation systems
    begin work of Great Wall

Han Dynasty 206 BCE-220 CE

break up into three kingdoms

Reunited in 581 under Sui Dynasty

Tang Dynasty 618-907
    zenith as cultural and commercial center of Asia

Song Dynasty 960-1279
    literature, philosophy, sciences flourish
    moveable type, gunpowder, magnetic compass

Mongol and Tatar invasions

Subjugation under Genghis Khan 1155-1227

Kublai Khan (1279-1294)
    Great Canal completed
    left Chinese culture and technology in place, allowed to flourish

Ming Dynasty 1368-1644
    moves capital to Beijing

Manchus
adopted Chinese form of administration, laws, culture
empire 300 mln
included China, Manchuria, Mongolia, Tibet, Taiwan, Turkestan

Foreign Relations
Negative Experiences with West

Europeans "discover" China
    Portuguese 1516
    then Spanish, Dutch, English

Only allowed into Guangzhou (port) for trade, restricted

British forced opium trade into China
led to Opium War 1839-1842
China lost
forced in Treaty of Nanking to open five seaports and to cede Hong Kong to UK (til 1999)

Weakened

1898 Europeans "leased" major ports
Lost territory to Russia, Japan

1900 Boxer Rebellion
anti-foreign rebellion
crushed by intervention of British, French, German, American, Russian and Japanese forces

1911 Manchu dynasty falls

Brief republic Sun Yat-sen
    consolidated th Kuomintang (KMT - the Nationalist Party)

On winning side in WWI but not rewarded at Versailles

Then strongman Yuan Shikai
dies in 1916

Warlords rule

Civil War
between the KMT and the Communists through 1949
KMT led by Chiang Kai-shek

the Communists led by Mao Zedong (Mao Tse Tung)

1934-35 Mao's "Long March" a retreat into the mountains of Yenan

Manchuria (Chinese industrial heartland)
became Manchukuo
Japanese puppet state 1932 – WWII
 
Japan defeated in WWII
forced out of China

Civil War reignites

Communists drive the KMT off mainland China to Formosa, now Taiwan

October 1, 1949 - People's Republic of China founded

Maoism
Mao Tse Tung

Marxism in some ways
"class struggle, class struggle, class struggle"

but with Maoist, Chinese twist
    human will can overcome all material obstacles
        peasants as the engine of revolution
    Revolution's goal to "harness the hurrican force of the people" and
    Prevent privileged elite from emerging           
        e.g. re-education camps for bureacrats
       communal living
      

The Great Leap Forward
1958
futile attempt to industrialize the countryside
1960-1962
industrial production actually shrank
famine; millions starved

The Cultural Revolution
1966
The Red Guards (later condemned)
Mao's little red book

party leadership purged
intellectuals persecuted

entire education system shut down

2 mln people died as result of the Cultural Revolution
BBC Site of Images of Cultural Revolution

Deng Xiaoping
“to be get rich is glorious”

It doesn’t matter the color of the cat as long as it catches the mouse

Why has China been able to reform economically without the whole system collapsing as happened in the Soviet Union?

Because Chinese Communism has always been more pragmatic, less idealistic.
Roots as a guerilla movement - need to be flexible, decentralized, allow for innovation.

Two sayings (again from Deng):
Seek Truth from Facts.
 Practice is the Only Test for Truth.

1979-Present = period of reform

Conditions leading to reform:
1) Economy in disarray by end of ‘70s
    a.  result of inefficiencies of command economy and
    b. Cultural Revolution - schools closed, no engineers/teachers produced for 10 yrs
    therefore, lagged behind the West in technology
2) Continuity and Confidence of Chinese leadership
   reforms initiated by the creators of the system
   can’t argue with them
   especially Deng Xiaoping (aided by new generation of reformers)

Three types of Economic Reforms
1) decollectived agriculture - household responsibility program
    meet state production goal then can sell rest for profit
    now China can actually export food!!

2) rural enterprises (TVEs - Township and Village Enterprises)
    local government run businesses for profit and
    cooperatives (where all town residents own shares)
    grass-roots entrepreneurism - outdoor markets

3) trade and foreign investment
    Special Economic Zones - joint ventures between foreign capital and Chinese

Other reforms:
Allow lots of Chinese students to study in the West (new ideas back to China)
Temples reopened
Travel possible within China
Access to Foreign Media (TV)
Local Elections

Political Rule
unreformed
"dual rule" 1956
state organs responsible to next higher level of state adminstration AND to the part organization on the same level

See Magstadt, Table 8.2 p.309

General Secretary Hu Jintao

Premier Wen Jiabao

Democratization Pressures in China
Challenges from Student movement (Tiannemen Square), Falun Gong

Amnesty International Report on China
Amnesty International Story on Abortion Protester
Amnesty International