In a New York Times article dated February 20th, 1997, author Patrick E. Tyler writes about a political “wizard” who put China on the road to capitalism. The Chinese “capitalist” (this is not capitalism in a western sense, but more of a communist/capitalist mix) Revolution is very significant in the study of world history; especially considering the Maoist form of government it sprang from. Notably, there is one small-statured Chinese leader who this essay will focus on in the context of the revolution: Deng Xiaoping. Although his slightness of size didn’t offer any insight into his grand political stature, an inquiry into his life certainly does. This essay will provide an informative glimpse into the life and times of Deng Xiaoping through a chronological ordering of events. First, a look into Deng’s early life and political momentum will be put forth. Then, a summation of his career under Mao’s rule will shed some light on his track to ultimate political power. Finally, we’ll look at the post-Mao era and how Deng fits into Chinese political history. Each area of focus will also include the relevance to the larger context of the revolution itself.
It is important in studying any political figure to take a careful look into his/her background. This section will explore that idea, as well as illuminating the path to power. In August 1904, Deng was born in the Sichuan province in central China. His parents gave him the name Deng Xiansheng, meaning "early/first" "sage/saint.” His mother’s life ended when Deng was only a young boy. This was likely a contributing factor to Deng’s quick maturation process. When he was five, Deng attended a conservative, private primary school, followed by a more contemporary schooling at ag...
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...he annals of Chinese history. From his study-abroad experience, to the Long March, to the tour of Southern China Deng had a long, successful life as a reformist politician. This essay explored the timeline of his life, beginning with his upbringing and early aspirations. His involvement (or non-involvement) in politics throughout Mao’s rule followed. Finally, this paper focused on the post-Mao era, and the tremendous impact Deng had on propelling China into the modern era. As a result, it is not whether one is big or small, a “wizard” or not, but what they accomplish, and in Deng’s case he achieved the heights of political power, the success of economic reforms, and the wholeness of a consistent ideology that he, himself, embodied. Said Deng in 1961, "It doesn't matter whether it's a white cat or a black, I think; a cat that catches mice is a good cat."
The Communist revolution in China was loosely based on the revolution in Russia. Russia was able to implement the beginnings of Marxist Communism in the way that it was intended They had a large working class of factory workers, known as the proletariat, that were able to band together and rise up to overthrow the groups of rich property owners, known as the bourgeoisie. The communist party wanted to adopted this same Marxist sense of revolution, but they realized that there were some fatal flaws in the differences between the two countries. The first was that there was not the same sense of class difference between people, yes there were peasants and landowners but there was not a sense of a class struggle. The other difference was that China was not industrialized like Russia so there was no proletariat group, as defined by Marxism, to draw the revolution from. What the Chinese Communists needed to do is re-define the proletariat for their situation, who they looked at were the peasants.
Jonathan Spence tells his readers of how Mao Zedong was a remarkable man to say the very least. He grew up a poor farm boy from a small rural town in Shaoshan, China. Mao was originally fated to be a farmer just as his father was. It was by chance that his young wife passed away and he was permitted to continue his education which he valued so greatly. Mao matured in a China that was undergoing a threat from foreign businesses and an unruly class of young people who wanted modernization. Throughout his school years and beyond Mao watched as the nation he lived in continued to change with the immense number of youth who began to westernize. Yet in classes he learned classical Chinese literature, poems, and history. Mao also attained a thorough knowledge of the modern and Western world. This great struggle between modern and classical Chinese is what can be attributed to most of the unrest in China during this time period. His education, determination and infectious personalit...
Osborne, Evan. "China's First Liberal." Independent Review 16.4 (2012): 533+. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 Apr. 2014.
Ever since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the legitimacy of the revolution of which it was built upon has perennially been in question. For example, in a 1999 issue of the International Herald Tribune, a prestigious scholar claimed that all of China’s tragedies are ‘sustained by a mistaken belief in the correctness of the 1949 revolution’ and that the future progress of China depends on the recognition that the revolution was a failure. However, the CCP government was certainly not perfect and its most significant failures were its political failures such as the Anti-rightist movement and the Cultural Revolution and also economic failures such as the great leap forward. Millions of peoples were falsely accused and persecuted during the political movements of the Mao period as the CCP focused on class struggle instead of economic development during the period and tens of Millions of peoples died due to starvation as there were widespread food shortages during the great leap forward movement.
Immigration, the act of coming to live permanently in a foreign country. Throughout the United States’ history, immigrants faced various challenges and especially after 1880. Most immigrants moved to achieve the American dream of having a better life and pursuing their dreams. But, this experience as they moved, was different for every immigrant. Some lives improved while others did not. Immigrants such as Catholics, Italians, and the Chinese were not welcomed into America in the late 19th century and early 20th century because of their differences in beliefs and cultures.
There is no better way to learn about China's communist revolution than to live it through the eyes of an innocent child whose experiences were based on the author's first-hand experience. Readers learn how every aspect of an individual's life was changed, mostly for the worst during this time. You will also learn why and how Chairman Mao launched the revolution initially, to maintain the communist system he worked hard to create in the 1950's. As the story of Ling unfolded, I realized how it boiled down to people's struggle for existence and survival during Mao's reign, and how lucky we are to have freedom and justice in the United States; values no one should ever take for
...) and bring China under uniform thought as well. Thus, in his attempt to accomplish his goals he placed less emphasis on freedom and more on developing a sturdy political backbone. Deng, on the other hand, wanted to thrust China in the global community for economic fortune at the expense of everything Mao had established. In the process, he brought a freedom and wave of democracy to the People's Republic, endowing the Chinese citizens with dreams of wealth and prosperity that were never even considered in the time of Mao. As China, progresses further into the twenty first century, its role seems quite unclear. A return to Post-revolutionary authoritarian communism seems unlikely, as does the institution of a true democracy but perhaps a new form of stability will arise to grant greater liberty to individuals or possibly even another Tiannenmen lurking in the future.
Deng Xiaoping was a force for evil and that he was responsible for taking away
It can also be argued that the political activities of Chairman Mao’s Communist China were more of a continuation of traditional Imperial China, based heavily in Confucian values, than a new type of Marxist-Leninist China, based on the Soviet Union as an archetype. While it is unquestionable that a Marxist-Leninist political structure was present in China during this time, Confucian values remained to be reinforced through rituals and were a fundamental part of the Chinese Communist ...
Rae Yang’s Memoir “Spider Eaters” is a poignant personal story of a girl growing up amidst the political upheaval during the establishment of People’s Republic of China under Mao Zedong’s Communist leadership. Yang describes the fascinating journey of her life from her early years as the daughter of Chinese diplomats in Switzerland to a student in an elite middle school then a fanatic Red-guard and eventually a laborer in a pig farm. Her experiences through the revolution serve as an eye-opener and lead to her eventual disillusionment of the Communist revolution in China. There are many factors that contributed to her growing discontent with communism such as the anti-rightist movement which was an effort to rule out any criticism against the government, corruption and violence of the party leaders who abused their power and continued to exploit the peasants, the false claim of proletariat dictatorship used merely to eradicate bourgeoisie and further the interests of party members.
Communism is a system of government, a political ideology that rejects private ownership and promotes a classless, stateless society based on common ownership of all property and the means of production, where by all work is shared and all proceeds are commonly owned. Communism is practised in China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Cuba. However most of the world’s communist governments have been disbanded since the end of World War II. Soon after the Japanese surrendered at the end of World War II, Communist forces began a war against the Kuomintang in China. The Communists gradually gained control of the country and on the 1st October, 1949, Mao Zedong announced the victory of the Communist party and the establishment of the People's Republic of China. China has been ruled by the Communist party ever since.
Gittings, John. The Changing Face of China: From Mao to market. Oxford University Press, 2005.
As it’s known around the world, Chinese political system is Communism. Some may say that communism is good and bad. Well it all began when Mao Zedong came into power, his ideas influenced Chinese people and how the true way of living is. The introduction of communism into China changed how people perceived each other. One of his first ideas was “The Great Leap Forward,” which a lot of historians considered as a failure because its initial goals were never met. The Chinese society was losing faith in Mao, and not loyal to him. In desperate needs, Mao came up with the “Cultural Revolution” or also known was “The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”. Mao main goal was to turn all people to follow the idea of communism, but not in the way like Russia did. Even though a huge amount of people died and harmed the future image of China. Mao did whatever it took to make people to follow his ideas, he didn’t matter what the consequences were, and he was willing to kill anybody who was a “counter revolutionary.” Well, was his idea successful? it mostly depends on your point of view. According to Dictionary.com, successful mean achieving or having success. This revolution has impacted everybody, with witnessed accounts during the Mao’s rule. At last, did it work? In the following essay, Mao’s ideas how people view communism as a form of a government than the abuse of power.
Zhao, S., (2003), ‘Political Liberalization without Democratization: Pan Wei’s proposal for political reform’ Journal of Contemporary China, 12(35): 333–355.
The 1911 Revolution kicked out the Qing Dynasty and broke the barriers to different developments in China. However, the 1911 Revolution has only provided a framework of a republic and made changes in some particular aspects related to immediate problems and difficulties in society. Hence, the relationship between the revolution and the subsequent development of China was very weak. On one hand, I do not agree with the latter part of the statement that the 1911 Revolution brought new problems to China. The conflicts and problems that China suffered in the early/ mid 1910s were mainly due to the weakness of the military force, conflicting political organizations and disorder in society. On the other hand, I agree with the first part of the statement that the 1911 Revolution did not bring peace to China afterwards. In the following paragraphs, I am going to focus on explaining the reasons of emerging new problems in China and also illustrate my points on the factors of the 1911 Revolution which could not bring in peace to China related to the conditions of the country.